Middle School and Lucy!

Wow, I'm a lame blogger.  So I'm lumping two rather important events into one post--it might not get done otherwise!  :-)

Today, my Kendra started middle school!  A.  I can't believe she is in middle school.  B.  Wasn't she just starting kindergarten five minutes ago? and C.  Man, I miss seeing that face in the halls at my own school!!!!  Kendra's been with me in my school since first grade, and it was so awesome to see her throughout the day (and all day in her fourth grade year as her teacher!).  I put in for a transfer over to the middle school (I'm certified to teach through 8th grade), but it didn't happen.  I had a glowing recommendation from a colleague/friend, but I guess it wasn't in the Plan.  As I've thought about it, I think maybe God was saying that Kendra needed to fly solo for a while.  Maybe the transfer will happen next year--I love where I am, but I'm ready for a change.  Or maybe not.  I've always felt like I'm where I'm supposed to be, so I'll let Him continue to lead the way!

Anywhooooo...on with the pics.  Not as many this year!

Don't you just hate to think about waking her up?  I did!

The goods heading to school!

It was still dark when we left at 6:45 a.m.!  Ugh!

Sixth grade!

The logistics of getting her to school yet being on time for my job are tricky now, but we have been so blessed.  A teacher friend at my school has a daughter who also goes to the same middle school.  We met up this summer and had lunch with the girls so Kendra could pick the daughter's brain---this made Kendra feel so great about starting there with knowing some of the details of how things work.  THEN, a HUGE God-send was my friend asking another mom who takes her daughter to school if it would be ok for me to drop off Kendra at her house for her to catch a ride over to school, too.  My school starts 30 minutes before Kendra's, and I was fearing that she'd have to wait outside her school for 20 minutes each morning before they allowed the kids in!  I took Kendra over there this morning and just hugged that mom!  Talk about easing my mind SO much! 

Picking up Kendra from school was NUTSO!  I turned down the road to the school and the pick-up line was a half mile long, I swear!  I just sat there, feeling like a dork and not knowing if I was where I needed to be and how on EARTH was Kendra going to find me.  Good thing I got her a phone!  She called me and I gave her directions on how to start walking toward me.  It was hotter than Hades out there, but she found me and we got out of the mess with relative ease.   She gave me lots of details about her day and said it was good!  She said it was a little boring because it was all "giving the rules" but I think she's really going to love it.

Our other big event was the addition of our new puppy, Lucy!  She is half Shih Tzu and half Schnauzer and is absolutely adorable.  She is so tiny and cute, very loving and sweet.  We LOVE her!  She is 12 weeks old now, and has been pretty successful in the house training and gets out the dog door pretty well.  We just started puppy training classes and have had good success with her sitting so far!  :-)

This was the first week we had her...she is sitting next to Kendra's American Girl horse. 

This is her cute face today.  :-)

We are both exhausted but glad for a great start to a new school year, and were sure happy to come home to that waggly tail and cutie-pie fur ball!  :-)