Where did my summer go?

As I reflect on this past summer it is hard to believe how quickly time has flown. Summer usually goes fast but this year it seemed to go especially speedy. I would just like to share some main events/thoughts about summer.

CORE Academy

I spent a lot of my summer teaching CORE Academy. This a three day workshop that other teachers attend. It went 8 weeks out of the summer. I spent January-May creating and changing the lessons and then June-August teaching them. I definitely grew a lot teaching other teachers! I had to over come the fear of teaching adults and not just any adults but teachers. You might not know, but teachers make the WORST students! Despite my fears, the summer turned out to be a success.

The fun part was I got to travel with my friend Sherri. She was also teaching CORE, but for 2nd grade. We had some great chats!

Shaun presents research

I already mentioned this a bit, but I am still so proud of Shaun. It was a huge ordeal presenting this research and even his professor thought it was amazing! Currently he is working on writing a paper to publish in a science journal about his research. WOW! I never thought I would marry such a smart person!

Fun:

I would never trade our trip to NY for anything! We loved spending so much time with my sister and her family! They are so great!

We also spent some good times in Idaho at my parent's house and my Grandparent's ranch. I am going to miss being able to just zip up on the weekends.

And I cannot leave out our good friends, the Stauffers. They are so much fun! Michelle and I got to spend some nice relaxing afternoons floating in the pool. The first day we went out we both became lobsters. It was almost impossible to drag us from the relaxing pool!

Shaun and I also got to have my family stay with us for a week right before school started. It was so fun to have them around and to be together as a family. I love my family so much!!

Time together:

I think most of all I will cherish the time I got to spend with Shaun. Although he was working at BYU doing research we got to spend a lot of time together. I married such a great guy!!

Back to work:

I have to admit going back to work has been harder this year. I have a new principal, 5 new teachers to train, and 22 new first graders + their parents to figure out. The change has gone relatively well. (not to mention the recent hives from the stress) I really like the new principal, and all of the new teachers are really great it's just having so much change at once that can be hard. I have a lot of responsibility this year and can definitely feel the weight of the load, but I know this is going to be a year full of surprises and stress and also a lot of fun.

I just want to thank Shaun for all of his help my first week of school. One day after dinner while I was taking a power nap Shaun worked on the laundry the entire time. He has been so great to pick up the pieces at the end of the day. I feel proud that I mastered week1 of this new year. I just hope all of the weeks won't be "as long" as our first week. :)