School Starts!

Hi All,
It is everyone's favorite time of year. Okay, it is every parent's favorite time of year. We have all gone school shopping, kids have gotten their start of year school warnings (threats), and Cheryl and I have gone to the never ending meetings/classes and guilt trips that mark the start of the school year. It is just the school districts' way of reminding us of the torture we put kids through when we make them sit at their desks all day and that guilt and threats work wonders.

The kids started school on Tuesday. While Rozi is now officially in high school, she still attends classes at the junior high. Our school district runs k-4, 5-7, 8-9, and 10-12. She continues to be in her element. Technology is her favorite class, but she enjoys most of her classes. It is fun having her come home and try out her Spanish on me. She is on the swim team and has swim practice everyday (including Labor Day) after school. She has come home sore a few times. Many of her close friends are on the team. Swimming is her new favorite thing. She is going to have a busy life. Rozi starts seminary tomorrow, and she tells me that she is not looking forward to it. I think she is secretly very excited but has a good way of hiding it. Rozi says that her life is now the five "S"s. They are seminary, school, swimming, studying, and sleeping. Not much time for anything else. Works for a dad of a 14 year-old girl.

Lewis is technically a junior high student who is still in middle school. He likes all his teachers and classmates. His best friend is in his switch class, and he seems pretty excited for what the school year has to bring. As he wrote in his blog, scouts is becoming big in his life. He will get a ton of stuff at the court of awards on Tuesday. I really appreciate the hard work of his scout masters. Lewis has already exceeded where I was in scouts. Let's face it, I am not exactly Grizzly Adams. This whole deacon thing has become a lot of work. He has to set-up chairs, do fast offerings, and now I have to do my home teaching because he is my companion.

Cheryl is still teaching ELL at her school and started school on Thursday. We were hoping she would also get a 1/2 time kindergarten position to make her full-time, but the enrollment didn't pan out. She is now in a beautiful new classroom, spends a lot of time preping lessons and making things cute, and setting up a very complicated schedule. She works with a lot of nice people and is still one of the only teachers I know who is actually cheerful after the children go home.

Trouble continues to live up to her name. She is one of the funniest cats I know. In the morning she is the most affectionate cat, and by the afternoon we don't exist. She will be totally bored when we start going to school everyday.

I start school on Thursday. I have moved into the building. It will be my third year in a building classroom. The other eight years have been in portables. I have spent a lot of time getting the room ready, and I will say it looks pretty good. While school has started later this year, I have been going into school for weeks. Some of the time has been for staff development courses, some to prep., some for leadership team meetings, and some for planning with my grade level team. My grade level team did great this year. We had the highest 5th grade test scores in the district in all areas. We will see what the new year has to bring on Wednesday. I still get nervous right before school starts.

I hope everyone is doing well and that the start of the new school year has been kind to everyone. We miss you all.
Love,
Evan