let's do this

my last 2 weeks of summer/5 month work hiatus flew by. the last week of july i was able to help out at our church's vbs in the mornings. i had a blast doing this, and was glad to have a great group of about thirty 5th and 6th graders. at first i was alarmed at the size of the class, but when i realized this is what i will be facing during the school year, i decided i had better get used to it. many fellow leaders gave me praise for my apparent ability in working with this age group. this made me feel good, and my experience built up my confidence that i will be able to handle my classes this fall. i am ready to be a teacher.

that weekend my parents came to visit and delivered my little brother and my youngest sister. ross and i were going to host j & r for the week and we had a blast with them. the evenings were consumed with card games, barbeques on the front porch, sailing trips, video games, and visits to barnes and noble. during the day i did my best to show them around austin- we went swimming at barton springs pool, visited the capitol, kayaked on townlake, jared went golfing at a pga tour course down the road, rachel and i went to a movie, we went to the mall, and took a day trip to san antonio. i think i kept them fairly well entertained and we had a blast with them. the week culminated with a weekend trip to college station to hang out with the family. however. this experience reminded me that i am NOT ready to be a parent.

my last day of summer was spent kayaking again on town lake with matt and ross. tuesday my new teacher orientation for my district started up, followed by inservice next week, followed by school starting on august 28th. i have been working like crazy this week to get everything prepared, wondering what it was exactly that i was doing all summer that took precedence over getting everything ready for my class. but, i am most definitely looking forward to beginning this new career, and hope that it will allow me to make a difference in the lives of each of my 100+ 6th graders that i will have in math this year. :)