Wishing my hubby a HAPPY BIRFDAAAY!

Today is this man's 26th birthday!

He is having an interesting birthday this year... he's currently packing up the U-Haul trailer to make the trek out here to Arizona to finally join me, in our new state of residence! I am thrilled to be counting down the days (3 more to go) now instead of months!! I am so excited to see him and have him live here with me! Not that that's any surprise to anyone!This is a picture he sent me while he was working one day! So cute he is... well at least I think so!

So excited to have you here babe to actually celebrate your birthday. A couple of days late isn't too bad... RIYYYGHHT?

My "Second Home" ;)

*Disclaimer- lots of pictures*

This is what my classroom looked like when we got there. Josh is posing so nicely for us in the middle of my room. I have a half classroom all to myself (which is a little unheard of in the Resource area out here). Off to the left in the picture was where 50 something MAILBOXES sat. It was a little shocking to see that many full-size mailboxes filling up this small room. Josh and I carried each one out the room and put them out in hall, so that we could actually start moving things around and being productive while Josh was still here. That's what the next picture it... all the mailboxes nicely lined up out in the hall. They actually sat out there for days, and then finally they were painted and put out in front of all the teacher's rooms. I am still not sure of the reason yet :)

I didn't get a whole lot of pictures of it before (there wasn't much too it). So here are the finished product! I am pretty excited that I am done. Next week is full of all-day meetings, so I really needed to be done. I was a little surprised that there weren't more teachers there this week getting things ready, but maybe they'll be there this weekend...

This is right as you walk in the room.

The front board. I won't be here much, but it's there for me if I want to do a whole group lesson where we're not sitting at the back table.

This is looking straight back front the door. There were two full-size whiteboards in this room (probably if there were two teachers sharing, so they could each have their own??). I didn't see the need for me to have 2 of them for myself, so I used this one as my word wall. You can also see the working areas that I have set up. Some individual desks, and a group table.

Here's the little reading area I have for the kids. I put out some of my leveled books, and some of my misc. books.

This is my desk area.

This is where majority of my day will take place. I love having the built in storage right behind me and right next to me! Pretty sweet spot for a reading table if you ask me :)


This is right off to the left of the reading table. Behind the curtains are shelves where I put all my curriculum and "teacher books". Very nice storage!

I know this is kind of a silly picture, but I basically just took pictures in a 360... and this is where it started, so it ended here :)

More posts to come

I was going to do another post about my new classroom- pictures and all, but I cannot get the pictures to upload. I don't know what's up... and I don't have time to really wait...

Just got off the phone with the hubby... and boy do I miss him. He's doing pretty well over in the "cooler" state of Colorado! Poor guy has had quite a few issues with "the puppas" (Gus). He seriously is having some separation anxiety, which I would have never anticipated. Gus always was drawn towards Josh and seemed to PREFER him more, but Josh tells me that Gus has had a really hard time with me not being there. Who said dogs were dumb? I mean, who wouldn't miss me? HA. I think it's so funny when Josh is talking to me on the phone and Gus gets all weird- like whining and barking at Josh if he can hear my voice! He's so dang cute!

Josh and I are praying that Glendale Police Department gives us a call for the official start date for the Academy. Josh has been in contact with them almost everyday these past few days, which is GREAT NEWS. Last we heard it was going to be August 31, which is a little sooner than we thought, praise God :) They are just finishing up the background check, so however much longer that takes, is how long until he gets to join me out here! We've done this whole "distance" thing before, and folks, it's the same no matter the circumstances. It is no fun. The only way I can describe it is kinda cheesy- it's like I don't feel whole. Part of me is missing, and I am just floating around. It's especially hard that I am in a new state, new school, new job, NEW... It's adding a bit more of the "floating" feeling! I am somewhat thankful for the all the work that it takes to get ready for a school year. I know that we'll get through it, and we'll be so happy that we did it, in the long run. I already see the fruits of our labor with my job- it has been great so far!

