Merry Christmas! (in Pictures)

October through November...

October was a blur (really, this whole school year so far is! I cannot believe how fast it is going! One quarter down already!)

The first weekend in October we celebrated Bryan's one year since his shop opened. We feel so blessed that it is going so well, and we made a last-minute production out of our first year of success! He has made many people happy, and loves to serves others. He also challenges himself from time to time, like his current project that is a '57 Chevy Bel Air. (He has yet to complete the restorations!)

My job is going super well this year! I am loving my class, my teaching partner, our new principal, everything...

And when we are not working we are enjying time with family! In September, we celebrated Bryan's baby niece's dedication and also my youngest niece's fourth birthday!

We have also been enjoying time with friends. At the end of October, we got a group of people together to go into a haunted corn maize and go haunted cosmic bowling! This past Thanksgiving weekend, we all went to a country bar and then a few of us went yesterday to Mount Hood to go tubing/sledding. I also did some light-duty Black Friday shopping with another friend :-) and to the Woodburn outlet stores with Bryan.

My biggest achievement this month, outside of completing first quarter report cards and having successful parent-teacher conferences, was cooking my first turkey for Thanksgiving and having both of our families over! We feel very blessed.

This has been a great autumn. The only problem we are currently dealing with is an injury Bryan incurred while at the gym. Thankfully it has not interfered too much with work, though he has been going to multiple doctors, having tests, and participating in weekly physical therapy (the cost of which keeps rising, and now we have more to figure out, such as the true extent of his injury...)We were hoping to get it all squared away by the end of the calendar year (for insurance purposes!) though this is looking more serious than we anticipated. However, through all things God works for the better purpose of His people, so we will see how all ends up. Now we are just looking forward to the continuation of holiday festivities and Christmas!

11 months and going strong!

Bryan and Andy are getting ready to celebrate the one year anniversary since the grand opening of their shop! They have come a long way, and recently made huge remodeling improvements to their office (among other ammenities within the shop to make doing their job a little easier :-)). They have been super busy in the past couple of weeks, but they sat down long enough for me to get these cute pics:

(oops, not working now...will try more later)

Bend: Farewell to Summer trip

Bryan and I found a new place to hang out. Usually we go to the beach once or twice a year, though we have never been to Bend. Its beautiful there and so much to do! Also, its only three hours away! (We are roughly 1.5 to 2 hrs from the coast, depending on where we go!). The last couple of summers we have been discovering little pockets of Oregon we haven't seen or been to in a long time. I would love to take him down to Crater Lake, Diamond Lake, Klamath Falls, etc, though that is a more lengthy drive, so it gets put off! And...there is that thing called work, which starts again tomorrow (trying to stave off the attacks of panic that should be flooding in the next couple weeks...really, I should be going to bed!)

Here are some pics!:

Here is what I still have to do:

16 1/2 days left of my summer and here are big ambitions for biding that time:

1. Organize our budget
2. Change all our addresses (its only been 3 1/2 months since moving!)
3. Clean out the files (hardcopy and emails, favorite websites, etc on the computer) and secure the important ones on an external harddrive
4. Recipes: organize and plan
5. Read (still have a huge stack of newspaper articles, magazines, books...)
6. (exercise!)
7. Pictures: order, organize, frame, back up on external harddrive
8. Figure out what classes to take for my continuing education credits for my license
9. Update gps, blackberry (i hate technology)
10. Take more time to write.

Family Reunion 2011

Our family has spread halfway across America, so it was a great joy to have Naomi and her family from Texas here at the same time as Nicole and her family from Idaho. Along with Heather's family from Vancouver, and Bryan and I here locally, Mom and Dad had a full house of 15! It was great fun, and ended all too soon! Here are some shots to commemorate the occasion! :-)

East Coast Tour 2011

Bryan and I had an amazing time, touring the East Coast with my cousin David from Philadelphia, and his wife Claire. We saw New York City for the first time, along with Philadelphia and D.C. We also got to dip our feet into the Atlantic Ocean for the first time! We were away from home for a week, and though we had fun, we were EXHAUSTED when we got back. There were so many sights to see, and Bryan and I were so impressed by all the history over there! We did not get to see it all *(though we tried!) but we will definately need to go back again so we have more time to visit more museums and learn more about this great nation's history! :-)