Welcome home, let's get to work.

Back in the Deltaaaaa...

Wow, hard to believe summer is o-ver. :( Where is an emoticon with tears, for real. Summer in Winona was in one word: fabulous. Minus the grad school-sitting-in-the-library-everyday-part. However, I submitted two drafts of my thesis and her last comments told me I am just about in the home stretch. WAHOO!!! I also managed to spend some time on the lake, in Amboy, Mapleton for Abby's wedding, and generally loving life in Winona. I came back to the Delta early because I am leading the Kindergarten Learning Team this year (for all Kinder TFA teachers in the Delta). However, after getting back I learn that I am also doing pre-k as well. WHAT?! If my kids went through a solid, useful pre-k program, do you KNOW how much my life would ROCK?! Someday...

So...I got back to the Delta on Monday (14+ hours driving), surprised Lois by tearing into the house as we were talking to each other on the phone, hopped back into the car to go to dinner with Cody, then out to the bar to see some other 2nd years and meet some of the new first years. I was dead.ash.tired. But thus began a whirlwind week. With learning team on Tuesday, then hosting new corps members Tuesday evening, then driving them all over Ruleville/Cleveland areas looking for housing, by Thursday night I felt like a first year all over again. HOWEVER, the new corps members are frickin' wonderful. The Ruleville/Cleveland people are so much fun and it's going to be so exciting to have more people in this area. TFA went on overload in the Delta this year and expanded BIG time. My corps had roughly 100 people. This year they brought in 280 new teachers. We expanded into new school districts, towns, areas of the delta...it's pretty fricking amazing. The motto presented to them at induction was, "welcome home, let's get to work" because there is oh so much work to be done here.

The week finished with our big move on Saturday. Lois and I decided to start packing at 10 p.m. on Friday night...whoops. Luckily we have AMAZING friends (who are male) who came and helped us move all of our furniture and big things. We couldn't have done it without them, no joke. After moving 3 blocks away into the Ruleville Manor (homestead for the guy who started Ruleville), we both decided we hated moving. We have so much stuff. This house is fully furnished, which is awesome. However, we did a lot of work to move the old stuff (hide old pots, pans, dishes, etc.) in order to make room for our new stuff. Luckily we have a HUGE attic that is full of furniture, Lois and I go up there multiple times a day thinking, "hm..I could use a nightstand or dresser or headboard/bed frame" and go up to the attic and have our pick of things. I wish moving/settling were always this easy :) We each have our own rooms and our own offices...we also have a spare bedroom, hint, hint, come visit...

So...other things happening...school starts in two weeks from today. Funny, until the other day we all thought our school district was starting on Thursday the 6th....now it's not until Monday the 10th. Oh well. I've been busy with Learning Team sessions and trainings and trying to help other people have the things they need to get ready for the first days of school. This has forced me to get myself ready at the same time.

This past weekend we left the Delta for a mini-vacay. What? I lost my tan in the week that I had been back...had to make that up somehow. Cody and I went to Pensacola and stayed with his friend Matt who recently moved there. We spend Friday and Saturday at the most BEAUTIFUL beach EVER and left with wicked tans. I thought my face felt funny on the drive home, a bit like I imagine botox feeling...sure enough, the entire thing peeled yesterday and I am refusing to go out in public for the rest of the week. My skin is an eery combination of tan and then stark white. mehhhh.

This coming weekend I'm meeting up with the crazy cousins in Missouri (Matt, Kayla, Gini, Tony, Nicki, Tim). Oh goodness, I don't know if I'm ready for them. Then again, I don't know if they are ready for a true bean bag tournament, pictures will be posted...maybe even e-mailed out if you are lucky :)

Enough of the lame blog...I really have nothing interesting to stay. It's been raining all day and I'm still sitting in my bed with my laptop pretending that I'm going to start getting some work done. Tomorrow I'm going to try and get into school to start setting up my room aka killing roaches and spiders that have taken up residency in my room for the summer. Oh the Delta.

Peace, love and pecans.