Year 2

I never intended to go so long without an update.  I don't even know where to begin.  Here it goes!

I enjoyed a beautiful summer in Colorado!  The weather could not be more perfect and the activities to enjoy it are endless.  It definitely made me love the life of a teacher.  So much freedom to enjoy the summer!  It even gave me the time to do random things like dress up for free food:

I got to enjoy a fun race with good friends right in Colorado Springs that left from the Broadmoor.  It was quite fancy!  I was treated to a full meal, Barefoot wine, a finishers necklace, free massage, and a post-race hangout at the Broadmoor.  Yes, again, these are the true reasons I do races :)

I hosted some great people throughout the summer.  Two of them were particularly to spend time with.  One was from Kansas and the other from New Zealand (I really like the idea of having a place to stay in New Zealand if I ever have the opportunity to visit).  They pulled me back out to some of the touristy things that you so often put off once you live here.  We got to explore the Cave of the Winds and just couldn't resist the cool hard hats!

We also played the penny arcades in Manitou and decided to be adventurous and eat Egyptian food.  So glad we did!  Turns out I love shwarma!





Towards the end of the summer I think we realized our time was running out, so we had to cram in some of the things we had said we would do all summer.  I finally climbed my first 14er (for those of you unfamiliar with Coloradan lingo, that's a mountain over 14,000 ft. tall).  Maria and I decided to conquer Mt. Harvard.  It was wonderful!  The views were amazing as you can probably imagine.

Yep!  We even ate a mango at the top.  We know we're a little crazy about mangoes.  And I really became quite fond of the little cairns.  They remind me of God's faithfulness.  When you're going through all the mess of rocks at the top, they are so faithful to guide you up the peak.  Just when you're not sure where to go you see the next one and know that you just have to set your eyes on it and keep going on.

The very next day I went on my first white water rafting trip!  I rafted down the Big Horn Sheep Canyon.  I even got to see a pack of beautiful Big Horn Sheep standing right off the river as we rafted by.  It was a great trip with just enough excitement and rapids for me.

I'm the 2nd person on the far side of the boat.  I'd highly recommend the trip!

Shortly after, the school year fired up again.  You may or may not know that I was informed the day before school started, just hours before meeting parents and students, that I would be switching from 2nd grade to 1st grade.  Needless to say, I was slightly overwhelmed.  We cleared out the 2nd grade materials and hauled in the 1st grade as quickly as we could.  And off I went as I 1st grade teacher :)  Through the whole experience it has brought me to realize how lucky we are to have a God who always knows what is best for us.  I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say that I have praised God every day for moving me to 1st grade.  Here are a few of the reasons:

1. I have a truly incredible team to work with!  My 3 teammates and I meet together weekly to share ideas and collaborate for the next week.  They have great resources and creativity to share so we are able to all lighten each others' burdens.
2. The current 2nd graders were a rough bunch that drove away all of the 1st grade teachers last year and continue to be a rough bunch this year.  They would been mine. 
3. My 1st graders are adorable.  Yes, they drive me absolutely insane at times, but when you take a step back you realize they are 6 & 7 year olds.  They are sweet, loving, sincere, and hilarious.  They love to learn and are doing a great job at it!
4. I love what you teach in 1st grade.  I get to see kids come in saying they don't know how to read, and I get to show them that they can.  I teach them the very basics and essentials.  If they can master these things they will be so much more successful for the rest of their educations and even lives.  The light bulbs coming on and the excitement in their faces when they realize how much they have learned keeps me going.

The safari does continue, I've gotten even more into it this year!  We go on all kinds of safaris.  We've had an African safari, Australian safari, and we are currently on our Chinese safari.  My little explorers just eat it up!  And they did so good on their first round of assessments that we had to celebrate.  In Ms. Eastup's class we:

 

Even since school starting I have made sure to continue having some fun on the weekends.  First came the Warrior Dash!!!!  We crawled over cars, through tunnels, climbed ropes, ran up a mountain, crawled through a muddy pit covered with barbed wire, and then leaped over fire!  What a blast!  We definitely earned those viking hats :)

Next, I complete my first triathlon!  I'll say it was quite the experience.   It confirmed that I am not a swimmer.  The training I had done all summer was thrown out the window as I tried to simply survive!  I seriously could not wait to get out of the water.

