Clear Skies

We have had almost 2 weeks with little to no rain and it has been wonderful!!! We've been trying to get outside as much as possible while the rain holds off. The skies have been clear enough to see bright white Mount Hood everyday! We have taken several walks along the esplanade and enjoyed some fun Christmas festivities with the Bonjernoors. Take a look:

It's-a-me Mario!!!!!

In honor of Aiden's LOVE for all things Mario, we had a Super Mario Brothers Halloween! Aiden was little Mario, Tiffany was Mario, Jeremy was Wario (Mario's evil twin), I was Luigi, and Justin was Waluigi (Luigi's evil twin). Bam and Rosco were the turtles. We made a huge hit trick or treating!

Laura's Wedding

The weekend of the 17th, I flew home (Justin stayed with the boys) for my college roommate's wedding. Laura and I lived together for 3 years of our college lives and I could not miss out on seeing her I do's! Throughout college I got to know her boyfriend Steve and everyone thought they were a perfect couple. We were all very excited when they finally decided to tie the knot! It was a beautiful ceremony and well worth the long trip! (Whitney, I will be flying out for your wedding someday as well :)

The long weekend was also a great time to visit with my parents, sisters and nephew Graham! Justin and I have been in Portland for almost 3 months so the visits were well needed! We visited downtown Grand Rapids, had a Yahtzee tournament, I taught my mom a few new computer skills(lol), and we pretty much just enjoyed our time together! Unfortunately, I was only home for the weekend and so I wasn't able to see everyone. Hopefully Justin and I will both be home at Christmas for a longer period of time!

Here are the very few pictures I remembered to take, lol.

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our old neighbor Dave's house that he has been restoring for years. looking great!

my dad checking out part of the huge art exhibition that had just finished up.

Nessie in the grand river.

Congrats to the Reschkes!!!

Pumpkin Carving

We carved our pumpkins last weekend with the Bonjernoors! Tiff and I went for more of an artsy approach, stealing ideas we found online. Justin carved in honor of his all time favorite author Hunter S. Thompson. And Jeremy & Aiden worked together to carve a face and some pretty cool flames.

Roloff Farms

At the beginning of October we made a trip out to Roloff Farms in Helvetia, Oregon (about 30 minutes west). This is where the show Little People, Big World is filmed. We had fun picking out our pumpkins, touring the farm, and seeing the entire Roloff Family. It was a great trip, I just missed the apple cider and donuts from the farms in Michigan! Check out the pics:

we arrived early and this was the line!

but we made it in!

Looking for the perfect pumpkins


Justin found his...

and I found mine!

Aiden and Tiff found some too.

Jeremy Roloff giving tours!

Justin and Jermey with Matt Roloff

Their beautiful home!


Amy Roloff coming out to meet fans at the pumpkin patch

Part of the farm

All of us with Molly Roloff and The Roloff Grandparents

Jacob Roloff was guarding the castle.

Justin and I sporting the CMU gear since Amy is also a Central Alumni.

The Bonjernoors Arrive!

So clearly we are not as good at updating as I had hoped for. A lot has happened in the last month and I think we will just try to squeeze in the highlights! Many of you already know, but on September 20th The Bonjernoor family joined us out here in Portland! We are thrilled to have our best friends living close by again. Jeremy is working for Bob's Red Mill (a long time favorite mill of Justin and myself) and we are hopeful that Tiff will soon have a salon position! Aiden seems to be doing great and is eager to start his new school! Gabby will be flying up from Califorinia in 2 weeks for a long weekend visit! It has been so wonderful to have family to explore the city with. Here are a few pictures of their exciting arrival:

they made it!

easy does it...

wow! that Uhaul was packed! I have no idea how they fit everything!

Update on Justin's work situation

I've have quite an interesting 2 week period that I thought I would share. I am teaching in a "behavior" classroom grades 6-8 and I have needed more support in the classroom than I have (1 parapro). My amazing assistant principal (Stacey Sibley) has many connections in Portland and "borrowed" some help for me over the past 2 weeks.

The help has come in the form of Student Behavior coaches and a parapro trainer. They have been incredible, absolutely the best I have ever worked with! And by the way the behavior coaches are giants... so far I have worked with (all former) 2 Dallas Cowboys, 2 New England Patriots, 2 college basketball players, and 1 NBA player! The tallest was 6'7'' and most weighed over 300lbs. Incredible. Many are going to return in November and throughout the year! I'll try to get pictures next time to show how small I have felt these past two weeks.

New Phones

Saturday was an eventful day... We spent nearly 7 hours looking for new cell phones. Our contract with Sprint was up and we were free to switch to any carrier of our choosing (along with any phone/PDA). This task was overwhelming.

First stop was a small Sprint Store. Very few phones, most of them were broken and all displays (not real). Awful. Next stop was AT&T, home of the iPhone (which we knew we did not want to pay for). More phones, decent plans, but what about all of those minutes spent calling Sprint customers...
To Verizon! 15% discount for PPS employees, decent plans, decent phones, busier than the mall on Black Friday. We grabbed the literature and left. Feeling completely confused, distraught, and frustrated with wasting one of our precious few days off... we stumbled upon a new Sprint Store!

Lots of phones, all working! We decided to keep our same plan that has been working for us for almost a year (550 minutes!!!) and just get new phones. Justin chose the Samsung Exclaim! (dual slider) and Tammy chose the Samsung Reclaim! (Evironmentally green phone, it is green in color too).

Besides wanting the internet to customize our new phones, we are very satisfied. Worth 7 hours of stress? Probably not.

Oak Hills

Here are the pictures of my preschool classroom. I have been working on it for about a week now and I think it's done. We have 3 open houses this week at various times so that families can come when it's most convenient for them. I am hoping for about a 50% turn out, but that may be wishful thinking. Unfortunately sometimes education is not a priority for the families I work with. But I am excited to meet my kids and see what the school year has in store for me.

This is the outside of my classroom. The building that I am in is considered the higher education building for Oak Hills Church in Milwaukie. We are leasing the space from the Church.

The art area, playdoh table and small manipulatives table.

The paint easel and sensory table. We are starting out with sand, jewels, and large pretend coins in the sensory table. I think they will love digging for the treasures!

The small manipulatives shelf and the children's cubbies under the fish tank. The kids are going to vote to decide what kind of fish we will get for the tank. Cheryl, my dorector, created the kid's "clean-up station" on the wall by the cubbies. I love it!

The pretend/dramatic play area.

The writing table, fully stocked and ready for little authors! The science shelf is behind that.

The couch will be a comfy spot to read books whenever our library shelf finally arrives.

More of the pretend area and part of the block shelf.


The block area, as well as the area that we will have cirlce time.