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So guess who’s employed?

That’s right, ME!

I was offered and accepted a part-time teaching position in our local school system.  I am STOKED, THRILLED, EXCITED and OVERJOYED!  And if the opportunity presents itself to go full-time, I will HAPPILY do so.  But for right now, I am delighting in being able to devote time to my increasingly busy photography schedule, pick up the kids from school and possibly take them as well while also earning a steady income and going back to my career.  Right now, the details of my hours are being worked out and the particulars of which students I will be teaching what are being considered as the school where I am employed is hiring more than one part-time teacher.

Someone mentioned in the comments section of my last post that she could not imagine 15-20 kindergarteners and Whoa-ho-ho.  That would be awesome because I was totally rocking 22 kindergarteners for FULL DAY KINDERGARTEN.  The lobotomy came in our third year of college during a class called, “So You Think You Like Early Childhood Education: The Medical Approach”.  That’s the class I took right after “How to Cut and Glue Like A Mofo” and “Glitter, Always Appropriate”.  Bryan dithers on about his 5 or 6 calculus classes and the upper-lever electronics class that kicked his ass at Georgia Tech.  He would make fun of me for my class projects which would inevitably include quite a bit of construction paper, tissue paper, Word Art and rubber cement.  But WHO’S LAUGHING NOW, BEEOTCH?

Oh yeah, that would be ME!  Again, ME!  YEAH! ME!

Can you guess what can wear a girl out so much so that (true story), she fell dead asleep on the couch at 8:00 pm one evening?

What could possibly make me so hungry that I sat down to a plate embarrassingly full of pizza, pudding, salad, fruit and something else and absolutely DEVOURED the entire meal in 10 minutes flat?

What can make a girl’s heart swell with sadness, inflate with love and smile more than I have smiled in a long time?

You would never guess it would be kindergarteners, did you?

I have been in the midst of a long-term (but only two weeks) sub job in kindergarten at my kids’ school.  I LOVED it.  The kids were so cute and I had such a good time and when Bryan would get home, I would regale him with stories of the kids telling me funny things, their lispy little voices and the constant ass-touching that came along with dealing with kids who tap whatever’s at hand level to get an adult’s attention and usually, that was my ass.

Bryan and I were remarking at how much happier I am when I am teaching.  Don’t get me wrong…the constant go-go-go, non-stop nature of working full-time is a new kind of exhausting but the exhilaration of doing something I love that also provides an appreciable income is very compelling.  I mention this mostly because I finally got my wish.  I was interviewed for a teaching position.  It’s a part-time gig and I have NO idea where it will be and I have EVEN less of an idea of if I will get the job but I was able to sit before a panel of 5 and talk with them.  That’s much more heartening than my resume being round-filed without anyone ever meeting me.  The competition for the job is tremendous so I am not getting my hopes up about being offered the position.

We’ve also been getting into all sorts of adventures around here.

Drew, at his first soccer game of the season.  We are not coaching, having VERY QUICKLY learned the lesson that coaching sucks balls.

We also took the kids to the Chattooga River to play in the water…and the mud.

The Dog was, at first, VERY skeptical of the water.

She managed to get it together long enough to do her self-appointed duty of “protecting” and “herding” her people, even if she did have to go into that evil, evil wet stuff to do so.

But eventually, when THE BALL! came out, she found the water quite enjoyable and spent the rest of the day running into, swimming, snapping mouthfuls of and generally frolicking in the river.  Because that’s what dogs have to do in our house.

And then we decided that we love our kids soooooo much…

And they bring us so much joy and happiness…

that we  should definitely hang them off the side of a mountain!

BUT DON’T WORRY!

They were PERFECTLY HAPPY AND SAFE.  Seriously.  They were.  (Malyn is showing you the climbing chalk on her hands.)

I’ve also been doing photo shoots with my fall schedule promising to be even busier than I could have hoped.  AND, I’ve committed to subbing for 8 days over the next two weeks in the same classroom so that I can eat lunch with my friend Carol and she can bring me scones.  What?  Laugh-worthy pay (this doesn’t qualify for long-term pay–which is over double the normal rate of sub pay), teaching MUSIC to an entire elementary school–me?  SINGING????, making my husband rearrange his work arrival time, and subjecting my kids to a crazy schedule?  All for scones and school lunch with my friend?  Oh YOU KNOW I am totally ALL OVER that.

BRING ON THE NEXT ADVENTURE!