And so it begins

You can see how much we have accomplished in such a short time.  This is our living room and we are REALLY enjoying the space!  Jeremy has worked so hard to get things moved, put in storage and thrown out.  For those of you with nothing to compare this picture with, let me say that where you see the windows here there were comic book shelves in practically this exact space just one short week ago!

Saturday starts "Camp Julia" and our "stay-cation".  Julia will be with me and Jeremy for a week!  I am so excited but I also have done a lot of mental planning!  One of the things that we (insert I/ME) really wanted to make sure of was that Julia didn't see this as a vacation for her to be entertained during.  Rather, we wanted to make sure she had some sort of schedule so that he and I could make sure we are able to continue with our "to-do's".

What I came up with was a list of: chores, crafts, outings, and cooking items.  Jeremy and I wrote them out each on their own color coded sticky note and Julia will be able to place her choices on the specific day she wants to do them.  She has to have at least one chore per day until all of them are done, and she may not have more than one cooking or craft activity on any given day.  We have also planned some "Daddy and Me" times along with "Alison and Me" times, plus we have some family time planned which includes a day-trip that Jeremy is planning!  I am really excited about this and hope my "glasses" aren't too rosey!

I am also getting in the swing of my new job, Academic Dean.  Each time I meet or talk with staff members, I gain a clearer understanding of what I will be doing.  Something that really struck me today during the leadership meeting we had was that the school has some significant mistrusts between the campus, faculty, district, and neighborhood.  The school was once known for not only poor academic performance, but also poor professional performance and it seems that much of those stigmas have left quite a negative scar among these groups.  Having had some experience with this in the past, I hope that I will be able to demonstrate (mostly to myself) how I have grown from those past experiences and bring some helpful perspective.

Next week, the leadership team will meet again AND, I will take my exam for certification here in KY as a qualified administrator.  Wish me luck!