Mr. Scheuer

Somehow last year I signed myself up to be the Spelling Bee coordinator for my school.  I already knew (but have since been reaffirmed) that something like this is not my forte.  The Spelling Bee was coming up in Roanoke, and I needed a sub for my class desperately.  I had called everyone on the list with no luck.

Lots of stressing out over the Bee and not having a sub went on over g-chat at lunch one day with Nick.  He kindly mentioned he would be willing to sub for my class.   Hmm.... ok!  I went to the office to ask about the process to become a sub.  Basically, you have to fill out a form and then have it approved (I do work at a private school after all). Done!

I spent Thursday evening giving Nick the rundown of my class.  I was only going to be gone for a half day, and he was confident.

The whole afternoon he kept sending me text message updates.  I couldn't wait to hear how his day went!  The verdict?  He loved it!  And so did my class.  At the end of the day they declared he was the best sub ever!  When I asked him what he thought about my job his response was "it's a lot of bossing little kids around." Ha!

My Monarch

So, this post is definitely the second grade teacher in me coming out.  But I have been so fascinated by this little guy the past couple of weeks, I just had to share.  One of my sweet students from last year brought my class a monarch caterpillar a couple of weeks ago.  Being an animal lover that she is, she had collected and researched these little guys and told me exactly what to do and what to expect.  The caterpillar crawled around our bug barn and ate milkweed for a few days.  Then one afternoon it crawled to the top of the cage where it attached itself and hung like a "j".  The next day when I got to school it had turned into a green chrysalis.  This is the way it stayed for a while.  Then on Friday I noticed you could just barely see the outline of the butterfly's wings inside.  I knew that this meant it was going to emerge soon!  We were heading to Raleigh that afternoon and I decided to take it with us so I didn't miss something. 

 On Saturday morning, when I checked on it this is what it looked like.  It was all black, but you could very clearly see the wings!  I just can't get over how cool this is!  Nick keeps making fun of how much I have been talking about this, but I am fascinated!

I knew it would happen quickly, but I still missed the butterfly emerging from its chrysalis.  When it came out, it had to hang upside down and spread its wings for a while so they could dry.  Here you can see it hanging and the empty chrysalis. 

After a few hours, we took the butterfly outside so he could climb out and fly away.  It took awhile and a few failed attempts, but he finally spread his wings a flew away!  This butterfly will fly all the way to Mexico!

It was so beautiful and such a cool thing to watch!  It really is a miracle!  That tiny, ugly caterpillar completely transformed into a beautiful butterfly.  We have been learning about metamorphosis in science, it means a complete change in form.  When I see this butterfly I cannot help but be reminded about what God has done for us.   

"Therefore if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!"  2 Corinthians 5:17

Back to School

It's true- our summer of a lifetime is over and school is back in session.  For the first time since we have been married, Nick and I are both doing the same thing for the second year in a row!  It is a really great feeling to have some familiarity.  We are loving Blacksburg and excited about spending another year here.  Nick and I both had our first day of school on Monday.   Nick is starting his second (and last!) year of grad school.  He is really enjoying his classes so far, as they are much more specific to what he wants to do when he graduates, but they are also a lot more work.

I started my second year of teaching.  It was wonderful actually to come back to school and see everyone. I feel so blessed by my job.  I have really loved getting to know my new group of second graders.  They are a really sweet group of kids and I think we are going to have a great year together.  But, whew- the first week of school is exhausting!  It was such a change getting back into that kind of routine and tons of work getting everything ready.   We definitely enjoyed a relaxing weekend at home recuperating!