Pinning Ceremony

    I think that over the past few months I have talked so much about my student teaching experience and the upcoming pinning ceremony that I should at least follow through and share some pictures.  This past Saturday we had our pinning at the Hawaii Pacific University Windward Campus which is gorgeous and set facing the Ko'olau Mountain chain.  Here are a few pictures from the day!

Dr. Linda Wheeler placing my Pi Lambda Delta Honor Cords

With my classmate Jenny

After the ceremony with Luke, Eloine, and Jenny

Graduate Elementary Candidates (Kelly, Hazel, me, Diana)

I am now a highly qualified teacher!

Program Defense

     Just a quick refresher: my program is broken up into two parts.  There is the teacher licensure program and then the second part is the masters program.  The bulk of the masters program is the licensure component, but not all of the students go on to get their degree.  Ok, that being explained, last night I had a presentation and a defense of my work in the program.  We presented our work in the program to a panel of 6 professors from the education department.  Following our presentations the professors discussed whether or not to recommend each of us for state licensure.  I am happy to say I successfully defended my work in the program this Saturday I will go through a ceremony during which I will get my honor society cords and a teacher pin. 

Cinco de Mayo

     This past Saturday I celebrated Cinco de Mayo with a great group of friends, old and new.  I hosted a taco night in honor of Cinco de Mayo.  We had a taco bar with plenty of options, festive music (sorry, no live band), and delicious treats.  I made margarita cupcakes and my friend Katie brought over homemade cayenne pepper truffles and fruit salsa.  We ate yummy food until our stomachs were full and visited even longer.  It was really a great night and I loved having friends over.  Thank you to everyone who came and helped celebrate.

     With all the fun I forgot to take pictures.  I just have one which is of the margarita cupcakes.  They were tasty and pretty!

Saying Goodbye

     Friday was my final day of student teaching.  I have been anticipating this day for weeks.  Not because I had a difficult time but mostly because it brings about change in my classes and it marks progress towards my ultimate goal of a degree.  I now only have a paper between me and my diploma, as opposed to student teaching and a thesis. Anyhow, I thought I was looking forward to this day.  However, when it finally came I was sad to say goodbye.  Shauna, my mentor, has been fabulous and I feel like I have learned so much from her.  She is a fantastic teacher for only having six years of experience.  I consider myself very lucky to have learned from her.  My students were amazing, sweet, kind and intelligent children.  I loved getting to know them and building connections with them over the past few months.  In preparation to say goodbye I made funfetti cupcakes for my last day.  That doesn't even compare to the sweet surprises they had waiting for me! 

     Class started pretty typically, although I did notice a few funny glances from the students.  It didn't take long to figure out why.  Two students, Joby and Erika, presented me with a paper lei that they had made for me.  They also handed me a book of notes and cards the students had written for me.  I read them and they made me laugh, tear up, and get sad over leaving.  I was thinking that was it but actually, there was more in store for me! 

     Later in the day, as students were working quietly, all of the sudden one student ran to the front of the room with a paper with a large M and "makes us smile."  Several more students followed suit until they had a long row spelling out "Mrs. McKenzie."  Apparently the students were excited to write a poem about me and present it on my last day.  It was so sweet and a great surprise.  I felt very special and thankful to have spent the past semester with an incredible group.  This truly was a perfect introduction to teaching.

With my class on our last day together

SATEP Complete!

     Any of my Hawaii Pacific University friends will be familiar with the phrase SATEP.  SATEP is our state-approved teacher education program.  This is a 33 credit program through HPU that includes coursework, student teaching experiences, as well as state required testing.  Following the completion of our SATEP, we can apply for state licensure.  The final 9 credits of my MEd program (not all candidates in my cohort are degree-seeking) consist of writing a master's thesis.
     I am so happy to announce that I have completed my SATEP and after paying the licensing fee I will be a licensed, highly qualified teacher in the state of Hawaii!  Yay for hard work paying off! This feels pretty surreal and I can hardly believe I am finally at this point in my program.
     You might be wondering what I will be doing with all of my free time now... There won't actually be much of that in my near future because starting on May 15th I will be writing my master's thesis which I anticipate completing at the end of August.  I am looking forward to this undertaking and this next step in my educational journey.   It will be nice to not commute an hour every day for school and it will be especially nice to write from the comfort of my home; whether that be my comfy bed, the cozy couch, or the sunny lanai.

