Short & Sweet

:::FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL:::

My first day of school is this Thursday, August 5th. I have spent the last few days in my classroom getting set up, meeting the staff, cleaning my classroom, and decorating bulletin boards. I will be teaching 1st Grade at Friars Point Elementary. Please pray for me and my relationship with my co-teacher, staff, students, and student's families.

:::FOUND A HOUSE:::

I am living in Clarksdale with three other TFA girls. They are all in their second year of teaching and have proven to be amazing resources. We have set up camp in a church parsonage that was for rent.

Two of my new roommates :)

I moved in on Thursday night, unpacked, cleaned, painted my room, and organized it all in one weekend ... with the help of my wonderful parents! They made the 14 hour drive just to visit me. And I put them to work. It was such a blessing to just spend time with them and be around them. I felt bad that we worked pretty much from 8am-10pm every night from Thursday to Sunday morning, either cleaning my classroom or my new room in my house. They are troopers. I can't say much more because I don't have words to describe how thankful I am for my parents.

:::IN THE NEWS:::

During new teacher training a man from the newspaper took a photo of me and my close friend. I never heard if it was actually printed in the newspaper, until today. I was working in my classroom and two kids, a 6th and 8th grader. They kept stopping my and just standing in the doorway looking at me. We started talking as I continued to cut out construction paper flowers. After about an hour of them coming in and out of my room I decided to put them to work taping and coloring different things for my classroom. As they headed out the door the 6th grader stopped and said, "Yeah, you famous. I saw you in the paper. You and that other teacher down the hall." Their cover was blown. They were only hanging out with me because I had a picture in the newspaper! Which means that I was famous. Ha!

Anyway- it was a beautiful appointment in any case. The 8th grader and I got to have a conversation about salvation and what it means to be saved. It is crazy how easily people talk about being saved down here. I will expand more on this later, I am still processing.

:::THE RICHARDSONS:::

I have more to write about my beautiful host family that I stayed with for over a week... but I don't have time right now... so check back in a few days :) But here is a picture of the sunset from their front yard.