Almost done with yet another school year

Well, the word is official now....Steve is going to be a Waluga Middle School teacher in Lake Oswego starting next school year. Now,the packing, sorting and storing takes place. Only to wait until September for the unpacking, organizing and setting up. We all know how much Steve "likes" change but he is handling things well. Laughing at himself a lot.

On a good note, he did finish off his last track and field day with his Estacada kids in a glorious fashion. His relay team came in first!



As for me, two more weeks until my graduation! Tons of final projects but once they are done...I am done. I will post pictures of my graduation later for all of you who wanted to be there but couldn't.

I have plans to go to the beach with some of my friends from school for a few days for a well deserved break, come home to work for 4 days and then off to WI for a long and well deserved vacation. We are so excited to see the kids and all of Steve's family.

Sorry Grandma

At my Grandma's request, I have been asked to update our blog. Sorry! Grad school takes a lot of time.

Okay, my oral comprehensive exam is over and I am so glad to have that experience behind me. I guess I did well, the professors on my panel have stopped me in the hall even a week after and told me that I did well so that must mean something. Then, I got picked up by Jason and Lucas and we had a celebratory ice cream at the VQ, which was lovely.

The following Thursday, Steve's parents came into town for the weekend. We didn't do much because my birthday party took up the day we usually would have driven to the coast or gone somewhere. Steve did convince his Dad to try the grasshopper too though :)

My party was fun. The theme this year was definitely yard work. I received gift cards to various gardening and home stores as well as a whiskey barrel and tomato plants. Unfortunately, I don't have a scanner or a digital version of the pictures but Amy, Charlie and Bryan had some fun with photo shop and the barrel. I am very excited for the chance to get to work in my yard again, but, the end of the term takes a lot of computer time.

We are waiting for an answer for what will happen to Steve's placement next year due to the budget and reorganizing classrooms. He will have a job (thank goodness he has seniority) but we are waiting for the classroom assignments to come out. Should be by the end of this week, but we thought that last week as well.

4 more weeks until I have an MPH, Steve has summer break, and our lives will calm down a bit.

Getting closer

Well, I am now one week away from my oral comprehensive exam...which has been looming over me for the past 2 terms. Naturally, I am nervous but I have been studying my heart out so I think I will do okay. I am getting closer and closer to June 12th. I cannot wait! But, sadly the next month and a half are going to be rough.

Not a lot has happened since our trip. We went to the Gerlt parent's house for Easter. We went to church service at Mt Carmel and said good bye to Pastor Ron (the Pastor who married us). It was pretty amazing how sad it was.





Steve has finally finished his cd but has yet to make enough copies for distribution. Soon.

We have also discovered a new favorite place, Sushi Mazi at 21st and Division. It is by far the best sushi we have ever had and are kind of obsessed lately. Steve even tried the grasshopper....I was happy to be the one taking pictures.

Our Spring Break

We had a lot of fun driving down the 101 this past week. Our first stop was in Corvallis to see my Grandma. Then off to Bandon for some sand and ocean time.





Then, drove down to Gold Beach, where we mostly just hung out at the hotel...some needed recoup time. However, Steve was VERY excited about ordering lobster for dinner.




Next stop, Ferndale, CA (a Victorian tourist town). We stopped in Ferndale as a jumping off point for a day trip to the Redwoods. Lots of picture but they do not do justice to the amazing things we saw. We went on a few hikes, one to Fern Canyon that had us walking (and driving) through streams.







Sadly, we are home now. Steve had today off but for me...back to the grind. I had two cavities filled and so I am stuck at home with a sour mouth...no fun.

School is going well. Mostly, I am just excited to be almost done! I start my new internship officially on Tuesday. I am excited to get back into the work, instead of shuffling around paperwork for the second time. We will see how it goes. I am hoping this will lead into a position with the county, or at least a good reference in the environmental health field.

Long Time

Sorry I haven't updated in so long. Things have been pretty hectic around here lately.

I finally got my computer back, 3 weeks later. I have been scrambling to get my school work done. At the same time, I have been trying to transfer my internship to Multnomah County Health Department. I am now working with the environmental health division conducting a needs assessment and gathering information about current knowledge about health concerns and practices in nail salons. I know it sounds weird but it is going to be a great experience.

Steve is in the process of decorating his classroom for rain forest week. He was making an elephant in our bedroom last Sunday (odd, I know) to go with his collection of paper mache rain forest animals. We now have a toucan, and leopard. We used to have a snake as well but Steve thought it was funny to hide it in the azaleas in front of our house to scare me and it rained.

We are also planning a trip to the Red Woods over spring break. Hopefully we will have lots of pictures to post in a few weeks.

Computer Crisis

Hello all. I have a request. My computer crashed on me this week. I guess my hard drive was "defective" and they couldn't save any of my files. Sadly, I lost a lot of my pictures. I still have our wedding disc but I lost a lot of pictures of the kids and family events, etc. If people could email me some of their pictures, I would really appreciate it. I lost a great one of Steve and Olivia at the park which I am not sure I emailed to anyone.

Beyond that, I am just playing catch up on all of the school work I lost. Steve is graciously letting me use his computer until mine gets back to me (about a week!). He is having a tough and long next couple of weeks with his IEP's and other random work stuff. We are, however, cooking again and we are both enjoying that a lot. Now, if we could just find a day or two to CLEAN THE HOUSE!!!

Super busy!

Sorry I haven't updated in a while. We have been super busy with the house, school, work, IEP's, interning, and watching the second season of Tudors on DVD.

The house is starting to come together. We now have an orange kitchen (still needs a lot of touch up and baseboards painted but really close!). In fact, Monday night I made chili and cornbread and it was SO nice to cook. It has been so long. We have been washing dishes like crazy to clean up all the dust...can't wait to see our water bill this month.





Lucas has just started his new "school." My boss recruited Lucas to be a typical peer in a social group with 3 boys on the spectrum. The clients are all high functioning and LOVE Lucas. Lucas really seems to like it as well but seems more interested in all the new toys at this point than all the kids. He wears his backpack to school everyday and brings home art he made at "school" for Daddy.

This weekend, the house work is all on Steve because I have completely let school slip this term and I have a huge paper due in a week that I have barely started. Hopefully, I can stay focused. I have discovered how hard it is for me to work in a dirty house. I keep getting distracted with tasks. So, I think I am coffee chop bound.