It's Hot Here!!

No longer is it “Arizona Here I Come”, it’s “I made it!”

Here’s my by the Arizona sign, Josh had to take the picture, or we both would have been in it.

Well, I am officially moved into my apartment, and getting close to being able to say that about my classroom. I have been here for a little over a week, and so far it hasn’t been too bad. The only hard thing is missing my boys:
This one BIG time
And this little guy as well:

Isn’t he so dang cute sleeping on my shoes?

Other than missing those guys, I am hanging in there! I am staying at this really nice condo resort. It’s actually a timeshare for the snowbirds that come into town during “winter”. So, with it being off season (FOR SURE) they are renting these condos for pretty cheap, to just keep the business flowing. Here’s a couple of pictures (they’re from their website though so they are a tad different, but you get the jist).

The living room

The kitchen The bedroom (my bed doesn’t look this that, but everything else is the same)

Arizona Here We Come

Well, Josh and I have moved 3 times since we've been married, and another one is just around the corner. We have been preparing for this next move for months, but it has never been set. If things started to fall into place (like jobs and such), we were going to do it! So....

I officially accepted and signed a letter of intent at an Elementary school is Gilbert, Arizona. I will be teaching 1st and 2nd grade Special Education. I am SO excited :) After months and months of applying and interviewing, I got that call from my new principal, and I was so thrilled! Ironic as it is, I got this job through a phone interview, which is exactly how I got my last job at Meadow Elementary. The only difference is, I haven't met this principal AT ALL. I must have done pretty well over the phone :)

So, we/I are moving to Arizona next week. I cannot believe that it's happening that quick. I will be moving out first (into a condo that we're renting) and then Josh will move out when he has an academy date for the Glendale Police Department (in a later post I'll go into those details). So, we'll probably be apart for a couple of months. I am a little bummed that we're doing the long distance thing again, but I keep telling myself that if we could do that for 7 months then, we can do it for 2-ish months now. He has been told that September is the estimated time for the next academy class, so that's the latest that we would be apart.

Another fun thing is that we have been planning on buying a house this whole time, and we've put in offers on a couple of different ones. They are all short sales, which take awhile to go through, and they're perfect for our situation! We are so thrilled at the thought of being in our own place... we've yet to have that space, and have always wanted it, but the timing has never been perfect. We definetly feel like this is where we are supposed to be, and things are sure falling into place :)

3 Years

Three years ago today, June 24, 2006, I married my best friend! I cannot believe it has already been 3 years. The only way to explain it is that in the 3 years we've been married, we've been through a lot! We have had so much fun in the time we have been married! We've had lots of adventures: almost passing out at the altar, strept throat on the honeymoon, two surgeries, three moves, first year of teaching, 6 months of being thousands of miles apart, and many more. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't have changed any of those adventures for anything. Most of them have helped us grow and some of them have even been comic relief at times.Okay, pretty much all of them we can laugh about now :)

I knew that as soon as we said, "I Do" I was going to be complete. My husband is wonderful, truly wonderful. I am so blessed to call him "husband". I love being married! I have always been the type of person who loved to be around people, and now that I have my best friend with me all the time (well most of the time), I love it. I love all of our inside jokes and special moments that we have... they mean the world to me :)

I look forward to all the years we have ahead of us! We have always been the fun couple, and we always will be. There's no other way for us to be :)

Tornado Warning :-\

So... there we were... all comfy, cozy on the couch watching a movie when our little guy, Gus, needed to go... outside. So, I took him out, and happened to notice just how dark it was outside, and it was only 1:00pm. We have had lots of storms lately, so we just thought, oh well, another stormy Sunday. Well, it progressively got darker and darker, and started to rain/hail/blow like crazy and then we checked online and sure enough, this storm was actually turning into a tornado, about 5 miles away from our apartment. My first thought was, we need to get into our closet right now (that's the safest place in our 3rd story apartment). Josh's first thought was, we need to go out and get the video camera from our car to catch what was going on. So, can you tell what we ended up doing? HEHE.

