Wow It's been too long

The last time I updated my blog, the trees still didn't have leaves and the weather was still cold...and now the trees are changing colors and losing their leaves again...I didn't keep up with #9 on my new year's to do list but I did say I would try to blog more often. Well since April, we got our new puppy Molly who has been such a fun addition to our family, I ended my long term teaching job, traveled to CA to spend time with my family, had many friends come visit us, celebrated our 3 year wedding anniversary and spent time with our small group playing games, eating delicious good and spending time in community. Now that I'm turning the fire on daily, wanting to make soups and anxiously awaiting holidays, I figured I should start writing in my blog again! Oh, most importantly, I'm officially an official teacher! It's not quite full time but I love my kids and I love having my own classroom, doing what I know God gifted me to do.

On another note, I looked back at my new years goal list, thinking that I hadn't touched more than one item, but after reacquainting myself with my goals I realized I achieved more than I thought! Here's the update:

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. (Done in the Spring)
4. Train for and run a half marathon. I just need a goal to achieve, it's part of my personality. (Completed with my dad and Evan in June!)
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. (So happy we did this! Hopefully every year we can go!)
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.

Pretty good for such a busy year and I still have time for the rest!

Next update with pictures, I promise :)

Does spelling count?

This very well could be the world's MOST ANNOYING PHRASE EVER!!! I hear it almost every day out of my high schoolers! Unreal! Some days in my Spanish 1 classes I really believe that I'm teaching very big kindergartners... no joke. Yes I understand that they are learning a new language, but please, when you learn new words, just learn how to spell them, or at least try to come close. Like I said, I'm teaching kindergartners.

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...