K is for Kindergarten (and other letters are for other things)

I finally rediscovered my long lost blog.

Ok, it wasn't lost. I failed miserably at being a blogger. Want to know why? Well first,  Summer ended and that meant that things get crazy as a teacher for the beginning of the year. The last time my blog followers (all five of you, haha) heard from me, I was a substitute teacher with a new house, a plumber husband and a ridiculously huge tent.

Boy, have things changed! Don't fret, the tent part is the same. And the house. But here are the recent* happenings. *By recent, I mean in the last year.

1) I became a kindergarten teacher. Yeah, me. I teach kindergarten. Let's be honest. If any of you asked me a year ago what grade I wanted to teach you probably heard the words "not kindergarten" come out of my mouth first. God has a sense of humor, though, doesn't He? He provided an opportunity for me to step into a half day PM kindergarten teaching position about two weeks after school started. I would be sharing a classroom with another half day teacher, and working with another full day Kindergarten teacher. Within the first week of my teaching half day, the AM teacher took a job at another school....so I inherited an AM class too! So I went from subbing to half day kindergarten to full day kindergarten in a matter of 10 days or so. Whew! What a whirlwind that was. My learning curve was more drastic than you ever could have imagined. AND I LOVE KINDERGARTEN. They seriously rock my world. Those little 5 and 6 year olds are a blessing to me each and every day. With only 10 days of school left in our school year, I'm wondering where the time has gone, but I wouldn't choose another grade for my first year as a full time teacher.

2) We got a dog. His name is Jeff. He lights up my life. He's a Border Collie mix (said the Humane Society) and we got him when he was 2 months old:

The poor little guy came to Portland from California, got fixed, saw his brother get adopted, and got adopted himself within a few days. Along with all that, this little pup had kennel cough too. When we saw him he just wanted to nuzzle our hands, and we couldn't pass him up. I wanted him bad. Now he's almost a year old:

His ears don't flop over as much anymore...the right one sticks straight up and the left only flops a little (sometimes forward, sometimes backward). He likes to sit on the back of the couch and watch out the window, steal my spot in bed when I get up in the morning, cuddle while I watch TV, go on walks, play with the neighbor dog, dig under the fence to get her, chew toys, "roll over," eat ice, jump on people when they walk through the door (we're working on that one), ride in the car, poop where we just picked it up, and wrestle with Dad (Josh). He wants to be a good boy, but sometimes he forgets what that looks like, and I think he loves us as unconditionally as we love him.

3) Josh became not only a journeyman plumber, but a business owner. That's right, meet Cameron Contractors, LLC. If I was any more proud of my husband, I might burst. He has worked is little booty off getting this thing going. Man-oh-man, I don't know how he does it. He get s a vision, and he finds a way to make it happen. If only I had that kind of drive... And he got his General Contractors license, so he can do so much! Seriously, if you're looking for someone to do some work for you - from plumbing to remodels - Josh is your guy! And if you get him in the summer time, you might be lucky enough to get some work from me too. I make a great apprentice for him :)

That's all the updating I have for now. Josh is on his way home, and he's taking me to sushi....YES! I love that man.

Oh, and I got a sewing machine, but it's report card time and my brain has officially fried at this point, so I'm done sharing :)

B is for Books

4 Books 
*I'm choosing 4 that I think can be beneficial to anyone. Really, give them a try :)

1) The Bible. I know it sounds cliche, but it's my lifeline. It didn't used to be, but as I get older, I realize I learn so much from it.

2) Captivating by John and Stasi Eldredge. 

3) Love and Respect by Dr. Emerson Eggerichs

4) Jesus Calling by Sarah Young

F is for Foods

5 Foods

1) Sushi. I love love love LOVE sushi. So much.

2) Mexican. Authentic or not, I love it the same.

3) Spaghetti. It's my go-to when I don't know what else to make.

4) Steak.

5) 

W is for Wants, P is for Places

So this time, not posting on the right day is really silly, because I actually had it done a day early. Oh well.... Here are Days 4 and 5 (together).

