Adventure #43: December

Time flies when you're having fun...or planning a wedding and wrapping Christmas presents and teaching :) Yesterday was my last day of school before Christmas break and I can hardly believe we are done already! Some days it seems like just yesterday I was getting back from Thanksgiving and other days I feel like that was ages ago!
The weekend after Thanksgiving my mom flew down to visit me! It was great to have her here and for her to see my life down here. She came in to school with me for a day and my kids loved meeting her :) We also got some wedding planning done as we picked out bridesmaid dresses and my dress! It was a crazy weekend, but I'm glad she was able to come down.
Since then the weeks have passed fairly quickly as my days have been filled with teaching and making and wrapping presents (27 students is a lot of books to wrap!) and trying to figure out wedding details! We had a great Christmas party in my classroom yesterday and now I need to clean my apartment and pack and I will be on my way to Minnesota on Monday morning! I'm really excited to see Travis and my family and to get the chance to spend a couple weeks with them! And I'm sure it will go just as quickly if not more quickly than the rest of my December, but I'm going to treasure every moment!
Praying you all have a blessed Christmas and are able to spend some time this holiday season enjoying family and reflecting on the Reason for the season; a little baby who came down from heaven to die for our sins. Merry Christmas!

Adventure #42: I have a FIANCE!!!

For those of you who haven't already heard, I'm ENGAGED!! My wonderful now fiance surprised me this weekend :) Here's the story of how he asked...

Travis flew me home this weekend so I could be with my family for Thanksgiving. He was really excited to surprise my family by bringing me to Thanksgiving, and little did I know, to surprise me. I had told him a long time ago, that I really wanted to be surprised when he proposed to me; which was quite the task considering we live 1600 miles apart and only see each other at specific times. But he pulled it off!

I flew in to Minneapolis Wednesday night and he picked me up at the airport. I was staying at his house for the night since my family still didn't know I was in Minnesota. He seemed a little off as we were driving to his house, but I just figured he was tired from a stressful day at work or something :) I really was not expecting him to propose because he kept telling me how nervous he was to ask my parents' permission and that Christmas was a wonderful time of year to get engaged. We got to his house and went downstairs, I was assuming to put my stuff in the spare room. When we got to the basement I thought the TV was on because something was glowing; after putting my stuff down I turned around and realized it was candles. This is what he had set up:


I didn't really know what was happening, but he told me I needed to go look at it. I walked over and read, well sort of read the poem he had written for me. By this point my mind was spinning and I wasn't really sure what was going on; so I sort of skimmed it and turned around to look at him and try to figure out what was going on :) He told me I needed to look at the back of the frame the poem was in. On the back it said, Becky Kaye Parkinson will you marry me, Love Travis. I then turned around again and he was down on one knee holding out the ring. He asked me again if I would marry him and of course I said yes!!


This was perfect in and of itself and I cannot believe I am engaged and I'm so excited, but it made this weekend even more special to surprise my family today. I had called them last night and told them I was engaged, and they knew it was happening since Travis had asked their permission and told them he was going to ask me around Thanksgiving, but the whole time they thought I was in Arizona! The look of shock on their faces when I showed up at the door with him was priceless and I'm so thankful I got to share this special time with them!

So now I'm engaged to a wonderful man who I love so much and am so thankful I get to spend the rest of my life with! I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving as well!!

P.S.- This is the poem Travis wrote for me; I read it again more carefully after saying yes and it is so sweet:

I love who you are.
I love that you are giving.
I love that you are caring.
I love that you are encouraging.
I love that you are dedicated.
Dedicated to God.
Dedicated to your job.
Dedicated to your family.
Dedicated to our relationship.
A relationship that teaches me how to love.
A relationship that shows me how much I am loved.
A relationship that I am willing to give my all for.
And my all is what I pledge to give to you.
All my heart,
All my life,
All my love.
I love you Rebecca Kaye;
and I vow to love you for the rest of my life...

Adventure #41: A Weekend with the Light Girls...and then some

I had the privelege of spending the past weekend watching Reese and Lexi while Marvin and Stacey were in Las Vegas celebrating Stacey's birthday! We had lots of fun adventures together :) Have you ever flung pancakes off the ceiling fan? Someone told me about this exciting activity last fall and I have done it several times since. It makes eating pancakes so much more fun (although I usually do not eat the ones that are thrown off the fan as they tend to fall in some spots I'm not so sure I would eat off of!)

Getting ready to catch some dinner :)

Enjoying some tasty pancakes (that did not fly off the ceiling fan just in case you were wondering Stacey!)

We also did some painting projects (thank you Michaels) and even went swimming (well the girls did- I decided that 65 degrees was a little cold for swimming weather!) All in all it was a wonderful weekend!

November sure hasn't slowed down- it just kept right on going after a crazy October! Thanksgiving is starting to brew in the air as turkeys go up at school!(I will post a picture soon of the cute turkeys my kids are making!) Let the holiday season begin :)

PS- Here are some lovely pictures from the Harvest Fest at church :)

Adventure #40: A Whirlwind Week...or Three!

