Three weeks

In three weeks I can finally come up for air. While I never doubted that starting a school would be hard work, I kept telling myself that I had been working hard all my life and that I was prepared. I wasn't. Aside from my initial two week vacation (which was really amazing), my entire summer was consumed by work. I don't think I have missed visiting Door County in the summer in the last 20 years! But...because of the balanced calendar, I have a fall break that begins on October 9th and Doug and I will be heading north. We don't know the exact days yet. But I am so excited to see everyone!

Doubts

Typing this on a plane on the way home from a training at Harvard. School starts in 2 weeks and I'm having some serious doubts about my ability to do this. The school has been a dream for so long. So much work and hope and sacrifice has gone into it. How does the dream become a reality? Will it really represent the hopes and dreams of the teacher, families and students? I don't feel ready. Positive thoughts and prayers are much needed right now.

Willie Nelson

Jessica has a summer job as a nanny for a member of John Mellencamp's band and has spent part of the summer on tour with the family. I just got done watching a video Jess took from backstage of Willie Nelson singing "Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys" and I couldn't help but think of Dad and Uncle Ronald. I remember listening to Willie Nelson records in North Bay until late into the night.

Though I'm far away and completly bogged down with work to open the school (3 weeks left) I am thinking of you guys all the time and miss all of you!

Raspberries

Jessica and I are eating raspberries and discussing how much raspberries remind us of Claudia. Right now is that brief window of time that I can actually afford raspberries. I actually smuggled them into the movies last night. We saw My Sister's Keeper. Even though I had read the book I wasn't prepared for how much Kleenex I would need. Be forewarned.

Summer

I can't believe that it's already after the Fourth of July! My summer started off with an amazing 2 week trip to Italy. The weeks leading up to it were extremely stressful with ending my job in order to start at the charter school. Rather than use the term "vacation" I tend to refer to it as "fleeing the country." I think I needed to be far, far away in order to shut down enough to start to relax. It's a good thing we took the time when we did, because I haven't had any since. I'm in nonstop meeting to choose furniture for the school, hire teachers for the school, work on curriculum orders etc. It's all very exciting that this dream is becoming a reality, but it also doesn't feel much like summer.

On the bright side, its been great to have Jessica here. I frequently feel like her "Claudia" and spend a lot of time reminiscing about the summers I spent at Claud's. The Fourth of July is also a holiday that never feels right if not spent in Door County. We went to the parade and the fireworks, but it just wasn't the same.

Eerie

So, on my computer I use iPhoto. In one part of the program you can click on a button that says "Names" and then name the people in your pictures. I just identified myself as one of the faces in a picture and my computer said "Heather may also be in these pictures." It showed me 19 pictures from my collection of hundreds of photos. Eighteen were indeed pictures of me and one was a picture of... Claudia. Even my computer thinks we look alike -- more alike than my sisters and I apparently. Now the real test would be if my computer could tell the difference between Linda and Claudia. I doubt it!

The Cyclist

Doug has become obsessed with cycling. His birthday was Sunday and he got a road bike for the triathlon he's been training for. Right now his bike is in our living room (and has been since Sunday). He talks about it like it's a member of the family. He bought it used and it has the name Andrew painted on the bar under the seat. This moniker comes in handy in conversation. For example, Doug says things like "Andrew and I were watching TV together." or "I just need to get Andrew cleaned up." Can't you just hear it? He's been getting all the accessories and is now fully outfitted. The weather has been warm and he's planning on going on a big ride this weekend. As many things as Doug and I have in common, this type of training is not something I can identify with.

I've been thinking of all you with the sad news from Door County. Doug and I have had it on our minds and have talked about it a lot, so I can only imagine what it's been like for all of you.

I've been at Bradford Woods (which is an outdoor education camp program) with my fifth graders for the past three years and I'm completely beat. It's great fun and the kids absolutely love it, but it's really hard work for teachers and just requires us to be "on" 24 hours a day. So many of my kids have never experienced hiking, fishing, etc; not to mention family style meals and "please pass the potatoes." It's so fun to be there to experience that stuff with them.

We've had a HUGE response to the charter school. Despite our critics before we were chartered, we have WAY more applicants than we have spots for students. We have to do a lottery this weekend for any grade levels that have more applicants than spots and we never thought we would need to do one for any grade levels other than kindergarten. As of now we'll need to do a lottery for every grade level except 6th. We had hoped to have 100 applicants by April and at last count we were at 260. It's really exciting, but also stressful. We don't want to turn people away and are really worried that because it's random, we won't necessarily get the kids who really need this school.

Well, that's all I can think of for now. I have a meeting in an hour and then I need to come home and take a nap.

Love to you all!

Here are some more London pics: