fridays at 4

It's official, I'm a teacher. Last night, I participated in my first "Friday at 4". I think this event must occur in every teacher's life in order to be initiated into the official "I'm a Teacher" club. After a long work week full of trainings, planning, and prepping the classroom, some teachers and I decided to get together after school for some pizza and beer. Technically, it wasn't 4 o'clock and technically we didn't "go out" either. We're all "teacher poor" and are all desperately waiting for that first August 19th paycheck. Instead, we decided to lounge by the pool at a co-workers apartment complex, share about our wild teen years, and of course, eat pizza and drink beer*

*Note: Technically, I had water instead of beer (since I'm not a huge beer fan). I left this detail out of the story above, because it sounded much cooler to say "pizza and beer".

Welcome to Room 3, Home of the Black Widows

So, there have been tons of dead bugs under my cubbies ever since I moved into my room last week. Today, I finally made the fatal mistake of doing a further investigation as to why these dead bugs have such a presence in my room. I got down on my knees, ducked my head down under the cubbies and found.......drumroll please......

20+ Black Widow egg sacs

I quickly went and found Juan Carlos, whom according the veteran teachers is the person you go to for all black widow, cockroach, gecko, and other misc. bug problems. He should be back tomorrow to spray down my classroom. Welcome to the desert my friends!

funny things, as of late

Recently life in Yuma has been rather humorous. Or perhaps everything is just funny to me because I'm living alone and going psychotic. Regardless, here are the top 10 things about my life in Yuma that might make you (or at least Wes) smile.

1. This morning I got dressed in my typical teacher clothes. Pants. Dress Shirt. Sweater. It was 7:30 and 99 degrees. I arrived at school drenched in sweat. I probably could've done without the sweater. Silly Oregonian.

2. The State Farm commercials on the radio station play a mariachi jingle rather than the typical "Like a Good Neighbor, State Farm is There" jingle. I can't even explain how hysterical this is.

3. I occasionally find myself speaking like I'm from the Midwest, simply because I'm surrounded by so many Michigan-ites at my school. I swear. Every teacher and their mother somehow traces back to Michigan.

4. The other night I was dripping sweat in the car for no reason...or so I thought. It took me 10+ minutes to realize I had somehow been blasting the heat instead of the AC.

5. I went to Blimpie's with my co-workers and accidently ordered in Spanish.

6. I still have yet to go grocery shopping and/or cook a meal since Wes left. I've been surviving on cereal and turkey sandwiches.

7. The weatherman recently used the phrase "panties in a bundle" to describe the weather.

8. I was making a sign for my art bulletin board that said "Room 3 Masterpieces". One of the volunteer's at the school now thinks my name is Mrs. Masterpieces.

9. This evening a realtor was showing me a few houses. In between houses, she just told me to follow her and that she'd drive slow since I'm new to the area. Yeah right. She drove like a maniac. It was like I was a police on a high speed chase. People were honking at me like crazy. Thank God for the Oregon plates.

10. I had a nightmare that my fly was down the entire first day of school.

Oh life in Yuma, you make me laugh

wesley

Well..it's official, my Wesley is gone. As of 5:40, he boarded a plane and left me here in Yuma, ALONE! What a meanie! I'm kidding. This was all part of our moving plan. He will be finishing up at his job in Eugene, packing the rest of our things, and coming back down on August 19th.

When I got in the car to drive around looking for rentals this evening, the driver's seat was still positioned for his much-longer-than-McKenzie legs, the radio stationed still tuned in to his preferred station, and the mirrors still adjusted for his much-higher-up-than-McKenzie eyes. As ridiculous as this sounds, I literally almost began to cry. I am such a girl.

I held back the tears and pulled out of the driveway and down our street. Wait, how the heck do I get around this city? Wes has been driving all week and I've been paying no attention.

Although we spent several months apart and in different countries during our dating days, this is the first time we have spent a significant amount of time apart since we've been married. I've already tried convincing my co-workers to take me out on a date on August 7th, as Wes and I will be apart on our 1 year wedding anniversary. Any lovely Eugenians wanna take Wes out on a date for me? I'd recommend Papa Soul Food, a place he loves but I'm rarely in the mood for.

I'm sure these weeks without him will zoom by, as I will be engulfed in school-related activities, but I will definitely miss his ridiculously cheesy humor, his uncanny ability to find his way around a new town, and his little-boy-run-out-in-your-undies excitedness he gets everytime a plane flies by Glen's house. Oh Wesley. You make me laugh everyday. I miss you already and it's only been 10 hrs. 18 more days? Oh crap. I'm doomed....

