best weekend week of my life so far.

We have had an extremely eventful last week and I will do my best to remember all of it but I can't promise anything.

Friday, March 21
Matt flew in from Virginia and we celebrated our Portland friends one year anniversary of living in Portland.

Virginians in Oregon, bringing the Richmond-style to a Portland world.



Saturday, March 22
Matt, Brandy, Rick and I drove to the coast an a spontaneous car-camping trip. We stayed at a tiny cabin in a KOA near Seaside, OR. Once we got there we mostly drove around looking at the cute towns including Astoria where the Goonies were filmed and Seaside which has a VA Beach feel to it. We also when to shipwreck beach which was REALLY cool. Brandy and I also rode the Tilt-a-Whirl in Seaside and we were laughing so hard we were crying!



Shipwreck beach if you can't tell.

Brandy and I showing the vast size of the only portion of the ship showing.

A Rick and Erin Tradition...


Sunday, March 23
We spent the day at Cannon Beach but it was so windy we didn't make it long. As you can tell from the photos, it was near hurricane weather. But surprisingly our group was really good sports about it! We drove back to Portland late afternoon so I could get some rest for work on Monday.

Trying to capture the windy day...







While souvenir hunting we came across a hat shop...



Monday, March 24
I worked. But we went to the Crystal Ballroom that evening to see one of the guys from the Clash, which Rick and I were not impressed with but Matt loved.

Tuesday, March 25:
I also worked. And then we went out to eat at Rock Bottom and played some pool.

Wednesday, March 26:
Careyann and her friend Brandi flew in from Virginia to spend the second half of their Spring Break with us. This day we kept it pretty mellow since the girls had been flying all day.

Thursday, March 27:
We drove to Wahkeena Falls, which were beautiful and then took about a half mile hike over to Multnomah Falls, which were even bigger and better. We spent the rest of the afternoon making sure everybody had everything they needed for our trip to Mt. Hood the following day. That night Matt and Rick cooked a big feast for us girls!
Wahkeena Falls.

On the hike... that is Lake Carson and then just past that is the Columbia River and just past that is Washington State.

Multnomah Falls.




Friday, March 28:
We drove Matt to the airport and then headed to Mt. Hood to do riding. Rick, our friend Keith, Careyann and Brandi all snowboarded. I skiied because I already know how to do that and although it has been about 6 years since the last time I went... it was like riding a bike. I picked it back up in no time. Keith goes once a week so he helped everybody get acquainted with their boards. Rick did really well too for his first time boarding. It took him about an hour and a half of falling before he finally got the hang of it. We stayed until about 230pm or so. All of us were in bed by 5pm and slept until this morning. Apparently, yesterday took a lot out of us.

Just beginning our full body workout.

Rick and his sister, Careyann.

Careyann and her friend Brandi.



About turn in our gear because we are beat.


Saturday, March 29:
Most of us are pretty sore, some more than others so we will probably just keep it mellow, especially since the girls have to spend the whole day tomorrow flying.

Well that is it. I hope you guys have enjoyed the pictures. Maybe some of you will be persuaded to come visit before we move back to become east coasters again.

We hope everybody has fun at the 60th wedding anniversary tonight!

We love you,
love your exhausted oregonians.

quick update.

Rick's buddy Matt is here and Rick's youngest sister Careyann and her friend Brandi just got here today.

We have been busy little bees.

I just wanted to write and promise lots of photographs of our amazing weekend at the coast and we are going to the Multnomah Falls tomorrow and skiing on Friday so there will be much to report!

Check back probably on Sunday!

Love,
your soon-to-be-east-coasters oregonians.

a breakthrough kinda day.

HAPPY FIRST DAY OF SPRING!
And a happy one it was...

So I finished my classroom's evaluations about 2 weeks ago which was a bit of a pain BUT turns out it was a blessing in disguise because it gave me a black and white picture of where all my students stand.

I don't know if I have mentioned this but my school runs on a mixed creative curriculum plan where the preschool rooms are mixed ages. So instead of having a 3s class, a 4s class and a pre-K class we have 2 rooms that have all 3 groups. This presents a little bit of a challenge for planning our activities since they are all at different levels but I think it is a positive thing because the younger kids are encouraged to meet milestones (like cutting a straight line) because they witness the older kids already doing those same milestones.

Anyways... So even though the evaluations where extremely time-consuming, I was able to understand where each child was in their gross/fine motor skill development, emotional/social development and their academic progress.

This has created an opportunity for me to create activities that fit the the needs of my kids at all of their levels of progress.

Their are some kids who couldn't put on their own coat themselves and have achieved that with patience and determination as I mentioned in a previous post. But this week we might have had some of our biggest breakthroughs...

One kid who couldn't put his coat on last week can now not only put on his own coat but we have been practicing lining up the zipper (which can be very difficult and requires fine motor skills and a lot of patience) and yesterday he zipped his coat! You would have thought this kid won the lottery he was so elated.

