The School Year Has Begun...

from Laura

...and I have no brain left to make up a creative blog post title.  Sorry.  Also no deep thoughts this time.  Just updates. :)

Monday through Wednesday of this week, we were working at school trying to get our classrooms and our lesson plans ready to go.  We also got to the bank to set up a bank account, which involved filling out many paper forms, but went quite smoothly. 

Wednesday afternoon (the day before school started), the afternoon rain turned really heavy around 3:30.  We were planning to leave campus around 4 or 4:30, but by that time, we were told things would be very flooded on the road home and we should wait.  We finally left a bit before 6; it took a while to get home-- maybe 40 minutes?  Normally it takes about 10.  There was flooding, some deep, and there were many cars and people trying to get through the water, so it was a slow and careful process.  The couple we've been riding with, to and from school, is also new this year, so it was an adventure for all of us.  Back at the house, we found out that a little bit of water had come into the bottom level and then receded.  Our (amazing) helper had already begun cleaning up the mud it left behind, so we helped work on that before eating dinner.  We were grateful to have a gas stove, so we could still eat a cooked meal.  Our neighborhood was also without power by that point, so we didn't do any schoolwork THAT evening!

Thursday morning we started classes.  Seth calculated that he sees almost half the high school, in one class or another.  I have three "big" classes, two small ones, and two students working on independent studies with my assistance.  After two days, I can say that... 1- Faith's definition of big classes is my definition of normal.  I like it.  2- I like teaching!  I'm having fun with the kids.  3- It's not easy to teach in both the middle and high schools.  When your planning materials for one class are on the other side of the school, you have to really think ahead about how to use your plan time.  This is taking some adjustment.  4- This will be a busy weekend.

But we did some relaxing after work, and I think we'll do non-schoolwork work all evening tonight.  We can plan again tomorrow.  For now, here are pictures of us playing with the animals that we get to borrow for this year. :)  Zara, the dog, is a pretty young puppy and cannot get enough playtime and attention from us.  Kitty is the cat, and today I learned that she likes laps.  She acts pretty independent, but it took about 1/2 a second after I sat down for her to be on top of me. :)