I'm Still Here

Wow. It's been almost 2 months since I last posted. Eesh! Ya probably not the best idea to have a big giveaway, gets lots of new followers and then never blog. It was SO not my plan. Every weekend I kept trying to get to blogging but it seemed like another things to do (or 5) kept popping up. We squeezed all the last bits of fun we could from summer and then reality hit and I had a new classroom to get going. THAT has taken way more work than I anticipated. Teaching two classes is a lot of work. Two sets of lesson plans for every subject, two (or four) different teacher manuals for every subject, two different tests and activity pages to copy, two different spelling lists to keep straight, and on and on. 

  I'm not complaining, I'm just finally coming up for air and realizing why I have not been on here.

So what have I been up to? Well for one, taking a lot more pictures on my phone than with a regular camera. At least I'm still taking pictures though!

 We had a handful of weddings this summer! All very fun times. I was bridesmaid for my dear friend. She played the flag game like I did at my wedding...I got to pick all the questions for her. 

Love my Cannon Beach girls. Guess I missed the memo that we had our shoes on, oh well, I'm tall enough without ;). My mom made my bridesmaid dress! So nice having a mom with that talent because the stores were just not coming through for me.

 My college roommate came to visit for a weekend! Never enough time with her. We talked so much, baked, watched Friends and movies, coffee, shopping, farmer's market, scrapbooking and more talking! I wish she lived down the street!

 Celebrating my mom's birthday. Check back soon to see what I got her and hopefully the idea can provide some inspiration for your next birthday gift.

 I love my mom! We text everyday and the days that we don't just don't feel right. She spent two whole days helping me set up my classroom and is even painting a new desk for me! Plus all the other amazing things she does like talk, laugh, listen, hug, give advice, and pray for me. She's the best!

Another wedding--family friend that I have known his whole life. I got to help set-up the decorations and reception, which was so much fun! I was also the photographer's assistant, aka the bossy person telling people where to stand/look, etc. I got the job done and we stayed on schedule!

Time flies. I can remember when all these kiddos were born, how can the youngest be driving and two of us married now?

My family did the Color Run! My first 5k and a lot of fun! It was my mom's birthday present. I now want to do another 5k...wait who said that?

 We put our new guest room (and YES I am still going to show you pictures of our new house) to good use this summer! Our newlywed (from the wedding pictures at the top) and newly-engaged (wedding next summer and I'm a bridesmaid again) friends came to visit for a weekend. So much laughter and smiling--they are good medicine!

Final wedding of the summer--a previous co-worker of Nate's.

We borrowed my parent's boat for a week and went out almost every night for picnic dinner, swimming, and hanging with friends and family. Can't beat summer time at the lake.

Played and won (for the 2nd year in a row) the volleyball tournament that Nate and I met at.

Been riding my gorgeous new coral Townie bike all over. It takes only 8 minutes to get to work!

First Pumpkin Spice Latte of the season...while riding in the convertible haha.

Living in denial that summer was really ending and fall was on its way. I hate putting my Rainbows away for 9 months.

Flowers from a student.

Weekend trip to SoCal for my Grandma' memorial service.

It's always summer in Cali. (yes, I know Californians will disagree with me and say it gets cold)

Family breakfast at Denny's to celebrate my Grandpa's accomplishments. 

Check it out! It's in all the new menus now :)

My first Coug game at WSU!

 

A weekend getaway thanks to our wonderful friends. They couldn't use their timeshare and didn't want it to go to waste so offered it to us! We found a really cool hot springs nearby.

And Crystal Fields with quarts everywhere.

AND...you know fall is here when the TV shows come back! Wednesday is my night for the TV. I've been waiting all summer to find out what happens in Nashville.

AND....as if my life wasn't jam-packed enough with fun stuff and school and just normal life, I became the assistant coach for the girls varsity volleyball team at my school. I love it! We played against my team from high school and both my coaches were there...we beat them by the way which felt good :). Only bummer thing is it makes me really miss playing. Hubby and I might start hitting the Friday night open gyms to play now.

So now you are all caught up. Those are all good excuses for not blogging right? Just maybe? Okay, well I'm going to try to be better! I'm working on a whole bunch of posts today to get them ready for the week!

Are you sad to say goodbye to summer too? What are some of your favorite things to do as a last summer hurrah or a fall welcoming? And if you are already chomping at the bit for Christmas, you are not allowed to comment your seasonal input for at least another month. ;)

1 Year Anniversary

Yesterday, my husband and I celebrated our one-year wedding anniversary! It's hard to believe a whole year has already gone by since our wonderful wedding day! It has been a jam-packed year--a year of growth, memories, love, laughter, big decisions, and good times. Some days I look at him and think, "am I really married to him? I really get to spend every day with him for the rest of my life?" As I said in my vows a year ago, "I am so thankful that sometimes too good really does come true."

