Labor Day Weekend Update

Once again it has been a long time since I have posted to this blog.  I considered deleting it, but then realized that I would also lose the few articles that I've written and the pictures that I've uploaded.  Considering I lost 5 years of pictures as a result of the great hard drive crash of May 6, 2014, I'm not too eager to delete anything from that time period.

What's going on? School is back in session.  I'm still teaching first grade.  This being my fifth year, I think I am starting to get the hang of it.  We have a new reading curriculum, which is taking some getting used to.  I think I have just about figured out the basic weekly structure, which means that I can do some planning and copying in advance.  That will free up some of my breaks to work on fun stuff, such as games and other activities.

The kids are in fourth and second grades and still love school.  We are so blessed to be able to attend and work at Friendship Christian School.  It is our second home.

We adopted a dog last summer.  Well, Mark adopted the dog and the dog adopted me.  He is a schnauzer/yorki mix from a shelter.  He weighs 15 pounds and his name is Smokey.  He is not particularly fond of Mark, but he loves me unconditionally.  Don't tell Smokey, but I am really a cat person.

I have some home improvement projects that I would like to get off the ground, but money is a little tight right now, as Mark may be looking at a job change in the next few months.  His boss is in NJ and we expect that he will be asked to move to NJ and since we are not moving...well, he may be looking for another job at some point.  If he had an option to move somewhere else, like KY, GA, AL, even TX, it might be ok; but NJ...nah...we have the kids to think about.  Plus, I can't understand Yankee accents.

This is the Saturday of Labor Day weekend.  We are at home.  Several of our acquaintances/friends from church are camping.  Although we do not normally camp on Labor Day weekend, it is a little discouraging to find out that nearly everyone in our circle of friends at church are involved, while we were not invited.  I guess we could have invited ourselves, but it's not the same as having friends ask "What are you doing x weekend?" and "We've going camping, why don't you come?"  Maybe I'm just throwing a pity party at this point, or maybe it's my depression kicking in, but I often feel like I'm not in the loop for the friends thing.  It's like high school all over again.

So....I'm going to clean house, do a little cooking and maybe paint the back door.  I have an appointment for a massage this afternoon and I have some ebay auctions that I'm watching.  It should be a good weekend.