It was crazy to see that from our balcony. When I realized at that point that it was moving away from us I thought it was cool :) We stood outside and watched for a little while, and then decided to come back inside. My phone rang, and it was one of my coworkers, who lives about 5 miles from us. She wanted to make sure we were okay because she and her husband were just leaving their apartment, that the tornado was right above. They were fine, and the apartment was fine, but their windows in their car were all smashed, and they were just trying to leave the area. SO crazy. I had no idea there were tornadoes in Colorado, let alone 5 miles away from us!! EEEKKK.
Glad we were all safe :)

WAHOO! Summer's here

Today was the last day of school :) This year was a "different" year because of the move and not actually "teaching", but I definetly still was stoked that it was the last day of school and that summer was here! Having to take down everything in the classroom and move all the furniture brought back lots of memories of last year's big move at school. That was a stressful time for me, and this year was NOT nearly as stressful. Thank goodness. In fact, yesterday was the last day with kids, and it was SO fun. I think my all-time favorite thing was the shaving cream ice skating that we did. Who would have thought that a big blue tarp covered in shaving cream would be so fun? I had so much fun squirting shaving cream on the kids as they were slipping and sliding around in the bathing suits! What a fun memory for them (and me... hehe)!
I am so excited to have a little break from working, but I am still going to be teaching at Sylvan, but it won't be as "intensive" as working with preschoolers! I was a little bummed today to say good-bye to my team that I worked with. One thing that I have been blessed with at the schools I have worked at so far, is that both of the teams have been awesome and so fun to work with! I still miss my old team in Utah, and I will miss these guys here in Colorado!
Happy Summer!

GIVEAWAYS

There is this awesome blog that I found through a friend. It's called Give Away Today http://www.giveawaytoday.blogspot.com and they have all these new giveaways daily. It's so cool. I have yet to win anything, but it's still fun to check it out and put in to possibly win. AND, it's super easy to put an entry in for each thing... and they explain really well what you need to do so you can put an entry in :)
SO FUN!

The Latest

We had so much fun at the Rockies game that Josh got tickets for my birthday! It was a beautiful day and the Rockies won, so it was great! Here we are at the game... of course we had to get a shot of just us

This is Troy Tulowitski... he is my new crush. Some of you might already know how much of a "crush" I had on Chipper Jones (Altanta Braves)
Josh and I are doing great. I am just about done with this school year... and boy has it been an interesting one. I certainly miss teaching and cannot wait to get back in the classroom. I am just praying that it is sometime soon (like this next school year). There might be some more changes coming up soon for Josh and I, but we'll have to see about that for sure.

I am so excited to go to Arizona next weekend. We are going to do some work stuff for Josh and then just to hang out! I am just ready to have a little get away!

Well, it certainly has been awhile since I last posted. My last post was about starting back at school after the holidays... and now I am offically in my 3rd-ish month. So far it has been pretty fun. The kids are super cute, and the other teachers and staff are really nice. We all get along really well, for the most part :) It is funny to see the difference though between Utah schools and Colorado schools... there's not that many, but still some.

Josh and I are kind of in a routine now, I guess. His schedule at work is not ideal at all, but we are getting through it. He works most nights until 10 and every other weekend. So basically we are together to sleep and sometimes eat breakfast. It stinks a whole lot, but hopefully it will settle down soon so that we won't have to do that crazy schedule anymore. Good thing the Lord knows that we CAN handle this and has a plan for us. Josh and I hold on to that... that's not to say that it's always easy to deal with our schedules, but we can go back to that when it seems like it's getting really tough.

Josh's parents came out to visit us for a few days this month. They got here on March 12 and left on March 15. It was so nice to see them... we had a good time. The only bummer was his mom hurt her back on the way out here, so we didn't get to do as much as we had planned... That was okay though because Josh and I were just getting over a yucky cold (or at least we thought we were getting over it). After they left on Sunday, we both were just exhausted. We thought it was just because we had company and just over did it. But, we were wrong...we were definetly not over our colds and we basically just hung around all day and relaxed.

