Day 1 & 2 Back to School

I feel like I have been working around the clock thanks to Pinterest and the world of blogs! My poor husband is sick with the flu and a high temperature otherwise I think he may have put an end to my third "all nighter" in a row I say "all nighter" because I usually attempt to go to bed but continue to toss and turn thinking of the next thing to do or create. I am exhausted but wide awake. I cannot turn my brain off and find myself hopping from blog to blog, pinning my newest project(S) OR I'm up late doing projects!

Since the beginning part of my summer was spent on wedding planning and relaxing the start of this blog was the first time I'd really thought about school at any great depth! AND I started to panic when I realized that summer is nearly over. Meghan and I will have lots of newbies (12, 16 new faces) to mentor and support this year so it is important that I am ready for them and I don't want them to see me frazzled so I headed into school this week to begin working in my classroom.

I have a tendency to be in the building for a LONG time before I ever make it to my classroom because I love chatting with everyone and Monday was no exception. I unloaded my car into the bright red wagon and set off on my journey. I spent a great deal of time in the front office before I made it to my *old* teammate's class (sniff, sniff) and met one of the other new first grade teachers. The little red wagon OVERFLOWING with stuff sat in the middle of the hallway for nearly 2.5 hours before I ever made it to even open my door. For some reason I did not envision TWO computer labs. Let's be clear, I have taught at this school for five years and have visited both computer labs hundreds if not millions of times BUT in my little head I was only planning for ONE new classroom so you can imagine my panic increasing as I realized I had two new rooms to "decorate." Thank goodness the furniture is fixed into the ground and I didn't have to worry about setting up and layout, bulletin boards and wall space is enough for this chick.

The elementary computer lab which is right next door to the middle school lab used to be a book/reading room which was converted into a computer lab. It has large book cases along two of the walls which have sets of grade level trade books on them. The books are 'organized' but it still drives me crazy so my first order of business was to figure out how to HIDE the book cases while still making them accessible. My *old* teammate knows my personality all too well and was quick to offer suggestions to fix the problem. She thought we could put some type of fabric over the cases and we would be all set! Not so fast because NOTHING can ever be just that easy. I also am learning that I need to take a step back sometimes and think things through before jumping into them. I am often so impatient and I want to get something done right away so I jump but later realize I could have done it better or differently had I just waited a little bit.

So day one was spent stressing and eating lunch with Alex :)! When she came to get me,  save me I really didn't want to leave even though we had been planning it for a week because a.) I had accomplished nothing in my room and b.) this no gluten and no dairy thing is really pain at a restaurant! She assured me that I would find something (AT A PIZZA PLACE). I thought this was hilarious since pizza is dough which has wheat and is likely topped with cheese. Funny story, Brixx has a gluten and dairy free menu. Not just one choice, several options! I didn't even know vegan cheese existed AND it didn't taste like bricks! The waitress was also awesome as my order becomes such a task now, the food was delicious and it was cheap.

Day 2 was much more productive and I left not so panicked. I enlisted a former parent who I've become great friends with to come help. She brought her worker bees and they did a great job. Meghan (my PIC) stopped in and we bounced some ideas off of each other which was great. My *old* teammate came by and the AP. My roomS are starting to come together and tomorrow is day 3. I may just make it to bed before tonight can be considered another "all nighter."

I have TONS of pictures to share of my room before and NOW, certainly not after yet! I also have some projects I've been working on and will be posting too!!! This blog got VERY long, very quick and I am becoming more and more sleepy.