The Start of School

We started back at school on Wednesday and the ladies in the office were running around trying to get everything ready for the first day of school. I let them know that if they needed anything, my last job before I had Katherine, I was an executive admin and I would be happy to help them out ~ answer the phones, making copies, fax, etc.

Thursday was the official first day of school. The kindergartners and pre-k didn't start until Friday.
So, lunch time on Thursday went really smooth. It was fun to see everyone back at school.

Friday... a very different story ~ Kindergartners.
They were so small and so lost. I showed them to their tables and their teachers took those that needed hot lunch, through the line. The teachers went to have their own lunch and these little guys ate so slow because they had no idea what was going on. My favorite was those that tried to hand me their trash. When I told them that they had to throw their own trash away, they looked at me like I had two heads.
Watching the three tables of kindergartners, there were also three tables of sixth graders and four tables of third graders. It was a bit busy in there and I was the only duty aid with help of the principal.
It was a bit overwhelming. After those kindergartners were done, it was time to switch ~ three tables out and two tables in. Time to do it all over again. There was even one little boy who came up to me and said that he was lost. He didn't know what color hair his teacher had and none of the kids looked familiar. We finally found his class all at the same time making sure that all of the other grades were behaving.

So, it was a bit busy. Finally when the kindergartners were done and it was just the first graders, the principal asked for me to see him after I was done. Ugg! Oh no! What did I do wrong? It was busy and crazy!

I just went on with my day, trying not to think about having to "see the principal". I don't know why that fear is still in me after all of these years.

Katherine's class came into the lunch room at the same time that the first graders were there. She didn't see me because I was on the other side of the room. Once the first graders were done with their lunch, they were dismissed and went outside to play. Katherine's class was still eating and I finally got to go and say "hi" to her. She was so surprised! Lots of hugs and she looked like she was having fun with her new class.

I was finally done with my day and it was time to see the principal. My heart was racing.
He called me into his office and said that they need to find someone with office experience to help out in the office. Oh, I could breathe again. He was offering me a position with more hours to help out in the office. I can totally do that. It's during school hours so I don't have to have before or after school care for Katherine when Brett is working. They are going to work around my schedule. Yea!!

I was on the fence if I was going to go back to school next semester to get my masters in education but it's so expensive ~ $17,000. Crazy! I also wasn't so sure if I would even be able to find a job after finishing school and I would have to start paying on the loans right away (thanks Obama) without a job and still in school. So, this is the best opportunity to happen. It is just an assistant to the administrative assistant right now but next year, they are hoping to have a third admin position and I would be the first to be considered.

What I have learned that in this economy is that patience works. No, I am not making the money that I was making before I left the workforce but starting back at the bottom and working your way up, works. I can walk to work (when the weather is cooler) to save gas, see Katherine through out the day and have the same schedule as Katherine and not have to pay for childcare. So, as I said before, I am not making the money as before but I am saving on gas and childcare which at the end of the day, can be very expensive. So, I think that it all washes out at the end. Woo Hoo!!