A Day of Anniversary Celebrations

     I don't think there has ever been any question that my husband is amazing, loving, and spoils me to no end.  Even deployed, an ocean away, Doug managed to make our anniversary special and to remind me of how loved I am.   I also have very sweet friends who stepped right up to help where Doug couldn't be there.
     My morning began with a card from Doug and a voice recording he had left me to wish me a happy anniversary.  So sweet! 

     So I was off to school for the day, typical day.  I opened an email from Joy to find this:

Thank you Joy for the laugh!

After school I got home to a package:

I opened my nicely wrapped gift to find a present from Doug.

    The traditional third anniversary gift is "leather" and Doug ordered me a leather bound book embossed with our name on the front.  There are journal prompts for us to write about our life together.  It is very sweet and a really nice book.  I can't wait to start writing!

Also delivered to our house:

Gorgeous bouquet of pink roses and lilies

     This gorgeous bouquet of flowers arrived accompanied by an anniversary balloon and a little stuff hedgehog (Beatrice didn't want to feel left out).

     Up until now I was feeling very loved and downright spoiled.  However, the night was not over yet! 

     I ended the night with dinner out with a group of lovely ladies.  Joy, Emma, Caitlin, Ashley, and Katie joined me at the Old Spaghetti Factory for a celebratory dinner.  We had a great time and I really enjoyed visiting with friends.

     I think that I mentioned I have an amazing group of supportive friends!  These ladies helped me to celebrate even when Doug couldn't be away.  Emma, Caitlin, and our friend Alyson also gave Doug and I a very thoughtful anniversary gift.  They had a photographer friend in Charleston go and take several photos of the Angel Oak Tree (where Doug proposed to me 4 years ago) and they gave me a print of one of the pictures as well as a CD of the rest so that I can have one blown up on the wall.  This was such a thoughtful gift that really touched me.  I have been looking for nice pictures of the Angel Oak for the past few years and finally have several! Thank you ladies.

Angel Oak Tree- Charleston, SC - Doug proposed to me here on July 19, 2008

     I also want to thank our parents and grandparents for the anniversary cards and mail!  I am very blessed to have such an amazing husband, friends, and relatives.

Third Anniversary

     Happy third anniversary to my best friend and man of my dreams!  I never would have imagined that I could love him even more than I did when we said "I do."  Every day my love seems to grow even more and more.  Although we are apart today, I still want to reflect back on our wedding day.

     It was a beautiful spring day in Vancouver, Washington. 

 The trees were in full bloom....

Doug and I met on the grounds of the George Marshall House on Officer's Row.


George C. Marshall House - Fort Vancouver Officer's Row



Doug and I had an amazing day celebrating our marriage with family and friends alike.

Following our reception Doug and I said goodbye to the guests...

 

And we headed off in a horse-drawn carriage. 

It really was my fairy-tale wedding and everything I had every dreamed of for my wedding day.  Similarly, Doug is the most amazing husband I could have asked for and I feel blessed for the husband that God blessed me with. 

With my last breath, I am yours.

Visit to Japan

     This past month I was lucky enough to travel to Japan to meet Doug at one of their port calls on deployment.  It was an amazing week!  We had a wonderful time together and loved exploring Japan.  Since my first trip to Japan as a teenager I have always wanted to go back.  I love the country and the culture and have always said it was one of my favorite places I have gone.  I would say that my second trip to Japan was even better than the first because I was able to spend it with my husband and I was able to see a new part of the country.

     Here are some of the highlights of my adventure:

     I hopped on a flight, full of excitement, with a group of five wives and two babies.  We flew for 11 hours to Fukuoka, Japan where we caught a bus to Sasebo.  We all had arranged to stay in hotels on the Naval Base and I am not sure I have ever been so excited to sleep in a soft, clean bed!  Following a great night of sleep I woke up excited and ready to go down to the pier to meet the boat.  It was so wonderful to get my first glimpse of Doug and it really was like something out of a movie!  Everything else seemed to go away and I am sure I had the biggest smile on my face!  (Keep in mind, we hadn't seen each other in 3.5 months or even talked in over 2 months!)  Luckily Doug was able to leave the boat pretty quickly and we got to spend the day together talking and sharing everything that had been happening since we had talked last. 
     The rest of the week was just as amazing.  We spent so much time together talking and just being near each other.  We were able to explore Sasebo and we ate several delicious meals!  We even made a day trip to Nagasaki to see the memorials, museum, and peace park in remembrance of the bombing. 