To see these kids proud of themselves is pretty cool because most of the time they are just responding to the reaction they get from adults. At the moment he realized he zipped his coat all by himself you could tell it wouldn't have matter if I was standing their or not, he would've been just as happy.

There was another kid that I mentioned previously who is extremely hyperactive (Max). With his evaluation I sent a note home hoping his parents would consider having an assessment to discover what kind of difficulties Max is facing. Well, the good news is that it wasn't my imagination and the parents were already on board and had already begun the process. The bad news is that the assessment conclusions said Max has ADHD. So they are trying a new medicine that seems to be working (although we are only in week 1).

Sorry I am rambling I just realized there is only the long story to explain this...

Anyway back to the breakthrough....

So today during our stations we were coloring lightening bolts for part of our letter Z week (zig zags) and Max sat down until he was finished. He was very focused and he even relatively stayed in the lines. He didn't scribble like most of the 3s do in our class, he was coloring. This doesn't seem like a big deal but this is the first week he has even participated in stations and today he completed something he had never done before in his life.

When his mom came to pick him up I showed her the lightening bolt and she almost cried. I am warm just thinking about it.

I am really getting that teacher feeling of being so insanely proud of my students that it makes me feel fuzzy.

But enough of that sappy stuff. I just thought I would relay the positive stories I have right now. This is the feeling that makes me want to got back to school so I can have more knowledge of teaching children so I can really make a difference. And although I feel like God has pulled and directed me on the path to teaching this is the first time I have felt 110% confident, not only in that this is what God wants me to do with my life but that I CAN do it. I now have the confidence that I was lacking even when I got to Portland. I am making a huge impact and a positive one at that.

I hope you all can have this feeling in your life because it is one of the best I have felt.

As always, we miss everyone of you and wish nothing but peace upon you all.

Love,
your enriched-souled oregonians.

erin go brea!

Happy St. Patty's Day!!

We don't have any crazy drinking festivities planned as we do have work, but we are going to meet our friends Brandy and Keith (both from Virginia) to go to Brandy's work party, where there is going to be lots of irish eats!

Portland has gotten colder over the last week or so, but I am told that the warm weather is coming soon so I am very much looking forward to that!

Rick's friend Matt (one of the groomsmen) gets to Portland on Friday and we are celebrating Brandy's one year anniversary of living in Portland.

Rick's youngest sister, Careyann gets here in about 10 days for her spring break and our plan is to go snowboarding on Mt. Hood.

We will be sure to take pictures of all of our festivities we have planned!

We wish you all would come out for a visit before we move back to the East Coast because it is definitely worth a mini-vacation and we will gladly open Hotel Rick&Erin to anyone who needs a break from their daily grind.

We love you all!

Love,
your green-clad-so-we-dont-get-pinched oregonians.

a bit of spirituality.

My kids are continuing to impress me in showing the knowledge they have learned. Although the change has been pretty gradual, this week I noticed some break-throughs.

One kid I have been trying to teach how to put his own coat with this trick I learned when I was little and he has finally mastered it and he is so proud of himself.

I have another boy who is extremely hyperactive and has a hard time understanding how his actions affect others. Thursday, he bumped into a girl and really scared her. I let him first decide what to do next before interrupting and telling him what to do. Once he realized how upset his friend was, he went over helped her off the floor and gave her a hug. It was so innocent, but the two of them figured out how to fix the situation all on their own, in the same manner any teacher would have and they are only 4 years old.

It was beautiful.

I got this in an email from my Aunt Beth today and thought I would share it...

Saint Theresa's Prayer
May today there be peace within.
May you trust God that you are exactly where you are meant to be.
May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith.
May you use those gifts that you have received, and pass on the love that has been given to you.
May you be content knowing you are a child of God.

Let this presence settle into your bones, and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love.
It is there for each and every one of us.

We hope this finds you all well and happy.

Love,
your enlightened oregonians.

merrily merrily merrily life is but a dream.

Life is good.

Rick and I are constantly realizing all the different ways we are blessed. This week being that we are so lucky to have so many exciting things to look forward to.

The end of March, Rick's youngest sister is coming out with a friend for her spring break, as well as one of Rick's groomsmen, Matt. We plan to get out to the coast and probably go for a day on Mt. Hood to do some snow skiing.

The end of April, my parents are coming out for about 10 days and we plan to go up to Seattle to see a couple of Mariner's games as well as a trip to the southern coast to do some sightseeing.

June we have Chris and Mollie's wedding and of course ours is in August.

Rick got his wedding outfit and his wedding band this week. Hopefully we will be picking out my ring soon as well. We have an amazing DJ and an amazing photographer and even a local Hampton lady who will be baking our cake.

We are so excited about the upcoming months it is sometimes hard to focus on the now, but we are continuing to take one day at a time.

We love you all and hope everybody is as happy with life as we are.

Love,
your soon to be south carolinians?