UGH! Back to Work!

Well......I knew it was coming sooner or later  -  Its time to go back to work on Monday! UGH!!  Sure not looking forward to getting back into the routine of getting up early and sitting in a non-airconditioned classroom with 25 bodies in a confined space!  I've been enjoying the relaxing days sitting outside on my new swing or in the yard! Now I'll be eating lunch (10:55) when we were just getting out of bed!!!

This year I am going to be in third grade.  There were major budget cuts and we were cut in the number of teaching assistants allocated for our building.  I will still have the 2 boys I assisted last year in second grade, but then an additional two high needs students.  Its going to be a real "fun" year! I boy is MR and autistic, the second is autistic and stubborn as a mule, one ADHD with an IEP in reading, and a brand new student we know absolutley nothing about but seems to have many areas of need.  The first few weeks are always agonizing! (I'll just keep thinking about how many more days until the NEXT summer break!!!)  I've been keeping busy by doing "favors" for many of the teachers. Many of them are using blogs to communicate with the parents - so I've been designing blogs, designing bulletin boards and make MANY classroom signs.  The teachers hold up signs on the playground the first week or two of school, so the students know where to line up.  Here's what they look like (this one is sticking out of her gift):

The secretary at school's daughter asked me to make a DVD of pictures for a wedding gift for her friend.  I must say it turned out awesome.  I uploaded the video to YouTube if you are interested in watching it. The beginning menu wouldn't upload but the picture slideshow itself did.  The pictures were old and some were very small - so I scrapbooked each photo in my scrapbook program to give it a personal touch.  Then I created a disc for all 10 girls in the wedding party and packaged it like this:

See the cute "ring" card! 

Here's the link : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_zQQ30feg0

Summer Football Camp is official over and the season two a day practices ended today! Nothing like practicing from 2:30 - 8:30 everyday in the 90-100 degree heat! (No pads on this day; as it was the team picnic and they were playing a little razzle dazzle:

Tomorrow is Ryan's first football scrimmage - hard to believe he's a sophomore!  Today we decided to walk up to a restuarant called the "Spicy Pickle" for our final summer vacation lunch. We had a delicious lunch and afterwards we walked to the bank and back home. On the way back Ryan was telling me he can't believe he's a sophomore and how fast time is going by. I told him my dad always said the older you get the fast time goes.  He asked if it really does.  Of course I had to tell him it seemed like yesterday he was the little boy that I had to lay down with every night to get him to fall asleep......boy, what I wouldn't do to turn back time!

Before returning to school each year, we make it a habit to get Ryan's portrait taken for our Christmas cards.  I love having the photos done in the summer because everyone looks "healthier" with a tan!  This year we went with the "sophomore" theme!  I entended to go with the Chicago Blackhawks theme and having a "winning season" card, but when my mom and aunt saw the Sophomore theme they agreed it was a better choice. Here are some of the pictures from our sitting:

That's it for the update! Hoping to be posting some game photos soon! It appears I will be on the field again this year taking photos of the Sophomore games  - and Bill will be working the chain gang. Until then.......