Living the dream...

or that is what Paul tells me after a long day of work, "Baby, we are living the dream". He is at worship practice and so I am sitting at home trying to be productive. I brought home some papers to correct, but typing a blog sounded like a nice way to procrastinate. I just fixed some cheese sticks (you know you are out of food when the only thing to eat is unhealthy frozen food that has been in there for a year because you usually don't eat that stuff) and tried to put up some curtains. It is nice owning our own home, but you need so many more tools that you didn't need when renting (like a ladder and drill). I was all set to put the curtains up, but can't find the part to change out the drill bit so I gave up on that idea. We bought the movie Elf (my favorite Christmas movie!) so I think I will just retire to the couch grading papers and watching movies. Perhaps when Paul get home we can put up the curtains, but we are going to 5:15am spin class tomorrow, so getting to bed early would probably be a good thing (but I really want to get our curtains up!).

Oh and we are thinking of getting a dog! I have wanted one for a while now. My family has always had a dog and I think I have finally softened Paul's heart to the idea. We found a great one up in Portland (short hair, quiet yet active), but someone else got to her before we did... but we are continuing to look. Paul is very much on the go and doesn't like too much responsibility to tie us down, but I am hoping we will find a dog that can tag along on those adventures with us. Ever since Massaro, Yutaro and Nate left our house has been a bit too quiet for my liking and I think a dog is a great compromise!

God Bless.

Konichiwa

Wow...we have had tons going on. We celebrated Paul's birthday up in Portland, ran back to Corvallis to meet up with friends, Paul rode 100 miles on his bike to celebrate his birthday, back up to Gresham to welcome Kristi and Darrin's baby boy and to see Tiffany Maddox who was visiting from California, to Gaston to listen to Paul's dad preach at a small community church, back to Corvallis for a wedding, and then back to Gaston and Gresham again this weekend. We try to limit our trips, but we wouldn't want to miss all these good things. In between that we had two Japanese boys stay with us for a week. They came last Thursday and left today. Masaru and Yutaro are 11 and 12 and came with their school for a visit to the states. The school Ashley works for has an exchange program and we were blessed to host these two boys. We had so much fun together; it was really hard to see them leave today. Below are a few pictures from their visit.

25 big ones!

We are off to P-town to celebrate Paul's 25th birthday. His actual birthday is tomorrow, the 11th, but he and some friends are riding in a century to celebrate on Sunday and didn't want to be up too late the night before. With Ping Pong, Scrabble, Phase 10, friends and a pony (?) it is guaranteed to be a good time!

Well I am off to meet a friend in Salem, hopefully to get a warm cup of coffee (for the next nine months I will be nothing but cold...did I mention that I love summer?).

Open House

My school Open House is this Thursday night (bummer to have a Beaver game on the same night...now we can't go!). School has been so amazingly wonderful. Some times, at the end of a hectic and tiring day, I sit and think about how blessed I am to have a career that I love every day coming to.

I went to a wonderful presentation tonight on children's books at Grassroots in Corvallis. I love children's literature and learning about what new books authors have coming out and what new authors there are. Below is just a sample of some of my favorite children literature pieces. Enjoy!

We've moved...

We moved into our new house this past weekend. We are so thrilled to be owners of our own home and to have the moving process done with. Thanks to everyone who so graciously volunteered to help, we couldn't have done it with out your help!

Our old place...
Our new place...Moving...

Happy Two Years!

Tomorrow we will celebrate our two year anniversary; time flies!

Weddings!

One of my best friends got married this Saturday! A lot of our weekends are filled with weddings in the summer months and we love it, especially when you know that the Lord has brought two amazing people together to fulfill his purpose as a team. Dru Davis and Janessa Nash were married at a beautiful piece of property just as the sun was setting Saturday night. They could not have asked for better weather. It was so special to be a part of their day and a part of their life together (we are even more excited that they have decided to stay local and are living in Salem; only 20 minutes away!)