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!