Week Two begins

The first week of my vacation went by too quickly. I spent the first day actually working and much of the rest of the week driving down with Joe and our three youngest boys to Oklahoma and visiting with Bill and June. We had a nice visit, but it ended up raining for a good part of the time we were down there, and then when we did get to the lake, Joe and the boys jumped in, but Joe's dad got worn out really fast.

Bill with BJ, Raymond and Daniel

Winding down

Summer vacation is finally here. I am working on slowing the energy level from this school year, so I can take a brief break before I start on next year's gear up for energy. Moving my classrooms before August is proving quite taxing, as having the people that need to be there actually there will probably prove near impossible. I have finished up my last contract day today, but will have to go in again tomorrow to pack up more and label what I can't move yet. I will have to go in again when Summer School is over to unpack, as we are not supposed to move completely until after Summer School is complete. I am working on organizing items in boxes and file drawers a much as possible as I pack. I am also working on purging as much as possible, but I think that I have already scaled down so much over the past three years, that I really don't have a lot of extra stuff.

We are also working on loading up the van for a trip to Oklahoma. The weather has been very wet here and there so I'm not sure how much lake action I can take with rain and mud in the picture. We are considering postponing until the weather is better. The older boys will be home to take care of the dogs so I am not sure how long we will be away.

Almost done

Our Summer vacation is approaching, and has in fact started for the younger boys and for my students. I always find the last days tough ones to get through. Either I am reluctant to let the students move on, or I am counting the minutes for them to be out of my hands and back to their parents. We are not really working but tying up loose ends and taking care of getting materials turned in, lockers cleaned out and all assignments passed back to students.

This year is going to be an especially challenging break from students, because my team will be changing locations in the grade house (for one of my team, to another grade house), and I will personally be moving to two other classrooms. We are not supposed to make the move until after Summer School has ended and there are no work days provided for the move. We are not moving into empty rooms, but rooms occupied by another team of teachers that need to move into our rooms we are presently occupying. I am not looking forward to the move, although as far as materials go, I have already started moving materials into my new math room. The Science room move has proved to be a lot more disorganized, and so I will have to reorganize and relabel all of the cabinets and drawers.

Joe went to Raymond's school yesterday with Daniel and enjoyed lunch and an afternoon of games and ice cream making. Raymond and Daniel are both excited about not having school. We are working on planning a few shorter trips this Summer as gas costs are so high. We had originally started talking about a trip to Washington State, but as things have changed so drastically this Spring, we are reevaluating where we can get away to and for how long.