Last Week of Summer

In my world, today is the last Monday of the summer. School starts next week, and if I don't think about it, I'm fine. :) Things are starting to look better in my classrooms & I'm getting closer to getting lessons planned for the first week. Dance Company had a rehearsal today & I could hear girls yelling & giggling in the hallway while I cleaned today. It was a pleasant reminder of what I'll hear next week when all of the students return. Tomorrow I have a music meeting at the district and Wednesday we start our official meetings at the school. We've got meetings Wednesday and Thursday, but Friday is free. I'll probably be planning & running off copies on Friday. My goal is to get everything ready to go by Friday afternoon, so I don't have to do anything over the weekend. I want this weekend to myself. Saturday is my first 5K race & I'm really excited to get it over with. I know my time won't be great, because I'm still terribly out-of-shape, but at least I'll have a starting point to improve upon.

Meanwhile, my friend finally closed on her condo last Thursday & her parents have been constantly working on getting it ready to move in. My friend is stuck at work for about 60 hrs a week. She has one night off & Sundays, so she's not able to help a lot. I was able to help out for a few hours on Saturday & it was the first time I've seen the place without the previous owner's crap in it. The condo needs a lot of work before we can move in, but things seem to be moving quickly. It's going to be awesome when it's finished. I'm going over to help tomorrow after work, so I'll try and take some pictures.

Change Can Be A Good Thing

At risk of falling victim to Murphy's Law, I'm going out on a limb and saying I'm really excited for this school year to start. I have spent the last two days at the school, cleaning & organizing my classrooms. Yes, I have two classrooms. The "band" room & the "choir" room, although the "choir" room is currently the "piano lab". After a year of living in clutter & chaotic messes, I'm finally able to clean & organize 30 yrs of crap. I should've taken "before & after" pictures for all to see, but I know the students will appreciate the work I've done. I'm sure it will help my sanity too. Hopefully by Friday I'll be organized enough to start working on lesson plans & disclosures for when classes start. The only frustration is the heat. The school has no air-conditioning. It only takes 10 min. of moving boxes before I'm sweating profusely.

It's also been fun to see the new teachers at the school. I haven't realized how much I've learned in the last year. Thankfully, I don't have to figure out my account login, how the copy machine works, what my budget is, what a referral is, etc. Life is good in that area. :)

Meanwhile, the moving process has been stalled again. My friend is experiencing some delays closing on her condo. I shouldn't be surprised; I've heard this happens a lot. But, I can still be disappointed. Now, we are thinking we'll be able to move in some time in September. I'm still hoping for the first weekend in September, but we'll see how things go. The positive side is I'm able to concentrate more on work things, which will help make the school year run more smoothly. At this point, I think we are taking things one week at a time.

I'm Finally Going to Do It!

Guess What?! My sister & I have registered for a 5K in three weeks! It will be my first race EVER! I meant to run the 5K at the Salt Lake Marathon, but was very sick. I didn't even register for that race, so I'm already doing better than last time. If anybody wants to come out to Sugar House Park on August 22nd to cheer us on, we would love it!

In the spirit of the race, I decided to run/walk the entire 3.2 miles at the gym today. I tried to pace myself, so I wasn't dead tired by the end. I was tired, but not "dead" tired. I probably walked about 2/3 of the way, but 3.2 miles is alot farther than the 2.5 miles I have usually been doing at the gym. Now that I know I can finish the race, my next problem will be trying to NOT be the last person done. Today I reached 3 miles in 46 minutes. I think it took me another 2 minutes to finish the .2 miles left. Honestly, I don't really know how bad that time is, but I guess it doesn't really matter. All I can do is improve my time, so that will be my goal for the next three weeks. I figure I can try walking less & less, and running/walking faster. Next week, I'm going to start training outside, so it's not a huge shock on race day. It means I'll have to get up early so it's not so hot. Although, the cardiocinema room was 81 degrees today! I guess they were having trouble with their air conditioner. I was even more proud of myself when I realized how hot it was.

Moving

For those of you who don't know, I will be moving into a new condo my friend is buying. I was able to go see it tonight. It needs some work: new paint, carpet & minor repairs. But, overall, it's going to be awesome! I'm excited for my friend, who I've known for along time. We were roommates in college. I'm also excited that we get to live together again & live in a new area with new friends and neighbors. Amazingly enough, I will be moving into a single's ward where I already know people. I've lived in my current singles ward for 4 years and know about 8 people. I know that is partially my fault, but it will be fun to be somewhere new. My friend hopes to close on the condo by the end of the week & repairs should take about 2 weeks or so. Hopefully, by the end of the month, I should be moved in! Yeah! I'll post some pictures soon.