Pray for Peyton

CJ's old recruiting partner, Trevor and his his wife Brittney are going through a really challenging time. Their daughter Peyton (2.5) got Ecoli which has caused Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome, while visiting an animal petting farm. She has been in Doernbecher for 12 days and still hasn't been released. Please keep little Peyton and the Janeck family in your prayers.

ubi caritas

ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est.
congregavit nos in unum Christi amor.
exultemus, et in ipso iucundemur.
timeamus, et amemus Deum vivum.
et ex corde diligamus nos sincero.

for a girlfriend who needs this right now

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~