7 Wants

1) To love and be loved.

2) To be successful. Whatever that means.

3) An office space in my house. We're working on it, and I promise, I'll post pictures of the process and finished product.

4) Green grass. Our's is currently brownish, with thousands of weeds. We're working on that too.

5) To go on a shopping spree. If only money grew on trees.

6) To be healthier. I somehow lost sight of what is important to me in the past few years: mentally, physically, emotionally. But, good news, I'm working on that too. Slowly but surely I'm getting back on track.

7) A dog. Preferably one like this:

Photo borrowed from Ivy Hill

Pretty Please?

6 Places
1) I'm currently obsessed with my neighborhood. Today my neighborhood had a 4th of July Kids Parade. There were more people in the parade than watching the parade, which made it all the more fantastic. I saw students I used to work with, the Superintendent of Vancouver Public Schools, a principal I've worked with, and my dentist - Dr. Adam, all IN the parade. I also saw the Skinner family, a former co-worker of Josh's, and many others. I think the best was Dr. Adam marching along in the parade, seeing as how he's about 7 feet tall.
2) Salmon Creek Trail is gorgeous and so fun to walk/ride.
3) Maui. I'm missing it like crazy. Josh, let's go back?
4) Seattle. We're coming up on our 2 year anniversary. Josh proposed on the lookout deck at the Space Needle, so it will forever be a special city to us.
5) The Oregon Coast. I love the beach!
6) Portland. Who doesn't love Portland? Plus, I just saw on Kathie Lee and Hoda that it has the most Happy Hours. I think that's what they said anyway. I just remember them being surprised that it was Portland and not somewhere on the East Coast. Obviously they haven't spent much time in P-town.

L is for Loves...and F is for Fears

I failed already at that 10 Day You Challenge...so I'll make up for it by doing Days 2 and 3 in one post.

9 Loves
1) God. With everything I have.
2) My husband, Josh. He is a rock, works ridiculously hard at work (and comes home to work even more most days), and is a Godly man who seeks after the Lord. He's also a loving father who cares deeply for his family and friends.
3) My family...every single one of those crazies! Just kidding, they're not that crazy.
4) My friends.
5) Laughing.
6) The Pacific Northwest.
7) Reading
8) The Olympics...I've been obsessed with the trials these last few weeks. Can't wait for the actual Games to start!
9) Home projects with Josh. I first discovered that I loved remodeling projects when Josh asked me to help him on a couple side jobs he was doing for friends. He taught me to demo, drywall, tile, and all about different tools. I've learned more about plumbing than most 27 year old women will probably ever know in their lifetimes. He and I work ridiculously well together on house projects, and we're so excited to finally have our own house to do projects on. Your own projects are much more fun than others' projects!

8 Fears
1) Being alone. Not alone for a day, but alone for a lifetime.
2) Spiders. I don't know if this is necessarily a fear, but I really really really hate spiders. And I don't usually use the word "hate" because it's a nasty word that's used too much.
3) The dark. Yes, I'm afraid of the dark.
4) Rejection.
5) Losing loved ones.
6) Failing at teaching.
7) Scary movies.
8) Never really knowing myself.

S is for Secrets

Not too long ago, I ran across the Christian wife life blog. I think this blogger, Ashley, is hilarious, inspiring, relate-able, and has some good wisdom. One of her blogs a long long time ago was the 10 Day You Challenge. I'm attempting to do this challenge because I think it would be fun and I might learn a little bit more about myself in the process.

So, here's Day 1 (or Day 10...?)


