Moving Out, Moving In, Moving On

Oh, what a Spring/Summer it has been!

There have been major changes within our district as a whole, and within our music department.  To date, we have had 3 retirements and 4 resignations.  Knowing that would mean changes for all of us remaining, I basically stress-ate my way through the last few months.  (More on that a little later). On top of it all, we sold our house and moved into a brand new one.

So, that leaves me here, in the middle of July, no where near where I thought I'd be when it came to preparing for the upcoming school year.  Why?  Because I've been moved schools again.  I will now be in just one building full time (yay!) and will actually have a classroom that's not a portable (yay again!). It also means that I had to leave my incredible students and co-workers at my two previous schools.  I was especially not prepared to leave P, which really has felt like a second home to me for the last 6 years.  Even more difficult is leaving the PE teacher, with whom I shared both schools.  He has been an incredible friend and mentor to me, and now I feel as though my Obi Wan has been taken away from me before my training is complete.  But, I have to keep going forward.

I've spent about 3 full days so far just cleaning, sorting through everything in my new classroom, and trying to get everything moved in and arranged.  I've still got some decorating to do and some more logistics to figure out, and then I can get down to the business of unit and lesson planning.

I was also elected Vice President of our local education association this Spring, so my term officially began in June.  I've had a few meetings so far pertaining to the association itself, have attended the 3 school board meetings that have taken place this summer thus far, and have participated in a couple of other events  related to the association.  To this point, it's been a great experience and I'm proud to serve.

Amid all of my professional life changing, we've been working on settling into our new house.  It's great, and was definitely the right choice for our family, but I still miss our little house that we started in.  Our daughter has had to adjust as well; I thought it would maybe be easier for her, considering she's so young, but you can tell she misses her "old house" too.

And then there's the matter of my self-acknowledged stress eating.  You.  All.  I basically ate my emotions from late March through half of June.  Not good; I don't recommend it.  So, I need to get myself back into fighting shape, so to speak.  I've started Jillian Michaels' 30 Day Shred, and let me tell you--she ain't playing.  It's been hard, but I can tell it's working.  I can already feel my stamina and endurance building, my energy level is definitely up, and my jeans are already fitting better.  I'm looking forward to keeping with it.  I'm also toying with the idea of doing a cleanse, to sort of help reset things.  Any recommendations?

So, that leaves me here, with a bunch of new focuses.  (Foci?  Whatever.)
1. New school/new roles & responsibilities
2. New house
3. New exercise/health plan
4. New auntie.  That's right--my very first nephew is set to arrive any day now & I can't wait!!!

Wow, if you read through all of this, thanks--you're awesome.  This is what happens when you drop off the face of the blogosphere for months at a time, I guess.  Take care, everyone, and hope you're having a great summer!