Winter Wonderland

1st day of winter! The weather has been crazy here! We have a about 5 inches of snow and a 1/2 inch of ice on top of that. Not much driving happening here. Most people have been walking to the store, which is what I will be doing since I can't get my car out.

a look down my street

down the stairs out back

my foot

ice anyone?

me and my christmas tree

SNOW DAY!!!

It has been an exciting 2 days! First off it snowed in Portland! And let me tell you, I'm not exaggerating when I say, the whole town shuts down! On Sunday it snowed a half inch in the morning and then it snowed throughout the day with a total accumulation of maybe an inch and a half. Church services were cancelled, a highway was shut down, chains were supposed to be on your tires, stores closed early....and so on. You get the picture. It was really funny. Then on Sunday evening I got the call that my district closed school for Monday, so you know what that means....SNOW DAY! I haven't had a snow day since TN! Tomorrow, Tuesday, I have a 2 hour delay too...haha. It's funny when I feel like I am the one who is able to drive in the snow, whereas in MI I feel like that I'm the scary person driving. So I had a great snow day. It was nice and relaxing.
Actually it was eventful. My roommate, Rob, proposed to his girlfriend, Ali. It was fun because I got to be in on it and help plan it. It was fun being on the inside of things. I don't have any pictures of the set up, but the place looked great and it worked out really well!!
Then later during my snow day Zack and I went downtown for dinner and to go look at the huge Christmas tree.
Now it's about time for bed. Back to school tomorrow, after the 2 hour delay of coarse =). Wednesday is the last day for the kids to be at school, then they are on break until Jan. Tough week...haha.

This is the amount of snow that closed so many things down!!!

YAY for snow!

Pretty Christmas tree downtown.

Zack and I.

Me with a random statue man. =)

A random restaurant/bar called Bo.

fun stuff this week....

I had a pretty eventful week. This past Wednesday I had the opportunity to go to an Autism conference downtown. It was pretty awesome. The guy speaking was actually from Nashville, TN! It was a great conference and I learned a lot.
The weather this past week was pretty nice too. I was able to take some great shots of the mountains, Columbia River, and of coarse the sunset.
I drove up Mt. Hood on Sunday. My friend, Zack, and I drove up and actually got so far up we hit the snow! I was actually really excited when I saw the snow. I'm use to Michigan weather where there's a ton of snow and I guess I realized how much I actually miss the snow. Weird...I know. =)
My roommate, Rob, and I also got a christmas tree on Sunday. We decorated it with a ton of lights. We also put lights all over our balcony. I'll just say our place stands out.

Mt. Hood

Columbia River which I just realized is about 30 seconds away from my place.

A little floating community on the Columbia River.

An amazing sunset! Taken from my balcony.

A cute little waterfall. Heading up Mt. Hood.

It's starting to get snowy. =)

Snow!

More snow!

Heading back down the mountain. Rain again.

Historic Oregon Trail!

Part of the Oregon Trail!

Driving Mt. Hood.

Christmas tree time.

All decorated!

Thanksgiving and such.....

The last few weeks have been up and down. I was sick for about a week and lost my voice which obviously made it difficult to work with the kids and coach. It was interesting that's all I have to say. One of my kids today asked me, "B, I'm so glad you found your voice! Where did you find it?" It was really funny because she was really serious and concerned.
I went to Kurtz's house for Thanksgiving. She is living in Colorado now so here are some of the pictures from that trip! It was a lot of fun and it was SO nice to see a familiar face!

We were at this country type restaurant and it had this sign up! Of coarse I took a pic! (Mandy I thought you would like this!!)

There was a huge slide in the middle of the restaurant. Yes, I had to go down it. =)

Kurtz and I beginning our Thanksgiving day cooking. We were looking for all of the turkey's parts.....we couldn't find a few of them.....so we stuffed him anyways. Eventually we found everything after going in from a different angle...haha.

He's all tied up, stuffed, and ready to go!

Done turkey!!! and NO fires! =)

All of the food Kurtz and I made! It's all lined up ready to go!

We were proud.

Kurtz is feeling a little full after eating so much!

Colorado has Chick-Fil-A's so I was super excited about it!

Downtown Denver. A fun street all decorated.

Random chess boards in the middle of a street in downtown. There were a ton of them down the street.

Gotta love some moutains. It snowed while I was there. The moutains got a ton of snow while we got an inch or two. Just enough to have a snowball fight. =)

i am officially completely unpacked....

There are no more boxes in my room now. Everything I own is now fully unpacked. Over the weekend I picked up some furniture for my room. A lady from the church I am going to gave it away so I jumped on that deal real quick. I got a queen size bed, bookcase, night stand, and an armoire. I definitely lucked out. I put up some pictures on my finished room, as well as pictures of my living room with my new couch.

There aren't really many updates on my life. Work at the school is going well. This week I have parent teacher conferences so I am kind of excited for those because I will get to meet the kids' parents. I will have a lot of meetings, but I am looking forward to them.
Coaching is going well also. I am getting back into the compulsory mind set and learning all of the new beam and floor routines. Always a good time. I like working with the kids though and I think they are beginning to get use to my conditioning. =)

...pictures of sunsets all the way down the stairs...

Something on the side.....

Today I did a bar clinic for the optionals at the gym I have been going to lately. Last Thursday the owner asked me if I would like to start coaching because she is in need of another coach. So, I am now coaching level 5's three days a week. It will be just enough to keep me busy in the afternoons after I am done working at the school. I think it will be a good thing for me. I am excited because I will get to go to the meets with the girls and all of that jazz.

Everything else is pretty much the same. I have done more decorating in the house here and there. I am still working on getting furniture for my room. Work went a whole lot better this past week than the previous week so that was encouraging. Well, that's about everything here. I'll be posting more updates soon.

I do have to say congratulations to the Spartans! Go State! and the Titans!!!

Trip to Tacoma, Washington

I took a trip to Washington today. I went to Tacoma, Washington to visit a friend who coached at the same gym I went to in Tennessee when I was in highschool. It is about 2 hours straight up, so it wasn't too bad of a trip. We were going to go to Seattle, but it was raining pretty hard and decided not to go. Here are some pics along the way up though.

Entering Washington. It actually only took me about 2 minutes to cross into Washington from where I live.

A pretty tree. I love fall.

This one is for Abi. =) On my way to Tacoma, Washington.