Back to Work

First day back. Lots to do, but I've been doing this long enough that I'm just not getting all stressed about it. It will all get done, sooner or later. I didn't bring anything home with me to work on tonight. I'll do some grocery shopping, laundry, and spend some time with Mark for Family Home Evening.

I remember the first few years of teaching, I would go into school a couple of weeks early to get started on lesson plans and room arrangement, etc. Now I don't even have my own room. Since I only teach one class a day, I always share with someone else. The last couple of years I've had a permanent sharing arrangement, and shared with an English teacher. Other years I've been in math, Spanish, whatever kind of classroom. This term I'll be in an English classroom, but I don't know about the rest of the year yet.

Mark and I are both doing training with colleagues on Wednesday, so we spent some time getting that ready to go today. I sorted some writing papers from the 8th grade teachers - papers written last spring by our incoming freshmen - I'll give them out to the English 9 teachers on Thursday. Tomorrow we will be in training all day - long day of sitting - not my favorite!

I went to Goodwill last week and found a cute new blouse to wear for the first day of school. I'll have to post a picture when we get there! We don't have students until a week from Wednesday because of the budget cuts, so that's probably adding to my laissez-faire attitude. That and the not-so-restful summer!

But I don't mean to complain. I AM grateful for such a wonderful job, and I'm sure I'll hit my stride soon.

Clackamas County Fair

We took Julia and the kids to the fair last night. The rodeo was a bit of a dud, but it was fun to have the time on an outing together.

Kat, Julia, Josh, Sarah

Fun plans for the week

Mark and Julia and I have figured out the logistics for Mark and me to go hiking to Mount St. Helens this week. Our permits are for Tuesday, so we will drive to the trailhead on Monday afternoon and camp there overnight, to begin hiking at first light on Tuesday.

Wednesday we go on a short, easy hike with the 11-year-old girls at church. It will be a good stretch for our legs after Tuesday's climb.

Saturday we'll go out to the coast for the ward beach party.

This is our last week of vacation, so we're going to play as much as we can. We think that we don't have any court hearings to attend this week--if that turns out to be true, it will be the first time in about 5 weeks that we haven't been to the courthouse at least once.

Stay tuned for updates!

The Kids Are Home!!!

The hearing today went very well. The judge ruled in Julia's favor - their father no longer has temporary emergency custody. Josh, Sarah, and Kat are back with us. Hooray!! Hooray!!

Earlier in the week, in the other hearing, the decision was made that Maddy can be with Mike in New Jersey in about 3 weeks. She will stay in the foster care until then.

We went out for hamburgers and banana splits tonight, and now the kids are tucked into bed here at home, where they belong.

There are still more hearings ahead, more legal process, to finish everything out, but today was a good step in the right direction.

More on Sparks Lake

Be sure to check out Dorothy's new blog post about canoe camping at Sparks Lake. Of course, they were there for the whole week, and we were just there for the weekend, but she has included some photos of us that I don't have. There's a good one of me jumping off the high log into the lake.

Family Time

Even though the circumstances are not what we would like, it is good to have some family time. Mike arrived late Tuesday night to be here for the hearings this afternoon.

Julia and the kids are sure glad to have him here for a few days.

We got to spend some time with Maddy on Tuesday at the DHS office (supervised visit). They got to have 2 hours together.

She was thrilled to see her siblings again. We brought the kids over and visited with Maddy for the last 1/2 hour of Julia's visitation time.

And she remembers Mark and me - we were so glad to get a little time with her. She gave us lots of kisses.

But most of the time, of course, being Maddy, she just wanted to run around and play. We headed back inside to the playroom, where she had a good time with the toys, although the room was a little on the small side.

Playing with a dolly stroller.

Mike and Julia will get to see Maddy today - an extra visitation for Julia this week - because DHS made arrangements for an extra visit since Mike can only be in town for a short time.

Sparks Lake

Sorry I've been so bad about posting. You know...there has just been too much going on. But here are some of our photos from Sparks Lake. It was a wonderful getaway, and we are so glad we took the time away for our mini vacation.

Julia and me heading out for a little paddle. Look at the cool rainbow in the middle of the picture!

Amazing wildlife. We saw this eagle, plus an osprey, a couple of herons, and of course, too many chipmunks to count.

Headed across the lake. Mark liked my new hat--said it was very feminine.

Me getting ready for a swim. See the guy jumping off the log on the other side of the lagoon? Check out the next picture...

Will I get up enough nerve? What do you think? (Julia down below, watching.) That's not Mark helping me, it was a dad named "John" who was there helping his kids jump off the log.

Here I go! (Dorothy in the red canoe, taking pictures.)

And here goes Julia off the log (black shorts, yellow top).

Later that afternoon, here I go on my goal to swim across Sparks Lake. I did it! Swimming across the lake only took about 12 minutes, and it was easier than I had thought it would be, so I decided to turn around and swim  back again!

That looks like an otter out in the water, but it's actually Ken Jenson. He decided to swim with me.

Meanwhile, Mark and Dorothy were in the canoe, nearby in case we needed any help. Not that we did. It wasn't a difficult swim, and if we did get too tired, all we would have had to do was stand up. There was only a short distance that was over my head. However, just for the record, I did not stand up--I swam the whole way--with the doubled distance, plus swimming up the cove to our campsite, it turned out to be just under 1/2 mile, total.

Julia was our resident pyromaniac. She was cold a lot of the time, so she was happy to tend the campfire.

Beautiful dawn - Mount Bachelor in the background.

I love this photo - looking across the lake on Sunday morning.

Still tending the campfire...

Another beautiful photo of the lake. Mark took this on a morning hike that we took to the parking lot - heading into town to go to church Sunday morning.

Almost to the parking lot. Dorothy and Ken, Mark and me. We changed into church clothes on the restroom at the parking lot. The mountain in the background is South Sister.

Julia and Mark out for a little paddle.

Mark and me out on the lake.

Mark and Ken back at the dock. What a couple of wonderful guys. Our gear is loaded into the canoe - time to head back to our lives here in Oregon City.

Dorothy and me - goodbye to dear friends. The weekend went all too quickly. We got home about 7:00 pm Sunday evening, and had time to get things put away before climbing into our very comfortable bed.