trillium lake

Last week, the Mr. and I decided that we were going to go on a date on Friday. He asked me where I wanted to go and I had been thinking for a while now about going to a lake over by Mt. Hood somewhere, but I wasn't sure which one. Then Thursday night it rained and got cold and I didn't particularly feel like sitting in the cold by a lake in the mountains Friday morning. So we postponed our date until Saturday. It was very cloudy almost the whole way there, then we stopped at the Ranger's station in ZigZag to get our day use pass and by the time we left there, the sky was perfectly blue with barely a cloud.

Whenever we take this drive up Rt. 26 to the mountain, I am always amazed by how many trees there are. It's insane, really, how many trees.

I gave Phil three choices of lakes: Frog Lake, Timothy Lake (where my hairdresser camps every summer), and Trillium Lake. The ranger said the best views of Hood were from Trillium Lake, so that's where we went.

It was beautiful. 

We did a little hiking and then went back to the car for our lunch and grabbed some chairs. We found a spot tucked away behind some trees and I sat there and read some journal articles while Phil took Wilson for a walk the whole way around the lake - about 2 miles, or so the signs said.

Wilson doesn't particularly like laying on the ground, especially ground that is somewhat muddy, and he was whining like crazy. I put up with it for a while, but then it just got annoying, so we left. He's a spoiled dog, and sometimes that comes back to bite me in the butt.

currently

drinking iced tea.

hoping for a break in our current lack-of-work situation soon. Ugh. So frustrating.

feeling like I've been in a funk lately.

listening to Phil on the phone scheduling an interview and the baseball game on TV.

procrastinating on my discussion board assignment that's due tonight. I'm so done with doing school. It's getting harder and harder for me to focus on sitting down and getting stuff done. This is week #3 of 8 in my very last class and I'm lacking serious motivation. 

thanking my professor from my educational technology class for giving me credit for an assignment I uploaded that disappeared. It changed my final grade from a B+ to an A and I am so very happy about that. So is my GPA.

looking forward to my mom, sister, and niece coming out for a visit the week of Thanksgiving. It will be mom's 3rd visit and the 1st time for Jenny and Hannah. Can't wait to do turkey and pumpkin pie at the beach!

praying for renewed hope and jobs.

loving the hydrangeas. I seriously can't get enough of them.

anticipating graduation. I cannot wait to get my diploma and official transcripts in the mail.

listening at night before bed to Beth Moore. I've got the Living Proof Ministries app on my phone and she's got a bunch of videos and podcasts on there. Good stuff.

needing to exercise and get a pedicure.

making dinner in the crock pot. Pot roast to die for. Need to send the hubster to the store for potatoes. And I'm craving watermelon.

ignoring all the stupid political stuff right now. I don't like our options. The hide button on facebook is my friend.
reading not much of anything really. I have some books I want to reserve at the library but haven't done it yet.
wishing for a vacation.
planning some ladies events for church. We're looking at Beth Moore's new study coming out in September on 2 Timothy called Entrusted for our fall Bible study. I'm trying to figure out a date for a women's night of worship, fall festival is coming up, and I've been in the early planning stages for our Christmas luncheon. 
wanting to scrapbook.

thinking about school supplies, hopefully a job situation working out for both of us, and going back to the beach. We were there Saturday for the day for our church camp out. We couldn't go for the whole weekend because the reservations are made really early in the year and it's way too difficult for me to plan anything beyond the upcoming weekend with school stuff. Oh well. It was fun despite all that. It rained in the morning, and then the sun came out and it ended up being a beautiful day.

believing I could've had a totally different career field in something like game show hostess.

twenty sixteen garden report

currently growing: zucchini, yellow zucchini, 4 kinds of tomatoes, green beans, snap peas, kale, peppers, 2 kinds of cucumbers, basil, rosemary, and weeds.

we've harvested: lots of zucchini (it's the one thing I grow really well), 6 cherry tomatoes, 3 cucumbers, a small bowl of pea pods, and a couple rounds of kale. 

baby pea pods are pretty.

seriously. there is nothing better than eating a tomato right off the vine.

it kind of looks like a hot mess. you have to be really careful when walking between the two beds.

Phil505 built me some tomato cages. I first thought they were way too big, but the tomato plants are growing into them. My dad told me about the ol' sprinkle and water in some epsom salts trick on the tomatoes and peppers. so far it seems to be working.

next year we're going to need to replace the wood for the raised beds. it's rotting out in several spots. might have to redesign and create some smaller boxes because the current layout is a little bit of a pain.

in the flower department: the hydrangeas have done awesome this year. multiple colors on one bush. I've been cutting them and bringing them inside to enjoy. planted 3 more pink ones and 2 peonies that I got with birthday money.