 

 Thinking the worst was over I excitedly headed towards my bike.  Little did I know another little fiasco was about to unfold.  Once there I quite humorously got stuck in my wetsuit.  I finally got free and hopped on my trusty, vintage bike...the chain falls off.  No worries, two very nice men jump the rescue and send me off again.  

But I immediately know something is wrong.  I was working hard to ride my bike downhill.  After about 4 miles of struggling to go maybe a blazing speed of 5mph, my frustration growing, and all my pride issues suddenly surfacing, I hopped off and ignorantly fiddled with the back tire.  You see, "The Chad" had so kindly "fixed" my tire the night before because I had gotten a flat.  I guess "The Chad" did not put the tire back on correctly and now I was paying for it.  By the grace of God whatever I messed with worked and I was able to enjoy the rest of the ride.  At that point I was so far behind that I decided to just take in the beautiful views of Boulder and make the most of it.  What can you do? 

By the time I got the run I just wanted to run my little heart out, so I did!  Overall takeaways from the race: I'm glad I did it, but I'm definitely a runner.  Maria did great and we thoroughly enjoyed all the cute Aflac goodies.  See, I do it for all the freebies!

About this time brought about even more blessings for the semester.  Two of my dear college friends are now living in Colorado Springs. What a joy it has been to have them around to hangout with, go have fun adventures with, and just have people around that know you well.  Nikki and I fulfilled one of our bucket list items by hiking Pike's Peak.  Here we are at the summit:

The hike brought more of my favorite cairns:

We walked through Devil's Playground:

And such satisfaction of knowing we had accomplished a life goal:

 Most recently I got to go on a pleasant hike with Nikki and Kelly up Raspberry Mountain. 

We went on the perfect weekend to see the Aspens changing!  We don't know Fall in Texas.  I saw Fall for the first time.  Absolutely breath-taking!

I am so thankful for good friends.  It's so good to have them here! 

 Whew...I think that about brings us up to speed.  It brings us to a long weekend where I am finally able to sit, relax, breathe, and rejuvenate for the next quarter.  It couldn't have come at a better time!  I hope you've enjoyed catching up.  I'll try to do a better job of making more frequent, less lengthy posts!

Love Colorado!

For Memorial Day weekend, some friends and I packed up and headed out for some camping.  This was actually my first Colorado camping trip to the mountains!  We went to Ophir Creek, which is a great place to camp and we got the best campsite around in my opinion. 

We got to do lots of hiking and relaxing and had great campfires at night on which our friend, Ed, was so kind to cook up some fabulous dutch oven meals.  Of course camping wouldn't be complete without delicious s'mores!  But you can't have a fire without wood, so I tried out my skills with the saw :)

I must say I think I did a pretty good job of supplying fuel for the fire and earned my stay!
We even got to try out some Bear Grylls moves as we crossed the raging creek several times.  Unfortunately, one fellow hiker didn't quite make it across once and ended up in the creek.

But it was worth it in the end to sit at the base of a waterfall and read.

Following camping I came back to house/dog sit at a house on the northwest side of town.  This gave me a chance to explore some different areas and take in some different views.  I was able to hike right out the back door to enjoy views like this.  Yep, Colorado is great!

I am continually amazed by the beauty of the wildflowers around here.  I thought I'd share some of them :)

God is truly an artist and what a gift to give us such things to admire.

"The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.  Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge.  There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard."  Psalm 19:1-3

The next weekend took me to Steamboat Springs to enjoy even more of this great state.  I won't go into detail about that here because you can read all about it at my other adventurous blog: mangoescapades.blogspot.com Check it out if you haven't already.  More to come soon!

