I got a job!!

And I'm pretty sure it's because this girl ....

.... made this for me, for 'good luck' while interviewing.  It's a monkey in a boat, with tissue smoke coming out of the boat's smokestack.

And this girl ....

.... made this for me.  It's 'modern art' and the heart in the middle is for love : )

Coming off leave and finding a teaching position was more time-consuming and stressful than I thought it was going to be.  Even though I was guaranteed a job I could have been placed at any school, in any grade-level that I was licensed to teach (my license is Kindergarten-6th grade), so I wanted to interview and hopefully be chosen by a principal because he/she wanted me at their school, rather than be placed.  It was also very disappointing to learn being on a leave of absence from a school district (which is all about kids and families) would put me at such a deficit.  But after learning A LOT about my district (which is more political than I thought) and hearing things like:  'it was a really hard decision, you interviewed very well', 'we went back and forth between you and the one we offered the job to', 'if we had a kindergarten opening it would have been yours', I was offered three positions in one day, one right as I was leaving for another interview.  Crazy timing.

After talking with Tom quite a bit and feeling more nervous than I thought I would trying to make sure I accepted the 'right' job (at that point we narrowed it down to two), I made the call to my new principal and accepted her position.

So this Fall, when the girls are spending their days in All-Day Kindergarten at Falcon Heights Elementary School, I will be teaching All-Day Kindergarten at the St. Paul Music Academy.  I am really excited to head back to Kindergarten, the school I'll be at is quite close to our house, one of my funniest friends teaches there, I really like the principal a lot, I am so grateful I have a job --- and I'm DONE with the interview process!!

I did have my breakdown moment though.  Last Friday night it all hit me.  Not only will my time with Zoe and Ella change a lot (and I have huge up and down feelings on all of that, even though I know they are at the age where they're supposed to experience more independence from me and the timing is good on all of that, it still makes my heart hurt), but now that I have a job I'm actually going to have to pull it all together and teach again : )  Seriously though, teaching was challenging enough before I had the girls and so much has changed in my district over the past years, so I needed time to process.  But poor Tom, he didn't know what to say to me.  He tried four different times until he finally told me he thought I just needed to cry and get some good sleep.  He was right : )

So now the list-making has begun.  Still lots of nerves and apprehension at times, but also a lot of excitement.  I truly love teaching and am excited for the new adventures that are in store for our family.

Five years out --- half a decade, and now I have my own Kindergarten classroom again : )

And my girls.  Being home with Ella and Zoe has been such a gift, I can't even begin to find all the right words to describe my feelings about the past 5+ years.  But I know when I'm 85 years old these past years will be the best in my life in many, many ways.  Honestly though, I didn't think time would really fly by so quickly .....