Thursday, August 22, 2013

how it all went down

Our little family had a BIG week this week. Audrie started Kindergarten! Annie started full-time at a new pre-school! And I started my first day teaching at the Jr High!


The past 4 days have had some highs and lows and we haven't had a moment to spare. But I wanted to at least get on here and try to capture how that first day went down.

So Audrie was OUT of her mind excited to start school.


Annie was pretty pumped, too, but really didn't know what she was getting in to. (She is only used to going two hours twice a week, so she has had to adjust to a full day away from us.)



And I was nervous but ready to meet my 8th and 9th graders!

I really thought I was going to be able to keep my cool with dropping Audrie off that first day, but I wasn't prepared for how chaotic it was going to be at her school with ALL those parents and ALL the anxious kiddos coming in that first day. Audrie's school is great, but that first day was quite a doozy. There were honestly kids screaming and crying as their parents left them. So that threw me off. Audrie was as cool as ever. Ready to roll.

I thought I had planned plenty of time to get her settled in her classroom, but there was so much confusion in the halls at her school that it took forever! So after about 30 minutes of waiting, I had to leave Audrie with her teacher and her class in the hall. Which was not what I had in mind and I started to cry. I said my goodbyes to Audrie and started to turn away before I started sobbing. Audrie called out "MOMMY...!". I turned, thinking she needed one more kiss or hug. But she yelled out "YOU HAVE MY LUNCH BOX!".  ha! What a great mother I am- walking off with my kid's lunch the first day!! Glad Audrie was keeping it together.

Jamie took Annie to school and said it went great! He texted me a pic of her in her classroom, so I was relieved to know that went smoothly.

Because Audrie's morning took so long, I got to my school a little later than I had hoped, so I didn't have time to be anxious and my classes started coming in.

Did I mention that I have 82 jr high boys in my 2nd period class?! Um, yeh.


It's amazing. I've never done any bull riding, but I think the 55 minutes that class lasts is equivalent to 8 seconds on a bull.

I teach 5 choir periods (with over 300 choir students) and have a really great schedule.

I did have a wonderful first day (full of fast paced adrenaline).

The drama occurred after school. 

The plan for Audrie was that she was going to ride a bus from her elementary over to my jr high. I can literally SEE Audrie's school across a field from my school. I was thinking it would take maybe 10 minutes at the most considering after school traffic.

So after AN HOUR of nervous pacing...!!!!... her bus finally comes around the corner. There is no one on her bus, except I see one tiny little blond head peaking through a window.

The bus driver opens the door and says to me "I sure hope you are Mommy, because we have one upset little girl here"!

Audrie comes flying off the bus, sobbing, throws her backpack down, and wraps her arms around my neck. She sobs "I thought I would NEVER find you, mommy!". I started crying, too.

The poor bus driver tried to explain that his route includes stopping at two other schools before dropping Audrie off, so she was the last stop. He said the route would get faster as the week went on. But I honestly didn't hear much because I was just holding a tearful Audrie in my arms. She couldn't even catch her breath she had been crying so hard. The main problem was that she didn't realize (nor did I!) that she would be on the bus that long and it freaked her out.

I did get her calmed down and got to hear about the first day of Kindergarten and the day itself went great for her.

We went and picked up Annie and her only complaint was "my teacher wouldn't let me take off my clothes for naptime"....! ha

The rest of the week went MUCH better. We are starting to settle into our routines a bit.

 The rest of the week I got to walk Audrie into her classroom each morning, so that has been nice!

My job is going to be truly awesome, I just hope I can catch up with the freight train I've been chasing since I've started. There is SO much work to be done it's ridiculous. But I do have a great assistant to help me out!

All in all, we each had a great start to our new adventures!