I've since bought a vintage road bike that I'm a big fan of.  It's kind of a necessity when training for a triathlon.  I ride it everywhere; to the pool, store, friends' houses, meeting friends for coffee, etc.  It's much more fun than driving!  And my favorite part is definitely the red and yellow handle bars. 

Speaking of the triathlon, it turns out I'm only good at one event of the tri: running.  I've been trying to learn how to swim athletically.  I'm improving, but it's been rough.  The first day I swallowed A LOT of pool water.  When telling Nikki she so kindly reminded me "people pee in that!!!"  Yes, I know!  And that's some motivation to improve :)

I also had the privilege of hosting the new TFA corps members who are placed here in the Springs next year.  It was great to meet all of them and be able to show them around the town that I have come to know and love.  It's hard to believe that I was in their shoes a year ago with wide eyes and a slight overwhelmed feeling.  They were great and I'm excited for them.  I got to share the joys of making homemade pizza with them too!  With 9 different pizzas I got to see many unique creations.

For those of you not familiar with my kitchen, it's not very big.  There were pizzas everywhere, but so much fun!

There was also a member who is on a gluten free diet.  I decided to embrace the challenge of creating gluten free options and have fun with it.  My favorite was dessert: gluten free brownies.  What replaces the flour?  Black beans!  Yep, black beans in the brownies.  I didn't tell anyone until they had eaten them.  With a couple of scoops of ice cream and some chocolate syrup, they were quite delicious!  You'd never know.

Ok, I think that's long enough for now.  I'm procrastinating on my school work by doing this, so I'm going to cut myself off.  Congratulations on sticking it through and reading all my random experiences.

Family Time!

Like I wrote at the end of the last blog, my family got to come out for the last day of school and then stayed for the following week. I'll admit that I put them to work for the first 2 days, but it was all fun after that! We got to explore and see parts of Colorado that I had not yet ventured into. It was great!

We started local with my new favorite hike of Colorado Springs. It's called 7 Bridges because you literally go over 7 bridges while on the trail. Imagine that! It was gorgeous though and takes you all along a stream flowing down the mountain.

From there we ventured south. We decided to see what all the hype is over The Royal Gorge Bridge. Unfortunately the day we drove down we were experiencing some stronger than typical Colorado winds. Winds gusting over 70 miles an hour knocked out all power to The Royal Gorge Park. Plus I think the winds would have blown us off the bridge. Needless to say, we turned around and headed to Westcliffe, Colorado which had been recommended to my mom on a flight out here. On the way we made a couple of stops that I would recommend. First, we had to pit stop at the Holy Cross Abby Winery. It's a great little place with very tasty, award winning wines! Then we made a detour to see Bishop's Castle.

Now, this was something I had read about but couldn't imagine what it was really like. This man has decided to build a castle by himself and all by hand. It's crazy!

Yes, all made by hand by one man.  If you're ever in the area you need to see it.

View of the mountains from Westcliffe!

After enjoying this spectacle we finally made our way to the quaint town of Westcliffe where we had secured a stay at a bed & breakfast.  What a great decision!  It's called Courtyard Country Inn B & B.  The place was so cute, great owners, delicious breakfast, and so relaxing.  Just check out the relaxation taking place:

At night they light the chimneys and you can enjoy sitting out under the stars.  We will definitely be staying here again!  And while in Westcliffe we would recommend eating at Poag Mahone's.  Staying here also inspired me to open my own B&B one day.  Any suggestions on a location for my B&B would be greatly appreciated!

 After enjoying every bit of our delectable breakfast we headed back to The Royal Gorge for a less windy experience.  It was really cool and quite a site to see.  

 My favorite part was taking the vertical train down in the gorge.

While there Zach also sawed off some horns :)

And we got thrown in jail.  I must say I think I look a bit more intimidating than Zach ;)

Colorado has so much to offer!  And this was only one trip.  There's so much more for me to see!  I'm so thankful for the time with family and being able to enjoy some of the breath-taking beauty this area is blessed with.  

Don't forget to let me know where you think I should open up my B&B!  I'll start looking into realty.

