Off to a great start...

We are two days into the school year, and so far, so good! I am very quickly learning the ins and outs of library media. I saw my first groups of students today and really enjoyed all of them. It was a bit crazy schedule-wise (I only got a 15-min break for lunch) but that should iron itself out in the next couple of weeks. My feet sure hurt! I had my first phone call of the year yesterday morning first thing. I immediately assumed it was a parent calling about a book but instead the gentleman announced he was the author Bill Wallace! In case you don't know who that is, check here, and then believe me when I tell you that he is a BIG DEAL in Wyoming and at Conestoga. I read two of his books with my fourth graders every year and they always loved them. Anyway, he is coming to our school in October and wanted our fax number to send the contract. I pretty much made a fool of myself when I couldn't find the number, put the phone down on the desk (not on hold) and ran to the next room screaming for help. When I got back to the phone he was gone, but he did call back. During that call I told him about 50 times that we are so excited to have him and his wife (also an author) and how much I loved him. Oy. Mom says I should take a public speaking class so I can learn how to talk to people without losing it. Probably a good idea. In the meantime, though, I have started two classes for my endorsement. One is pretty basic and the other is going to require some effort. So far I have been diligent in getting homework done as soon as Rylan goes to sleep at night. Hopefully I can continue that pattern.

Shaun is back at work full-time, as in home with Rylan on his days off and then at his "day" job. Now that school has resumed we're like ships passing in the night. We miss seeing him! While he was off this last weekend he got to go scuba diving at De Smet with Dad. It was the first time since May he's had a chance to go, so I think he enjoyed it. We are still trying to figure out how to get him to Tennessee to pick up his old Jeep. He wants to get out there before much snow comes. We'll see what we can get worked out. We just found out we have a wedding to attend on New Year's weekend and that might change his plans for vacation time.

Rylan is finally getting into a routine. When I first started having to wake her up last week she would growl at me then roll over and go back to sleep. I felt like it was a flash of what the teen years will be like! Her first couple days with Mema were a bit hairy as far as routine goes, but she's in the groove now. Her newest word is "yeah" which makes life easier; she used to say "no" to all things-even if she meant yes. She had a screening a couple of weeks ago and passed the list for 15 months (she was 17 months) and got all but one thing on the 18 month list. I expected her to miss it! A "skill" at that age is to stack four blocks. We haven't worked on that at all. I woke up at 4 that morning and thought, "They're going to ask her to stack blocks today! Maybe we should cram!" We didn't, but she did get three blocks done. We learned that her feet, which she sometimes turns in, are just fine. The dental hygienist said that if the gap between her top teeth doesn't close by two we need to get her into a dentist. It might cause the other top teeth to have trouble coming in but hopefully someday she'll have a mouth full of pretty, white teeth!

I took the following pics of Rylan with my Blackberry and I'm still not great at using it. This is her using her "phone" (her Mema's calculator) at Olive Garden.


She kept the phone even while eating some fruit and olives the sweet waitress brought her.


When you ask her to smile this is what you get! Pretty good for being just up from a nap!


And she will do it anytime. She loves to sit at the piano and play. We don't have a piano bench so she will ask for a chair from the table.


Sometimes she's very sweet. Sometimes.


She has always loved shoes and recently has learned to put her shoes on (as well as a 17-month-old can) and her Daddy helped her get mine on the other day.


That's it for now. Rylan was anxious to get to bed tonight. She was trying to climb into her crib when we got to her room! But now that she's in bed it's homework time! Hope your September is off to a swell start!