What's New?

The past few months have been some interesting ones for us.  We have had our fair share of challenges and trials but we are getting through it.  We have been living apart since mid July [so a little over three months now..] because I started my first teaching job in Snowflake.  Devin has stayed in the valley and we've been commuting to see each other on weekends.  He stayed because we signed a year lease on our apartment because moving back to Snowflake was never in our plans.  But plans change and I truly believe things happen for a reason.  Our lease is finally up NEXT WEEKEND so we'll be moving the rest of our stuff to Snowflake.  We decided to take the job in Snowflake as a chance to live rent free for a few years and get Devin done with his associates so that he can transfer to a university easier.  We've been packing up our apartment together over the last few weekends and are ready for the move next weekend.

Now, about my job... First of all, I love teaching.  I have a great class and 2nd grade is my favorite age.  I love the curriculum and what I get to teach them about and I love how they are at the age where learning is [most of the time] fun and exciting!  They are still young enough that they love to draw me pictures and give me hugs but they're also old enough to really learn and ponder things which is exciting to watch as a teacher!

I love being a teacher and having my own classroom but this year has definitely been NOTHING like I imagined my first year would be... To say it has been the most stressful, nightmarish, and frustrating few months of my life would be an understatement.  I didn't get into my classroom until the NIGHT BEFORE school started so I hardly had anything organized or ready for kids.  Pretty much up until this last week, I have been playing catch up with things I should have had ready before the year even started AS WELL as trying to stay on track with my daily routine of teaching.  This last week was the first week that I finally felt like things were starting to fall into place, I was able to breath and finally get a little bit ahead with my planning.  Our school is a huge construction zone and our playground is a tiny, make-shift playground full of dirt [m u d] and a few toys so when 3 classes at a time are out there, it is kind of complete chaos.  We don't have a lunch room or anywhere for students to eat lunch other than the sidewalk on good weather days and MY CLASSROOM when it is rainy or windy.  So that eliminates prep time during the day which makes my days so much longer.  My students do a really good job with indoor recess [most days] so I am super grateful that they are so awesome.  I would have quit a long time ago if I had to deal with a psycho class on top of everything else so they have been a huge blessing for me.  I love them lots! :)  I am the only 2nd grade teacher so I don't have a team to collaborate with which is hard.  There are a few other teachers who are great and we bounce ideas off of each other every once in a while but we all teach different grades and therefore have different things going on so we really can't collaborate much.  Teaching is such a collaborate profession where teachers help and share with each other all the time but not having anyone else at the same grade level makes that difficult so my life has been saved by Pinterest and Teacher Pay Teachers this year.  The only benefit to Dev and I being apart for the last few months has been that I have been able to stay at school as late as I want everyday which is the only way I have survived.  BUT despite it all, I truly have been enjoying being a teacher and I have been trying really hard to still find the positive in these situations because even if it is hard to find, there is always something positive to find if you are willing to look. :)

July 2015

September 2015

 Hiking Superstition Mountain

 Hiking and camping at Fossil Springs with Cole and Shantel

October 2015

My 25th birthday at Texas Roadhouse with Jeff and Dani and Kylie and Clayton

Photo Dump!

October 2014

For my 24th birthday, we went to Out Of Africa.

November 2014

Thanksgiving dinner with the Gillespie side

Christmas tree hunting!

December 2014

Dani and I at our End of Semester breakfast with our cohort.  It was the end of our first semester of student teaching.

Baby Tavon

January 2015

Costa Vida when Mom and Dad came to visit

 February 2015

Color Run with Dev's bosses, Brett and Damon

March 2015

Tough Mudder was THE most fun thing we've ever done!! 

Kipp, Braelynn, Briley and Shayelle came and stayed with us for the weekend.  We swam and went to FlipSide.

April 2015

We played Laser Tag with Jeff and Dani.  Dev and Jeff were like kids in a candy store. :)

The Easter basket that I made for Dev.  I was more excited to make it than he was to receive it. ;)

Sherika and Gunner came and stayed with us for the weekend.  We loved having them visit and pretending to have a baby for the weekend!

It was Gunner's first time in a pool!

Dev split open his ankle while riding a scooter... He hit it really hard on a bolt on the side of the scooter and it punctured it all the way to the bone.  He got three stitches!  His ankle still bothers him [and I'm posting this 6 months later...] so we probably should have got it x-rayed...

May 2015

Sunday walk to the park near our apartment

Campfire with Dev and Teagan

Goldfield Ghost Town

When my parents were in town last weekend we decided to go visit the Goldfield Ghost Town and it was so much fun.  I love stuff like this, just exploring new and interesting places! 

PETERSON'S Mercantile!

 I also love places with history and this place definitely has it!  The buildings are all original and it was so neat to walk around and think about what this town would have been like a hundred years ago!  There is a jail house with the gallows right next to it - just a little creepy, a church, a livery stable, an old hotel, a saloon - all the places you'd imagine a little old wild west town would have.  There is something so exciting to me about visiting historical places!  

Look at that view!  I promise it's not a backdrop, ha! 

It is off season right now but from November to April, they have people dressed up in old fashioned outfits, giving tours, having gun fights in the middle of the town every hour, and just acting the part of the wild west.  So fun!