It’s been nearly a year since I was employed and over a year for Evan so both of us starting back this week has been a fascinating mix of disgruntled stress and pure excitement and joy.

I am officially working as a Program Manager for Right At School. I run an after school program for around 60 youth out of local elementary school. My first few days have been a little challenging as kids test boundaries and limits on me as the new staff member but I couldn’t be happier with them and my staff. The program is headed in the right direction to be absolutely amazing and it’s exciting to get to help lead it that way.

Evan, meanwhile, is one day in and having the time of his life in a part time seasonal position at the Denver Zoo. As a Guest Service Representative, he will be selling tickets, greeting guests, and assisting as needed with special events. So far, training has included a tour around the zoo and meeting fellow new hires who love animals as much as he does.

We’ve gotten settled into a temporary stay for the month as we continue our apartment search with Kai. This will be our first night actually sleeping in the house alone as Kai stayed one night to check out place our and our friend Gav, who’s family lent us the place, stayed over to have a new-job-celebration-night with Nepalese food.

New roof over our heads and new jobs have occupied most of our attention but we’re hoping to find more volunteer work to do over the weekend as we settle in.