Whew! What a Year!

Well, that was a crazy 12 months!  I'm happy to finally back from a long hiatus from this blog.  Let me catch you up on a few big things that have happened in the last 12 months.  Right after school started last year Mr. Stewart and I found out that we would be having a baby!  My due date was set for May 9, 2012 - so I spent the entirety of the last school year pregnant.  After about the third week of school fatigue set in and I went into survival mode.  My grand plans for the year were altered (for example, it's hard to have a full on 3rd grade production when you're 8 months pregnant) and my priorities began to shift from my precious students (who, up to this point, always took the spot just behind my husband on my priority list) to the precious baby that we would soon see.  Needless to say, keeping track of this teaching blog didn't just get put on the back burner - it fell off the stove entirely!

Fast forward 12 months.

Ella Elizabeth, 3 Months

I'm the proud mommy of the most beautiful 3 month old baby girl, Ella Elizabeth and after spending the entire summer with her (her whole life to this point), I am now preparing to go back to work and send her to a wonderful home daycare program here in our neighborhood.  I never thought anything could make me not want to teach, but oh what I'd give if I could stay home and take care of her every day!

With that thought in mind, we come to another important change in my life.  After much prayer, debate and, I admit, quite a few tears, I resigned from my dream job in McKinney, Texas and will be teaching at a great school that is much closer to home (3.8 miles, to be exact).  I'm still sad about leaving my friends, my students, (my instruments!), and the place I've come to call home for the last three years, but I know this change is for the best - for me and especially for my family.  No more 40+ minute commutes means nearly an hour and a half of extra time with Ella every day!  That alone is worth it.

I am starting to get excited about the start of the school year (nothing can make that giddy teacher-excitement totally disappear), and about getting set up in my new school.  I have one week left of summer break before teacher inservices start and I will probably spend quite a bit of it in my classroom (with Ella, of course) getting things set up and finding my way around.  Hopefully I will have a chance to post some classroom pics once I get everything squared away.

It will be a different year for me as I learn a new school and discover how to balance my family life and my school life all over again.  I'm up for the challenge though!  Here's to a new year!