I Survived the First Week of School

It was a good week overall. There were some hiccups as there always are when new procedures are implemented. But for me personally, it was a good week. My introductory presentation went over well for the most part. The most difficult part is having 22 children in every kindergarten class. TWENTY-TWO!!!! Just imagine--22 five-year-olds together in a room for 50 minutes. (Yes, I feel for their classroom teachers, but let's face it--we're talking about me here.)

And some of those five-year-olds are just *barely* five. Like turned five last week or yesterday. They're just barely removed from being four. They spin, twirl, roll, kick their feet in the air, and basically say *whatever* comes into their little brains. I need to keep a running tape of "I Am a Child of God" going throughout each kinder class. I really need to remember that they're very little people. The district really needs to give us another teacher. The difference between 18 and 22 in 5-year-old numbers is huge.

So, we have an extra day tomorrow for me to relax and try to pump myself up for lots of smiling and playing in the afternoon. And to hopefully remember that I have 7:30 am duty on Tuesday. Ugh.

On an even brighter side, it looks like Gustav will go well east of Galveston, so my dad decided to stay home. I'm really relieved about that. Prayers were answered.

Messing Up My Relaxing Weekend

It was supposed to be a relaxing weekend after the first full week of school. A nice long Labor Day weekend. But now there's this hurricane headed toward the Gulf--and possibly toward Galveston. Probably Louisiana, but possible Galveston. So Dad is leaving town tomorrow morning for Waco. He doesn't normally go to Waco. He would normally go to Fairfield, but the hotels were booked there. That threw him for a loop and he just asked where they had an opening that was closest to there. They said Waco, so that's where he's headed. He sounded rather distracted and scared when I spoke to him this afternoon. I'm not worried about him driving--he's still really sharp and drives well--but I hate for him to be on his own somewhere there's no one to care for him or watch out for him. I wish he'd come up here--or that I could go get him. But at this point, it's too late to drive down and get him and still make it to school on Tuesday.

So I'll just sit here on my hands and hope and pray for the best. I've never been very good at waiting.

First Day of School

This is how Richard and Chris started the day. (Don't you love the boxes that are still in the front room?) And doesn't Chris look happy to be headed off to high school? And look! He has straight hair. He's working quite hard to keep it that way. :-) Chris started seminary this week also. 5:30 am sure is early!

These guys look a little bit happier, don't they? John's in 3rd grade and James is in 4th. It was a good first day. And a good first week. Now we have a long weekend to enjoy and then it's back to work for a good couple of months.

We're Off to the Races!

I can't believe school starts on Monday. We've got our school supplies. We've got some new clothes to wear. My classroom is ready to go. I even made a PowerPoint presentation for my first week of class. Teaching music as I do, I have four first days (five for 1st grade and kindergarten). Another music teacher shared her idea about doing a presentation of the first day rules and activities and whatnot. I thought it was a fabulous idea because I always end up saying something to one class and forgetting to tell another class. I worked really hard on it and I hope it starts the year off right.

James and John are happy with their teachers. John wanted Mr. A, but he got Ms. S instead. That's okay. Ms. S is prettier than Mr. A. ;-) I admit to being a little worried about James's class, but I'll watch carefully and ask questions. It's a much better grouping of students than he was with last year, so hopefully it will be a better year.

Chris is a freshman! I can't believe it. It's just not possible! I hope, hope, HOPE that I remember to take pictures Monday morning. But then I also want to be sure to take pictures on Wednesday morning--because that's when Chris starts early-morning seminary. (I'm so evil!)

I'm looking forward to this year. There are a lot of changes at my school. New principal, new procedures, new paint--and I rearranged my room! It looks fabulous and feels like there's so much more space. I didn't really take anything but about three student desks out, but I have more "usable space" as the home people like to say. Oh...and new house! Lots of new stuff this year. James is in 4th grade--he's in the "new" wing of the building! He "turned the corner," as his teacher put it.

I can't believe how fast my boys are growing up. Sweet sister-in-law didn't feel sorry for me at all. She told me that pretty soon they'd be out of high school and out of the house. Uh...thanks! But they're growing up nicely. They're good boys and I'm proud of each of them.

Vacation's over and school's here! Yippee! (Now all I have to do is make sure the rest of my family is ready to help out around the house again. Ooh...that's gonna take some work, isn't it?)

More Pictures

These are pictures of our family room. The printed loveseat and chair were given to us by my mother-in-law. The brown couch is slipcovered--obviously. It doesn't fit exactly as I'd hoped, but there's not much I can do about it now. We'll deal for now and fix it in the future. I just love the flooring. If you look behind the loveseat, you can see the eating are and the bar of the kitchen.

There...happy now, Kim?

Settling In

These are the little front living room. The second picture is from the stair landing so you can see the piano.

These are Chris's room. The left picture is what will become a shelving unit. He liked the idea of cement blocks--and we thought it went well with the gray walls. We'll paint the shelves black--one of these days. The right picture is his loft bed painted black. The lines on it is where we're going to cut it out with a jigsaw to make it easier for Chris to get under there.

More pics in the next post.

New Commitment

I made a commitment today. I signed up at the local gym. I signed up for the cheapest plan which means I can go three days a week. I think that's exactly what I need right now--especially once school starts. I signed up for Tue/Thu/Sat--which are the same days that James has karate. And since the gym is in the same strip with karate--that's perfect.

Not only did I make the commitment today, I actually worked out. I had a consultation with a personal trainer. He showed me the bikes and some ab workouts, then I did a full hour on the treadmill. I'm gonna be so sore tomorrow. I hope I didn't overdo it and make myself give up because it hurts. But James's karate on Saturday is an hour and a half, so I'm thinking (on day 1) that Saturday will be my hard workout and Tue/Thu will be basically a treadmill workout. We'll just see. The trainer was really good--at least to me. He didn't make me feel like a fat, old lady--and for me that's half the battle.

I'm pretty excited to have started. It feels good to workout again. If I lose weight, great. If not, at least I'll be in better overall health and shape. Maybe work toward strength training to help the old bones.

So, I'm putting this here so that I will have some accountability with my blog friends. Keep me going, gals! Once school gets going, I'll need all the encouragement I can get!

Ah, Life.

Ever have one of those days? One of those days when you just feel blah. Yesterday was one of those days for me. I just didn't want to do anything. Everyone was annoying me. I felt fat and lonely and :-P. By last night, I just decided to go to bed and end the day. I gave up.

In the end, it was the right thing to do. I woke up this morning with a renewed sense of energy. I got up and showered, did some laundry, grocery shopping--all mundane stuff, but it felt good.

My sister and her husband stopped by to see our house and visit for a couple of hours. They're driving from Texas City back to Missouri. It was a really nice visit. I realized after they left that this was the first time my sister has ever been to my home. We've always met up at my dad's. It was exciting to have her over and I hope they'll do it more often.

Now I need to think about dinner and more mundane house stuff. I have no idea why yesterday was such a depressing day. I'm just glad it only lasted a day. And I hope it doesn't come back any time soon.