End of School Year

I am long overdue for an update!!! So much has happened, so I am going to slowly add posts starting from the beginning to bring you up to the present.

The school year came to a very successful, bittersweet close. We finished out the year with a field trip to Garden of the Gods. We learned all about what lives there and how those red rocks were formed. The kids had a great time and loved the adventure. But they were probably most intrigued by getting to see rock climbers!

I also can't tell you how many photo shoots I took of them. They were so funny about having their picture taken.

At the beginning of May they got a surprise visit from Mrs. Eastup! They loved having her around and were very good at remembering to distinguish between Ms. Eastup and Mrs. Eastup.

Back in April we started a writing contest across the school. The students competed within their grade level to write the best personal narrative about their favorite sport. Just before school was out we had the Writing Masters Ceremony. My J and Jewels took Gold and Silver respectively!!!! As we walked down the hall after the ceremony I couldn't keep J from jumping up and down and saying "I'm just so excited!" I was soooo proud of them! I love to see their confidence grow as they realize that they really are great writers. J never would have expected himself to take gold. Again, considering that I didn't exactly know what I was doing all year, I can only praise God for the growth I saw from the beginning of the year to the end. I had 0 proficient writers at the beginning of the year and ended with J and Jewels taking home the gold and silver. It's that kind of stuff that keeps me going :)

An elementary year also isn't complete without Field Day! We named ourselves the Green Tigers. We had tons of fun doing relays, jumping hurdles, climbing a rope, running (yes they even raced Ms. Eastup) and winning tug-of-war!!!

Then the last day came. It was full of creating memories, a picnic lunch with the whole Eastup family, reminiscing over all the memories we had shared over the year, and tasty treats! Luckily the last day's lunch included oranges. The kids discovered how hilarious it was to make goofy faces with their orange peels in their mouths. My mom was a great sport taking their pictures over and over again with goofy orange faces. And my dad and Zach were great as my students decided to become the teachers and teach them how we do phonics and math. They LOVED our visitors. The whole day ended with a very compelling, heart-felt speech delivered by Murph-dog. :) With most sincere feeling he expressed how much he had loved the year and some of the great memories he will always cherish with his classmates. Final statement: (hands in the air, down on 1 knee) you guys rock!!!!!!!!!! And with that, I completed my first year of teaching. What a wild ride!

Simple Joys!

The past couple of weeks have been filled simple joys! It started with a delightful Easter picnic at Garden of the Gods. The return of springish weather has reminded me of how lucky I am to live in a place surrounded by such beauty. I also love the people I have here to share such a nice picnic with. It was even complete with a little Easter egg hunt and WAY too much food!















Then we had a treat in our classroom. Last semester, we wrote letters to the kids I worked with in Malawi. They were so kind to write us back! You should have seen how excited my kids were to get the letters. It was fun to see them so eager to write back to their friends half way around the world. That was probably the most excited they've been about writing all year. I showed some of my pictures of Malawi again for the kids that weren't in my class semester. I love sharing more of the world with my kids. One of them even had this realization that "they're kids just like us!" Yes, yes they are :)

The letters also were such a joy for me and made me miss this place. In my mind I was just there, but the letters written back from the current 2nd graders were the kids who were kindergartners when I was there. So crazy! Those kids also have way better handwriting and my kids definitely took note. I think we have abandoned all handwriting instruction here and it's showing.

Last weekend I was so blessed to have a visitor!!! I love visitors :) Candiss came in for the 3 day weekend and we got to enjoy my favorite things about Colorado Springs. We hiked, took lots of pictures of the beautiful creation around us, had a picnic, made homemade pizza, shopped in all the cute shops, ate at some of my favorite places, and even finished off our time together with Mango Tango Pizza!!!!!!! For those of you who don't know, Candiss and I are equally obsessed with mangoes and it's pretty much how our friendship started.

