If you are a close friend of mine, you know that I am SUPER impatient. You would also know that when I get an idea in my head, I go full speed towards it and do everything in my power to make it happen. I don't take my time, I don't take no for an answer, I certainly don't wait around for things to happen, and I work my tush off until I achieve it. This is something that has served me well in life. Also something that I'm sure annoys many people in my life ;) So now that you know this about me, you can understand how unbelievably devastated I am that we are holding enrollment for the 2017-2018 school year without advertising new classes in a new building...
This wasn't supposed to take this long. And it definitely wasn't supposed to be this hard. Almost a year ago I posted a blog (here) about my desire to find a new location that could give us all the things we so desperately need. I sat down and made a plan of how this would be achieved and then started the process of making it happen. Then...then life happened. A year of unexpected expenses, health issues, growing pains, and just plain hard stuff. The excitement quickly wore off when the price tags started adding up. Y'all, did you know parking lots can cost over $100K?!!!! What on earth!? And you can go ahead and double that if we want a nice playground. It's so discouraging. So because of this revelation, I've been in self-pity mode, whining that we have to spend another year at our current location. And to be completely honest, I'm pretty annoyed with myself. I have so much to be thankful for in regards to our current location and the future plans for a new location.
For starters, we just raised $2,158.00 from our online auction! That is so amazing!!! A HUGE THANK YOU to everyone who helped make that happen!! We had many local businesses donate items and services that were so awesome and then wonderful families bid on those items making this fundraiser a big success! Combined with our new building fundraiser last year (LulaRoe and Thirty-One sale) we now have a total of $2,736.00 in our building fund. That's pretty incredible! While we still have a long way to go to get a paved parking lot, it's a great start and I am so grateful for everyone's support in this!
Another thing I'm thankful for is that I get another year of sharing an office with my best friend. I'm sure we will each complete more work every day when we have our own offices, but we sure do have a lot fun sitting three feet from each other :) I often think about how everything will work when we are separated and then I think, maybe we should just always share an office. It's so nice to bounce ideas off of each other, talk each other through issues, help each other, complain about Abby's loud singing with each other (sorry Abby!), and laugh together. I'm so lucky to have Caroline in my life and even luckier to spend 4+ hours a day in a 10'x10' room with her ;)
When we move to a new building, we will be leaving great neighbors. The guys at Eagle Trucking are awesome and have helped up so many times. When you work in a building full of women, it's nice to know there are guys next door that can pull your car out of the mud for you (that really happened--more than once!!!)
And mostly, I'm thankful that I am surrounded by the most supportive staff and families that I could ever ask for. You all encourage me, dream with me, help our school raise money, and most importantly, believe in us and the future of our school. From the bottom of my heart, thank you. Thank you for your endless kindness, smiles, and support. It is more appreciated than you know.
So where does this leave us? We are going to continue to work on raising funds towards a new location while we continue to do our thing each day. My hope is that when we are enrolling this time next year, we will be sharing details about a new building, but, if that's not the case, I will continue to be content and grateful for the amazing community we have!
-Ashley
