Welcome back to school!

So the summer is coming to a close... it seems like we just started.  How does that happen every year?  It seems as though we were just looking forward to June - the month filled with anticipation of a great summer: no schedule, being with friends and family, vacations and day trips, projects, aspirations of learning something new... and before we know it, that darn Target is already stuffing the patio furniture back on to trucks and making room for huge displays of school supplies - why do they do that?  Am I the only one who refuses to even walk by the stacks of wide-ruled notebooks and buckets of dry erase markers until I am good and ready somewhere around the middle of August?  Either way, here we are. 
As I was standing in the backpack aisle, debating whether or not to buy a new lunchbox for each of the kids, I started smelling something rather funky.  "What is that stink?" I mention to my almost 4th grader.  I get the usual shrug of the shoulders, "I don't know...."  I follow my nose downward and realize that this stench is emanating from my son's feet and shoes.  Ick.  It's a cross between forgotten sour cream and sweaty hands - lovely... I am now guessing that the shoes I had thought would be "just fine" for inside wear are now a force to be reckoned with, and would likely kill a good sized rat.  So... onto the shoe store.  Another "favorite" place.  But now, because I have waited until this late date of August something, I get to witness a whole mess of moms shoving shoes onto their children's feet - shoes they don't want.  I believe this was one of the comments I heard, "If you don't get this shoe on and walk up and down the aisle right now, I will NEVER buy you another pair of shoes!!" I'm assuming that was an empty threat because as I turned to look, a child seeming to be all of about five years old whizzed by me, running for the door wearing an ill-fitting pair of non-character, non-lighting-up shoes.  Is that a DHS call?  Hmmm...
Ahhh.... and so it begins.  No more hiding from the notebooks and markers... welcome back to school!