On our first hike we ran across the sign above. Of course being such experienced hikers we thought we knew better :) Haha! We definitely could not get across the ice flow, but we were determined to see the waterfalls. We went back down and went up the other side and it was definitely worth it. This is what we got to see:

A frozen waterfall!!!

You just can't beat quality time with good friends. It was a much needed break and refresher.

School updates: we only have 5 weeks left! I can't believe I'm almost done with my first year of teaching. I definitely have mixed emotions. I'm super excited about having a break, but not ready at all to give up my kids. I feel like this week God gave me an even greater love for them. I was just looking at them on Friday and realizing how precious they are to me. Each one is so unique and I love them each individually for their own reasons. I especially felt an overwhelming love and compassion for I. one day. He has such a hard life and struggles so much with school, but has such a great heart at the same time. He cares deeply for his family and he's just longing for someone to model for him how to act. We celebrated yesterday because he read 28 words in a minute and he started out the year reading 0 words. Praise God for breaking through all the days of frustration and giving him the perseverance to become a reader!

And to wrap it up for now I'll leave you with one of my favorite moments from the past couple of weeks:

I'm giving directions in class one of the days right after I had come back from the DR with a nice tan and B. randomly comes up to me. She touches the skin on my arm and says, "Ms. Eastup you're a different color now. I liked you better the other color." All I could do was laugh. It's good to work in an environment that always keeps you humble :)

I hope that this week you'll recognize and appreciate all of the little joys in your life!

Fun Happenings!

I had been doing so good, but now I apologize for going so long without updating. So many fun things have happened in the past month. I'll start from the beginning.

I ran my first half marathon in Colorado!!! I ran with my friend Maria, and it was her 1st half and my 10th. A celebration for the both of us. We ran in Boulder, which is such a great town. And we endured some pretty brutal weather, but had fun nonetheless.

Then we had Spring Break! I have decided that Spring Break is even far more exciting for teachers than it is for the kids. Just a little while back my roommate and I decided that having such a stressful job called for a real Spring Break. Our solution: book a trip to the Dominican Republic. We could not have been happier with our decision! It was a week of total relaxation, forgetting about my real life, reading, playing sand volleyball, eating as much fresh fruit as I possibly could (they even had mango), and enjoying a little taste of the DR. It was wonderful!

Our resort was nestled in a coconut plantation, so we were surrounded by palm trees.


I got to try sugarcane for the first time. I decided it's delicious!

I just had to include this picture because this is our friend Romeo. He worked on the entertainment team at the resort, and was one of the craziest people I have ever met. He ran around like a mad man all the time. You could always hear him saying, "Oh my god! I love my job!" And this was usually just because he was constantly surrounded by women in bikinis. He also tried to convince both Allison and me of how beautiful mocha babies would be. He provided so much laughter/awkward encounters throughout the week. Here we're enjoying La Fiesta de Coco!

We also took a zip-lining excursion up in the mountains of the DR. We were excited to get to see more of the country and get a better taste of what life is really like there. It was gorgeous! We had so much fun on that trip. The longest zip-line was over a half a mile long right over a river and jungle. I loved it!

This is pretty much my happiness from the week captured in a picture :)
There's nothing quite like a sunrise over the ocean that will make you praise God for his creation and sing Glorious! I got up for sunrise almost every morning and then would go for a run on the beach. Life doesn't get much better than that!

Transitioning back to "my real life" has been pretty rough. My life is always joyful, but I got a taste of pure happiness last week that has been hard to let go of. But it was still great to see my kids again and be refreshed to finish out the year strong. It's going to be over before I know it. My kids brought me a lot of laughter and joy this week as we wrote about pulling pranks and jokes on people in honor of April Fool's Day. And they think they're so funny when they pull their little jokes on you ALL DAY. "Ms. Eastup, there's a bug in your hair! Haha, April Fools!" "Ms. Eastup, I can't find my pencil. Haha, April Fools!" Oh it never gets old.

And most recently, I was reminded of the simple joys of decorating eggs for Easter. So much fun!

I wish you a very Happy Easter!

"For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last He shall stand upon the earth..." Job 19:25