Merry Christmas and Happy 2009

It has been a crazy couple of weeks here. First off Portland had a huge snow storm...the most snow they have had since the 60's I think. Pretty much everything shut down. I had like a 2 week snow day! They don't plow or salt the roads here so everyone kind of just waits for the snow to melt. For Christmas I was house/dog sitting so the dog and I just hung out Christmas day. Later that night I went over to a friends house and played games and such. Nothing too eventful. To celebrate new years Rob (my roommate), Alli (his girlfriend), and a few other people came over to the house. It was actually kind of strange because I'm used to New Years in MI and so when MI was celebrating the New Year it was only 9pm in Portland. It was just really different. The best part of New Years was Rob made a re-creation of "Christmas dinner" since I did not have one. It was such a great meal! We are still eating left overs. =)
I haven't had any kids at the school in about 3 weeks. This Tuesday the kids come back. I am eager to get going again and get back into my routine. I have a new student coming so I am excited about that.
The little level 5's that I coach had their first intersquad this past weekend. They did fairly well. There were some good and bad things. One girl forgot the routines...haha. Awesome. We have a lot of work to do, but overall it went pretty well. I am excited for season. Our first meet is in about 3 weeks.
Here are some pictures of the "Artic Blast 2008"--> that is what Portlanders are calling the snow storm. It's pretty funny....

A 3ft+ snow drift in front of someone's house. We shoveled this lady's side walk so she could get out of her house.

Christmas morning! Merry Christmas!

New Years Eve. I'm sporting my new rain boots Debbie got for me. =)

Alli about to learn a line dance!

Rob so very proud of his turkey he made for dinner.

Happy 2009!!!

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. =)