Out with the Old, In with the New

I can't believe its October. We had a "cold front" sweep through earlier this week and experienced the first hints of cooler weather. Technically "cold front" here means 65 at night, 85 during the day. We take what we can get though! My students trudged into class wearing long sleeves and complaining about the cool nip in the air. I love the promise of things to come though!

We are almost half way through the first nine weeks of school. I wish I could say that the wonderful routine we fell into this summer survived the demands of the return to school, but that's not exactly what happened. After teaching all day (and two nights a week at a local college), I just haven't been able to work the biking into my schedule. I hate it too. I felt great and was really experiencing a change in my health. And I miss biking. It was an activity that all of us could do together. I'm hoping I can balance out my schedule and regain some of the old routine soon.

We're all enjoying some new activities though. Hannah and Kristina are part of middle school girls' Bible study. Sam, Nathanael, & Joshua all made the boys volleyball team at school. We're excited to cheer them on at their first home game this week. Four of the kids are in the music program at school. Sam and Nathanael are in their third year of band. Hannah and Joshua joined this year and are loving it. Kristina wasn't interested at all though, so we respected her decision to opt for other electives.

Even I'm trying my hand at something new. I play three other instruments, but I've always wanted to learn guitar. With no money (or time) for an instrument or lessons, it just never happened. Last Christmas, a guitar made its way under the tree with my name on it though (thanks, Dad!), but I still couldn't swing the other half of the equation until a few weeks ago. It just so happens that there's a guitar class at school during my planning period. So most days, I squeeze my way into Andrea's classroom, grab an acoustic, and set myself between two 16 year olds who happen to be in my English class. There are about seven students in seventh period guitar class who have me for English class sometime earlier in the day. The first time I showed up, the kids raised their eyebrows. But now they make room for me and check my technique when I'm practicing chords. I take notes and tests right along side them and they seem to respect me for that. On Friday, Tabby popped her head in my classroom and shouted, "OMG, Mrs Landrum, did you practice for today's test? What song are you going to play???" I have to laugh at their enthusiasm because I share the same jitters and the same sore fingertips.

Some things never change though. The boys went off with Robert this morning and left me with the girls. We had good intentions to clean the house, but sometime (shortly after the boys left) Kristina successfully convinced me that she was in desperate need of a denim skirt. We set out for Ross (love Ross!) and didn't manage to find what we were looking for. We did however find a pair of "skinny jeans" that Kristina wanted for her birthday. Skinny jeans are the new must have obviously. She tried on about ten pairs before settling on a dark washed pair. She even convinced me to try on a pair. For future reference, skinny jeans are for skinny people! The girls said they loved them on me and tried to convince me get them. I explained that I worked with teenagers - the last thing I need is to try to look like one!