ch-ch-ch-changes.

wow. a month? shame on me.

we had our wonderful visitors, fell into a funk for a couple of days after they left, and then squeezed every last drop of summer out of august that we could. until the week before things started up again and zane had impetigo and the girls both had nasty colds. we like to keep things interesting around here :)

and to keep the chaos alive for a while longer, today the girls started their new preschool, i started my new job/practicum and zane started his first full(er) week of school (he had 2 days with the kids last week). it's 8pm, and after the girls went down (without a peep, school wore them out!) zane told me to go for a run or a walk. i did and it was a great way to decompress and forget about most of today :)

the one thing we won't forget: the girls did AMAZING at school.

i wasn't expecting huge issues, but it's the first time that they're at "school" and not in the same class/room. we didn't really know how they'd take to it, knowing it was a big adjustment for all of us to be moving into this new phase. apparently avery came to nola's class once to say hi, but other than that the girls did wonderfully.

*nola's teacher (kathy) said she was great, no problems, smiled big when they took pictures for a project they're working on, and rested quietly during rest time until i picked her up.
*avery's teacher (scott) said that she did great and that she wasn't nearly as shy as he thought she was going to be. i joked with him that when she warms up, she really warms up. later tonight she told zane and i "scott fell asleep on a puzzle and we had to wake him up! i tickled him!"

avery seemed stand-off ish when i picked them up, and she says it's because she wanted to stay longer. tomorrow they'll be there for an extra 2 hours, so hopefully that'll keep her happy :) i think both girls gained a lot of confidence today and were really happy to reconnect with each other after school was over.

my job is complicated a bit, in that i have two roles. 1-my practicum/student teaching. this is where i get to do fun stuff like collaborate with teachers and come up with projects and lessons and learn how to interact with middle school students. it's more professional in nature and it's something i hope people appreciate and take advantage of (to an extent...) 2-my position (paid) as "clerical aide" in the library. this is more of the standard check books out/in, keep things running behind the scenes, etc. a job that doesn't really require any special knowledge of libraries or information science. and this is where i feel like when people hear i'm just the aide? they don't really care. but then when they hear that i'm a grad student finishing my program as simmons, they perk up. i haven't even met the principal (who hired me) yet. a bit disappointing and strange, but i love the librarian i'm working with and am looking forward to the "fun" part of this semester.

zane says that the beginning of this school year is going better than any other year for him. very good news. at least one of us is feeling a little stable and confident in their role!

and now comes the task of catching up and blogging about all the fun things we did this summer. starting tomorrow.