10 Secrets
1) I wish I was a dancer. I'd go on So You Think You Can Dance.
2) My worst subject in school is History/Social Studies. Funny that as an elementary school teacher, I know have to teach it. I learn about it along with the kids.
3) I love storage containers. I look in the storage container isles, and covet all of it.
4) Josh thinks I'm a good cook, but really, all I do is follow recipes to a T.
5) I hate it when adults wear Disney attire. And adults should never were SpongeBob attire either.
6) I try to seek after the Lord in everything, but it's really difficult, and I often fail
7) When I read, I get so caught up in the stories that I forget I'm not a character in them. Only sometimes. Or a lot.
8) I get motion sickness on swings. Like regular swings on playgrounds that go back and forth.
9) When I have to kill a spider by myself, I think I might vomit.
10) I don't have a hobby. Recently I was asked what I do for fun for myself, and I didn't have an answer. I have no idea what I truly love doing and can't live without. I'm working on figuring that out though.


I guess some of these are more secretive than others, and probably all of my readers (all 4 of them) probably already know all of my "secrets."


Check back tomorrow for 9 loves...

T is for Tent

After perusing through my old blog posts, I noticed that I failed to give the story of finding our monster of a tent, which I promised in C is for Camping.

Last summer (2011), Josh and I were in desperate need of a tent. We were determined to not have to borrow any camping gear for Family Camp, so we researched the crap out of any and all camping gear to find the best deals possible. The only thing we veered from our research on was The Tent. Once you read the story, you'll understand why The Tent has a capital "T."

We don't go to Cabela's often because it is a little spendy for our budget, plus it's not super close to where we live. But, the weekend we went up to Seattle for Josh's graduation* we stopped at Cabela's on the way home. At Cabela's, they have a "Bargain Room" which contains returned items, display items, clearance items, etc. We though to ourselves "Hmm, maybe there'll be a good deal on a tent!" Believe me, there was a good deal on a Tent. We found one that was rolled up and held together with packing tape. Sounds kind of ghetto, but the tag said there were no rips or tears and that the poles were all there. We wanted to know what the Tent looked like, so we asked one of the workers if she could look it up online for us. The tent she looked up (based on the number on the tag) was a pretty decent sized tent, that normally costs about $180. So for $80, we figured it was a great deal, and bought it. Unfortunately, I can't find a picture of that tent she showed us now...

The next day we were at my parents' house celebrating Father's Day. They have a big backyard, the Tent was still in our trunk, and we decided to try setting it up so we weren't surprised when we took it camping. We also wanted to see the actual size and show off our amazing deal to my family. To our surprise, the Tent looked HUGE when we layed it out in the grass. My older brother, Preston, was laughing about how big it was and was telling us he didn't think our Tent was the one we thought.

I should have believed Preston.

I was convinced he was wrong...until we got it put up. That thing is 14 feet by 14 feet, and so tall that my 6'3" husband can't even reach the top when he stands reaching as high as he can. Here's the Tent on the Cabela's site. If you can't tell by the pictures how big it really is, here is a picture of the three of us standing inside. Together.

Josh and Lily showing it off:

I'm almost a little embarrassed at how big it is:

Sorry I doubted you, Preston.

And if you looked at it on the Cabela's site, you'll notice the Tent is normally $239.99. I'd say we got a pretty darn good deal on that Tent, although for as long as we have the Tent, we'll have to make sure that we have a camping site sufficient enough to fit the big blue monster.

We were able to put a queen sized air mattress, a full sized air mattress, and 3 duffel bags...with plenty of room to spare. If it had rained, we would have been able to put our camp chairs in there, too, and play some games or something. Or, if we had more people, we probably could have fit at least another queen size air mattress in there too.

Now do you understand why we got the comments on the size of our tent?


*Josh's graduation was way cooler than mine. It was a dinner graduation, where we got a free steak dinner. You could actually choose from steak, fish, or vegetarian. Of course I chose steak, not knowing that the name tag I would wear the entire time would have a picture of a steak showing everyone there that I'm a red meat eating kind of girl. But even cooler than the free delicious dinner, was a free hotel room. It was actually really nice, so we made a little mini vacay out of it :). And even more cool than that was Josh was chosen as Student of the Year for plumbing. He got a special framed certificate, extra pins on his name tag, and a gift card to....I can't remember, but some place where he could buy more tools. Do you know what I got at mine? A flash drive and a flash light. And we used those lights during the "Passing of the Light of Knowledge" ceremony during our graduation. We turned them on and waved them above our heads. Awesome right? The best part of my graduation? The BBQ we had on the roof of my friend, Tonya's apartment in Seattle. It's literally about a mile from Safeco field, and it has the most amazing view of the field and lots of Seattle.

