If I had vanity plates on my car they would say: ILUVHP

Paparazzi

So, the paparazzi followed us up the Gorge this weekend to get some pictures of us. Oh wait, that was Steve. Oh, and we actually asked him to come and are SO SO grateful for his time and talents. The pictures are amazing, thanks to Steve, and I can't decide which one to choose for Christmas cards and for a big print for the house. Vote on my poll on which picture you like the best. You can also check out Steve's blog to see a slide show.

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VOTE!!

"The Face"

As many of you know I am hopelessly in LOVE with my nephew Dawson. A couple weeks ago I was with him and he had a new trick. You say "show me the face Dawsie" and this is what you get...







































































SO CUTE!! I can't get enough of it. Whenever there is a camera around Dawson is smiling for it. I think he learned that from his sisters.

Before and After

Can we say 40 pounds lighter? Good job Dan! I am so so proud of him. He has worked hard and been very disciplined as I continue to eat cookies, ice cream and all sorts of naughty foods.

The Crisp Is In the Air

I love fall when you first start to feel the crispness in the air. Since we moved to Oregon we have made it a tradition to go to Sauvie Island each fall. It is a beautiful island that is surrounded by the Multnomah channel of the Willamette River and the Columbia River is on the other side. When you are on Sauvie Island you would never believe that downtown Portland is only 20 minutes away. We go to a farm that has a farm fresh produce market, barn with animals, corn maize, hay tower and free hayrides to their pumpkin patch. I love riding out to the pumpkin patch and being able to choose my own pumpkin right from the vine. I bought some acorn squash, butternut squash, delicata squash, fresh apples from Hood River, fresh apple cider and raspberry syrup. YUM-O!! Being able to get farm fresh produce is truly one of the greatest things about living in Portland, Oregon. On my way home from work I can easily drive past 2 farm stands. I LOVE it!

































Happy Fall!!

Trabajar

Work, work, work! I have been back to work for a little over two weeks and life is now crazy again. My kids come back to school TOMORROW!! AHH! I guess that I am ready. Each year it gets easier. I feel more prepared this year than I ever have before. Here are a couple of things that have happened during the past 2 weeks and 2 days:

1. I have worked at least 102 hours (plus 10.5 hours today!)


2. Scheduled 20 home visits.


3. Completed 11 home visits.


4. Attended 12 different trainings.


5. Lots of fun lunches with the ladies!


6. Two 10.5 hour days doing Orientations (why did I wear heels on those days?)


7. Planned my curriculum for the first 2 weeks of school


8. I act as the resident "computer" woman. (I work with many "mature" ladies who aren't very technologically inclined. Thus, I have to do a lot of computer stuff. Luckily, I don't mind staying late at work because Dan has been studying for finals.)


9. Many trips to Dollar Tree.

And last but not least......

10. I learned that I will be moving to a new site on December 1st! :( This is very very sad. We are opening a new site in January so me and another teacher will be going to this new site in December to get the classroom ready, do enrollments, orientations, etc. It is kind of exciting to be going to a new site and I LOVE the teacher that I am going with, but it is very frightening because I don't know what the classroom is going to be like, I have to leave my class after 2 months, and I get a new boss and lots of other new people to work with. I have had many different emotions on this subject. I have been excited, sad, angry, scared, happy and worried. Lately, I have been too busy with preparing for the kids to come back to really think about it. It is going to be so hard to leave the kids and families after two months. I have already visited lots of my families and most of them are so wonderful. I am so grateful for my job. I love it so much . I learn so much from these families and the children. I see lots of different types of families. Since I am mainly working with families living in poverty I see many families who have a lot of problems/issues/etc. I also see a lot of hard working, persevering and resilient families. I work with many Hispanic/Latino families. They have come here to give their children a better life and they work so hard and so much and they truly amaze me. I am so grateful that I get to work with them.

One last funny thing before I go. I have been using this program called Boardmaker. I make visual schedules, rules, etc. and it is a great tool for working with ESL kiddos and kids with special needs. It has over 4,000 pictures ranging from sit down, brush teeth, food items, toys, health related items and social things like sharing and not biting. I was looking for a particular picture one day and I couldn't find it. I started looking through all 4,000 pictures when I came across this:

I laughed so hard when I saw this! Why would anyone ever need this? I don't know, but it made me laugh and I hope it makes you laugh to! Happy Monday!