Exhaustion has set in

It's official. I am a teacher. I mean, yes, I landed myself a job with my stunning teaching skills and have actually starting planting information into the heads of little second graders, but the exhaustion did not set in...until this week. You're not actually a teacher until this happens. I had been going through my days as a happy go lucky Rachel. Spending my nights grading a few papers, watching all my new TV shows from the fall season. Having a jolly good time. But, slowly but surely, the needing of naps started, the up late writing lesson plans, bringing home piles and piles of work to grade. All that jazz. Sigh.

So, with that tremendous amount of complaining out of the way, I can't happily say that it is 9:38 pm and I am finished with all of my lesson plans for next week, I've typed up spelling words, and all papers are corrected. Yet...I'm trying to find something else to do that relates to school. Addiction? I think so.

Also, my birthday is tomorrow. I'm way old. Way close to 30. Need way more presents because of this.

This weekend was perfect. I really can't think of anything I would change. On Friday, we met my in-laws in Kalamazoo to do the trade off for Logan's first sleepover weekend at their house. Andy and I realized we would need to be quick about this, in case they realized 10 minutes away that they made a mistake. Apparently he was good, so they decided to keep their plans with him :) While he was there, he went to see his Nana's horse, went to a birthday party, and was simply spoiled by his grandparents. This is why we moved back to Michigan.

Andy and I, however, did what any other married adults would do when their children are away....slept in. Get your mind out of the gutters people, I know what you were thinking. Sleeping is my favorite hobby. I love to sleep in until double digits, meaning at least 10 am, and I did. Two times this weekend. Pure bliss. We also had a huge date day on Saturday.

After getting dressed at oh, about 1 pm, we headed out to lunch at a place where Logan would never eat because they don't have a kids menu. Then, off to AJ's family fun center, where we played Putt-putt. Pretty nerdy, but Logan's not old enough to do this yet, so we took advantage of our time. I lost (even after I cheated), and then gave up on air hockey because I was sick of losing against Andy. Basically I'm a sore loser. We then headed over to the movie theater and took in a flick. Afterwards, another restaurant for dinner. Ahh, the joy of not having a bedtime that we had to stick to.

Today, we headed up (over?) to Kalamazoo to do another swap and take the babe back. I'll admit, I kind of missed him. Since we were already in Kalamzoo, we decided to head over to the Kalamazoo Valley Museum, because it's free. They've added a way cool kids room and Logan LOVED it. We then left the museum and took a stroll on WMU's campus. Andy and I had fun talking about all of the places we had classes, the memories we had together, and then pretty much gawked at all the changes they've made since we were gone. The most notable change was the lack of Andy's old apartment building. Apparently there was a fire 2 years ago and his building is gone. Vanished. I think he was pretty stunned. Logan had a ball walking around campus, trying to climb the stairs, and of course taking in the sights of what will be his future college. Not that I'm pushing him into anything...

So, once again, perfect. Days like this remind me of why I love living in Michigan. I love being able to take a short drive to where Andy and I met and have so many memories together. I love being able to share stories about the times we visiting certain places together. Perfect.

Oh my, I had forgotten how completely draining school training is. The last two weeks have been a bit of a blur, but in a good way. Being in a school that is K-12 is very different than K-8. Some of the trainings didn't make much sense to me, but then I realized what they were talking about was directed to the high school and not the elementary. I almost feel as if I'm starting my first year of teaching all over again, not knowing as much about the curriculum and the general list of things I am expected to complete. I've come to the realization that a lot of my lesson plans won't be used again, mostly because they were on the smart board and I don't have one in my room (which is surprisingly kind of nice). However, I've also come to the realization that I will have about half the number of students that I'm used to having. I'm not sure what it will feel like to work with 18 students everyday instead of the usual 25+ that I had in AZ. Right now it's hard to contain the excitement!

I have to admit that the best part of these two weeks is being able to meet other teachers that I can call friends. I've felt pretty lonely in GR, and I know that Andy feels the same way since he doesn't have any colleagues to talk to during his work day. It's been so nice meeting people, seeing what we have in common, and just enjoying other adults (yes, I know that I've been around Andy all summer and I love him, but sometimes I just need to talk to a different adult). My second favorite thing: getting back into the classroom and unpacking all my junk. Yes, I know, I'm strange, but I do like to organize and unpack for the upcoming year. Packing it back up at the end of the year is another story.

So, my room is completely organized ::for now::, my lessons are done for the week, and my copies are ready to be handed out. Watch out GR, Mrs. McKenna is back!