rain smells so good

For pretty much the entire past week and a half, we have had unbelievable weather here in Portland. It's been beautiful, sunny, blue skies and just about 60 degrees every day...actually reminds me a lot of Colorado. Needless to say, I have just been soaking it all in. Every chance that Livi and I have, we are outside at the park, taking a walk, etc. It's been wonderful to just get out and get some excersize and fresh air. And now the cherry blossoms are starting to bloom...might be my favorite tree.

That said, I kind of forgot how good the rain smells. Today it's cloudy and a little rainy and after not having the rain for a while I was really able to smell how good it was. It's refreshing and clean. I think it makes me a little nostalgic. This week, especially, I've been thinking about how excited we are for this new time in our life: getting to finally meet our new baby girl, Brandon being done with school, Brandon starting a new job, moving back to Colorado. So many changes within a few months! But at the same time I think of how it makes me just a little sad that we will be completely abandoning the life that we have now had for the last 4ish years: just the two of us to worry about living in our tiny 1 bdrm apartment, walking to coffee whenever we feel like it, eating at our favorite Thai place, sharing life with the dear friends that we've made in "our" town. We have had so many good times and made so many memories here in Portland. I will definitely miss it. I'm sure once the time is here for us to go through all of these changes I will be completely ready to jump in to this next stage and embrace all the new blessings that God has for us. Until then I need to be patient: enjoy all the jumping around and squirms I feel daily in my belly, enjoy the quiet evenings with Brandon doing homework and me having time to do what I please, enjoy my last few months nannying, enjoy the rain and cherry blossoms.
Anyways, I will be going to Colorado this weekend for a baby shower :) I'm so excited to see my family and friends. Hopefully I'll remember to take some pictures. Brandon will be super busy here presenting a paper for one of his classes. And then the next weekend is Brandon's 28th birthday!!! Can't wait to celebrate him and the amazing man that he is. Seriously, he's the man.
:)

Anybody still there?

I'm not sure if anyone even comes here anymore. I know it's been a long time. I don't really have any reason for not writing other than I wasn't feeling inspired and didn't feel like we had a lot to post about. But I think I'd like to start again. I kind of miss updating the posts and writing random things. So hopefully, I haven't lost everyone's interest! Hopefully there are still some people out there who want to look at random pictures :)
I guess I'll update you on the last *cough* 4 or 5 months! ahh! can't believe it's really been that long. Well, I'm still pregnant :) haha. I'm at 26 weeks now (almost to the 3rd trimester!). It's really hard to believe that in only a few short months we will have a beautiful new addition to our family. We are so excited! We're in the middle of our Bradley Birthing classes and are having fun thinking about her finally being here. (this is from about 24 weeks(?) needless to say, i'm a little big bigger now!)
Brandon is in his last semester on school!!!!! YIPPEE!!!! He is so amazing at everything he does and really puts everything he has into it. His lead-teacher has been very supportive of him and has really encouraged him that he is awesome in the classroom. He is going to be a great teacher and we're excited for him to finally graduate!
so yea, I think that's it, in a nutshell. Hopefully y'all all haven't given up on me yet :) I'll be back soon.

going to let the cat out of the bag....

Yup, it's true. I'm pregnant! Baby DelGrosso is due May 28th. I'll blame my lack of posting on this HUGE secret that I've been trying to keep :) All of these great pictures were taken by our sweet friend, Jessica, who did an amazing job.
Enjoy!

yay for the weekend!

I was so ready for Friday to come this week! (ok, who am i kidding? i'm always excited for Fridays :) )
We have had some unbelieveable weather here lately! Fall is here! The air has been crisp but we've still had the sun every day along with 80 degree temps. i love it!
On Saturday we were able to go to lunch with some great friends of ours-the Epps. We took them to the Grilled Cheese Grill!

they have some really great specialty grilled cheese sandwiches and an awesome atmosphere. We really love hanging out with those guys and especially getting to love on little Titus.

