There is so much going on these days, I don't know where to begin. First of all, the guys started school -- ALLELUIA!! Andy started at Basis on 13 August. He was nervous and was convinced that everyone would know everyone else and he wouldn't know anyone. I told him that everyone was new -- the school starts at 5th grade and no one would know anyone else. The first day went well, and Andy wore deoderant. We are all grateful. As a matter of fact, he is now showering in the mornings and using deoderant every single day. It was worth it to transfer him to Basis just for that achievement. He tells me that he is enjoying Latin and geography and language arts best, but has also mentioned that taking Tae Kwon Do is very cool because he really likes his teacher -- a woman with a 2nd degree black belt.

The other 3 guys started school on 17 August, and James is officially a kindergartener!! WHOOOHOOOO!! I made it through 10 years of being a stay at home mom!! I cannot believe it. The time has gone by so fast at times, and yet sometimes it dragged interminably. The amount of free time I have is incredible. I am finally able to get back on my bike and get my swimming up to par for a triathlon in Las Vegas that I am registering for soon. It will be a sprint race simply because I don't have the time to really get myself together for an olympic distance. To be honest, I don't feel like running a 10K anyway.

Benjamin has the same teacher that Andy did last year, which is a huge plus. I thought she was wonderful. She is going to have her hands full with Benjamin. Elias has a teacher I don't know, but I was impressed when I met her. She is a veteran teacher and a reading specialist, so I am hoping that she will nudge Elias to read more. Elias is totally excited because the elementary school has been chosen by the U of AZ to be part of a pilot project for 2nd graders only. The project will attempt to increase their math skills and critical thinking and uses robotics and legos to achieve this. Ron will be volunteering on Wednesdays from 1:30-3:30 for twelve weeks to help out on this. He is a very good man. James is in Kindergarten with the same teacher that both Benjamin and Elias had and he is thrilled to be there. The teacher has referred him both for speech therapy evaluation and for gross and fine motor skill evaluation. I am not surprised by either referral. He is have a fantastic time though and loves getting on the bus with his brothers every single day.

Here is a picture of the guys on the first day of school in 2007:



Here are the guys on the first day of school two weeks ago:



Can you believe how tall Andy is? And how much more mature Benjamin, Elias and James look? By the way, Andy is wearing a men's size 12 sneaker. Holy Cow.

The only thing impinging on my schedule is my new job!! How about those apples? I was certified to teach writing last year at Pima Community College, but it was up to me to notify the department heads that I was available. In the first week of August (this year) I finally did that. I sent off my emails and I got one back from the head of the English/Writing/Humanities department 5 minutes later. I almost fell off my chair. She said that she didn't have any writing classes open, but asked if I would consider teaching a Humanities class, since I have my Master's from St. John's College. I have to admit, I never ever considered teaching Humanities, but it is way way more interesting than teaching writing! So I got certified to teach humanities and will be teaching Humanities 253. Here is the description of the class:

Introduction to the culture of the modern western world from AD 1600 to the present. Includes general history of ideas, art, architecture, religion, philosophy, drama, music and literature from Enlightenment, Baroque, Romantic, Pre-Modern, and Contemporary periods. Also includes readings such as Voltaire, Rousseau, Goethe, Romantic, pre- modern and contemporary literature, poetry, and drama.

I am feeling slightly intimidated by this whole thing since it has been a long time since I have read some of these things. Also, the volume of information I have to convey is HUGE! We only have 16 weeks of class and I have to get four centuries of western civilization crammed into them. The class meets on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10:40am-11:55am. I am hoping that I can start riding my bike there at least once a week. It is 24 miles from my house to campus, so I would have to leave the house by 8am, but the campus is right next door to a YMCA, so I can shower before class, and then ride home afterwards. We will see how it all works out.

Tonight is open house night at Andy's school. It should be interesting. We have a babysitter coming for this one, and then for the first time ever, Ron will stay home for the next two nights while I go to back to school night for the other three guys. It is such a pain to get a babysitter for one hour. I might actually try leaving Andy at home in charge of the other guys... but I am not sure it would be a good idea. He is 10 1/2 now, and very responsible, but I think the other guys would just run over him. I will write more later this week after all three back to school nights are done!