Craig Keeping Busy

In addition to all this other chaos, Craig also started a new job the week he got home from Seattle.  It's pretty normal in his school district for the assistant principals to move around, so with Craig being at Albemarle High School for 5 years, he was feeling it was time for a change.  He'd also wanted to try switching up what grade levels he works with, partly because it's good for him to be more versatile (there are a whole lot more elementary and middle schools out there than high schools) but also because there's usually less work at the lower grade levels.  They have less sports and after-school activities AND the schools tend to be smaller.  Less students = less problems.

He'd told HR that he was hoping for a change, but we really had no idea how that would work out.  Would he need to watch the schools and apply for an opening, or would they just move him?  It was a little scary.  But as it turned out, he just got a phone call one morning informing him they'd like to move him to Lakeside Middle School, where he'd be working with a principal who'd been an assistant principal with him a couple years earlier at AHS (who he quite likes and worked well with), so it was all easy peasy and he was really excited for the new opportunity.  It's all turning out about as well as we could have hoped for!

So that's another thing that's been on Craig's plate.

The OTHER big thing is that his birthday was coming up and it was a bit one-- Craig turned 40!!!  Two days after we got Isaiah! 😬

I'd planned a pool party for the occasion (Adam had offered to help, but we ran into trouble when he asked me what the theme would be and I said, "Um...  Happy birthday?"  It turns out I do not throw fabulous parties).  (But really I'm just glad I wasn't trying to do a surprise party or anything-- that would have been SO HARD with everything else going on!)  This seemed absolutely insane all of a sudden, but I also couldn't very well cancel it, so we moved forward and hoped for the best.  Fortunately, I'd already bought all the food.  On Thursday, I got an email saying the pool had been closed for maintenance, but within a couple hours (and before I completely panicked over that), I got another email saying it was fixed.  Phew!  A pool party without the pool would be pretty lame.

Craig had also asked that I make cookie dough cupcakes for the occasion, so I gave Kendra the choice of watching Isaiah while I baked, or doing the baking herself and she chose the baking, so she got to work and did a WONDERFUL job with them!  I was so proud of her.

Colton made this awesome crown for Daddy!

I was looking for an excuse to visit Craig's new school and see his office, meet his co-workers, all that stuff.  We figured his birthday would work well for that, so I got him a cake from Costco and me and all the kids brought it to work.

Craig is kind of excited about his standing desk!

It was really fun to see the place-- it's a nice, new building and so much more manageable in size than AHS was!  I think Craig is going to be really happy here.  And once we were done torturing Isaiah by making him stay in the office, we took him to the gym and let him just run for a good thirty or forty minutes and he was SO HAPPY.  So that was also nice!

And the party that evening ended up being really fun!  Our friends Chris and Julie totally saved the day by playing therapist to us.  They've been foster parents for years now (they've fostered 19 kids I think?) so they were able to reassure us that Isaiah would fit in with our family in no time, and they also held him for an hour or more while I ate dinner, which was a break I really needed at that point.  We were able to relax and enjoy all our other friends there, as well, and it was just wonderful.  I'm so glad Craig got to enjoy his big day!

YES, I made everyone sing to him!

The day before, Craig needed a picture of himself to go in the school newsletter, so I snapped this:

That's my man!

But I also got this amazing shot, and I have to admit, it's my favorite:

You'll be relieved to know this did NOT go in the middle school newsletter!

Happy birthday, Craig, you stud!  Many happy returns!