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!


Callie and her Jo!

I saw Callie kissing Spiderman...

This is some of the influence that Jo and Taylor have on Callie. :)

Us at Crater Lake.

Us at the campsite!

can i just say that i work for some amazing people?! i was talking to the girls' mom about "crafting" a couple months ago and she offered me whatever fabric i wanted in their basement...i went down to explore during nap time one day and she has entire shelves with whole bolts of fabric on them! now, this may not mean much to you, but to the poor, beginner sewer this is amazing :) we don't have a ton of money to go stock me up on fabric...i know, you're shocked. so i went down today and picked a few scraps of materials that i liked and tried not to be greedy with the beautiful fabrics at my fingertips. it was so much fun!
the people i work for (well, pretty much EVERY family that i've worked for in the past) have been soooooooo generous. i just feel so blessed by these families. not only do i get to take a big part in raising their children, but i feel appreciated and respected and loved by the whole family in return. aka: being invited to birthday parties, staying connected, writing letters with the kids, and incredible surprise gifts of fabric :)
i am going to have so much fun playing with all this fabric and learning new patterns. soooo guess what y'all are all getting for christmas and your birthdays?!?!?!?! :)

my new hobby

ok, making jam is not really my new hobby but i hadn't posted these pictures yet and wanted to before i forgot :)
the beautiful berries before we smashed them all

here we are stirring the berries

ok, ella didn't let me stir

and here is my real new hobby. i'm learning to sew! :) now this is not perfect so don't judge me yet (it's a pincushion just in case you couldn't figure it out). i haven't sewn anything since my sophomore year of highschool and i wouldn't even boast about that. but since brandon seems to always have something to do in the evenings, i wanted something productive to do. enter: sewing projects. i have a TON of stuff on my list of things i want to try. i'm super excited!! ohhhh the possibilities :)

just a short post...we are still here. just busy :) here's a pic of us at Ella's birthday party last weekend.

Brandon has been studying like a mad-man. i just got a sewing machine! (early b-day present) and am having sooo much fun playing around with it. maybe i'll be brave and post a picture of stuff i've done soon...maybe.
hope y'all are doing good! we'd love to hear what's going on with all of y'all sometime!

summertime

this has been the first week of summer for me and the girls. preschool officially got out last thursday and that means that i have both of the girls all day until next fall :) needless to say, we have been suuuuuuper busy. i find myself a lot more tired in the evenings but it's been super rewarding as well. it's pretty much nonstop from 8am till i get off at 6. here are a few pics of us at the park today.






as i look at these pictures i can feel that my heart is beginning to really bond with the girls. how can i not love looking at those smiles :)

More Dancing!!

Last week there was a little parade in the neighborhood. the bands were just so good, the girls couldn't keep still! :)

dancing!

this is a video I took of Olivia this morning. wish I had her moves :)

Long time, no post

So I guess I'm down to only posting twice a month now :) It seems our life is just not exciting enough to post much more often than that. Seriously...sometimes I try and think of things to post but then I remember that you would probably get tired of hearing "..and today I went to work. Brandon went to class and to work. And now we're home eating dinner, talking, and maybe watching a movie..." See. I rest my case :)
Actually this last weekend I was able to take a lovely vacation down to Texas to see some of my dearest friends. One great thing about being a nanny is that when the family takes vaca, so do I! It was a great opportunity to relax in the heat, be refreshed with good friends, and eat LOTS of chick-fil-a. I left Brandon here all by himself, but instead of posting about his lonliness (like I did a few weeks ago) he rested and caught up on a lot of homework. :) Here are a few pics from my trip:

here I am on the 2nd night in Texas. Amy and I rented movies the first two nights and decided to splurge a little on the treats...I look so happy surrounded by junk food.

These 2 girls on either side of my are 2 of the most Godly and exceptional women you will ever meet. much of who I am, I owe to these ladies. (left-Amy right-MaryBeth)

On Friday, Amy and I ate at a cute little cafe in Dallas for lunch called Bread Winners.

Afterwards, we headed to this sweet cupcake shop for a sampling of their treats :) we also shopped a couple of super cute boutiques

Mary and I at the "BCS Cheerleader Reunion Party" :)

I used to cheer with most of the girls in this picture. We were all, at some point, cheerleaders at my old school in Texas. Our coach, Leigh (front row, middle) was sweet enough to host this gathering of girls. There is something so special about this group. After so many years (10, 11? wow) we were all still able to come together, talk about what God is doing in our lives and joke around like we were sisters. It was such a good time and was so fun to relive old stories again. One of the girls even brought an old scrapbook with some not-so-flattering pictures of old cheering days. I was super blessed by getting to be there and just basking in the comfort of "old" friends. Good times.



Of course, I was eager to come home to Brandon and get back to a routine. It's always nice to sleep in your own bed again. This week has been pretty usual for us. I enjoy our usual though. It may not be exciting enough to blog about, but I wouldn't have it any other way right now. Tomorrow is supposed to be gorgeous (for about the 10th day in a row!!!) so we plan on hanging outside while Brandon gets his homework done, then dinner with friends and going to a production of "The Wizard of Oz". I'll post pictures if you're lucky :)

All Alone

that's me this weekend... Brandon left yesterday afternoon for the land of the Rockies to be with his family while his brother graduates. It will be a great, although short, trip. He arrives back in Portland on Sunday night. I pray that his time is sweet and not too rushed.
that leaves me all alone this weekend. I already miss my husband (i know...i'm a sissy). But I am excited to be super productive this weekend. it's supposed to be in the 80's all weekend, so i have a little bit of spring cleaning fever. planning to air out/clean the apartment, grab some coffee, spend some time reading/sunning in the park, and watching a girly movie tonight. Oh, and last night i got to babysit for Titus so his mom and dad could spend a couple of hours alone. Titus, my friend Anna, and I ate dinner and watched a movie. so fun!
Brandon, you are very missed, but i think i'll actually be able to survive the 2 days :) love you.

Grand Lodge

Last week Brandon and I decided (very last minute) to book a nights stay at McMenamins Grand Lodge for the weekend. It was lovely. We both needed to get away and take time to relax. We grabbed coffee at a local shop, sat in the soaking pool, and took time to read. We were able to connect and talk and just hang out. The McMenamins Hotels are so unique and fun to visit (not to mention cheap!). Here are a few pictures from our trip. enjoy!

the front of the hotel

can you believe that we got to stay in the Tolkien room?! :) Brandon was so excited!

us next to Mr. Tolkien



the entire hotel has random murals EVERYWHERE! on the pipes, walls, doors...

the "soaking pool"..aka big hot tub :)