AuburnChick's Adventures

Y’all.  It’s been over a month since I last blogged.

This.  Must.  Stop.

For real!

I love to write.

I need to paint word pictures with something besides my voice, which gets old to listen to.

It’s a promise I keep making to myself and then failing.  All I can do is recommit and keep trying, so here goes!

What’s been happening these past few weeks?

Well, for starters, I had to get my classroom ready for a new crew of students.  It’s always extremely intimidating and overwhelming to walk into my room that first day.  The sheer amount of work that needs to be done makes me hyperventilate.

I went in a couple of weeks before I “had” to report back, just to arrange the furniture.

As the days drew nearer for school to start, I received the following email from a student I taught this past school year.

I had to chuckle.  This girl has a great sense of humor!

The whole getting ready for school thing made me crave comfort food, so I whipped up a batch of my Molly Weasley’s Magically Easy Fudge…veganized, of course.

All work and no play makes Auburnchick a very boring person indeed, so I treated myself to a new book…Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.

It was written in a play format, which took a bit of getting used to, but oh my.  To be caught back up in the world of all things Harry Potter made my heart so happy.  I read this in just a few hours.  I simply could not put it down!

Of course, there was napping.  A day without a nap is like a day without sunshine.

There was more reading.  Kwame Alexander is the MAN.  This book is part prose; the subject is basketball and life.  I hope my boys will give it a chance.

There was time with the pups.  They’d been so spoiled having me home all summer.

Six-day-a-week Hammer and Chisel workouts continued to occupy my time.

Wine, knitting, and Big Brother always hit the spot as well…my non-guilty pleasures.

Then, there was the day that I sat at Rooster and his girl’s apartment while the movers came and packed them up.

Did I mention that they are now married?

Oh yeah.  I didn’t.

See, here’s what happened.  Back when Rooster was getting ready to leave for Basic Training, he approached us and said that they wanted to go ahead and get married before he left.  It would be easier for her to get on his orders…something that takes forever.  All the way around, it made sense.

So, and hold on to your hats, they got engaged on a Friday, which I shared before.

That Saturday we started trying to find a judge to marry them.  We have a couple of friends who are judges, so we reached out to them.  They needed to be married by Monday so Rooster could get the paperwork back to his recruiter in time for it to be submitted.

Rooster’s girl’s parents drove down from Alabama that Saturday while she and I got pedicures.

That Sunday, we skipped church, ate lunch together, and then met the judge at a scenic location in town.

I took a LOT of pictures since it was just the seven of us…no photographer.

It was very sweet.

Rooster left two weeks later for Basic.

Which brings us to early August.  He got to come home for a few days when he transitioned from one phase of tech school to another.  He’d gotten his orders; he was going to a base out West.  She was on his orders, so she would be going with him.  The timing, much like their marriage, was harried.  They didn’t have time to drive to the base, so they flew out, six bags in tow, and left everything else here.

I cried the entire way home from the airport and the entire day.  Sending your baby across the country isn’t the easiest thing.

Life moved on, and two weeks later, I found myself sitting at their apartment.

The movers did a quick job of packing.  The timing was perfect…two or three days before I had to report for my first “official” day of pre-planning.

It was bittersweet.

And life moved on.

I did some retail therapy.  This necklace has quickly become a favorite…hand stamped by a friend’s daughter who has her own Etsy store.

I took moments to enjoy unexpected wildlife appearances.

And I napped.

With school drawing nearer, I reacquainted myself with the art of multi-tasking.  Lysa TerKeurst spoke somewhere, and I enjoyed watching the broadcast from my First5 app.

Her interview with Tim Tebow was amazing!  I’ve never listened to him speak before.  His story is a powerful one!

We had a pretty intense storm during our pre-planning days.  Thank heavens for sandbags!  Podunk, USA offered them for free, and I snagged six.  My porch routinely gets water on it when it rains heavily.  The sandbags worked like a charm!

The week of pre-planning, I gave a Smartboard presentation at the school I taught at my first year.  I went from working out to dressing up…all within an hour and a half.

Weekends continued to be mine, though.  Days at the pool and beach are respites from the stress of work.

I also ordered and received DVDs for my next two Beachbody programs…

Ever the planner.

Meanwhile, as the beginning of school got closer and closer, I got closer and closer to finishing my Hammer and Chisel program.  Balancing classroom prep, exercise, and errands for home became the name of the game.

I made some decisions for my classes.  I’m teaching two Honors English classes this year, and I wrestled about whether or not to include silent, sudent-selected reading.  I love this poster, which echoes my feelings exactly…

For the record, my Honors students are reading silently…and loving it.  That’s a story for another day.

Classroom prep had me making numerous reminders.  The beginning of the school year is absolutely exhausting.  For every sticky note I got rid of, I wrote three more to take its place.

My shirt echoed my sentiments…run, run, run.

One of my planning days was made a lot brighter when a former student, newly graduated, stopped by my room to visit.

This young man will forever be one of my favorite students ever.  I taught him when he was a ninth grader.  He has a joy for life.  I’ve rarely seen him without a smile.  He has the kindest heart, and I look forward to seeing what he accomplishes in his life.

By the end of that last planning day, my room was as ready as it was going to be.  I was pleased with the results.

I was ready for school.

I think I’ll end this post here.  I’ve let it go on far too long, and if you’ve read to this point, just WOW!  Thank you for sticking it out!  I’ll try to finish my catch-up post tomorrow and then stay on track.

Ha!

Filed under: Air Force, children, empty nest | Tagged: empty nest, teaching |