The day my resignation went to the school board, the superintendent called to see what happened. Crazy that she called me herself, but it felt good to have the opportunity to explain my most recent resignation - it was a giant surprise to me too, it wasn't what I wanted nor what I (ever in a million years) expected to do. But then she had a question - would I reconsider? She offered to hold off hiring to give me time to find a new partner. Ugh. I wanted to bury my head in the sand. While grateful that she would personally reach out to me, I'm tired of thinking it's over only to have a glimmer of "maybe it's not over quite yet". I listened and she had really nice things to say. We left it w/ the ball in my court and I would call her when I was ready to talk - two days, six months, whenever, about maybe coming back. Two days later I emailed her, I thanked her for the personal call and left it that for now I'm going to be a mom. W/ Hadley's last year at home, I don't want the extra stress of working w/ someone new.
36 hours later, I received a call from the Director of Assessment & Technology in the Teaching & Learning Dept. He knew of my resignation and wondered if I might be interested in a new position that's in development (a teacher-tech support for building leadership and grade-level teams.) He knows I'm not techy, they actually want teachers in this role. This position could be part-time and sounds interesting, but the schedule might not mesh w/ my kids before/after school needs this year. And I don't want the stress of making things work w/ my parents or Patrick to help shuttle the kids.
The common theme here - I don't want the stress. I was completely flattered to receive both calls w/ thoughts to reconsider employment. Yet I think my time w/ the district really is over-over for now.
Later that day, I received another phone call. This time from my friend and colleague Karen (blue shirt). She had an offer - would I take over Sherman's memorial project for Cheri? I thought about it for .5 seconds and agreed. Seriously - how perfect?! A project that will keep me connected to my Sherman family and a project that honors my friend/colleague (black tank top).
School is on it's way. My teacher-friends are setting up their classrooms. My K position has been filled at Sherman and my heart hurts about it. Even w/o working, the anticipation of a new school year has me anxious. I think I need school to start to really see/feel that this is all happening w/o me.
Onto the kids in my life, two weeks of summery catch-up...
Finley invited a school friend over to play. Nicholas was in Finley's kindergarten class, and they are excited to be in the same first grade class too. I like knowing Finley will start the year w/ a friend in his homeroom.
My kids can never get enough of playing w/ the neighbors. Ross was off and the kids went over to swim...fours later they came home! Thanks Ross for spontaneously giving me an afternoon to be productive (pictures stolen off Ross's FB page).
We're getting in some last summery play dates w/ friends, they'll all be in school before we know it. Rachel, Carter, & Owen met up w/ us at Carson Park.
Finley's kindergarten backpack is still in good shape, but he really wanted a new backpack for 1st grade. I'm a sucker for new school supplies (there's still teacher in me) and there was no surprise that he wanted an Under Armour backpack. A yes I wanted to do.
Oh these two...I feel very lucky. When it's just the two of them, they (usually) play really well together.
Grandma Kathleen & Uncle Michael came over for dinner. The kids were excited to show Uncle Michael every.little.thing.
Grandma & Finley made a tied-fleece blanket for Finley. He chose Packers & Badgers.
He is very proud of his hard work.
We spent a fun day at Rachel, Dan, Carter, & Owen's cottage.
Dan pulls tubers MUCH faster than Grandpa - Finley's face was hysterical.
But he was having fun.
She's not a good spotter.
Her turn.
A cute gummy smile.
Hadley & I had a date - pottery painting. She picked a shark-fish-whale thingy.
I let her go at it, so it's a very colorful fish-thingy, maybe a Rainbow Fish?! And the dirty face was from the hot chocolate she sipped while painting ;)
She was very proud of her work!
4K starts in early September, Sister & I went school supply shopping. Seriously, I'm not ready for her to be this big.
Finley went to camp. Ugh, I'm not ready for him to be this big either!! Spencer, Gavin, & Sam were going to "climbing camp" and invited Finley to come too. It was a full-day all-week camp...which meant he slept at Auntie's house for FIVE NIGHTS.
Auntie was really good about sending a daily update. It sounded like things went well - he ate food he wouldn't at home (why do they do that?), he got to swim, ride bikes, went to Uncle Ryan's store, he behaved (phew) and had a lot of fun. THANK YOU Heidi for keeping him! Next summer Hadley wants to come too.
Camp is hard work, but I heard they're all pretending.
Finley & I FaceTimed most evenings. One night he did get sad, which made it extra hard for me. I ran up for dinner one night, I snuggled him and then slipped out after he was asleep.
These pictures crack me up. It's Finley window-peeping at Auntie's neighbor's house. By his outfits, we can tell it happened on two different days. I'm confident he was checking to see if they were home (they have three young boys to play with), but we will work on knocking on the front door ;)
Finley came back from camp addicted to Pokemon.
Carol is preparing to move and is finding treasures in her basement - she gave Hadley a doll-sized rocking horse.
...and he took the training wheels off her little bike.
The 5 Kids spent Friday night w/ Grandma so the rest of us could do kid-free things.
W/ the kids gone, I was off to Girl's Weekend at Kristi's cottage, but it didn't start off well. I hit a small pipe pulling into the cottage yard. A small pipe that did big damage. Something was leaking and I needed to have my car towed to the dealership. The tow truck arrived and... started on fire! Seriously, I've been having such bad luck lately, now the tow truck driver was too.
All lined up...the big rig to pull the tow truck, the flatbed to carry my car.
Someone suggested a selfie in front of the tow truck...
...and a selfie with the tow truck drivers.
After all of that, I needed a drink. Or 5. Moms play flip-cup too.
Moms do pyramids too.
The next day was spent eating, drinking, and hanging out. All was well until someone went out on a jet ski and needed to be towed back. Two days, two tows.
Without a car, I needed a ride home and I needed to borrow a ride for the foreseeable future. I can handle this for a week.
Sunday boating and tubing w/ cousins...
...which included another tow. That's three tows in three days.
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