Where has all the time gone?

It's hard to believe that its almost mid-November already!
Not a whole lot has been happening here. Our lives are packed with busy days and busy nights. Will and I are doing great with the kids testing me out occasionally, testing out Will and my teamwork skills, and then Will and I building on our own relationship. We're a happy family that works and plays together and we wouldn't have it any other way!
Will and I greatly enjoyed the opportunity to go to New Orleans together for 5 days in October and we both say that it was an amazing time! It was great to be able to focus on only each other, and really enjoy each other's company. We walked all around the town, took lots of pics, and went out/slept late every day. The hotel was really nice and I used their pool everyday. There aren't any gyms in Brattleboro that have pools and I really miss swimming everyday. While I can go running everyday, it doesn't give me the same whole body exhaustion that I get when I swim.
Work has been crazy but good. Whenever I feel like I'm getting a handle on everything and things are going smoothly, something always comes up. Most of the time its improving the classroom to be more professional or just that we haven't been following the state regulations as closely as we should so I need to tweak a few things. Some days its frustrating: I get paid the same amount as my co-lead but have a higher education and better grasp on the standards that we should be holding ourselves to. My work has decided to use my license to get more money, requiring me to mentor the preschool classroom. I find it frustrating that the requirements for a better education start at the preschool at my work and neglect to touch upon my classroom. What I wouldn't give to mentor my co-workers seeing as they are in charge of the curriculum by default of being in the classroom earlier than I am.
I just completed a weekend course called "ADHD for Educators". I learned that there is a reason that I am a good preschool age teacher, I HATE sitting still for a long period of time! It could have to do with the teacher being boring and the material repeated multiple times though. The one really cool thing was that we got to borrow some books from the teacher. I already ordered the ones that I borrowed on Amazon, they were so interesting right from the get-go. Its quite interesting to learn about the brain and how it works, so many brain disorders intersect in the way that the brain is programmed. I was able to read some about PTSD and also General Anxiety Disorder which my counselor just diagnosed me as having. One of the things that I found most interesting was how our brains adapted and were created as our ancestors walked at LEAST 12 miles A DAY! With this in mind, I can understand that some children have the need of exercise in order to reach their dopamine levels in their brain that will help them function. Makes sense really...if a child is hyper, then we should have them exercise, wear themselves out instead of making them sit more. In my nutrition class we talked about how children crave and find ways to get the things that they need. Children with ADHD need the extra oxygen, and chemicals that are only available when the heart is raced up and so, they find whatever ways that they can in order to achieve the correct chemical balance that they need. This is my first graduate class that I've taken and while the class itself was boring, the books that I've been reading have inspired and motivated me to go back to school soon-ish to get my Master's degree.
Life certainly has been busy but I don't think I've ever been happier. I find myself grinning for no apparent reason than the fact that I'm so overcome with happiness and content I can't even explain it. Things go so smoothly that it seems surreal. I told Will once that it feels like we're married without the wedding. The kids respect me as if I've been here the majority of their life, Will and I talk about things as though we've been together years instead of months, and we run the house as though we've had years of experience together. I even forget that this is our first year really experiencing things together. Christmas eve is our 1 year anniversary of officially dating though we weren't really together through the holidays. Its definitely fun going to events that we did when we were first meeting and then when we were just starting to date. I love being part of this family and can't wait for the years to come!