A Summary Entitled: "What We Did Over Labor Day; My New Co-teacher; and What We Have Been Up To Since the First Day of School!"

With that title, this post has some big shoes to fill, but I will try to catch you up on all that has been going on with us! Eric has officially started all 3 of his jobs (I'll let him tell you more about that later); we're involved in our church; and school is in full swing! All of these things have made for some very busy (and very enjoyable) couple of weeks!

One of the interesting things about my new teaching job is that I co-teach with another certified teacher. Yep, two teachers in the room with 30 students. Now, I'm sure you are wondering, "How does that work???" I wondered too when I took the job. After all, teachers tend to have type-A personalities and tend to like to direct things... which is probably part of the reason they signed themselves up for a low-paying career in the first place! The best analogy I can come up with to describe co-teaching is this: Having a co-teacher is like being married. Seriously. You have to make a million-and-one decisions together when you enter into the co-teaching relationship; you have to compromise and work through differences; and you even have to decide where to put things on the walls. I had this epiphany when my co-teacher was putting a poster on the wall and she asked if it was good or should be moved slightly over... a page straight out of the "when-Eric-hangs-our-picture-frames" book! Because getting along is so crucial, I am very thankful to say that my co-teacher, Amy, is awesome!

Not only are Amy and I in the same place in life (she is my age and recently got married), but our philosophies on all things education pretty much line-up (which is huge!). I feel so blessed to be working with her. In fact, over Labor Day weekend, she, her husband, Eric, and I went camping up in the Colorado mountains. We were originally supposed to go to the Grand Tetons along with our good friend Sarah, but when she got sick, we decided to go closer to home. It was a relaxing weekend- void of all things scary (i.e. mountain lions/bears) but not void of a few mishaps (see shoe picture).

The four of us in the mountains.

The mishap: Amy's shoe, on Amy's foot, managed to fall into the river. Her husband rigged up a shoe drying stick, which worked so well it melted the sole of the shoe!

Co-teachers!