Crescent Lake

Greg and I were blessed with an invitation to spend the weekend at Crescent Lake with friends. We accompanied our friends Kendra and Whitney along with Russell, Sara, and Blake. Kendra's parents have a house that we were able to stay in and it was wonderful.

The house

The view

The Bartlett Family

The Madsen Family

The Teune Family

It was great to get away for the weekend and relax. We played some exciting games of Clue, Loaded Questions, Catch Phrase, and Ticket to Ride. We also enjoyed visiting, eating WAY too much, and watching adorable little Blake entertain us. So thankful for generous friends and beautiful Oregon scenery!

Mac vs PC

I bought a Macbook Pro a few years ago and have loved it. Unfortunately, I am finding that some things/programs do not like Macs as much as they like Pc's. For instance, the manual that came with my new cell phone can only be used on a PC. Also, the new template designer for blogs... only on a PC. I guess I'm thankful now that my husband "hates Macs" and convinced me to let him move his desktop out to the living room. So this is me blogging for the first time via a PC and not a Mac. Which I am very thankful for because I was able to get a new layout look for my blog (may change again soon, not sure how I feel about it). Any of you have Mac vs PC stories?

Okay Fellow Bloggers, Help Please!

So I was trying to change my blog layout and whenever I click on Template Designer to go in and mess around and look at templates, I get nothing. Just a black screen that looks like it's "thinking" and trying to bring something up but nothing happens. I try clicking refresh and I still get nothing to come up. It's like my entire Blogger Template Designer is blank. Not quite sure what to do. Any advice from where to go from here would be VERY helpful! I clicked on a basic template to hold me over until I can personalize it some more.

Blessed, but Busy

I haven't been the best beginner blogger. At first I wasn't blogging because I thought I had nothing to blog about, but then I realized I wasn't blogging because I had no time! As of the beginning of January I am now working full time, taking 2 graduate courses, and training for a half marathon. I have a lot on my plate. At the end of the work day today I looked around my classroom and started to smile at how it has changed while I've been there and as the kids have been learning new things. I thought I would post some pics of my classroom to give you a peek into my home 40+ hours a week :)

What you see when you first walk through the door

Our Word Wall (still a work in progress) and some of our Non Fiction texts

Our CAFE Menu. The kids put a sticky note with their name under the strategy they are working on.

Our Math board

One view from the front of the room

 One of our reading corners

 One of our bookshelves

 What I see when I walk in my room every morning.

If there is love in your heart and your mind, you will feel like Christmas all the time

We had a very relaxing Christmas season this year. Luckily we got our shopping done early and were able to focus on traveling and spending time with loved ones. On Christmas Eve, Greg and I traveled to Milwaukie for a White Elephant gift exchange.

Eric and Nikki (newly engaged) Mona and Greg

The theme for their gift exchange is "killed, caught, cooked, baked, homemade, or re-gifted." One of our gifts was a Jersey Shore gift pack with a bobble head of "The Situation,"  a Jersey Shore towel, and tshirt. Neither of us are fans of the show, but they were in Corvallis and left gift bags at Greg's work. For our second gift I made some cards using my Cricut machine and scrapbooking stuff. I was really happy with how they turned out.

Afterwards, we went to a second White Elephant gift exchange at my sister's in law's (we didn't bring anything, we were more just spectators). However, my brother in law Kyle got some awesome gifts at the gift exchange!

An awesome dinosaur hat!

A vuvuzela (the horns blown during the World Cup in Africa).

We spent Christmas day my parents' house. It was nice to have everyone there and have no agenda other than being together all day.

the "kids"

2nd Christmas together as husband and wife

Mom and Dad

There is so much more I could write and pictures that I could post, but I won't get ahead of myself and wait to do a more focused blog tomorrow or the next day. Excited to post about Greg's new KINECT for the Xbox some other gifts. Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!

Thanksgiving

We were very fortunate and thankful to spend time with LOTS of family this Thanksgiving. We hosted Thanksgiving at our home for Greg's mom and two brothers, my parents, my brother, and my sister and brother in law.

Mom and I got up at 8am Thanksgiving morning, put in the turkey and went for a cold jog around Independence. I was able to truly appreciate how nice it is having your family visit your home and experience some of the things you do every day. The rest of the morning flew by as we showered, got ready, had a small snack, and guests began to arrive.

From top left to bottom right: Kyle, Greg, and Eric staying busy with the Wii. Mom and Dad helping me with dinner. Britt and I slaving away at the stove, the group enjoying our delicious meal! Below you can see how the Thanksgiving harvest decor turned out on our dinner table and serving table.

 

All in all, the first Thanksgiving at our place went quite well. We had a lot of fun having our families together and appreciated all the help!

Attempts at Festive Decorations

I am hosting Thanksgiving this year for a group of 10. I was a little nervous at first having never baked a turkey, no television for the guys to watch football, and limited chairs around our dinner table. I managed to deal with those stressors by creating some fun center pieces and decor for the special day. I used items I already had at home and was able to come up with a few cute things.

Already had the candle and added a bow and some dried leaves.

Leftover candle from our wedding that I added a couple bows to.

Bought some bulk beans from Winco and used a small glass and then holder from our unity candle set :)

 

top view

We'll see how it all comes together. My mom is staying the night with us tomorrow night and we'll attempt to start the turkey together. Hope to get in a Thanksgiving day jog around Independence, come back and get cleaned up and get ready for the family fun! I'll be sure to post pics of the food, decor, and guests later on.