Track and Field Filled Weekend

My track and field filled weekend started Friday afternoon when I met my mom at Western Oregon University to cheer on her athletes at the state track meet. She coaches at Colton High School and had a good number of kids qualify for the state meet. 

Saturday morning Greg and I headed to the Dallas High School track to set up our canopy for Relay for Life. Since I've taught at Henry Hill Elementary School, we have had a Relay for Life team - Henry Hill Heroes. We got to the track at 9am and set up the canopy and began to decorate our site. At 10am the starting ceremonies began and I walked for 30 minutes. For those of you who don't know, Relay for Life is  a fundraiser for the American Cancer Society. People form teams and raise money to fight cancer. Teams come together for Relay for Life and have team members take turns walking around the track for 24 hours in support of finding a cure for cancer.

We left for a while to meet up with my parents at the state track meet at WOU. Her team did incredibly well, the boys took 2nd in state and one of her seniors got Athlete of the Year! 

She's standing at the podium with her 1st AND 2nd place athletes (who are brothers by the way) in the 800 meter run.

Greg and I got back to Relay for Life around 7pm where we ate dinner and I prepared for my hour long walk from 7-8pm. 

all of the team sites around the track

Greg played football while I walked

some of my teammates setting up the luminaria bags

One of the luminaria bags during the ceremony. The track looked amazing lit  up by all of the bags honoring friends and family who are fighting, survived, or have lost the battle to cancer.

Marcos helping Greg, s'more in hand :)

"The guys" on our team

He loved the glow sticks 

I failed to take many pics, but this is where Greg and I "slept" that night. It was more like resting our eyes comfortably.

Where we spent a lot of our time... around the campfire.

At midnight there was pizza and hot chocolate and the movie Tangled showed on the big screen. We enjoyed visiting around the campfire and around 1:30 Greg and I hit the hay expecting to be woken up to walk a few hours later. Surprisingly, we had teammates who stayed up all night and walked! We started our walking shift at 5:30am, had breakfast by the fire, hung out for closing ceremonies, cleaned up and were home by 12:30pm. We crashed on the couches and napped for 5 hours! A busy, but fun weekend :) 

Silver Creek Falls

We took a field trip to Silver Creek Falls today. The weather could not have been better and the kids (and adults) had a great time!

view from the top

another view from above

3rd grade teachers at Henry Hill - Mrs. Teune and Ms. Ochoa

it was such a gorgeous day! 

Oregon beauty

Wedding Season Begins

Greg and I attended the first wedding of six that we have invites for this summer. Not sure if we will be able to attend them all, but Greg was a groomsmen in last night's wedding so we sorta had to be there ;)

Our very good friend Eddy married his bride Melissa last night. I met Eddy at a college bible study four years ago and he and Greg became good buddies soon after. Eddy was in our wedding and has been a special part of our lives since. I don't normally make a big fuss about weddings, but every so often I attend a wedding that really tugs at my heart strings and sticks with me forever. So if you are a wedding story, romantic at heart person, here is a recap of the wedding.

Eddy is a very unique guy, his smile and outgoing personality are infectious, as is his love for the Lord. At the ceremony last night they played the typical slideshow of childhood pictures. Melissa had the Carrie Underwood song "Mama's Song" playing for her pictures. When Eddy's pictures came up the "Mario Brother's Theme" song played. When the ceremony began he and his groomsmen put on sunglasses and strutted out to The Eye of the Tiger. And when it came time to take the ring off of the pillow he turned to the crowd and said, "I can't get it off the pillow, it's ziptied on. Anybody got a knife?" In response, the groomsmen all reached into their pockets and pulled out knives and scissors.

He definitely brought his fun personality to the ceremony, but what was even more special was how he chose to honor his parents. His dad passed away in 2002 and his mom lost her battle to cancer in 2009. Eddy walked his mother's wedding ring down the aisle with a gerbera daisy and placed it in the seat for the mother of the groom, and he walked his father's wedding ring down the aisle along with his bible and placed it in the seat for the father of the groom. This happened while a slideshow of pictures of his parents was playing. Not a dry eye in the room! Including Eddy, he was a mess and I wanted to give him a big hug! Luckily he has married an incredible woman who has supported him through it all. As Melissa read her vows to Eddy she quoted 1 Peter 5:10 "And the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm, and steadfast." She told Eddy that the suffering is now over and it's his time for restoration... again, not a dry eye in the room!

I took a few pictures, but unfortunately do not have a nice enough camera to capture the ceremony very well. Here are a few pics anyways.

walking out to Eye of the Tiger

Enjoying the reception

with the happy couple

the video gamers who fill up my living room :)

Budgeting Money...yuck!

Greg's and my Sunday afternoons are normally the same each weekend. We go to Safeway after church to pick up a Sunday Oregonian and relax on the couch together while I cut coupons and Greg does the crossword. Today as I was cutting coupons (over $530 in savings by the way!) it occurred to me that we had dropped the ball on our budget this past month. I got out our receipts and Greg helped me add everything up. As we compared our bank account to our spending and looked at previous months we were disappointed with ourselves.

How did we spend that much on eating out? Why did we buy that item that we thought we needed at the time? Why are school loans so expensive? And where can we possibly cut our spending?

To be proactive after our budget shock this afternoon we went to the gym and canceled our membership. We will be moving in a few months and would have canceled then anyhow. Also, with the "warmer" weather I can start running outside again.

We also plan on carpooling to work together. Greg has been working longer/and earlier hours in preparation for his new position at the end of May. Since he leaves about a half an hour earlier than I do, I am going to get up a bit earlier so that he can take me in to work early. I will either catch a ride home with a coworker, walk home, or take my running stuff and run home.

We attended a Dave Ramsey seminar about two years ago with my family. Some people are HUGE Dave Ramsey fans and some people can't stand him. I think Greg and I are in the middle. We find his teaching applicable, but also fudge on some of it a bit. One suggestion we are going to try this month is taking out a predetermined amount of cash to use for groceries, gas, eating out, etc. and once that the money for each item is gone it's gone and we cannot spend anymore.

Keep your eyes out for an update on how our budgeting for the month of May goes.

We are going to have a movie night tonight and watch a Dave Ramsey dvd that we got as a gift... we feel pretty dorky about it, but it should be fun :)