In Between

Today is the last day of summer vacation.  Tomorrow is the first day of eighth grade for T.  His first day at a new school.  A bigger school.  A school where he is the youngest.  A school where he will spend the next four years. 

We live too close to the school to have public transportation.  Last year T had to walk to school, .7 miles.  This year the school is about 1.2 miles.  We are within walking distance.  We are in that in between area - too close for bus and a little too far to walk.

School starts at 8:00a.m.  Last year school started earlier and I would leave the house about 7:42a.m.  The .5 miles difference and later start time make it a more difficult time for me.  A time of in between.  Last year I would take him to school in my pajamas and return to shower and leave the house at 8:22a.m. for my 8:30a.m. start time.  This year if I don't want to be late for work, I will have to be ready for work when I drive him to school at 7:47a.m. because the extra five minutes and drive time will make me late every time.  I'm just fortunate that we now have two bathrooms! 

T decided he needed some shirts to go with his new shorts he got while in Arizona.  He had a last hurrah party today and wanted to go shopping afterward.  Me in procrastination mode, headed out to Kohl's without him to see what I could find procrastinating continuing the laundry room painting (but this weekend I finished repainting the stairwell, the window trim is done and the window well was masonry weather sealed).  Unfortunately, T is...in between sizes.  At thirteen, he is too old for the boys section and too young for the men's or anything in between.  He can fit into some size 18 shorts, but does better with the 28-30 range.  Shirts, XL in the boys and XS in the men's.  Unfortunately, that doesn't leave a whole lot of selection. 

I scoured the entire male areas of Kohl's looking for anything that would fit him that was also on clearance.  I had a 15% off card and $10 in Kohl's cash (that expired today!) as well as $13.79 remaining on a gift card.  I ended up grabbing three t-shirts in the boys section, four shirts and a long sleeve shirt in the men's section and a pair of shorts.

T saw the three men's shirts and immediately said "No".  He also didn't care for the long sleeve shirt that was long john material and army green.  I had him try on everything anyway and he liked everything but the long sleeve shirt, which was actually one of the more expensive items!  So with the return of the shirt, the total spent at Kohl's...$30.