School Days

Well, after a truly wonderful summer, it's back to the grindstone. Except in my case, the grindstone is really not so bad! In fact, I am totally excited to set up my classroom and to see the faces of all those kiddos in their seats. I am so completely thrilled about my new job, it fits me in absolutely every way possible. I couldn't have found a more perfect place to truly begin my teaching career!

The district hosted a training this week for all teachers new to the district. I have spent the past week with the rest of the new staff, and it has been awesome. They are all great, funny and fun people, and I think it's going to be a wonderful school year. The trainings have been a little redundant - 5 hours on formative assessment? Isn't this why I went back to school? - but the company makes it enjoyable nonetheless.

On the pregnancy front, we hit a pretty momentous milestone: we told our parents the good news! It has been extremely hard to wait this long (week 8! Woohoo!), but I wanted it to be a memorable moment for more than the obvious reason. To that end, weeks ago, we ordered coffee mugs that say "Grandma" and "Grandpa" to give to our parents as a way to tell them. On Monday, Casey and I were taking the dogs for a walk when we discovered that the packages had arrived! We made it to the end of the driveway before I turned around and begged him to let us break the news that very night!

Casey is always such a good sport, and willing to go along with whatever crazy plan I dream up. So, even though it was already 7:30 in the evening, we immediately wrapped the mugs, got in the car and drove to Littleton to tell my mom. When we got there, she opened up a bag containing this:

Although, she kind of ruined my surprise because she actually saw the ultrasound picture first, at which point she got a little emotional, but it was wonderful just the same.

Then, we went on to Casey's parents' house, and I think it is fair to say that they were both pretty excited! There were a few tears... I am so thrilled to have the support of our parents as we embark on this next amazing chapter of our lives.

At any rate, it has been a wonderful, exhausting week, and I am very much looking forward to more of the same.