University of Oregon

I just found these pictures on my computer that Makenna and I took over Thanksgiving break.  They made me miss home so much! Luckily it has been raining here the last couple of days, so I don't feel so far away from that world.

 

 

Attempting Family Pictures

Griffey and I went home to Eugene for Thanksgiving.  This is what it looks like when Adam, Griffey, and I try to take Christmas pictures.



We wiggle a lot.

make animated gifs like this at MakeAGif

My Classroom

Welcome to Mrs. Dimock's 6th grade class! Here are a few pictures of my classroom so you can get an idea of where I am everyday.

 

Every day we do reading work stations, where half the class does one reading/ writing activity and the other half does something else and then they switch.  This is how I keep track.

Job Chart! It's hard to see, but Table 3 is "Captain Planet."  They are in charge of taking care of the recycling and encouraging their classmates to recycle because no one does here.

This is the class agreement that they came up with and signed at the bottom.  It still needs to be tweaked a little bit, but they are pretty proud of it. 

I know homework is one word and this bugs me every time I see it, but there were no more little w's. I need to cut that w down so it does bug me anymore.  This is where I list their homework every week and where they can get extra copies if they weren't here.

This is the writing center where all the writing supplies are and all the helpful writing information is.

They love writing book reviews, so when they are finished with something early, they can grab a book review paper and fill it out to be put on the wall.

"Books are the plane, and the train, and the road.  They are the destination, and the journey." This is the reading center.

This is the reading center/ classroom library.  There are still boxes of books that need to be organized.

Here is another view.  It is pretty disorganized right now.

I will post more pictures of my classroom later on. 

Arizona State Fair

Griffey is here now in Arizona and we have been keeping busy going to the library, many parks, and just last weekend, the Arizona State Fair!

 

I had free tickets from my school, so all we paid for was a hot dog that we shared and $5 in rides.  I tried to be cheap and luckily Griffey is so easy-going that he didn't mind skipping the fair treats and just getting a 79 cent slurpee from the gas station after we left.

 

We did all the free stuff too, including the NFL training camp, where we got to wear armbands and throw footballs through holes and race eachother on Wii balance boards.

 

 We also went in a free exhibit that was a huge tent filled with butterflies.  They gave us q-tips that we dipped in nectar and then we walked around and got to scoop up butterflies and hold them.  You rub the nectar on their feet and they hop onto the q-tip because they eat with their feet, I guess.  Griffey thought it was hilarious when they would all fly around in front of him and especially when one landed on me.

 I took a picture of this clown ride because it was supposed to be genuinely fun and happy but it looks terrifying.  I am not afraid of clowns, but after seeing this ride, I understand why people are.

 For his one ride, Griffey chose to go on the giant slide.  He has always loved these giant slides and knew from the second he saw it that he wanted to use his tickets on it.  We walked around anyway just in case to make sure he chose what he wanted to do most.

 There was a large petting zoo with sheep, goats, llamas, kangaroos, donkeys, and pigs walking around. (The kangaroo seemed out of place.)

 I love Griffey's face here because I can hear the sound that goes along with that face, "ohhohhoohhhhhhh)" something like that.

It was a fun evening and we stopped at circle K for drinks on the way home to complete the evening.

Big Changes

It has been a while since I have written a blog post because I have been so busy!

In August, I finished up my master's program and took on the full-time job of finding a full-time job.  I spent the mornings and early afternoons looking for jobs and filling out applications and spent the afternoons and evenings playing with Griffey and Adam, mainly Griffey because Adam has been in school almost nonstop throughout the summer and into the fall.

I had a few interviews in Oregon, but there were not many job opportunities and the jobs that were posted in Oregon were mainly looking for teachers with actual teaching experience and not just student teaching experience.  I was frustrated with the lack of jobs in Oregon, but was willing to be a sub in Lane County and get a lame night job to make up for not having a full-time job.  Then I found out that Eugene 4J, the main school district in the area was not accepting new subs because they didn't need anymore. lame, i know.  So, I would only be able to sub in Springfield and surrounding school districts.  I kept going back and forth between being okay with subbing a little and having a minimum wage night job because I would gain a lot of experience and see how a lot of different teachers do their thing, and not being okay with subbing because I went through a lot of work and years to get my degree and I wanted my own classroom way more than I wanted to sub.  I finally decided that I would rather accomplish my goal of being a classroom teacher with my own class and broaden my job search outside of Oregon than stay in my hometown just because that is what I know best.

It was very scary and uncomfortable to realize I could be moving outside of Oregon, but it didn't actually seem like a real option until I had two job interviews for schools in Arizona in the end of September, followed by two job offers on the same day of that week.  I ultimately decided to take a 6th grade teaching position at a school in downtown Phoenix over the other job which was a 5th/6th grade combined class in a small Arizona town called Bouse.

I had my job interview on Wednesday, got the offer on Friday, packed on Sunday, and left on Monday.  Luckily, I didn't have to make the 20-hour drive with the U-haul pulling the car by myself; my uncle Scott came with me and actually drove the whole way.  We stopped overnight twice and spent a few hours driving through LA before taking the 60 over to Arizona.

