The DelGrossos: August so far...

I am actually writing because August has been an amazing month so far. There is nothing like actually having a month off of class and being able to recharge my batteries. It started off with our anniversary trip to Crater Lake which was a great time except for the last night (which ended up with rain and lightning). You can see Callie's Facebook for pictures on our trip. It took me nearly the entire trip to finally get into rest mode because I had a hard time not reading or writing lesson plans. Crater Lake was a beautiful site though! Some of the blues we saw in the lake were amazing and the pictures cannot do them justice.

Since we've been back I have been enjoying only working 20 hrs. a week and doing a little bit of reading on my own. I also have caught up on some movie watching to keep resting myself up. This is the calm before the storm. Despite the last 7 months of crazy busyness, the next upcoming season of busyness will be a lot longer and a lot busier. I start my student teaching on Sept. 2nd during which I will be taking one class at Western and one class at Multnomah (my teaching degree) and I will be working 20 hrs. a week. The Spring term I will quit Western (work) and take on full-time student teaching and I will only be taking classes at Western as well. The good news is that at the end I will actually graduate, rather than just push for a month off period. I will graduate from Western at the end of April and then from Multnomah 3 weeks later, but I will continue to student teach until mid-June.

I just met my first cooperating teacher and found out that I am going to be teaching 7th grade Social Studies for 3 periods and I will be teaching Medieval History. This is a sigh of relief because I am pretty sure I only plan to teach in a high school setting, so middle schoolers are not my comfort zone, but medieval history was my emphasis in college so I feel more confident with the content. My cooperating teacher should be great, he is a newer teacher (4 yrs exp) and has a lot of passion for kids and his subject.

We are also looking for a car because I need to drive to Vancouver every day to do my student teaching. The one car, and amazing Portland public transit, cannot get up to Vancouver unfortunately. We were given a car from some people but it ended up having such an engine issue that it was worth more to scrap it than to fix it. Hopefully we will find something soon. It seems hard to take on a car payment just before I begin not working but God has provided for us this far and enough so that we can take on a small payment. Plus, my good buddy has helped me figure out what we could afford with his banking expertise (thanks TJ)! Hopefully this car will not give us any issues and our Civic continues to run well.

Our trip to Crater Lake was the tail end of Callie's full week of vacation. The first part of her week was spent in Beaver Falls, PA (just outside Pittsburg) with Joanna and Taylor. Callie had an amazing time recuperating with old friends and being encouraged. Those two are amazing friends to Callie and it was a blessing to have her get out there and spend time with them. It was also a blessing for me so that I could devote time to finishing my homework. Although I would have rather spent time in Penn with Callie.

Callie is continuing to sew a lot with her new sewing machine (birthday present). She is loving her new hobby and I am loving it too because when we went to Goodwill today I could grab some great pants (J Crew) for cheap that fit me around the waist but were a little too long. She is going to try her hand and hemming for the first time this week.

Callie and I celebrated our 3rd anniversary with a night together cooking and hanging out. It was nice because we have not been able to spend that quality time together for the last 7 months. We cooked this amazing recipe that we found on FoodNetwork and Callie exclaimed "This might be the best dish I have ever tasted." We enjoyed cooking together and just sitting, eating, and talking together. What a great night! Callie is the most amazing woman and truly is a blessing to me and God's gift to me. I love getting to reflect back and think about the ways God has blessed us over this past year and how God has again blessed me with a godly woman who works so hard and walks with me through this busy time.

Below are some pictures in case you do not have Facebook. Enjoy!!! Hopefully we will be blogging a little bit more now that things have slowed down. :)

My dad also came out the weekend before I finished classes and taught me to fly fish. My buddy Ryan (in the picture) and his dad also came. We only caught a few minnows but it was a truly great time. It was great to see my dad as well!