Wednesday morning I got up early and loaded the last of my things into my car, cleaned up after myself at Debbie's house, and hit the road for Houston. It was a strange feeling knowing that I wasn't going for a visit this time, but for real. I got to the apartment in time to get a few things done before Kevin got home. It's weird because we didn't take hardly any of our stuff out of storage because it is all wrapped up and packed nicely. We are living out of boxes and suitcases instead of dresser drawers and I have hardly anything for my kitchen. We are renting a washer and dryer instead of getting ours out. Our apartment is very tiny (and disorganized for right now), but it doesn't even bother me very much. Two things that I have learned from this whole experience are that God will provide us with what we need, and I cannot be in control of everything.
I spent Thursday morning signing paperwork with Klein ISD at Human Resources, and then went to meet the faculty and my students at Haude. I was there again yesterday observing and working on understanding the curriculum and writing lesson plans. My students have not had much consistency all year, and they are completely out of control, to say the least. I have seen more disrespect, attitude, and lack of courtesy for others in the last 2 days than I have ever seen at Northwood Hills. I have my work cut out for me!
Yesterday (Friday) after school Kevin brought the rest of my boxes up and helped me set up my classroom. I moved every single thing in the classroom around and completely rearranged it. At first I was worried about (again) the lack of consistency for the kids. However, I think that a major change is a good way to start off our new beginning on Monday. Kevin built shelves and moved things while I unpacked and worked on bulletin boards. Six hours later I had a completely different classroom! I did my best to bring some color in (I forgot to take "before" pics, but there was NOTHING on the walls and no color at all). I also tried to maximize instructional space and make the environment happy for the kids. I think it all worked out well, partly due to the fact that I have a HUGE classroom and a lot of neat stuff! Here are some pictures:
This morning I got up early and worked through my graduate school assignments, which I have not been able to touch all week. I also did laundry, responded to 16 emails from my previous students (I set them up with epals monitored email so that we can stay in touch), finished my lesson plans for next week, and worked on my grad school portfolio. Now I am about to head back to bed for a nap while Kevin unpacks some boxes (he was sleeping all morning)!
Tonight we are going to Chili Cook-Off (apparantly a HUGE deal here in Houston). We have tickets to a booth and are looking forward to some great food, friends, and music. It will be nice to relax for the first time in a long time. And tomorrow we are going to go back to the church where Kevin was baptized and then go look at our house (they are working on ground plumbing and slab) and walk our dogs around our new neighborhood for the first time. Fun!
Have a great weekend!
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