We stopped at a rest area around midnight in the middle of nowhere as we came into Arizona.  When I got out of the car, it finally hit me that I was moving here and I switched over from roadtrip mode to 'time to figure out how to set up my life in a strange state' mode.  At that rest area in the middle of the night, it was way too warm and there were way too many bugs as big as my palm buzzing around.  As we approached Phoenix, I woke up and was instantly trying to make my plan of attack. Scott said we were in Phoenix, but it still took a good 25 minutes to get to near where I would be living, so I was instantly overwhelmed with the size of the city.  I took note of where the Target was, just in case, then I saw another, then another, and another.  The city just kept on growing.

We stayed with Scott's wife, Carrey's, aunt and uncle from Thursday, when we arrived, until Monday, when Scott flew home.  In that time, they helped me unload my u-haul into a storage unit, I found out where the church was a found a potential babysitter for Griffey, Scott and I toured as much as we could all over the Phoenix area, I took a picture in front of my school, and we ate In-N-Out and Chik-Fil-A multiple times.  Luckily Scott knows the Phoenix area really well because when he left on Monday, I felt pretty confident get around the areas that I needed to.

On Monday, I went in to the district office and filled out paperwork, which I continued to for a few more days that week, and then I brought Scott to the Mesa Airport and drove home, by myself, in a new city, with a new job.

Griffey and Adam stayed in Eugene while I get settle in Phoenix because I wanted to make sure I had a handle on my job and had the necessities unpacked and ready before Griffey came here.  Adam brought Griffey out two weeks later.  Adam only stayed from Friday-Monday before he had to go back to Eugene to finish up his last term of school.  He will be done in December and will come to Phoenix after that.

Griffey has been here for two weeks now and we are getting into a rythym finally. We are staying with my friend Michelle, who I met in my Master's program at the UofO, and her boyfriend, Matt.  We will stay here until we find a place in November or December.

We found a babysitter for Griffey who lives a few houses away from the school I work at.  Her name is Anita and she has watched many of the teacher's kids for many years.  She currently watches Griffey and a four-year-old boy who goes to preschool at my school.  Every morning she walks Griffey and Junior to my school, drops Junior off at his class, and brings Griffey by to see me during my prep time.  Next week, Griffey will start preschool there also, so she will drop them both off and pick them up and watch Griffey until I get done in the afternoon.  It has been working out really well so far and Griffey has been learning a little Spanish from Anita because she speaks mainly Spanish.

There have been a lot of changes in the past month, but our family has always been confident in knowing that this is what we were supposed to do.  Every step of the way, we have been assisted and comforted, from having a place to stay, to having someone to come here with me, everything has been falling into place for us to be here in Phoenix. 

And for everyone back in Eugene, don't worry, we moved here with the understanding that we would be back there in 1-3 years and that is still the plan.

Griffey's first day of preschool

Griffey started 3-year-old preschool a few weeks agoat Emerald Child Development Center in Eugene.  We chose that preschool because he already had 4 friends from nursery at church going there and his friend, James, also started going there. 

 

I wasn't nervous about him going there because he has had so much experience being babysat at other people's houses and he seems to make friends easily.  Griffey was so excited too because he liked the idea of going to school just like his mom and dad, plus they have an awesome playground and huge monster truck tires to play in.

 



 

 

Griffey and his friend Aiden, from church.

Kylee, Griffey, and James on James' and Griffey's first day.

Ms. Diana hd play-doh and toys all set up for them on their first day.  The  paparazzi parents all documented the whole thing.

First day of school ever!

After I picked him up from his first day of preschool, Griffey and I went to Papa's Pizza and ate pizza and played in the play area.  It was fun to celebrate his first school experience and share how proud i was with him.

Since, Griffey will be moving to Arizona soon, he only has one more week of preschool (he went for four weeks total).  I had so much fun riding my bike with him in the back seat down the street to drop him off at preschool and that is a part of our routine that I will definitely miss. 

20 Questions: Griffey, 3 years old

I found the idea on another blog to ask your kids the same 20 questions every year and put them in a book altogether.  It will be fun to compare his answers and how he has changed over time.  Also, it’s cute just to hear his answers now!

20 questions: answered by Griffey, age 3

1. What is your favorite color? blue
2. What is your favorite toy? Monster trucks
3. What is your favorite fruit? cherries
4. What is your favorite tv show? Mighty Mega Monster Trucks on netflix
5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? Chicken nuggets
6. What is your favorite outfit? Church clothes and pajamas and shorts and pants and blankets; monster truck shirt
7. What is your favorite game? Mario Brothers at Little James’ house. “I watch him play it on his ds.”
8. What is your favorite snack? pretzels
9. What is your favorite animal? bear
10. What is your favorite song? Temple one.  (I love to see the temple)
11. What is your favorite book? Nighttime sound and pop-up book at Grandma mama’s
12. Who is your best friend? Little Bear
13. What is your favorite cereal? Cherrios
14. What is your favorite thing to do outside? “Squirt water in my water gun”
15. What is your favorite drink? Water and blue gatorade
16. What is your favorite holiday? “Christmas Snow, singing loud…” (quoting Elf)

17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night? Blankets and Bear
18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? Cereal
19. What do you want for dinner on your birthday? Chicken Nuggets
20. What do you want to be when you grow up? A Big Rabbit or a Monster truck driver. “How am I going to get out of that big monster truck?!