I have one daisy plant that is like 4.5 feet tall and falling all over the place. I tried tying them up, but they're still leaning over pretty bad. but they're pretty.

here's to eating home grown veggies and higher water bills!

anniversary #12

Our 12th anniversary fell on a Sunday this year. We decided a few weeks before that I would take the week off from worship team and we would do some stuff in Portland. We rarely go to Portland. Phil used to work downtown and once he came home, he didn't want to go back. We get the occasional concert or Christmas-y thing in, but for the most part, we stay away from the city. Well, I had read about this place called Off the Waffle and wanted to go, so that's where we went and had brunch. Seriously, the best waffle I've ever had in my life. It's some sort of special Belgium waffle that has sugar pearls that melt in the waffle iron and make the crust a little crunchy. Mine was covered in Nutella and sliced bananas and I got a side of some amazing maple flavored bacon. It was really good. I don't normally do sweet things like that for breakfast, but with it being a special occasion and all, well I did this time (and I would totally order it again).

                              

We walked around the area where the restaurant was and then we headed down to the Portland waterfront. It was the last day for the Rose Festival and it was very busy. We meandered through the Saturday market and then we headed to the Rose Garden where we got engaged, but it was packed and there was no place to park (sadness), so we drove further up in the hills to Pittock Mansion. I'd heard of this place lots of times, but we'd never been there. There was only a half hour left until the tours shut down, so we didn't go inside, but the outside was beautiful and there were nice flowers everywhere and a fantastic view of Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Hood.

I also pretty much took the day off from doing homework (the only thing I did was record my 1 minute video discussion board reply before we left) and it was so nice to just have a normal day again. We ended up in Sellwood and browsed some antique shops for a bit, then we had dinner at a little Mexican restaurant called Cha Cha Cha. We had patio seats and it was a beautiful night. I loved celebrating with my guy. I love him so much.

I've waited three years for this

My pink peony bush, that I planted as a little baby our first summer here, finally got buds on it this year. Three of them, to be exact. The first one finally opened and it did not disappoint. I want more. If I could have a whole yard filled with nothing but roses, hydrangeas, and peonies, then I would be one happy lady.

state testing is for the birds

So, I started a kind of long-term, well, until the end of the year, sub job on Tuesday. I say kind of because I'm really not supposed to do anything over 20 days in the same position, but this one will probably go over by a few. I'm not in the classroom though. I'm subbing for the literacy facilitator. She is in charge of the school's literacy program (obviously) as well as the supervisor for the paras and she coordinates the building's testing (state and district). That's a pretty big responsibility for anyone, but especially for a sub (who knows very little about technology to begin with).

I had probably six or seven days of training with her, including two actual testing days. Those were fine. My first day on the job I couldn't get the computers to autologin correctly. We finally figured it out, but it was a pain in the neck. I called Harrison over at IT after school and he became my new BFF. Wednesday was pretty much a breeze compared to Tuesday. Everything mostly worked like it was supposed to. Today, all the laptops in a 4th grade classroom lost connection with the state server (or something like that) and all the kids got booted off the test. That is not supposed to happen. I called the District Assessment Office three times. Jenny and Dawn are also my new BFFs. And, lucky me, I got to fill out my first (but not last) Irregularity Report. woot. woot.

Yesterday I got the last of my new books for the first summer term. For the next 8 weeks I get to curl up at night with these bad boys. Say your prayers now, people.

Tomorrow it's supposed to be 90 degrees and that just means all sorts of fun in an old school with no air conditioning. Then it's supposed to rain all weekend. . . which will be good because the grass is already starting to die. But not good because we were really wanting to do yard work and get some mulch before the insanity of my life kicks in to high gear.

Oh, and I looked at the course guide for the technology course and discovered that not only do we have discussion boards (which I hate) but we get to do video discussion boards (which I'm sure I'll hate even more). I do not want video footage of myself talking smack about technology out there on the interwebs. Maybe I'll just have to call my BFF Harrison in IT and get some pointers.

Happy Thursday, and may all your packages from Amazon be more fun than mine were this week.

And yes, in case you were wondering, I am totally procrastinating on finishing up my Lewis and Clark unit plan by writing this post.

so apparently a boy band stole my blog's name

I noticed tonight that I've had an unusual volume of blog traffic lately. I checked my stat counter to see what in the world people were searching for that landed them here. I mean, I get some people that are checking out stuff I've pinned on pinterest and what not, but it's not that much traffic. Well, the results showed. . . bing.com - PART OF MY STORY, yahoo - part of my story, etc., etc., etc. So I googled it and, what do ya know? Part of my Story is not only the name of my most beloved blog, the one I've had since at least 2008, well, it's also now the name of a 12 year old boy band. Probably one that my niece is all googly-eyed over. I don't know if I should be honored that they liked my name so much they stole it or just completely annoyed that they stole it. They're even abbreviating it POMS.

For the record, this is the original part of my story. And don't you forget it.