First Day of School

The girls “recently” started school at Colonel Johnston Elementary School on Fort Huachuca. By “recently,” I mean that they started class almost a month ago, which just shows you how far behind I am with writing. Life continues to be extremely busy for the Calkins Family (not hectic, just busy), with schoolwork and activities keeping all three of us extremely occupied. Elaina and Gabriella were still very excited about school and look forward to the coming year.

Elaina started Second Grade this year in Mrs. Drake’s class, while Gabriella moved up to Mrs. Chavez’ First Grade class. After several Pre-Combat Checks (PCC) to ensure car lights turned off (no running to school this year!), lunches packed, and clothes laid out, we went to sleep with a good feeling the first day would run smoothly. Although the Army does a great job of giving parents the morning off so they have plenty of time to drop their kids off on the first day of school, I took the whole day off so that I could pick them up as well.

After parking the car and walking onto school grounds, we went to the Second Grade area to drop Elaina off. After she greeted the teacher and placed her backpack with the others, the little punk ran off to the playground before even giving Gabriella and I hugs goodbye; she quickly rectified the mistake. Gabriella’s drop-off did not go as smoothly. While she initially played with the other kids with no issue, once they started moving into lines to go into class, the waterworks started coming on. I felt terrible by not submitting to her whims and rushing her straight to the car, but the teachers did an excellent job in reassuring her that Daddy was going to be there to pick her up after school. Although there were definitely some tears, the first day went off without much incident, as that was already behind Gabriella by the time I picked them up. Since we are going to be moving to a new duty station next year, this will be the girls’ last year at COL Johnston Elementary. We are all both excited and anxious for what the future brings us, but as always, we know we will do it together.

Thanks for checking in on us.

Cheers!