First Day of School

Today, my sister gave me this basket to help me get settled in as a teacher. When I saw what she had done, I burst into tears. I was touched by how thoughtfully she had picked out every single notebook , pen, and folder and by the expense that she went to. When I thanked her through my tears, she reminded me that someone had done that for her on her first day of school 10 years ago. It's so hard to believe that day was 1o years ago! We were roommates, and I was engaged to Husband. I never would have believed then that I would find myself in my little sister's shoes 10 years down the road!


My feeling about tomorrow, which begins my week of training in my new district before teachers report to school:

• excited
• nervous
• sad
• excited
• sad
• did I already say nervous?

I think it's obvious why I'm excited and nervous. But the sad part is right here...

Gavin Snoozes in the Swing

Of course I'll miss my big boys too, but they're going to be all settled in in their kindergarten and 2nd grade classes. It's this little guy that will be hard to say goodbye to. It's been a very sweet 7 months (I guess there was that little 8 week period when I left him). I'm making Husband drop him off at his daycare lady's house. I know I won't be able to focus on the first day of my new job if I'm thinking about having just dropped him off.

Actually, the past 6 years have been so sweet. I'll be forever thankful for the sacrifices that Husband made so that I could stay home with the boys, and then so that I could go to school, so that the job I am beginning gets to be one about which I am passionate.

And this...well, this is just me being prepared. There are 2 Starbucks on the way to my school. I'm going to have to go on the offensive and make my tea at home unless I want to spend half of my paycheck getting my favorite kind of caffeine buzz!

Connor's First Day of Preschool

Connor had his long-awaited first day of pre-school on Tuesday. Actually, it's hard to know exactly which day is his "first day", because at his pre-school they "phase in". Meaning, they torture the parents with extra short classes for about three weeks. However, we're counting his first day as the first day he went into the classroom with his classmates. Parents stayed for that first class, since it was cut down to 1 hour. He was really so sweet and so proud to be going to school. He insisted on loading up his backpack with a bunch of junk from his room, because he couldn't understand why you would take an empty backpack to school (I didn't have the heart to tell him that backpacks are just for looks when you're 3!).

Here is Connor with our beloved Mrs. Matzke (formerly Kirby's teacher as well).

He kept reminding me that this was his school now.

Working diligently on his nametag...



It's hard to believe my little Batman-cape-wearing-chicken-dancer is growing up!

Postscript
Today Connor went to school for an hour by himself (I went to Starbucks). As we pulled up to the school, he said to me, with his little lisp, "Oh, I am so uhthited! Mithith Mathke here I come!"