Playing catch up

If you've been following my blog for the past few weeks, you know I've gone back & forth, up & down on the job stuff. Anxious & excited, then panicked when I actually got the new job, then sad & grieving for the loss of the old one. It's been a whole spectrum of emotions. Every time someone has asked me how the job is going, I've kind of wrinkled up my nose & said "eh...it's ok", but something finally struck me last night. I haven't been able to compartmentalize this job & answer that question solely based on how I feel about THIS job because I've been so busy comparing it to the old one. It's like apples & oranges, really. I'm having to make a conscious effort to separate the two and answer that question based on where I am now, not on all the reasons I didn't want to leave the old job. As much as I loved the old job, I can love this one too... just for different reasons. I am finding that I do enjoy the new job and that doesn't take away from my love for the old job. I can still love it & hope to one day go back there without diminishing the fact that this new job is good, too.

The lady I work most closely with all day has been the sweetest cross of a mom & a sister for me. She's incredibly patient and calm and funny. She has walked me through everything one step at a time, never being irritated if I have to ask her to repeat something. She makes me feel very at home and has made the transition from one job to the next so very easy for me. Thank you Marilyn! My principal was my 9th grade English teacher and while we have that history, she has treated me as only a professional, not as the kid she once taught (20 years ago). Thank you Ms. R! (Sorry, I don't think I'll ever be able to call you Pat...you were Ms. R long before I knew you as Pat.)

So anyway, I'm doing so much better and am having fun tackling numbers, entering data, filing things, keeping track of the kids' records and all the other little details I'm in charge of. A job like this was made for me & all my OCD dreams. God did good putting me here.

On a different note, last week was Savannah's first high school football game. Since she's in the band and will play at every game, we bought season tickets & plan to go to every game. While I'm not a big fan of football (read: I could really care less), I really do love the atmosphere & environment of a football game. It's so much fun to people watch & smell the concession foods & listen to the band & watch the cheerleaders and drill team. We were so proud to watch Savannah march in with the band & take her seat in the stands and then to hear them play & watch them march on the field. Wow! They rock! So cool!

Today we dealt with a little water in our master bathroom. When we added it on a few years ago, the exterior siding didn't get attached to the frame of the house down near the bottom of the wall. After several big rains & seeing our bathroom flood, we figured out the issue and got that fixed. Larry used roofing tar on the underside of that siding (officially called Hardy board) to seal the gaps to keep water out. We did that about 2 years ago & the bathroom has stayed nice & dry ever since during storms. That is, until today. About 5:30 this evening, I went in & stepped right into the middle of a sopping wet bathmat. Squish. yuck! When we got the inside cleaned up we went out to see what had happened out there & sure enough, over the course of the past couple years the tar had shriveled up & disintegrated. We pulled the dirt & leaves away from the walls to let it dry out & will go back & re-tar it this weekend. (We just have to cross our fingers that we don't get another major rain tomorrow so that we have to deal with this all over again!)

I think that about sums up the high points of our past week.

How have your first couple weeks of school been?