Spring has sprung?

Well some days it seems like Spring here, sunny 65/70 degrees while others it still seems like Christmas with inches of snow falling. Here are some pictures from the first part of Spring so far!



At P.F. Chang's with the Jones' on the way to the coast for Spring Break!
At Chevy's in Terrebonne with the Jones' for the awesome happy hour!
Our cute baby!
Nap time!
Celebrating my job at Typhoon's!

Starbucks

I love Starbucks! Anyone who has met me for even just a few minutes knows how true this is. Nothing more symbolized this than this last Christmas, when unbeknown to each other, every member of my family gave me a $25 starbucks gift card! I'm still working on them, it's great! Evan never understands my passion for "underrated coffee" in his terms. And it's true. Starbucks is not the greatest coffee. If I wanted a truly great latte, I would go to Sparrow Bakery, or Thump or Petite Provence in Portland. However, Starbucks is reliable, will be there in any city I go to and I think more than anything, it reminds me of home.

I started drinking coffee in college, and it symbolized time spent with friends. Anytime friends wanted to hang out, we went out for "starbucks dates". I think this is one main reason for my deep-rooted passion for Starbucks. Not only is it a caffeine boost, but every time I ask for my "grande caramel sauce latte" or "grande skinny vanilla latte", I'm also remembering every time Sam, Katie, Katelyn, Amy, Amanda or Carie and I went on our Starbucks dates. Those green straws and white coffee cups remind me of friends, and home. I can order a latte here in Bend and remember my favorite U-Mall Starbucks back in Davis and pretend that I'm going to hang out with some of my closest friends.

So all in all, I love Starbucks for it's reliability, consistency and most of all for the memories it triggers. Even if it is "average" coffee :)

Tengo un trabajo!!!!

For those of you who don't speak Spanish, I said, "I have a job!" A real, teaching job! A high school Spanish teacher in town this last week, decided she was over teaching, got an offer to be an interpreter and up and quit! With the connections and relationships I've built in this town, I was offered the job on Wednesday morning because of the awesome recommendations from mentors of mine! I have 2 blocks of Spanish 1 and 1 block of Spanish 5. I basically had 2 days (this weekend) to organize my classroom and lesson plan since I had to wait to see where she ended up on Friday! I'm super nervous, excited and happy to finally have a classroom that is somewhat my own (she left most of her stuff which is great since I have hardly anything). I know it won't be easy, but I'm leaning on God's strength, my training and experience to get me through! I just hope the kids will like me! I'm going to have to get used ot be referred to as "Senora Hendrix"!

To-Do List Update

A few weeks ago I started a to-do list in the next year-ish . So far it's going well. I've started training for a half marathon, it's the Dirty Half in Bend June 13th. 1a. was covered when my dad gave me his old guitar this weekend while we were in Cali for my grandpa's memorial/funeral...

I finished "The Lost Symbol" by Dan Brown and I DEFINITELY recommend it! It was a really detailed, hard to put down novel...warning though, I definitely had a difficult time going to bed when I knew that I could be reading the book. So #5 is starting off well. Also, I have been blogging at least once a week, so, so far so good on #9!

That's it for now, but pretty good I think, 4 out of 17!

As for this weekend, my 90 year old grandpa, my dad's dad, passed away a week and a half ago, so we drove down this last Thursday to be there for the memorial. It's nice to know that he isn't in pain any more...

Today is Valentine's Day and Evan and I spent it in the car for 7.5 hours and then poor Evan had to go to work for inventory until 4 in the morning tomorrow...so we are celebrating Valentine's Day tomorrow instead.

But to everyone else, Happy Valentine's Day!