The month of October has flown by! This is probably because there have been so many busy weeks. The week before Fall Break and Ashley’s wedding we had a lice outbreak at school which created all kinds of chaos! But we survived that and the fall party and got right into Fall break. I flew to Minnesota on Monday and spent a few days hanging out with my family and Travis. I got to see Amy’s last soccer game and hang out with Megan after school! I’m always amazed at how much they have grown up in the short time that I’ve been away. I also got to spend some time with some friends I haven’t seen in a while which was wonderful. Then on Thursday I drove up to Wadena for Ashley’s wedding! It was a beautiful wedding and I’m so glad I got to be a part of it! It’s so crazy that she and Steve are married now and I’m so happy for them.

After the wedding I flew back to Arizona to teach for a week. It was good to see my kids again and get back into the routine of things; at least for a few days! Then I got on another airplane to fly back to Minnesota for Andrea’s wedding. It was another beautiful wedding and I’m so glad I was able to be there to share in her special day.
While it was a little crazy to fly back up for another weekend, I’m glad I did. It was great to be at Andrea’s wedding and it was wonderful to have some time to spend with my family again. Megan, Travis, and I even got to carve pumpkins together!
I’m glad I got to spend some time in the fall weather of Minnesota and be a part of these special days. Back to Arizona and the rest of a crazy October I go :)

Adventure #39: Good-bye Roomie...Hello October

My roommate moved out today :( She moved into her new house where she will be living with her new husband who she is marrying in two weeks!

I'm so excited for her and all the changes that are coming up in her life, but I am sad too. The apartment is so empty without her and all her stuff here :) Staring at bare walls all day is rather depressing! But its exciting too I guess; I get to decorate the apartment again :) And its not like I'll never see her again- we still teach right across the hall from each other and there will be plenty of times to have dinner together and go shopping together.

Life is speeding by as usual. I can hardly believe it is October 1st already! Parent teacher conferences were last week and then I went to a women's retreat in Prescott, AZ. The weather was so beautiful there and it was a beautiful camp. It was nice to get away for a weekend and spend some time in the nice cool mountains :)

One more week of school before Fall Break! The kids are starting to get a little antsy, but we'll make it through one more week...I hope :) Then I'll be on a plane back to Minnesota to enjoy some beautiful fall weather and Ashley's wedding! How the time flies!!

Adventure #38: An Update on Life

My 11 year old sister, Megan has been bugging me for a while now that I need to update my blog :) So this is for you Megs!

Not too much new going on in Arizona...the weather is finally cooling down here which is awesome! I love being able to stand outside on recess duty and not be dripping sweat by the time I'm done. School is continuing to go well. I am really enjoying getting to know my students this year and watching them learn. Its weird to think back to this point last year and remember how many hours I spent after school working on this, that, and the other thing! This year I feel so much more orgainized and it takes way less time to get everything done at the end of the day. It is so wonderful to have time in the evenings to read books for fun and work on other projects and hang out with people without feeling guilty about needing to get things done!

Next week will be a busy week! Parent-Teacher Conferences are Thursday and Friday after school and then next weekend I am going to a women's retreat with church! Will be a busy week, but it should be a good one! Hope your week goes well!

Adventure #37: My Favorite Kind of Day

Today was my favorite kind of day. One of those days where most things run pretty smoothly, where my kids say funny things, where my kids remind me why I love this job. The morning started off a little crazy, which is pretty normal I guess, running to the office to make copies of this, talking to collegues to figure out how to solve this problem, and trying to get this, that, and the other thing ready in my classroom.

We are learning about declarative sentences in grammar and we were doing a worksheet where the students had to answers questions with complete sentences. One of the questions was who is your teacher so I had written "Miss Parkinson" on the board so they would know how to spell it. One of my students says "It says Miss because you're married!" to which I replied, "No, I'm not married. If I was married my name would be Mrs. Parkinson," to which my students responded with lots of questions about where I live and who I live with. I love conversations like this that are so random and give me such a picture of how they think. My favorite question was, "If you're not married, who wakes you up in the morning?" It was so cute; made even cuter when I told them my alarm clock wakes me up which they thought was hilarious!

We have a record breaking heat wave going on right now, so recess had to be in our classrooms today. Many of the kids choose to play school and it was so funny to sit and listen to them repeat, almost word for word, what I say to them everyday at Math Meeting or during story time. Its a wonderful reminder of how much they catch and are paying attention to my every action.

Then a little later in the day, this note appears on my desk:


It came from one of my boys who is so cute, but is a little stinker. His card is on orange or yellow more often than green. He gets distracted and starts talking to his neighbors, he puts crayons in his water bottle and then dumps all the water into the trash can trying to get it out, he plays in the sink at the bathroom, and chases all the little girls on the playground. Some days with him are really rough, but those are not the ones he remembers. He remembers the days where he was on green all day and gets rewarded with a high five and good job today! That's what I love about kids. Sometimes you have to punish them and remind them rather sternly again and again that they are not supposed to be talking while I am, and they need to raise their hand to speak, but even when it seems like that's all you do, they don't remember the yelling. They remember the smiles, and the joking, and the high-fives.

Days like these are good reminders of why I wake up with the sun every morning and spend hours and hours at school and then at home working on things and preparing lessons. Because my students are wonderful kids who are excited about learning and they deserve the opportunity to learn and be successful! I'm so glad I get to wake up everyday and be a part of their lives!