A Reunion of Sorts

I was quite nervous to attend my ten year high school reunion. I had an "interesting" high school experience as most people did. I attended LaSalle High School for the first two years. During my sophomore year I was pretty sick with an ovarian cyst and mono. I also had a boyfriend who attended Milwaukie HS. I transferred to Milwaukie at the start of my junior year thinking it would be awesome. Well, it was and it wasn't. Said boyfriend and I broke up and I had to find a whole new set of friends. Although I enjoyed both schools and made friends pretty easily, it was still a challenge. LaSalle was great because most everyone was coming there from a different junior high since it was a private high school. We all had to create new relationships. On the contrary, MHS had its core group of friends in my class. Coming in during the third year of HS made it pretty tough to break in. Although I was on dance team and became friends with a lot of the "in" group, it wasn't easy. When I graduated I was excited to move on. For the kids at MHS that were attending college they were either going to private school or Oregon State {insert yuck face!} I was super excited to leave high school behind and go to UO.

During college and post college I would run into some peeps here and there as well as "friend" them on Facebook. I knew what people were up to and they knew what I was up to. That seemed like enough to me. I was happy they were happy and hopefully they were happy I was.

Skip ahead 10 years and I have two reunions I have been invited to. MHS's reunion was held in June at the Rose Room at the Rose Garden. I did not want to go. I did not think I had good memories of HS. I hummed and hawed about going until CJ finally said, "yes, you are going! You will kick yourself for not going." And, he was right. I had a blast. I realized I had a great high school experience. I had friends, a full social calendar, I was prepared for college, and should not have felt nervous at all. It was so great to run into my old friends. Yes, there definitely was an OSU click that gave me a hard time but I remember why I enjoyed so many of the people that went there. I was so impressed with what they are doing with their lives and how they are giving back to the community. Nurses, teachers, counselors, business owners, engineers, pharmacists, and social workers to name a few! I even reconnected with some of the girls I loved in HS. I look forward to our next reunion but have faith that I will be seeing some of my friends sooner than that.

LaSalle's reunion is in September at Kennedy School.... hmm, do I go? :)

Happy, Happy Birthday CJ!

Cheers to my sweet husband CJ who is turning 29 today! I look forward to celebrating many more birthdays with you.

Tonight we are going to Bridgeport Brewery with 20 of our friends! It will be a great time. I even had a fabulous Oregon Duck cake made for the occasion by my friend Kyrie. Funny story, I actually grew up with Kyrie from the time she was very little. She and my sister were great friends and I actually babysat her and her brother. Now she is all grown up and a baker! She is so cute and talented :)

I will post pictures after the fun night, but for now I thought I would share this:

{My favorite picture of the birthday boy, ever!}

Summer Reading

I have read some great books this summer. A few for teaching and a few for personal enjoyment. For my fellow teachers, here are some great books:

Teach Like a Champion by Doug Lemov

Reaching All by Creating Tribes Learning Communities by Jeanne Gibbs

Teaching Outside of the Box: How to Grab Your Students by Their Brains by LouAnne Johnson {Author of the book that inspired the film Dangerous Minds}

The Read Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease

So, after all of the school reading I have read I needed some light pleasure reading. My friend Reagan told me about the series by Charlaine Harris. Her books inspired the HBO series True Blood. Her first book is called "Dead After Dark." There are 10 books in this series. They are fast reads and are very addicting. They are the adult version of the Twilight series. WOW! Crazy, passionate, murder, and filled with vampires. I am usually not into fantasy but these are good!

Ahhh, reading! How I love you~

It is official!

So, I can finally blog about this~ I was hired full time at Rosedale Elementary as a first grade teacher. I have had to keep my mouth closed since the beginning of May when I was given a permanent contract with the district. Since the district {and the entire state} had to figure out money/funding/positions, etc. my principal didn't want me telling a lot of people. I felt/still feel extremely honored to have been hired in such dire times.

I am super excited to be back at the school I was at this year, work with amazing people, and learn the ins and outs of first grade. My co-teacher, JoAnn, is FABULOUS and I cannot wait for all the fun we are going to have.

When I found out and signed my contract back in May my parents and CJ sent me these beautiful bouquets.

BEEEEEEELIZE!

Please come soon. CJ and I need you to be here!

OK, enough whining but we really cannot wait to go to Belize in August! We are so looking forward to spending 12 days on the tropical shores of Belize. We are heading there to celebrate our 5 year wedding anniversary and to get away by ourselves. The last trip we took just the two of us to somewhere tropical was Maui in Oct. 2008! It is time to escape. We will be staying 6 days in Belize City and 6 days on the island Ambergris Caye.

Doesn't this look breathtaking? {This is Ambergris Caye}

So, people have asked "why Belize?" I answer back, "why not?" No, but really we wanted to go somewhere warm but we have done Mexico quite a few times. We went to Costa Rica for 2 weeks for our honeymoon and have always wanted to go here. CJ and I are both licensed scuba divers and they have one of the top 5 reefs for diving in the world. I also thought that since it is situated south of Mexico and East of Guatemala that it would be nice for us to have CJ there since he speaks Spanish fluently. I was surprised to find out that it is a British Colony and the majority of the natives speak English or Creole. There is some Mayan influence but it also has a lot of European and African descendants.

I am super excited to see the Mayan Ruins that date back to 600 BC. I also am looking forward to snorkeling, diving, a massage, visiting the Baboon Sanctuary {which protects over 1000 Black Howler Monkeys} and much more.

When we get back I will post the pictures and tell you of our fun journey~

Camping is a way of life!

CJ and I love to camp. We have gone on three long camping weekends since Memorial Day. We love to find new places to explore, hike, build a great campfire, and enjoy the Pacific Northwest. Rarely, and I mean rarely do we stay in a state campground because we so enjoy being out in the wilderness. We did however stay at a group site with peeps from our kickball team. We stayed on the Santiam River at Cascadia St. Park. We had such a great time! It was sooo pretty there. Yes, there were park rangers, yes there were other campers, but it was still fun. Here are a few pictures:

We hiked up to Soda Creek Falls- super pretty!

CJ on our hike

The view from inside our tent!

Our end of camp

Tate found his way on top of our bed :)

Bailey licking her lips after finding some yummy morsel.

We were lucky to have been told about the place in Prineville that I blogged about early this summer. We went there again for the 5 days over the Fourth of July. It sits on the outskirts of the Prineville Reservoir. There is no dock nearby so we had to drop our boat off at the state park and drive it in which took about 15 minutes. From the state park it takes another 15 minutes to drive on a very windy, dirty, gravel road. Once you get there though, it is heaven! It is so peaceful and quiet. Well, until we get out of the car that is! We had a great time with our friends, Emily, Reagan, Eric, and Matt. We also had our three dogs and Daisy (a 110 pound American Bulldog!)

The rocks CJ jumped off of...

Campsite

The whole gang (L-R: Matt, Eric, Reagan, Emily, Amy, CJ, and all of the dogs!)

Ems and I

CJ getting more ice~ we went through a lot of it!

The campfire provided hours of entertainment for the boys

Our boat at dusk

Visit to Boise, Idaho

Back in March my dad and I drove to Boise to visit my grandmother Jeanne. She has been ill and they moved her into a retirement community at the age of 89! Up until this winter she has remained very active in the community as a floral judge, Boise State Alum {who never misses a home game}, and hanging out with her friends. When her heart started giving her trouble she was admitted to the hospital. She was in and out a few times and we thought we were going to lose her. Thankfully she is doing much better and enjoying her new home. Here are a few special pictures to me that I thought I would share with you.