Here are some pictures from our trip:

Paper Cranes at the Nagasaki Memorials



Nagasaki Peace Park Memorial

Chinese Temple in Nagasaki

Together with my love!

Exploring Sasebo

Student Teaching

     The past few months my blog has been pushed to the side and ignored quite a bit.  I have been busy with my semester of student teaching.  Since January I have been teaching full-time in a fourth grade classroom at Ka'ala Elementary School in Wahiawa.  The experience has been great!  I am working with my mentor teacher, Shauna Abiva, to get experience in a classroom.  I spend my time observing Shauna, teaching, and taking on "classroom business" such as attendance and morning business.  Over the past several weeks I have gotten to know my students very well and established relationships with them.  I am learning a lot from the experience and have gained a lot of confidence in my teaching abilities.  It has been nice to practice different strategies and to develop lessons to teach my students.  I am loving my time at Ka'ala and am surprised to see the semester quickly coming to an end.  I have eight days left in the classroom before finishing up my student teaching experience. 
     So, you might be wondering, what's next?  I will be finished with all of my requirements for my teaching license in the state of Hawaii.  The only thing that I have left is my thesis and then I will graduate with a Master's Degree in Elementary Education.  My plan is to write my thesis over the summer and hopefully graduate come August.  It will be a busy summer, following a busy spring, but I am excited for the challenge and looking forward to this next step in my educational journey.

Student Teaching

Wow!  Life is busy!  On January 23rd I started my full-time student teaching in a 4th grade classroom at Ka'ala Elementary School in Wahiawa, Hawaii.  I am in the classroom (with a teacher) Monday through Friday from about 7:00 in the morning until around 3:00 in the afternoon.  I spend my time teaching the students, helping out around the class, and observing "best practices."  I have been building relationships with the students and getting to know them.  They are very well-behaved and my mentor teacher runs a very effective classroom.  It is nice to step-in to a well-run classroom where student learning is the focus.  These students are kind-hearted and very sweet to each other.  Many of them come from backgrounds of poverty or at-risk homes but they come to school eager to learn.  Last week we went on a field trip to the Bishop Museum in downtown Honolulu.  Some of the students have never even left this town, let alone been to such a great museum.  I loved seeing their excitement over the museum and enjoyment of hands-on activities.  Although I am only three weeks into the semester I can safely say this will be a wonderful experience for me and I am already learning a lot.
     In addition to my time in the classroom I have several large projects and homework for my evening class.  Our class is seminar style and we have guest speakers come present about important topics in the field of education such as licensure, Hawaii state highering policies (we are the only state with a single school district so you apply to the state), and equal rights for students.  We also discuss "Practices of Highly Effect Teachers" which I am working on implementing in the classroom. 
    Yesterday I had my first formal observation of the semester.  My professor gave great comments and was very encouraging. 
   My fears of a very busy semester have come true but things are wonderful.  I am doing very well and staying positive.  My time is flying by which I love because before I know it Doug will be home from deployment.

Happy Birthday

Doug and Presents

I just found this picture of Doug on his birthday last year and figured it is perfect to share today :).

Happy Birthday Doug!

Happy 27th birthday to my handsome husband!  Sadly I didn't get to spend the day pampering Doug, baking him his favorite cake, or taking him out to dinner.  However, I did get to email with him a little bit and found out that he really appreciated the cards and gifts that I sent on deployment with him to open for his birthday.  So, thank you to all of the family who sent gifts/cards along for him.  The one real surprise of the day was opening my door to find the florist with a bouquet of birthday flowers - for me?  My mom always says how Doug spoils me and I guess she must be right because I don't many people who get flowers on their husband's birthday.  Thank you to my loving husband!