We originally planned to go on a hot air balloon ride with the Living Social deal he gave me last year on our one-year-of-dating anniversary. We tried to go last year but had to keep canceling because of the weather. Then the season ended and the guy told us he would still honor the deal this spring. So we waited all winter and when May came we called, and called, and emailed. We finally found out online that the place was closed for business! BOO!!! Now what?

Well thankfully we had another option. Last fall, the Chamber of Commerce hosted a New Teacher's Reception and they gave away some cool packages. I won one of them! I think this was the first time I ever won a giveaway. We got 2 tickets for a day cruise on a river near us and included lunch. So I got online to book and when I saw this cruise only happened on Sundays, I knew it was meant to be!

Our pre-sunburn faces.

We did put sunscreen on, just not enough. Oops. I hope my rudolph-red-nose gets all better and doesn't peel by this next weekend--I'm in my friend's wedding.


At this point in the river, it really looks more like a lake. We found out that it used to be a lake on each side and a river in the middle. All three bodies of water were very separated until the river at the other end of the lake somehow caused the water level to rise (I can't remember what the Captain said as to how...a dam or something). The poles are to show the river's course and guide the boats through the deeper parts of the water.

Some parts of the river made me feel like I was on the Jungle Cruise as Disneyland! So then I told my husband a little bit about that ride (he's never been to Disneyland--we are hoping to change that this year!).

It was a gorgeous day for this cruise, perfect temperature and nice breeze. We had a fun time relaxing, taking in the sights, talking about our first year of marriage, getting burned without noticing, and discussing our next year of marriage. I am so blessed to be married to this Godly, wise, hardworking, handsome, funny, listening, caring, supportive, encouraging, awesome loving man!

 After the cruise, we enjoyed a delicious dinner at a floating restaurant. This is the same restaurant where we had dinner the night he proposed! (Sorry the picture is so bad. We just had my little point-and-shoot camera and the sun was bright outside.)

Our dinner: salad bar with boysenberry poppy seed dressing and 

then I had macadamia crusted mahi mahi, and he had prime rib.

We were so stuffed from the big lunch on the cruise, we both brought half our meals home for lunch tomorrow!

When we got back home, we took some pictures. I saw this idea on Pinterest awhile back where a couple held a picture of them on their wedding and took a picture. Each following year they hold the picture that they took the previous year. I thought this was fun and wanted to do it. So we grabbed our canvas picture and the tripod to take some pictures. Then I had a little editing fun. :)

 

 

After pictures, we said our vows to each other again. We both wrote our own vows. It was really special to hear and read them again!

And then, thankfully I remembered that we had our cake! 

I almost forgot and that would have been so sad! I took it out of the freezer a couple days ago and put it in the fridge to thaw. Ever since the small piece I ate on our wedding day, I have been waiting for our anniversary to have some more of that delicious cake!!! It was a vanilla cake with strawberry filling and white chocolate frosting! A friend of a friend made it for us. Here is what it looked like on our wedding day.

It tasted just as good as I remembered! Again, we were so stuffed so just ate a couple bites.

We had such a fun and food filled day! Hooray for our first year of marriage!

What did you do for your first anniversary?

A Weekend Getaway

Two weeks ago was my spring break. The first part of the week I worked on my lesson plans for 3rd and 4th grade math. I worked a lot. I worked more than I had imagined for my spring break. But...all this work paid off because I knew that at the end of the week I got to escape from it all and spend a few days with my husband on a mini vacation! We found a Groupon for a B&B that was about 7 hours away. We decided to road trip! We stopped so I could get Starbucks of course! :)

 On the way to our B&B we took the scenic route and got to see several fun sights. We found the house his grandparents lived in when he was a little kid. We stopped at a hot springs for an hour. Here is the river and garden view from the springs.

A 300 foot cliff and one of the three bridges that spans it.

 

We made a quick stop at the state schools to document that we had been there.

Our destination

 Isn't it so adorable?!?!

Enjoying our gourmet breakfast.

Yum!

After breakfast, we explored the beautiful property.

 I just love the blooming cherry trees, green shutters, and lantern!

 Hooray for porch swings

Coolest tree ever. I think it's just begging for an awesome tree house.

Guaranteed the kids who used to live in this house climbed the tree all the time!

 Backyard

Make a wish

I think this is a Hobbit house

The carriage house

The Parlor

The Dining Room where we enjoyed delicious gourmet breakfasts.

Our bedroom

The old school across the street. Check out the slide fire-escape!

The school is now a huge antique mall.

Our Groupon included a winery tour in a limo!

Liking the luxury :)

Beautiful country!

On the second day, after breakfast and checking out, we headed to the nearby Space and Aviation Museum! It was really cool.

The Spruce Goose!

Based on the description, we are pretty sure that this is the

German plane that his grandpa shot down in WWII

 A piece of the Berlin Wall...it came down the day I was born.

 Too many buttons, levers, and gauges, no thank you!

Trying to land a space shuttle...maybe he should stick to his current job ;)

 Such a fun getaway with my man! The very thing I needed 

before heading back to work for the rest of the year.