S is for Summer

S might be for summer, but it's pretty obvious that the Pacific Northwest has NOT gotten the memo that it is, in fact, summer time. It's been summer for a full week, and we've still been getting rain off and on almost daily.

But, since it is summer, that means that I'm once again on summer break. As a "blogger" (yes, I put this in quotations because I've failed miserably at blogging, haha) this means that I can resume by "blogging." As a teacher, this is a total blessing. As a substitute teacher, this is somewhat of a curse. Don't get me wrong, I love having a summer break, even though I'm no longer a student, but when you're a substitute teacher, that means no paycheck. Yikes! I guess this is where Josh and I find out how well we can budget a brand new mortgage (more on that later) on one income. Let me tell you, it'll be so.much.fun. Kidding. It will probably suck, and we know that, but we'll work with it. Since I've been MIA for so long, let me fill you in on some exciting happenings:

I have another niece! Her name is Tylinn, and she is so sweet and beautiful. She was born in December, and we were lucky enough to make it up to Tacoma in time for her to be born and see my younger brother, Kody's giddy, tear-filled announcement that they had a girl. Kody and Emily are one of those few couples that didn't learn the sex of their baby ahead of time. Not by choice, but it worked out well.

Here's a cute picture of her, my other niece Avery, and my step-daughter Lily: The Cousins

Photo taken by Grandma A.

And a more recent one:

Photo taken by the Momma, Emily

If you're wondering whether or not a new little baby has given me the baby fever, you can put your money on "yes." Well, that's a half truth. I kind of already had it.

My other happening.....
WE BOUGHT A HOUSE!

Let's not talk about the macaroni and cheese color (which you can't really tell in this picture) with the sage green trim right now. That is definitely going to change. How soon? I'm not sure at this point. Our priorities currently are: finishing our office space, planting new grass, and finding a dining table to fill up our dining room. So for now, the painting will be put on hold. We're so excited, though, and we had an amazing realtor and amazing mortgage broker that we worked with. God truly blessed us with the people we needed to get into a house. We looked at 8 total houses, and made offers on 3, so I'd say it went pretty well! We're in a super quiet neighborhood, with good schools, and a park close by. We rode our bikes to it this past weekend. Lily kept telling us how funny it is to see adults play on playgrounds. But, Josh and I are kind of just big kids (him more than me *wink) so I think she better get used to it!

I just heard Josh pull into the driveway, so I'm going to be done for now. But, I'm planning another post, and I might just start doing kind of a theme thing for Mondays called Crock Pot Mondays. I'll explain in my post about it, so be watching for it.

I'm baaaaa-aaaaaaack blogging world! I'm also a big dork.

B is for Busy...to the max!

It's amazing how much things can change in just a short amount of time. I went from being bored out of my mind (see the last post) to not having enough time in the day. Seriously, God has blessed our little blended family beyond belief. I mean really, I cannot believe it. I was writing this big, long thing about what's been going on, but decided I pretty much hated it. So, I'll give a shorter (much shorter) version of God's blessings on us this last month and a half.

First of all, I got a long-term sub job lined up before I even got on the certificated sub list. So, until March 1st, I am a third grade teacher. Then, the teacher comes back from maternity leave, and I move on to.....subbing I guess. It'll work out.

Josh passed his Journeyman Plumbing test. It's official. My husband is a licensed plumber now. Well, once he gets his license. He also has a new job. Well....I guess it's the same job, just a new company. It's a smaller company with lots of potential, and more opportunity for Josh to be successful. I'm really proud of him, can you tell? He's worked hard for a long time in order to be licensed, and he deserves all the good things to come in the future.

