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Our before-school meetings started yesterday. Our first meeting was actually a day-long retreat at a hotel near school. It was great. I got to meet the heart of the school – its people. And I love what I saw.

We did Bible study and discussion and prayed… it was so bucket-filling. AND, I learned names of people. Yay!

This staff is bigger than my last two schools, and it feels a little overwhelming, but it also feels exciting – lots of people working toward a common mission – loving kids and sharing Jesus.

I continue to search for new teacher clothes, since the dress code in Hawaii is so different than here. Actually, I’m not entirely sure how much people dress up here. I like to wear suits on Sunday, but no one in my church wears them. I asked my pastor if it was ok to wear a suit, and he said it was.

Anyway, for school, I’ve been looking for long pants and long-sleeved, button-down white shirts. The other day, I went to TJMaxx I hadn’t been to before. It was in a fancy part of town, and boy was it a fancy TJMaxx.

I found three pairs of pants there! Nice! I didn’t find any shirts though. It seems like all the dress shirts I see for sale anywhere are “slim fit”. I hate “slim fit” shirts. The are skinny right at the belly – right where I’m NOT skinny. Why don’t they make a “fat fit” shirt? Is this a giant money-making opportunity that no one is taking advantage of? People with bellies want to buy clothes too, dang it!

I finished unpacking my boxes into my classroom. I’m not finished-finished with everything yet, but things are mostly where they’re going to be this year. Here’s a before and after:

I think my desk will look a little different, and I’m missing one more piece of art for my wall that my student Rya painted for me.

I also got my aquarium up and running yesterday. It will be a while before I can put fish in it. I will be sprinkling some fish food in it each day. The food will rot and produce nitrates. Good bacteria will colonize the tank to consume the nitrates, and then it’ll be ready for fish.

I’ve been working in my classroom all week, and I’m almost finished. It’s been so fun to move things around and clean and re-decorate.

…but I forgot to take any pictures yesterday. So instead, here’s a picture of a snack I got at Target:

It’s green beans! I ate them raw. They were fresh and crunchy. It was delicious. For a while. Then I wanted something with carbs. Mmm… carbs…