new job.

Well, I am sure you are all wondering how is the new job? I love it so far! It is GREAT! I work from 7-3. Until 1:00 it is spent with about 7 cute 3 year-olds.... crazy, but SO much fun. At 1:00, I get office time. Curriculum, meetings, emails, etc. Best of both worlds. Right when I need to break away, I get to go to my little office and have some alone time. Since I am done at 3:00, I have at least 45 minutes...best part... ALL TO MYSELF! With NO responsibility, child, NOTHING. That is just unheard of. Today I got 30 minutes of cardio in, felt good. (well, bad, but good. You know).

I think this is going to be the perfect balance for me. I am lucky because with kid curriculum, I will get to use my creative side. Since I am in an immersion classroom, I will be able to make and recreate books in a new language, a.k.a. use my graphic design degree/skills. However, what I missed at the Lottery, was the kids. This way, I will still get to work with kids and use my creative side. I am excited.

Tomorrow, we head to the pumpkin patch - in the rain. On Friday, I had the day off but went to the Pumpkin patch with Travis and Sophia (and the K-5 Program, and Travis's work)... It was beautiful and sunny.... Not sure that will be the case tomorrow! Here are some pics from the first trip to the patch.

Relationships

Well, I suppose that the relationship between my blog and I has been neglected. I didn't MEAN for it to happen. It just did. I am sorry. I will try once again to nurture this and bring it back, but, I just can't promise and commit the way I should. Sorry. It's not you, it's me.

So, what's new with me, anyway? I have had an 'active' month to say the least.

For starters, as my plane landed in California on the 21st of September, I also received a call from my dad, letting me know my grandfather had peacefully slipped away. He passed into the next phase of being. I have never experienced this before, up until this point, I have had ALL of my grandparents, alive. Although, we all knew it was coming, the pain was excruciating, yet, at the same time it was a slight release. Not because we wanted to see him go, but he was tired of fighting and was ready to go. I choose to believe he is now in a better place and he was ready to go there. With the loss of one Grandfather, it has also been brought to my attention that another is fading, as well as a Grandmother. I can already tell, this won't get easier.

On another level, however, there has definitely been some positive happenings during this time. Two days after receiving notice of my Grandfather, I received notice of a new job. I was offered a position at the Tribe that not only, pays double my annual salary, but is in the language classroom. This will allow me to continue fluency in Sophia's native language and enhance her fluency at the same time. She will not lose it after all -- she spent three years in immersion classrooms learning her language, the program however, ends after kindergarten. I will be the wheel that keeps turning for that, I'm excited for this.

Speaking of Sophia, she is doing wonderfully in the first grade, she is still excelling at reading and pushing forward in her other subjects. She is also playing soccer, which is pretty demanding, 2 practices and 2 games a week, generally. Due to this, she has dropped ballet, but may restart that in January (I hope so!!).

We leave for Maui in exactly 4 weeks, I can't even stand it, I am ready to go! I have started doing 100 situps each day -- hopefully this will help! I know it is last minute, yet, if you know me, that's how I roll! Wait until that last minute and then push hard. argh.

See you soon.....