Also, it's looking like we can start looking for a house in the next couple of months. Our lease is up in February, and it would be by the grace of God that we can move into a house soon after that. Apartment living is just not for me. I've pretty much hit my limit of neighbors blasting techno music, ghetto cars taking over our parking lot, cigarette smoke coming in my windows, and almost zero storage space. Yep, I'm over it. Like a year ago.

But, God works in ways I would never imagine. Josh has been a leader for our household, encouraging me and trust in God that He'll take care of us. Although it's been hard (it almost always is) to give up trying to control situations, when we actually did give it all up to God, He blessed us. I went from feeling stuck in a rut, with nowhere to go...to feeling energized, encouraged, and feeling like we have a good future ahead of us. A future within arms reach, with the help of the Lord.

So, on this 14th day of November, I'm thankful for:

-A wonderful husband who seeks after the Lord, and teaches me to do the same

-A job

-The health insurance that comes with the job (even if it's only for the short term)

-Miracles (like all of a sudden having a down payment for a house)

-A step-daughter who is teaching me how to love

-A supportive family who I can count on endlessly

-A husband who showers me with love on a daily basis, making me feel like the most special woman in the entire world.

-A baby niece/nephew who I just know wants to show his/her face in the world very soon (I hope I hope)

-Generosity

-Learning the hard way

-A God who will never leave me, even when my faith is small

Yep, I have a good life with so much to look forward to.

T is for Time

What does one do, when it is a slow week for subbing, and has way too much time on her hands? Let me fill you in...seeing as how this week has been beyond slow in the subbing department. Amazing how the last couple of weeks were filled with work, and this week has given me nothing. I must say, though, that I've made very good use of my time.

First, I learned how to make this headband/ear warmer thing:

It really was easy, which says alot for me because I know how to knit regular scarves, and that's it. I got the "pattern" from http://elisajoy.com/mclaughlindesigns/patterns/. Which I found on my new love Pinterest.

Also found on Pinterest was a tutorial on how to get the wavy hair look. I still need practice, but it didn't turn out too bad!

I know this hair style doesn't exactly go with a WSU v. UW Apple Cup 2006 t-shirt, but I guess people will just have to deal with it.

But seriously, where are all the sub jobs? I'm officially official now, with my real teaching certificate (no more "permit") and I'm waiting on 2 districts to hire certified subs, which won't even be for another month. So, that leaves me with para subbing, and teacher subbing in the 2 smallest districts imaginable. Come on people, let me teach!!

At least I know how to have cute hair now.

P is for Pinterest

WHY HAVE I NOT USED PINTEREST BEFORE NOW? Obviously it's been around for quite a while now, and I've been seeing people "pinning" things on Facebook for I-don't-even-know-how-long. I spent some time with my sister, Stephanie, yesterday, and she informed me that you have to "request an invite" and then you can be on it. So, finally yesterday I did just that.

Now I'm Obsessed. With an capital "O." It makes me want to be crafty. It makes me want to be trendy. It makes me want to decorate the house that we have yet to buy (or even find, for that matter). I know, we're months away from being able to buy a house, but it doesn't hurt to get ideas, right? I've also discovered some fantastic blogs that I plan to frequent.

I'm overwhelmed with it's fantastic-ness. If you aren't on Pinterest already, do it. It's well worth the hours you'll spend perusing the infinite pictures...

c is for camping

I started this post a while ago, and forgot to finish it! So here it is now....

This past Labor Day weekend, Josh, Lily and I went camping at Nehalem Bay. I absolutely LOVE this area. It's about 30 minutes south of Canon Beach, and 5 minutes (at the most) south of Manzanita. What's great about Nehalem Bay is that it's a stones throw from the beach. Literally, we walked from our campsite to the other side of our loop, over a dune and BOOM...beautiful beach. Our church reserves the entire "F" loop on Labor Day weekend, and we have "Family Camp." Basically, tons of people from church bring their families camping, the kids run around and ride bikes together, we have potlucks, campfire, "church" on Sunday morning, and relax/chat/have fun with each other. It really is an awesome weekend.