Mail

One of my favorite things is to get mail.  I love opening up the box and even if I just find advertisements or magazines I get a little happy inside.  When I open the box and find this

I get really excited! Oh, what movie came today?! I guess I am pretty easy to please when it comes to mail.

So, you can online imagine my excitment level when I opened up my mail box this afternoon and found all this!  Oooh cards!  Closer look at the return label and they are cards and postcards from Doug!  I think I hit the proverbial jackpot this afternoon!  I have learned that the little things in life can mean so much and when I go weeks without hearing from my husband this means everything to me!

and... In with the New! Happy New Year!

   As I said in my last blog post, 2011 brought Doug and I so many blessings.  We spent much of the year apart but the time we had together we cherished.  God has really moved in our lives and blessed us over and over.  We are enjoying a wonderful home on the water in Hawaii, we have gotten to explore Oahu through hikes, snorkeling, and swimming adventures, we had a great visit together in San Diego, CA complete with a trip up to Disneyland, became a first time aunt and uncle to our adorable niece Eloine Marie Jaspers, became members at First Presbyterian Church of Honolulu, we took a weekend get-away to Kauai, we celebrated our holidays together early, and we have grown together as a couple.  Although spending time apart is not optimal, I am so proud to say that Doug and I are embracing the adventure life is taking us on.
   I believe that 2012 has so many great things in store for us.  The one I am most excited for is Doug's return from deployment.  Although that is still a ways off I can't wait for the day we are together again.  Also to come in 2012: Doug's promotion to LT, our third wedding anniversary, my graduation from HPU with a master's degree in education, and Doug's rotation from sea duty on to shore duty which will likely move us across the country (again). 
    Along with all of the knowns there are so many unknowns.  I am excited to see what adventures we have in store for us over the year to come.  For now,  I want to wish everyone a very Happy New Year!

Out with the Old....

I can hardly believe that 2011 has come to a close.  Or, that I haven't updated my blog the last two months of the year.  So much has happened since I last posted.  I'll do my best to fill in what has happened over the past two months.
   On October 14th Doug and I got the keys to our house on Ford Island.  We are living in Luke Field Historic Housing.  Our home was built in 1918 and was recently renovated.  Which means two things: 1) we get to enjoy the charms of a historic home including built in shelves scattered around the house, breakfast nook with built in benches in the kitchen, and old plumbing which equals a washing machine in the kitchen AND 2) since our house was recently renovated we get to enjoy really nice new appliances (read: fancy washing machine!).  Anyhow, we moved into a great little house (half of a duplex) at the end of the street.  We have gorgeous, large trees on either side of the house, lots of flowering trees and bushes that smell wonderful, and our living room window faces out over Pearl Harbor.  I feel so blessed and lucky to get to live on the water in Hawaii.
   Shortly after moving to our new house Doug left for three weeks at sea.  He made it back just in time to spend Thanksgiving at home with his parents as company.  Kent and Kathryn visited us for 5 days and during that time we celebrated Thanksgiving, Christmas, Doug's birthday and our anniversary.  It was a whirlwind visit and great to see them and get to show off our new home.  Just two days after K&K headed home to California, Doug headed off to sea on deployment.  We were both sad to say goodbye to each other for so long but are so excited to have this deployment over with and to look towards our future together (more of that in my next blog post).  So, Doug headed off on December 1st and I wrapped up my last week of classes.  Then, it was off to the mainland for me! 
   I just spent 20 days on the mainland and here are some highlights: visited with old friends and celebrated Mike Moran's wedding to wife Becky, spent a long weekend at a time share in Seaside, OR with my mom, Luke, Jenny, Levi, and baby Eloine, traveled to Oroville, CA to spend a weekend with Kent, Kathryn, Mema and Papa (also got to visit Brian & Ashley's gorgeous new home), celebrated Christmas three more times (my dad's house, mom's house, and extended Hurley Family Christmas), skyped with Doug over Christmas as he visited Yokosuka, Japan on port call, and overall had an amazing visit with family.
   Although I was apart from my best friend and love of my life, I have to say that 2011 ended really nicely and I am thankful for all of the blessings I have received over the past year.  I am positive and hopeful as I greet the new year!