Big wheels keep on rollin'

Despite having a lag between camp and school starting back and my propensity to do absolutely nothing, it appears life, indeed, is rolling on. Some things going on lately:

- Jake's sister, Caroline, turned 17 yesterday and is having surgery tomorrow. I had an awesome time yesterday with her at lunch and then running around town. She's changing schools and we went and scoped things out. It should be an exciting change for her!

- Jake has been in school for almost two weeks. He has a test tomorrow and has been studying for the whole week. He is working so hard and really enjoys being in school. His schedule right now isn't so bad - 2 classes, but in the fall (really August actually) it gets intense. He is going to be a studying machine!

- my parents and brothers have been away, in Hawaii, and are coming back finally next week. They seem to have been gone a long time! I'm ready for them to be back

- I'm going canoeing with my church young adults group the first weekend of August. This will be basically my only summer vacation so I'm really excited about the weekend.

- I might be going back up to Subiaco, Arkansas to visit Choir Camp, my performance arts camp that I attended from 1994 to 2005. Elise and I talked today about driving over on Friday night (a week from tomorrow) and seeing the church service and show the next day. I love that camp and that place (it is a monastery and boy's boarding school) and am excited to make the trip.

- I've eluded to a job switch. I'm taking classes to be certified to teach gifted education and as I've taken these classes, I've rediscovered my passion for education. I was down and out about teaching after my first year and these classes have shown me where I need to be. This is something that may (yes, MAY) happen this year, may not. I really won't know until the last minute whether a position is open for me and if so, I won't know where until the last minute as well. This is a tough place to be but for something that I interviewed for last year and turned down, I decided I needed to stop ignoring the urge to teach gifted and go for it, even though it will definitely be a challenge. A challenge, but a different kind of challenge than screaming and cussing children.

- I start back for school next week with meetings and a freshman transition. I can't believe it - it has flown by... I am not ready at all to go back to work.

- Jake and I are still focusing on living a budget life. We've done OK this week, our first official budget week. We've got some fun social outings for the weekend so we'll have to do extra well there.