UPDATE: Back to School!

Well, tomorrow I go back to work.  Summer went fast!  Seriously!  I will admit, there were definitely days I was bored, especially lately.  It's too nice out to feel like cleaning, but I don't really have many errands to run.  I went into my classroom a few days to get that ready, and I went to the pool a few days, but boiling/sweating in the sun can only be nice for so long.  So I think I'm ready to go back...but I know how busy things will be in just a few short days, and I'll be regretting ever feeling "bored."  Remind me of this when I complain about being overloaded.  :)

I'm always also a little nervous/anxious about the first day of school.  You'd think with this being my sixth year of teaching I'd be over the first day jitters, but I'm not!  Because you never know what a new crop of students will bring.  And even though I KNOW they are nice nine and ten-year olds, I still always get nervous that they'll be really sassy and not listen, etc.  So far I have yet to have the dreaded "back to school" dream.  I have the same dream every year at the end of summer!  It's always the first day of school and I forget to make any lesson plans at all, and no one's listening, everyone's just talking and being crazy.  Sometimes I forget to wear shoes...haha.

Someone else is also anxious about me going back to work...COOPER!  I really don't feel like I've been sitting home with him everyday, but I guess he hasn't really had many full days alone.  I kind of pop in and out between errands.  So last week I went into my classroom a day or two for the full day...he chewed the kitchen rug.  He hasn't been chewing our things for a very long time, so I'm certain it's nervous/mad at me behavior.  Then TODAY I get home and find this:

Think someone's kind of anxious?  And he has a few really good chew toys and we always leave him with his kong and a bone.  He refuses to chew the bone until we get home!  As soon as we walk in the door, he grabs it and runs under the table to start chewing it.  I think I'm going to go back to playing music like I did when we first got him.  Hopefully that will help.  For now, no blankets or soft things of any kind when we're gone.  Sorry Coop!

UPDATE:  Today, 8/25, Cooper chewed through his fourth leash.  This was the nice retractable one.  We didn't start using it until we were fairly certain he was over that "Chew everything in sight phase."  Hm, not so much!  We are all out of leashes now, which means no walks until we get a new one.  Kind of a "natural consequence" don't ya think?  Too bad I don't think he understands natural consequences... It's not the first time I found myself wishing my dog understood English (like just yesterday, when I was yelling at him for chewing his dog bed, and he was just looking at me wagging his tail....yeah).