The bell rang. The first day of school was over.

So, now that my blog readers are scattered again, I guess I will continue my blogging to keep up on the daily details of life at the Yackleys. It was an amazing 20 days of time with all of us together!! Our trip to NYC was fun, exhausting (from all the walking), "wicked," and something we'll all remember forever. I'm really grateful for the opportunity to go and that everything went so smoothly (OK, so the parking on the first day was stressful, but after that...).

I still don't feel like school has started--I kind of expect Katie and Hannah to walk in after being out and about somewhere. But they are settled in their dorm rooms, starting classes, and making tons of new friends I'm sure. So Abby and I are holding down the fort while Jeff's at work.

Although today, we were all "at work" since classes started at Beginning of Wisdom--Abby's taking three classes, and I'm teaching four. I feel like the preparation was done in a haze of grace. We had been very busy with all the preparations of getting two girls ready for college, and then I was somehow supposed to try to focus and concentrate on plans for my classes. My brain felt like it needed a vacation from trying to remember stuff! :) But somehow, when I woke up this morning, everything was in the car ready to go, lunch was packed, and I felt pretty prepared for the day. As prepared as one can be going into a new situation.

I had to set up my room and make a gazillion copies before 9am plus meet new moms who were concerned about their kids being in a new situation--totally understand that! So I learned how to use the gigundo copy machine, met the moms, asked Abby for help which she so graciously gave. And I was ready by 9am! I have 6 students from 5th-9th grade in American History and Language Arts from 9-11am. I was thinking, "How am I going to deal with middle schoolers for two whole hours?!" At Urban Vision, some days I can hardly make it through a 20 minute period! Ahh, but these are not UV kids (whom I love dearly, but some of them are only 20 minute kids!). These kids (3 boys and 3 girls) came ready for school, with many pencils, three-hole punches, colored pencils, scissors, notebooks, binders, all the things they were asked to bring and more! Amazing! And they talked at the appropriate times about the topic we were discussing. They were sweet and kind and I liked them all. Wow! What more could I ask for? The two hours went by fast, and then I had a break.

I even got paid! People paid on time, some for the whole semester. They even double-checked to make sure they were paying enough! Who are these strange beings you may ask? The parents of BOW. Wow! Guess those parents raised those kids...hmmm...makes sense.

I did some paper work and preparing for the afternoon class from 11-12. I couldn't wait for lunch because I was so HUNGRY! School always makes us hungrier earlier. Early breakfast and all. All that thinking. After lunch I had another hour from 12:30-1:30, then my ACT prep class of 10 high school students. We had fun even though none of them voluntarily took the class--they were forced to by their parents. :) But they are great kids, and we had a few laughs about the funny things in the book and their funny comments.

So, done at 2:20 ish and home to unwind a little. Abby had to do her "after school care" job from 3:30-5pm, and I tried to figure out our Discover bill which is "somethin'" (as Jeff would say) after vacation, buying books and college stuff. Still not sure what all the items are even...Jeff has something to look forward to after golf even though he doesn't know it yet! Oh well, we can just take it out of the girls' bank accounts and say it was to reimburse us for books, etc. :)

We had a gourmet meal of sloppy joes and sweet potato fries for dinner. I walked, and Abby went to the Fullers to finish some t-shirts they were making. Talked to Mom in there too after dinner. Next on the list is making the menu and grocery list, so I can go to Giant Eagle tomorrow on my day "off."

I talked to Eh Dah Doe on my walk too. She had called earlier when we were at school because she missed me...awww...I miss them too. We're going to try to have them over this Saturday after several weeks of not seeing them. They start school on Wed., so we'll get to hear about their first few days. She's going to the middle school this year.

Well, that about sums up the first day of school for me. It was a good one, and I'm thinking it's going to be a good year. Of course, I am too savvy to think there won't be any problems along the way...but those we will deal with when they come and not lose sleep now worrying about what they may be. I actually slept well last night which is rare the night before a new, big thing. I think it was the grace haze again--I was just too tired to toss and turn, and I was as done as I could be in getting ready. Yay, grace! Yay, God!

So, until next time, dear readers...