toi casi lista

I'm sorry it's taken me so long to update this...between moving my classroom and moving into our house, things have been pretty crazy. I'm excited for a normal schedule and my regular slow Dominican life! School starts tomorrow, so the past couple weeks we've had staff orientations, curriculum planning, other meetings and time to prepare our classroom. Here's a picture of my new classroom, it's a lot bigger so I'm way excited. It's still a little messy, a couple more hours and it'll be ready for my 17 first graders tomorrow :).

I feel ready for the new school year to begin...this being my second year, I feel a lot more comfortable and at least know somewhat what I want for my kids. I'm SO thankful because I have an assistant in the mornings this year . His name is Mark, and he has been very helpful already. I'm also very thankful for the work that Melanie (the Kindergarten teacher) did last year with the kids that I will have. They are so much more prepared than my kids were last year!

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Speaking of things to be thankful for, here's our new house! My friend Amanda and I moved in last week and have enjoyed making it feel more like home. It's a great house, it's a perfect location, and Amanda's a wonderful roommate :). It's been so refreshing to have my own space where I can feel comfortable, where I can cook and have friends over whenever we want (and visitors...hint, hint)!

The past few weeks have also been filled with catching up with people. Here's a picture of Shelly, Amanda, and some of the monks, they were so excited to see us...they had gifts, they made us good old fashioned American hot dogs, and they even bought us Coronas :). I'm excited to start teaching them English again every week!

Here's me with Kiara, one of the twins (Natan's niece). They've gotten so big and even cuter :)!!!

And lastly...according to my Dominican friends, I can now get married...not because I'm necessarily ready, but because even more importantly, I can cook rice :). Look at how delicious it looks, and even with perfect "con-con" (you'll have to visit to find out what that is)!

So, thanks for being faithful blog-readers. Please pray for me and my new kids this week as we get to know each other and the routines of the classroom. Also, pray for my health this year...I'm hopeful that it will be better than last year! Take care and keep in touch!