Today's Numbers: Seven-Eleven

Got my backpack... got wheels... look out junior year, here I come!

Yup, it's back-to-school time for our baby. Since I had to get to work early and the first day of school starts late (8:30 instead of 7:30), I had to rely on hubby for the traditional first day of school photo.

He did a fine job, especially considering Carter overslept and was certainly not in the mood for Mom's scrapbook demands.

The good news for him is that he is in 11th grade now and only has to deal with this one more time... except those college move-in days and all that. But let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Today was also the first cross-country meet of the year. That's why I had to work early so I could leave early and we could get to Pittsville by 4 p.m. According to the Weather Channel, it was not going to start raining there until 6 p.m.

They were wrong. The kids had to run in a light rain the whole time. Glad I have a Royal blue rain coat with hood. Jim had to borrow my Twins umbrella since our huge golf umbrella was home in the garage. Didn't quite think that one through, but we were in a hurry to get there on time!

The boys finally have a larger varsity team, with Carter, 3 fellow juniors and 4 sophomores. There are two varsity girls and two middle-schoolers, as well. Finally some numbers instead of last year's total of 6 kids. Above, Carter is in the middle, still running with other Royals after mile 1. Then they spread out more.

Here he is in the final sprint to the finish. He ended up finishing 7 seconds faster than his end time at Pittsville last year. What an encouraging start to the season. I hope he feels good about it. Haven't got to talk to him since he and the team were going out to eat after the meet.

I wonder if he'll have homework to do tonight. He'll have to get back into that routine far better than his waking up to the atomic alarm efforts this morning!

Ahhh.... love that back-to-school time, don't you?