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.

School Pictures

Here are a few pictures of Justin's school and classroom. Hopefully Tammy will have pictures of her room tomorrow!

The front of Ockley Green K-8

Side View

Main classroom from the door

More of the room

...

Back of the room with the reading area

The Activity Center (2nd classroom for reward time)

Apartment Pictures

Ok, finally... here are a few pictures of our apartment. There's nothing quite like going from a 3 bedroom 1880 historical home to a one bedroom apartment. But it works for now and we can't complain.

Living Room from the front door

Living Room

Slider to the back walkway

Kitchen

Dining Room

Bathroom

Bedroom

Bedroom (+ Rosco)

Cutest Dog Competition

Columbia River Gorge

We took the boys camping in the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area! We camped at Eagle Creek Campground and hiked the Eagle Creek Trail. Fantastic first camping trip! Bam and Rosco slept most of the night with minimal barking. We hiked a total of eight miles (not bad for the first trip), and we saw three major waterfalls on the trail. The boys made it all the way to the parking lot and plopped down from exhaustion so we had to carry them the last 1/2 mile up hill to the campground. We plan to return to the trail and backpack all the way to Mt. Hood (next spring).

On the way home from the campground we stopped at Multnomah Falls off of I-84. Although a tourist trap, the falls were quite amazing at 542 feet. We are also returning here to hike to the top of the falls (1 mile of switchbacks).

Check out the pics!

Our campsite at Eagle Creek

"Check your vertigo at the trailhead"

Justin and Rosco checking out the ridge.

Lower Punchbowl Falls

Upper Punchbowl Falls

Metlako Falls

Multnomah Falls at the bottom

Multnomah Falls from under the bridge

Mt. Tabor

Justin and I went to Mount Tabor Park a few days ago. It is a great park that is located on a volcanic cinder cone. In the park there are 3 open-air water reservoirs, a few short(1-3 mile) hiking/running/biking trails, and a dog park that surpasses any we have been to. We explored one of the three main trails, which basically wraps around the hill. It had great city and mountain views and definitely left us wanting to see more! Bam and Rosco were excited to visit the off-lease area and stretch their legs. It was a great trip even though Rosco tried to bite a husky 10 times his size!