Josh took Friday off, so we were able to leave around 2 from Vancouver and make it to the beach/camping around 4. I've been to Family Camp the last 2 years, and we've arrived in the dark because we waited for Josh to get off work and left pretty late. But, seeing as how it's miserable trying to set up a tent in the dark, we opted for the daylight set up this year. I have to say that also the last 2 years, the weather has been, well, let's just say less than ideal. Year 1: severe wind, pouring rain, freezing, leaky tents, stuff blowing over. Year 2: Rainy, cold and windy, but not as bad. I'll talk about Year 3's weather soon. Hint: Significantly better.

On Friday night, our good friends Jonny and Dana (and their puppy Sam) stayed with us on our site. We had so much fun, especially since their puppy might just be the cutest I've ever seen. (You can actually vote for him here: http://www.cutestpetcontest.com/vote.php?EID=100406656.) On Saturday we all went to the beach, and do you know how hot it was? 88 degrees! Ok, seriously, when has it been 88 degrees on the Oregon Coast on Labor Day weekend? In the 26 years of my life, I don't believe I've ever experienced that. It was ridiculously beautiful. We even played in the frigid waters of the Pacific, and it.felt.good. Sunday was nice as well, but fog started rolling in during the late afternoon. Still, I didn't have to bundle up and sit under a tent all day. Although, if we did, our tent was big enough to hold half the campground. Three common phrases were used regarding our tent by almost every passer-by: 1) "Wow, that's a huge tent." 2) "That tent is gigantic" and 3) "That's the biggest tent I've ever seen." Stay tuned for a post about finding and buying said tent. And Monday, when we left, it was also really warm and sunny. Great weather for packing up!

On Sunday night, we sat with another of our good friends, Levi, and his family at his sister's campsite. They had a big fire going, and we all gathered around, enjoying our last evening. Levi brought over his guitar, and he and his dad sang folk songs together. It was so relaxing, and I really appreciated listening to them and their amazing voices. It was seriously one of my favorite moments of family camp ever.

Do you know what else I love about Family Camp? On Saturday and Sunday nights we do potlucks with a group of campsites around us. The last 2 years, I didn't really understand what to bring to potlucks, and made some poor decisions (ex: "beef stroganoff" from a package with mystery meat.) But this year, I have to give myself a pat on the back. I brought slow-cooker spaghetti and for dessert peanut butter chocolate bars one night. The other night, Josh and I cooked smoked sausage with green beans, potatoes and onions over the fire and brought some super rich double chocolately Oreo bars. I might add it was all pretty tasty. Look at me, I can cook (a little). After a year of marriage, I'm finally getting the hang of some different meals.

I can't wait til next year's Family Camp. Each year seems to get better than the last.

H is for Help

I just finished reading The Help by Kathryn Stockett

I don't normally jump on the bandwagon of the books that are uber popular. Such as Harry Potter, for example. I've never seen or read those movies/books, and really have no desire to. However, I do have to admit, I got hooked on Twilight after a friend almost force fed the first movie down my throat. It got me curious, and my curiosity got me hooked. But back to The Help. My-oh-my was it eye opening. It makes me wish that I could read the book that is talked about in the book. Many people probably already know what it's about, have probably read, or maybe even have seen the movie.

But it is a definite recommend by me. If you've got the patience to read through a novel filled with a southern drawl (that only took me a few chapters to really catch on, so give it a try) then this book will leave you wishing for more just like it. Seriously, it made me grateful that I live in the times I live in. Yeah, we've got our issues with terrorism, war, economical crises, and much more (don't get me wrong, I'm not minimizing these) but at least we have our eyes open to humanity. People of different races can intermingle - we've got a Multi-Racial/African-American President for goodness sakes! I'm so glad that I didn't grow up as a "white person" naive to other humans, no matter what race, like in this book. I like to think that I would have grown up appreciating and treating all people equally, but the truth is, I really don't know. What I do know is that I'm glad to have friends of other races and cultures who can teach me new things about cultures different than my own. To my friends, thank you.