My Very Own Library

For anyone who has ever been to our house, one of the first things they say is usually something like, "Wow, you have a ton of books"! I usually respond with, "You haven't seen our office yet"! With that said, I love books. I could literally spend an entire day in Barnes and Noble then do the same thing the next day. I just love all the knowledge, stories and newness inside every fresh smelling cover. I also was an English and Spanish major in college which left me with enough books for almost anyone's lifetime. However, because of this "minor" obsession with books, it causes me to buy countless numbers of books to fill up my shelves, but they don't always get read! Or I end up reading newer books I bought forgetting about all the other books I already haven't read. So as part of my new list of things to do in the next year-ish, one of them is to start cracking the pages of all these books I have! I'm going to make a list and cross them off and possibly review each of them as I complete them. I very much thrive under lists; they create motivation that I can't always generate without them. So here we go! I don't even know how many I have, not counting all the books that I've already read and want to read again, but I'll save that for a later post!

1. Lost Symbol- Dan Brown
2. Say You're One of Them- Ewem Akpan (I've started this one at least)
3. Amazing Grace- Jonathon Kozol
4. This Beautiful Mess- Rick McKinley
5. Sarah's Key- Tatiana de Rosnay
6. Letters to a Young Teacher-Jonathon Kozol
7. Redeeming Love- Francine Ribers
8. Angela's Ashes- Frank McCourt
9. Teacher Man- Frank McCourt
10. Snow Falling on Cedars- David Guterson
11. Reading Like a Writer- Francine Prose
12. The Glass Castle- JeannetteWalls
13. My Antonia- Willa Cather
14. 90 Minutes in Heaven- Don Piper
15. Velvet Elvis- Rob Bell

Well that's it! It's not quite as many as I thought, but it doesn't include the list of books I still want to read that I DON'T own, but probably will. Well I'm off to start working on this list!

I'm starting with...

Part II

As for the start of the new year, not much has changed. I'm still working at the Loft, teaching and coaching siwmming and applying for teaching jobs. I just recently applied for my second teaching job this year that didn't come through because the administration already knew who they wanted to hire beforehand...it definitely gets disheartening at times, but I'm trying to keep my heart open to what God wants from my life.

On a different note, I wanted to put pen to paper or fingers to key pad, what I hope to accomplish this year. My friend Christen Waller came up with 101 to-do items in 1001 days. I don't know if I can come up with that many at the moment, but here is a shortened list of places to go, hobbies to learn and accomplishments to tackle for this year and/or the year to come!

1. Start learning how to play the guitar. 1a. Get a guitar.
2. Print off many of the digital pictures I have shot in the last 4 years.
3. Deep clean my car.
4. Train for and run a half marathon. I just need a goal to achieve, it's part of my personality.
5. Read a book a month, since I have an entire bookshelf in my house with unread books.
6. Find my place in church ministry.
7. Go back to Seattle.
8. Make home made croissants.
9. Try to blog once a week
   
10. Go snowshoeing and/or cross country skiing before all the snow melts (in 6 months) :)
11. Go camping (finally) with Evan.
12. Try a new food.
13. Go to Picnic Day this year in Davis.
14. Go to the Portland Zoo.
15. Pay off my Loft credit card.
16. Try a new workout class, and dedicate at least a month to actually showing up to each class.
17. Visit a new city.

I think that's all for now. I will mark off each one as I start or complete one of them! Here's to a new decade and hopefully some change!

New Year, Not Much Change

I know I haven't blogged in forever, I will blame it on the holidays instead of my lack of desire to blog. The biggest change in the last couple months is that Evan and I added a new member to our family, Jack! We love him so much and he brings so much fun and joy to our life!


We spent Thanksgiving in Pebble Beach with my family and had a fun visit with Ben and Katie too! We celebrated Evan's 26th birthday with my family up for the holidays. For Christmas we spent the holiday at Evan's parents and enjoyed a relaxing day with family and dogs!


For New Years our wonderful friends Ben, Katie, Katelyn and Charles and all their dogs came up to visit! We had so much fun going out to eat, watching movies and football, playing games and watching Jack and Hamlet play! We loved every minute of it! Here are pictures to document the fun times!