Wesley sitting outside of Glen's watching planes

P.S. I apologize if there are any spelling mistakes in this post. Wes is my editor-in-chief. He is currently "out of office"

this one's for the girls

(This post is for my small group. I am missing our annual get together tonight. However, I thought I would post it here on our blog for others to enjoy as well)

Dear girlies,

I wish I could be there with you tonight at our annual get together. Hopefully, you haven’t managed to get Toki smashed yet. I’M KIDDING! Since, I cannot make it this year, I thought I would quickly update you on what is going on here in our life down south.

Here it goes....

Obviously, a lot has changed in the last 6 months since we have last gotten together. I graduated in December with my Master’s of Arts in Teaching and did lots of substitute teaching in the Eugene & Springfield School Districts. My favorite moment was when I got to sub in the room next door to my dad. I think co-teaching with his daughter made the old man cry a little. Anywho....I applied for teaching jobs like crazy all over Oregon, everywhere from Eugene to Po-dunk, Oregon and didn’t even manage to get a single interview. I finally decided to look at some places outside of Oregon and of course thought about Yuma, only 20 miles from my favorite little town of Islitas, Mexico. Long story short, I got a kindergarten teaching position at a fabulous school here in Yuma. Within a month of accepting the job, here we are...living in Yuma, searching for rentals, and setting up my cute little kindergarten classroom. Here is a picture of what it looks like so far.....

(Note: There a tons of pictures in the previous blog post)

So far, we are loving Yuma (but missing our family and friends, of course). We are weirdos who absolutely love the heat. Seriously though, you all need to come visit! Nothing beats floating down the warm Colorado river or enjoying dinner outside on a nice warm Arizona evening. I vote that for our December reunion, you all make a road trip south. It’ll be sunny and 75! Any takers?

On another note, Wes and I will celebrating our 1-year wedding anniversary on August 7th. We have had the best year together. I’m telling you girls, there is nothing better than being married to your best friend. I’m sure Lacey can agree on this one. We are excited for this new chapter in our lives. Feel free to read this blog to stay updated on our random adventures.

We love and miss you all,

McKenzie (Wes says hi too!)

a week in review

What a crazy week it has been. Wait, can you believe it’s only been a week? In one week’s time, Wes and I have managed to drive 19 hours to Yuma, drive another 200+ miles searching for housing around Yuma, and arrange an entire classroom. Somehow, through it all, we’ve still found time to laugh together, float the Colorado river (twice!), and enjoy one another’s company (even if we have spent the last straight 168 hours together).

And so now.........ladies and gentleman...........I present to you.......... MY CLASSROOM!

Monday, Day 1: Arrive, meet Becky (principal), and rearrange furniture more times than Brett Favre has retired from the NFL. Seriously.

Tuesday, Day 2: Let the organizing begin!

Wednesday, Day 3: Slowly, things begin taking shape.

Thursday, Day 4:

Day 5: My room is nearly finished. Here it is!

cubbies waiting for little backpacks to arrive

a carpet ready for calendar time, tons of read alouds, block playing, etc

the reading corner (my favorite part of the room)

my "McKenzie-sized" desk. It is so short!

the bulletin board outside my room ready for kindergarten artwork

Oh, and P.S. This is what we get to wake up to every single morning. Pretty amazing, eh?

P.P.S. These also fly by everyday (note: We live near a marine base). Wes is in love. He runs outside in his undies just to get a glimpse of these babies.

another case of the stickies

Ok, I promise this is the last post I will do about the meteorologist, but seriously this man should consider a career in unintentional comedy. Ironically, he also sounds a bit like Jim Carey. Well, more like Ace Ventura. Here is the legend himself, Rob Fram.

We literally look forward to the 10 o'clock news just to listen to what this man is going to say next. Here are a few quotes from last night.

-“I’m going to keep both shoes on for this weather report because it looks like we’ve got another case of the stickies”

-“high pressure ruling the roost yet again”

On a totally different note, I have been a slave-driver and making Wes work all day in my classroom starting at 6 am. That's the earliest Martina and Martina will let us in. Yes, both my custodians names are Martina. Big Martina. Little Martina. They are adorable.

We are SLOWLY getting my room ready for the kiddos. So much stuff to do. Wes has been incredible and has learned more teacher jargon than he probably ever wanted to. "Word Wall", "positive behavior plans", "die cutter" are three of Wes' new phrases. Seriously though, he has been the best husband ever. Please be sure to take care of him when he comes back to Eugene in August. He deserves lots of pampering. Just look at the torture I put him through....

We'll post more pictures of my classroom once it is a little less chaotic. It's takes time to create the "cuteness factor" of a kindergarten room. Wes is just the man for the job.