(I took this from their blog) I always kick myself for not taking more pics.
after lunch, we went home to get ready for a wedding that we attending later in the evening. A girl that B goes to school with got married. again, i wish i had my camera. the wedding was outside and so pretty! picture them getting married with a backdrop of evergreens, the sun shining through, and her colors were maize, orange, pink, and chocolate brown. it was gorgeous.
And now we're doing laundry, writing lesson plans (B-not me), and watching some Sunday football. Life is good :)

Another Project

While I was visiting my friend, Joanna, in Pennsylvania a couple of weeks ago, she told me how she couldn't find any placemats to fit her table (a small, square, pub-style). Well, she was brave enough to let me practice my sewing skills on her! We went shopping for a little fabric while I was there and she later sent it to me along with some dimensions.
again, sorry for the crappy pictures! the placemats have a different fabric on each side. i loooooove the orange side :)

what it would look like on her table

and i had a little bit of leftover fabric so i made a little pouch. not sure what she's going to use this for...but who can't use another pouch?! :) jk i don't know what i'm saying.


thanks again, Jo, for letting me practice on you!!!! i love you. you're the coolest.

nap time

yup, it's nap time. the sun is shining and i am cherishing the last few minutes of silence. thought i'd share a fun little survey :)

Here’s how it works: USE ONLY ONE WORD!
It’s not as easy as you might think. Copy and change the answers to suit you and pass it on. It’s really hard to use only one-word answers.

1. Where is your cell phone? side
2. Your hair? layers!
3. Your mother? faithful
4. Your favorite food? Mexican
5. Your dream last night? sad
6. Your favorite drink? coffee
7. Your dream/goal? heaven
8. What room are you in? kitchen
9. Your hobby? crafting
10. Your fear? spiders
11. Where do you want to be in 6 years? mom
12. Where were you last night? church
13. Something that you aren’t? adventureous
14. Muffins? blueberry
15. Wish list item? secret
16. Where did you grow up? Texas
17. Last thing you did? ate
18. What are you wearing? sweats
19. Your TV? heavy
20. Your pets? none :(
21. Friends? everywhere
22. Your life? blessed
23. Your mood? peaceful
24. Missing someone? hubby
25. Vehicle? broken
26. Something you’re not wearing? shoes
27. Your favorite store? Target
28. Your favorite color? blue
29. When was the last time you laughed? today
30. Last time you cried? August
31. Your best friend? hubby
32. One place that I go to over and over? Starbucks
33. One person who emails me regularly? Jack
34. Favorite place to eat? couch


Happy Monday everyone :)

Baby Quilt

My dear friend, MaryBeth, is pregnant and due on Oct. 28th. I'm so so so happy for her and can't wait to meet her sweet baby girl!!! Well, since I've been wanting to practice my sewing skills, I embarked on making a baby quilt. It's a "rag quilt" and luckily, great for beginner sewers, such as myself. Here are a few pics. and please don't judge the quilt by my poor photography...it actually is really cute in person :)
a close up

the front

the back

little things

On Saturday B and I made homemade pizza and it was soooo good! and it was just so pretty that i had to take a picture of it :)

I also have been having so much fun sewing! I am really enjoying finding patterns, being creative, and seeing something useful come out of it! Joanna gave me a couple of little projects to work on, but I'll let her see those before I post pictures of them. So yesterday, I decided that since it felt like fall outside that I needed to make myself a new "fall-ish" tote :) my camera ran out of battery so this is the only picture I have so far. Enjoy!

Happy September!

(photo by www.portlandground.com)
Does this mean that fall is coming soon?? I dont' know if I'm ready for that yet. It feels like summer has only just begun and I'm definitely not ready for the sun to go away! Summer is definitely my favorite season...mostly because of being out in the sunshine, getting a tan, iced coffee, and the sunshine :)

However, Portland in the fall is such a beautiful time of year! I officially had my first pumpkin spice latte. it was delicious! makes me look forward to the start of Christmas music, apple/pumpkin picking, the holiday seasons, and taking a nap on sunday afternoons while B watches football. So, I guess there are great things to every season (in life as well).

Happy September Everyone!

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!