then and now

Three weeks ago I had good intentions of writing my end of summer/back to school blog. Like many other ideas that I come up with, this blog lost it's place on my priority list. There were other priorities like getting my classroom organized and ready, getting Clayson through surgery and making it home in time for meet the teacher night, washing new school clothes and still trying to find shorts to fit the boys, sorting all of the supplies and being first day ready. My rough draft of this blog, (because I always write them first), became tossed aside, covered in Gatorade and forgotten about...until tonight when I wanted to write a newer one.

The original blog started like this...

Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened. (That's always my end of summer motto, it keeps me positive.) I don't really feel like my summer flew by - we enjoyed every day, took some great trips and made a bunch of new memories. We definitely made the most of it and it'll go down in history as one of the best ever.

And then there was the part about it being exciting to start a new school year. The aisles filled with school supplies, a new calendar for my desk, gaining new students and meeting new parents - it's all so much fun to be a part of. I love my job. Along with the start of school comes routines, getting back onto a schedule and, as Texans, we always look forward to cooler weather.

This brings me to the current...

The first two weeks of school have been more than successful. All of the kids seem to be enjoying their new adventures in the classroom - we haven't heard any complaints. Clayson and Matt started high school and have a couple of classes together. So far, we haven't heard any "fish" stories from our freshmen. Trey is in 7th grade. He has to be at school every morning at 6:30 for football practice. He seems to be staying on top of things, maybe middle school was just what he needed to "force" him into having some organizational skills. Kayla is in 6th grade and really likes all of her classes and her teachers. She's had one incident, in which she was bitten by another student. Yikes! Thank goodness the skin was not broken. Ashlyn loves 4th grade and getting to switch classes three times. She still waves at me and hugs me every time that she sees me, which is often, and I love it. I have three awesome groups of 5th graders and know that this is going to be such a fun year. On the school front, things are going great!

On the homefront, things are also going good. We have spent a weekend at the deer lease and a weekend at the Cotton Festival. Joey has been traveling a lot for work so he's usually only home 2-4 days a week. He has been extremely busy, which is good, I just miss him...a lot. This weekend we had a chance to get away for the night so we took advantage. I told him that I needed a "mental health break" and he looked at me like I was crazy... literally. Haha! I guess he has never heard that. I just needed some time away from the house and the constant demands and I wanted to get him away from distractions, too. It was a perfect 21 hours together and I definitely feel like my mental health has been restored :) It's amazing what a little down time can do for the heart and soul.

It's back to reality for week three. Joey is traveling to San Antonio, back to work and school, Trey's first football game and Matt's 15th birthday. Our lives are busy but we are blessed by the things that keep us busy and the special people that we are busy with. Busy is good.