Hi There*

So, I’ve been a little quiet lately.

And by quiet I obviously mean radio silent.

I last posted while on a prep period at MDS. I had just had a wonderful day of supply teaching, then after I wrote that post I picked up my sweet girl from our sitter and headed home.

Shortly after I got home my phone rang. Out of the blue I was offered an interview at a school I hadn’t taught at in two years. Two days later I drove to the school, quickly said hello to a friend that works  there, and made my way to the office. For the first time, I was given the interview questions in advance, and they were (by far) the hardest interview questions I have ever encountered. I had fifteen minutes to prep, then off I went.

I felt like my interview went okay, but I wasn’t feeling terribly confident. Luckily I didn’t have much time to dwell on it as the Hubster’s mom flew in the next day… which also happened to be my darling Ruby’s first birthday. Time flew, and suddenly it was Friday and as we were waiting to be seated at the Mandarin my phone rang. I knew it would be the school calling, and I braced myself for the rejection call.

Except that it didn’t come. The usual “I’m sorry but you were not the successful candidate…” line that I expected was replaced with “I would love to offer you this position”. I was so shocked I didn’t even know what to say, but I somehow stumbled through the call and what was supposed to just be a meal out turned into a celebration.

I started teaching immediately, and for three weeks I taught grade 9 and 10 English in the afternoon as the teacher I was replacing went down to part time before her maternity leave. After March Break I switched to full-time and added Grade 12 University English to the list.

It took me about a month to really believe that this job was real, and even as I am surrounded by mountains of marking, I sometimes still can’t believe it’s really true.

It took me four long years to land my first LTO… but it feels so good to be back in a classroom.

My classroom. It’s incredibly busy, sometimes stressful, and I constantly wrestle with guilt over how little time I now get to spend with my wee-bean… but it’s amazing.

I love my school. I have wonderful students. My department is amazing. I can honestly say that (aside from the mountain of marking that comes with Grade 12 English) I have absolutely no complaints.

I love my job.

While it makes me a little sad that I no longer get to spend the day with my small girl, I treasure the moments we have together as a family. She is… perfect. Right now she is rocking an amazing curly mullet, her smile lights up her entire face and she runs everywhere (and is into everything!). She is such a happy baby (can I still call her that?) and sometimes I honestly can’t believe that I am lucky enough to be her mom.

So, that’s where I’ve been. Work & spending time with my loves. I have to wake up at 5:30 every day to make it to work on time, so I’m usually a little brain dead by 8pm.

Which doesn’t really leave me much time for writing.

But I do think about it and miss writing all the time, and I’m going to try and work it in. I finally feel like I’ve found my rhythm with my classes, so I’m hoping it will be a little easier to weave back into my schedule.

Despite a rough start, 2013 is shaping up to be a much better year than I expected. :)