8/19/08

Ahh…I’m finally laying in bed, watching the Olympics and getting ready to go to sleep (once gymnastics is over).  I’m so tired, and I’m so looking forward to sleeping!  Ryan and I decided that this year, we were going to get really into the Olympics.  We started with the opening ceremonies, and we have been watching pretty much every night.  They have been so exciting this year, but they’re on so late that our sleep is starting to suffer! =) 

This past weekend we went to my mom’s house in the mountains with a group of friends.  Our friends John, Kristin, and Chris (we call him Big Chris) all headed up Friday afternoon.  We followed after I got off work on Friday, and then our friends Chris and Sarah joined us a little later Friday evening.  We don’t have a television at the house, but luckily, Big Chris’s parents live on the mountain full time, so they have satellite TV.  By the time Chris and Sarah got there on Friday night, we were all down at their house watching Michael Phelps win another gold medal.  That was such an exciting race and it was really fun to watch it with everyone.

We stayed up late hanging out on Friday and slept in on Saturday.  Chris and Sarah headed into town early Saturday afternoon, but the rest of us didn’t feel like making the trek, so we just kind of lazed around.  There is a tiny church at the bottom of the mountain that was having their annual "Barbeque and Bluegrass" event, so we headed down there Saturday evening for some delicious barbeque and awesome desserts made by all the ladies in the church.  It was really nice.  When we came back up we had a few drinks and played "Apples to Apples" until it was time to go watch the Olympics again. =)  Everyone else left Sunday morning, but Ryan and I (and our dog) hung around reading and napping until mid-afternoon when we headed for home.  It was really nice to get out of town and relax, expecially after a somewhat hectic first week of school.

Yes, school started last week.  So far, it is going extremely well.  The woman that I work most closely with, Meg, is really wonderful.  She and I have a lot in common and get along really well.  I really feel that we are already becoming good friends, and I feel very comfortable with her.  She has been so helpful and fun.  There is another woman that I work closely with who is also very nice.  She is older so we won’t have the same kind of friendship, but she is very kind and cheerful and always lets folks know how much she appreciates them.  She is really easy to work with so far.

The kids at our school are really neat….geek kids are so much fun!  Our school is extremely rigorous…most of the students are already doing 4-6 hours of homework a night.  They are hanging in there though, and most of them seem to be enjoying themselves.  This school gives them so many amazing opportunities that most of them find that it’s worth it (those who don’t typically go back to their home schools during the year–we are a charter school, so they enter through a lottery).  At any rate, I really feel that I am beginning to figure everything out and am getting really comfortable with my position.  Right now our school is so small that everyone has to do things that aren’t necessarily in our job descriptions, but everyone chips in and so far no one has a bad attitude about it.  It’s not so bad when everyone is helping!  It’s such a neat community, and I’m so excited to be a part of it!

Gold and silver for the U.S.!  Time for bed!