My birthday was that Monday, and we both took the day off! That was so great that we had done that because we probably both would have taken a sick day anyways... so we didn't have to worry calling in or anything! It was kind of a bummer being sick on my birthday, but we made the most of it. We still went out to eat at this DELICIOUS pizza place called, Uno's. Yummy :) While we were eating... Josh was all, " My phone is ringing... just a sec." So he reaches down in his jacket pocket, and pulled out this thick envelope. I quickly opened it and inside were two more envelopes. The first had a reservation to a hotel in downtown Denver for April 10th. The second had two tickets to the OPENING DAY GAME for the COLORADO ROCKIES!!! I was so excited... and cannot wait until we get to go to the game! Neither of us have been to an opening day game, so that will be so much fun!

Okay, so after looking for some pictures to put on this particular blog... I realized we are AWFUL at taking pictures... so that will be my goal... to take more pictures (not JUST for our blog, but for life) :)

First Day Back at School

So, today was my first day back at school since October. A little background, I worked as a substitute teacher back in Utah before we moved, because we were moving only 3 months into the school year I couldn't sign on for another year of teaching :( And, boy do I miss it. I miss seeing the kids everyday, interacting with other teachers, and just all of it. Of course it was a stressful job, and took A LOT of time, but I miss it.

Like I said, today was my first day back at school since then. I am a TA for a preschool here in Colorado. It is not the job that I particularly wanted, but it was what I really needed. That is not to say that I don't like it, because I really do like it. The main teacher is way nice, the other TA is nice also and it's really easy going. It's totally for me :)

I cannot wait until I can get an interview in for next school year. This TA position is a blessing, and exaclty what I/we needed right now so that I had something to occupy my day :) The Lord totally knew that for my sanity and Josh's, I needed a job that was going to just be enough to occupy my time, but still give us, "us" time we need with all these changes we've had! The Lord is so awesome that way!

Merry Christmas!

We had a great Christmas! Josh and I drove to my parents' house for Christmas morning, and then drove down to Josh's parents for another "Christmas morning." We had such a great time. The drive wasn't too bad, we brought movies to occupy the 7 and a half hour drive... We enjoyed ourselves a ton at my parents' house playing Wii, watching movies, visiting with friends and family and just enjoying being with the fam। Josh surprised me with a Wii for Christmas (little did I know there was more to come)... I was so excited because I had been wanting one for a while now!

The Christmas Tree at my parents' house

Josh and I on Christmas morning

Um... I guess I get into boxing a little on the Wii, huh? Hehe
We drove down to his parents' house a few days later for our Christmas morning there, and had a blast again! My husband is so awesome and totally surprised me with the CUTEST gift ever. He got me a beagle puppy. His name is Gus, and he is so fun! We had been talking about getting one, but kept going back and forth so we just both agreed to just wait, and see when would be a good time. Well, a friend of Josh's was having beagle puppies (which is what we wanted), and he had it all planned out and bought one from them like a month ago or something, and they just took care of him until we got down there. I still get so excited thinking about how well he surprised me (he's really good at them, so it doesn't really surprise me that he did so well at keeping it secret). I am so excited because he will keep me company when he is gone for work... our bird just wasn't cutting it... hehe. We had such a great time with the family down there... playing Wii (of course), EATING, playing with Gus, and just visiting with the fam and getting caught up!

My very first time meeting Gus. Josh hid him in the laundry room and I had to go on a mini scavenger hunt for him...

Another ravishing game of boxing on the Wii

I was super excited for the sleep sound my sister-in-law got for me!

This was the funniest book that Josh's brother got for their sister who is pregnant! We obvisouly found it funny!

On the drive home (9 hours with lots of breaks for little Gus), we were talking about how great this Christmas was। We had such a great time with family and feel really blessed that we got to celebrate this awesome season with the ones we love!