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ILLUSTRATION BY MICHAEL RUSHBROOK
by Jennie Montgomery
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Mom’s Ready for School!
ou’ll remember that very unusual cold snap we had at the start of the year. All the talk on the news was about the Polar Vortex blowing an arctic freeze across the land. I was concerned about my daughter starting her car early enough for it to warm up the next morning, making sure she had a quilt or something in the car with her, and so on. These thoughts were circling in my brain the night before school started back in January. All too soon, the alarm on my phone was going off. 6:40am already? I dragged myself down the hall and woke her up. As I was making her lunch, the bitter cold was on my mind and I decided to fix her a grilled cheese sandwich for breakfast. A few minutes later Sky bounced down the stairs wearing a new scarf she’d gotten for Christmas and her boots. I handed her the warm sandwich, hot tea in her Tervis tumbler and her backpack. This girl was ready to brave the elements! I walked with her into the garage and watched as my baby backed out of the driveway, ready for the first day of her last semester of high school. It was a little emotional for me, which I hadn’t expected. About 10 minutes later my phone rang. I saw her name pop up on my screen and I answered saying, “What did you forget?” Silence...then, loudly, “MOM, there is no traffic. I am in the parking lot at Lakeside and there are only teachers’ cars here! Why did you get me up? It’s a teacher workday!” Fortunately, the kid is good natured and rolls with the punches. She took a couple of selfies in the empty parking lot and tweeted to her (sleeping) friends, “Hey- no school today! My mom the newslady didn’t know!” Oh well, better a day early than a day late! JENNIE MONTGOMERY anchors the evening news at WJBF-TV. She and her husband, Scott, have three children: Zack, 20, Maddy, 19, and Sky, 18.
www.augustafamily.com
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