7 am + 6 kids + Aretha Frankensteins = ?

Dates back a week or so, meant to write it down...better late than never... 

I am in Chattanooga for the night.   I get the brilliant idea to take the pack-o-kids to the amazing (longest wait on the planet) hole-in-the-wall dive in Chattanooga for breakfast *before* school...   

As I unroll the little people from the car with the sun barely rising and they file into the patio full off Halloween decor, it is a matter of seconds before plastic bloody legs and spider webs are not in their original state.    We get inside and with fair warning to the server, he and I collaborate on ordering copious amounts of pancakes & bacon.  Why is that what kids all want to eat?   I mean 6 for 6.  

And the wait begins.   But there is a savior.   Somehow these guys "played" video games for a cool 45 minutes on a non-functioning old-school Pac Man machine.    Imagination is beautiful.   

Food is ready at about the time we should be going into the school...it is utter silence for about 3 minutes while kids shovel as many carbs, sugar and saturated fat as possible.    Time to go. I am missing a kid or two in the toilet (still not sure how many) so I go inside and I hear the cook yell out the side door...  "That is not your plastic hand you put it back where it came from!".  (odd enough at this point)  Never have I seen Axel listen so quickly...when I looked over I realized the cook is decorated with a beautiful 30+ piercings on her face.   Now I'm scared too.  I hustle the 6 private school, uniform endowed kids to the car while the 2017 masochist version of the old lady from The Goonies is hanging over the dilapidated porch scouring over her misplaced plastic bloody hand.  #theonlythingweservehereistongue

Short ride to school with each kid shouting off their favorite song....anywhere from Tiesto to Alesso to Avicci.  (proud EDM-loving mom moment)

I rock up to school with sticky jacked-up kids hanging out the window of the car - we run into the office only 20 minutes late...  I semi-sincerely apologize to the office for our tardiness and confess to the not-so-approved reasoning (knowing full well any or all of those little minions would rat me out).   Surprisingly, I got a smile and a compliment that  'it's the moments that make the difference'.    Just another reason why the massive effort to get these kids to the Bright School is well worth it.