a case of the muggies

As the days pass by, we are slowly learning some of the joys of living in Yuma. One of those joys is the ridiculously cheesy local meteorologists.

Here are his two best lines from last night that had Wes and I rolling around laughing.

"Look's like tomorrow we'll have a case of the muggies"

"Look's like we'll be waking sunny-side up mañana!"

Besides watching the 10 o'clock news (yes 10, not 11...this is old folk town), we have been working on my classroom. Pictures will come soon, once we have a somewhat finished product.

After working at the school all day, our evenings consist of floating the river, searching for rentals, and of course watching our favorite meteorologist.

Where are the refried beans?

Whew. Today can be described in 3 words..........

EMOTIONAL ROLLER COASTER.

At some points I found myself beyond excited about the adventure before us, while at other points of the day I found myself asking that daunting question: Did I really just move away from everything familiar, my family, and my dearest friends?

We had a wonderful morning.....

exploring the desert's natural beauty

dipping our feet in the pleasantly warm Colorado River

and admiring the Southwest’s old architecture and history.

We spent the midday searching for rentals and making a trip to the grocery store. This is where the emotional roller-coaster began. After searching the store aimlessly for refried beans, I finally found myself asking Wes loudly, “Where in the world are the refried beans!?!?!?”. This ridiculous frustration allowed me to realized how comfortable we get in our hometown routines. The simple fact that I didn’t know my way around my local grocery store was driving me nuts. Little things like this make you feel like you are “home”. I’m sure this feeling will come with time, it just made me realize what a BIG move this really is. Not just a quick trip to Mexico. A big move. A big adventure.

Ok. Back up to the positive part of the rollercoaster. We finished the evening by continuing the DeBow Sunday tradition of going out for pizza. Traditions are good for big transitions.

Da Boys Italian Cuisine

After pizza, we enjoyed a walk around the amazing downtown buildings and along the river.

Oh, and a stop at my new favorite frozen yogurt place, of course!

Bienvenido a Yuma

We are here! After 18+ hours on the road, various bathroom stops for McKenzie's small bladder, and 1163.4 miles, we have made it to Yuma!

Our trip started at the crack of dawn, 5 am. Our first planned destination was In N Out in Redding. Ironically though we were making such incredible time, that we realized we would be arriving in Redding just after 10. We figured we were on an adventure and why not eat at 10:30?We'd been up since 4!!!!

In N Out opened precisely at 10:30 and we were there just in time. 10:29.

Yes, we documented this.

We enjoyed a nice, yet early meal. We thought we'd be the only ones, but the place was packed.

We continued on the road, rocked out to music, took more bathroom breaks, and made our way smoothly down I-5, Hwy 50 and Hwy 99.

We finally stopped in Bakersfield for Wes to admire Merle Haggard Blvd and Buck Owen's Crystal Palace. Oh, and to stop for ice cream. Healthy day of eating, eh? Due to the 108 degree weather, everyone crowded inside, except for Los Bryants of course. We sat outside, enjoyed the 108 degree weather, and ate our dripping cones.

We continued on Hwy 99 to Hwy 58 to Hwy 395 to I-15 to I-215 to I-10 to Hwy 86 to I-8 to.....drumroll please.........YUMA, ARIZONA. Not to mention, Wes drove the entire thing. Stud.

We made it. Almost. We arrived at our friend Glen's house and began following his well-detailed instructions. However, while walking into the backyard to turn on the power, a wonderful, high pitched motion-detector alarm began to sound. Oops. Glen forgot to mention this in his instructions. In order to stay alive and not cause chaos on our first night, we headed to a motel of the night .

As for today, Sunday....We have successful turned off the alarm and unloaded the car. Ironically, as we sit in the Starbucks to update this blog, it is raining despite the 99 degree weather. Did we bring this rain with us? Oops.

Moral of the story:

We are safe and sound, wearing sunscreen, searching for rentals, and exploring our new home.

Adios Oregon!

The bags are packed.

The trunk is beyond full.

The desert is calling.

Adios Oregon.

We love you all!

McKenzie "Spills" DeBow

The other night Wes and I made home-made pizzas. I couldn't help but notice the drastic differences between our plates (mine of the left, his on the right).

When I was little my dad wanted to legally change my name to "McKenzie Spills DeBow" because of my uncanny ability to spill everything imaginable. Still to this day, I'm quite talented at spilling things. The reason I bring this up, is because upon snapping this photo, I found myself wondering...

"Hmmm, whose going to spill more this year? Me or my kindergarteners?" (trust me, this is a reasonable question)

I'll get back to you on that later.

bittersweet

As the days pass by way too quickly, the boxes pile up way too high in the living room, and moving day inches up too soon, things become a little more, shall we say, BITTERSWEET.

I am beyond excited for our move, but am also sad to be saying goodbye to my wonderful family, friends, work, and life as we know it in Eugene, Oregon.

Enough with the sad stuff though. Here's something cool. I managed to find the most amazing garage sale EVER. They had everything a first year kindergarten teacher could imagine....books galore, geoboards, pocket charts, games, etc., etc., etc. Just look.......

Not only did they let me walk away with all this stuff for $25, but they also gave me and my new treasures a ride home, since I had the brilliant idea of riding my bike to the sale.

My kindergarteners and I will be forever grateful for the kindness of these teachers who managed to throw the perfect garage sale, just for us.

big announcement

It has been nearly a year since I have written anything on this blog. That's because I created it with the pure intention to blog about our engagement (can you believe that was 1 year ago??!?!?).

Anyways, due to a big change in our lives, I've decided to start writing again. Why, you ask?

Well......drumroll please.......here it goes...........it's exciting.......

WES AND I ARE MOVING to Yuma, Arizona, aka the sunniest place on Earth (seriously, look it up in the Guiness Book of World Record)

I recently accepted a kindergarten teaching position in Yuma. We leave on July 22nd. Every day until then is a roller-coaster of emotions....

excitement for a new adventure

sadness in leaving friends and family

readiness to eat delicious authentic Mexican food

nerves to teach a kindergarten class full of ELL students

You name an emotion and we've probably experienced it in the last few weeks while making this drastic decision.

Wes and I were born for adventure. Marriage has been the greatest adventure and we know that this next adventure is only going to make life a little more fun. We'll use this blog to provide you with a glimpse into our crazy lives.

P.S. Please come visit us!!! (Perks: In & Out, sun, day trips to Mexico, sun, Mexican food, have I mentioned SUN?)

Yuma Territorial Prison