Back to School

Luke has been back at school a week already and he seems to be doing well. Despite some anxiety when we leave in the morning, he's adjusted to Leni very well. I'm pleased as can be with her, too. The house looks great, I hardly have time to wear an outfit before it's washed, ironed, and hung in my closet, and she's even beginning to cook for us this week! Also, she's very playful with Luke and often takes him to ride bikes and plays basketball with him outside. So far, so good!

Jason and I have been in staff development for a week. The school has been great about giving us time to work in our rooms. We've had at least 1/2 a day each day in our rooms. That would've been plenty to get me started, except I had an art closet FULL of supplies that were all just sitting on tables. The teacher before me had, on several occasions, requested shelves to be built for the closet. She'd told me about the shelves before summer, so when I go there on Sunday and there were no shelves, I was pretty disappointed. I talked to enough people until it happened, though, and Tuesday afternoon the shelves were installed. I spent Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday dusting off and taking inventory of the supplies. Wednesday and Thursday I loaded the closet back up. Now it's super organized (YAY!) and I know every single thing that's in there. I'm pretty happy with it. I did have to go in over the weekend and then again today, which was an optional work day, in order to be prepared for tomorrow, the first day of school. I am pretty confident that I'm prepared for tomorrow (and the rest of this week) but beyond that, I'm on less sure footing.

Everyone at the school has been wonderful--very friendly, welcoming, encouraging. It's been great NOT to be new to Cairo! I recognize myself in the dazed looks of the newest newbies. I've enjoyed helping them out when I can, too.

I am looking forward to meeting the kids tomorrow. I have never had so many students, so remembering names may be difficult for me, but I know we'll get there.

Jason is excited about teaching his IB classes. They're small classes, too. One of them only has 3 students so far! He has enjoyed having me at school with him, and I've enjoyed being there. It's been nice having colleagues again!

Best o' the Summer

I went home as early as I did to be with my friends Bill & Cheryl. I think they ended up ministering to me in Jason's absence as I did to them. Bill kept us busy by thinking of fun stuff for us all to go do. He rented a pontoon boat one afternoon and took us out on the lake.


Pretty much as soon as Jason got home from Egypt, we went to Wisconsin to visit relatives. Luke got to do some really fun things, like go to the fair...
catch his first fish...
(look how beautiful the lake & reflection are)...

He also got to drive more construction vehicles and tractors with Uncle Bob:

Back at home, Mom taught Luke some yoga poses. He learned to do ball, happy baby, cow, cat, downward dog, and flipping the dog, which Luke called "flipping the Luke." He and Mom had fun together.
Jason and I got to go to Canada so he could attend IB training. We went a few days early and took a trip to Niagara Falls to celebrate our 10th anniversary.



It was a great summer, filled with many happy memories. I was glad to spend as much time as we did with friends and family, but there's never quite time enough to see everyone as much as I want to!

We're back.

We arrived safely back in Egypt tonight--2 AM Cairo time--with only one lost piece of luggage this time (they know where it is and it will be here tomorrow night on the same flight). We got back to our apartment to find it clean and neat (Thanks, Leni!) and we are now all going to bed! It's 5 AM here now.

Luke has already pulled out all his favorite toys he's missed this summer--first the big Mustang, then his fire truck and trains. Jason's started unpacking (very unusual) and I've just been trying to get the computer set up to get on and post this blog so I can go to bed.

The next few days will be busy unpacking, preparing for the beginning of school, etc., so I will probably not post much, but there are loads of great pictures from the summer to put up--I'll probably do a "best of" post sometime soon. Thanks to all of you who were able to spend some time with us, thank you. And to those we missed or didn't get to see much, please know that we enjoyed the time we had with you and hope to see more people next time. It's always hard to work out schedules, vacations, transportation, naptimes...etc. We had a busy, fun-filled, exciting summer. I'm rooting for a calmer summer next year, but am not too optimistic! ;)

Now I'm off to sleep!