Summer So Far

Kate trying to figure out how to grab and chew toys.

Ball pit fun!

Beautiful blue eyed Alyssa

Alex does a bang up job on his first birthday cake!

Time is flying! Kate is 4 months old now. She is doing really well. She is so much fun to be around every day. Her favorite things to do now are jump in the jumperoo, eat her clothing, put her hands in her mouth (constantly), drool on everything, smile at Mommy and Daddy, and occassionally blow raspberries (a trick that Grandma Hurd taught her). She is a real chubby, which is just fine by me. I'm waiting for her to start rolling over and grabbing more objects. We've had such a nice 4months together and I'm starting to feel the saddness creep in as the reality of going back to work closes in.

This past week I spent in Grand Rapids at the new teacher orientation for my job. I work for National Heritage Academies now. They are a charter school business with schools throughout Michigan, Ohio, Colorado, New York (maybe a couple of other states). My school is Taylor Quest. It is currently being built and is about 2 miles from my house. No more 60 mile commute!! This is a blessing. I will be teaching k-5 PE. I'm excited to be working with the little kids again. My week long training in GR taught me how different this school system is. NHA is a business and they have very high expectations of their employees. Unlike the public school system there is no union to protect lazy teachers. I find it motivating to have high expectations placed on me. It was easy to slack and just go with the flow when no one really cared what I was doing. I have important work to do now, and it will not go un-noticed here. There will be a lot more demands of the different kind placed on me, as I learned in GR.

We were put up at the Amway Grand Plaza downtown, nice hotel. I had to pay for a single room because there was no way I was going to spend a week without Kate. I had Monday night all to myself, which I admit was kinda nice and peaceful. Anne brought Kate up on Tuesday night and stayed the rest of the week. I was in various meetings downstairs all day but was able to pop upstairs during various breaks and lunches to get a dose of Kate love. They fed us very well for breakfast and lunch and for dinners we were on our own with a $100 visa card to spend as we chose.

I have 2 weeks left of "vacation" before I have to report to school. Students start after labor day, but our staff reports Aug 17th. I'm not sure why we need 3 weeks to get ready and it kinda bums me out. I'm sure I'll find things to do though. In my next 2 weeks of vacation I have a long list of things to accomplish. Number one priority is to soak in every moment I can with Kate. Next week I'm looking forward to going to the zoo.