Birthday Party

Before Pat left to go up to Seattle for the week she made sure to throw me a birthday party. After a yummy dinner we of course had to carry on the Berg tradition and do the face in the cake. I asked for a yellow cake with apple sauce and chocolate pudding (yes it sounds crazy, but yes it is amazing! Trust me!)

Lets get together (ya ya ya)

Okay lets all first admit that when I said get together we all sang "ya ya ya".

Upon arriving in Oregon we received the great news that some of Kevin's siblings and their families were coming to visit the next weekend. We spent the week hanging out with Pat and Stacey and helping watch Jeff and Shelby's children. Shelby had delivered mid May to a beautiful baby boy Crew at 24 weeks weighing 1 lb 9 oz. They were very tied up at the hospital with him so we were happy we were there to help watch their other 3 kids. Right before everyone arrived Jeff and Shelby received the news that Crew would need to have surgery in Portland and was then flown to Portland with dad and mom driving behind. The good news is his surgery was successful and the miracle baby is continuing to grow stronger each day.

Everyone arrived Friday and we spent the first night just enjoying everyone's company, enjoying the outdoors, and enjoying the hot tub.

Look at these adorable twinners

She demanded I put these on her and that they stayed like this. Silly girl! 

Hot tub gang! 

Friday we went and walked down main street in Grants Pass to look at the Bears. Yes you heard that correctly, I said bears. I guess each year people make these bears and they display them on main street and then they get auctioned off (yard display? Living room furniture? ha ha the possibilities are endless when you buy a giant bear I guess. ). They are very cool looking though and the kids loved them. We ended the downtown adventure by going to the farmers market. MMMM... Fresh donuts! 

The weather was great but very hot so we decided to take the kids over to Jeff and Shelby's so they could play in their pool. I was in a swimming mood so I was crazy enough to join in. The water was cold but it didn't seem to bother the kids, and after having it poured on me a few times, I got used to it too. Pretty much the pool adventure just ended in a big water fight. 

 Sunday was an adventure at church but was very nice outside so we spent a lot of the day outside and just relaxing.

Great times with a Great Family! We missed you Jeff, Shelby, Craig, and Carly! 

Plans for the future

After Kevin got admitted into Oregon we quickly made plans to move me out there as well. So as soon as school got out on Thursday May 24 we packed lots of stuff up here in Idaho and early Friday morning headed to Portland to look at housing. We began our search Friday and then continued it all day Saturday. We visited about 15-20 different apartment complexes, were impressed by some, scared by others. After everything started to close down Saturday we made our way back down to Grants Pass to Kevin's parents. We then spent the next week trying to decide where we wanted to live. And then we eventually decided and put down our deposit. It is hard to pay so much for little apartments but I guess that what you get when you live in a big city and have to be close to downtown where school is.

Teaching is a balancing act

I was always told that teaching is a great balancing act. And the truth is it was! But luckily I was really good at it and could balance it for 5 whole minutes. ( I guess you can add marker balancing to my long (short) list of talents)

Okay but in all seriousness, yes teaching was a great balancing act, but I couldn't have asked for a better tight rope.  Teaching was a great experience and I owe that to my wonderful students and co-workers.  I worked with some fantastic teachers that were not only great mentors but great friends. They were always their to answer all my questions and listen to me when I needed to chat (or vent) I even made some life long friends, and I am grateful for that.  And my students were just as wonderful. They were great sports when I was in a crazy mood and decided to balance markers on my fingers, put on a circus show, and gave them bonus spelling words based on how long I could balance them.  They were also great sports when I teased them about being Boise State fans and how Oregon Ducks are so much better.  The notes from my students, "You actually made me like school for the first time", "I finally understood and learned to love English" and all my thank you emails from the parents made my first year incredible. I can honestly say, I never cried over school (stressed yes, but no tears) that was until I pulled away from the school for the last time and realized my life in those four walls was ending and that there was a good chance I would never see my students that I grew to love (even if they did talk a lot). 

So good bye to Mrs. Berg room 182

And goodbye messy desk (Okay my desk was not this messy normally, I was packing up)

So thank you Kevin for all your support, as well as all my family, co workers, and students for making my first year of teaching great and one to remember. 

Crazies and solar eclipses

When the solar eclipse was occurring my parents and us all ran outside to see it. Of course the sun was too bright to see it so my mom and I started searching for sunglasses. Meanwhile my dad got on the four-wheeler and headed up to my grandpa's. He came back carrying two welding masks. And boy did they make the eclipse look cool. Too bad we couldn't get a picture of it. But we did get some pictures of these crazy kids.

The wait is over!

Remember when I said I don't have much Patience (back in February)... Well lets just say waiting to hear from Oregon was a test of my patience and my patience might have been wearing very thin. But the wait ended... FINALLY!  Friday night we gathered together with my family to celebrate MaKenzie and Nathan's birthdays. After dinner we all gathered in the living room like usual cracking jokes and talking. All of a sudden Kevin jumped up and told me to give him five, he then continued to go around asking everyone else for high fives. This of course is very unusual behavior for Kevin. At the end of the high fives (I was sitting in confusion) he announced he just got into OHSU in Portland! I jumped up and down and squealed for a minute in celebration. (After I did have the thought he was playing a joke on me, since it was 7:30 on a Friday night). But sure enough he got in. So it looks like we will be heading to Portland this summer. Kevin's "Vacation" is ending here so we are going to head to Oregon as soon as I finish school this week (can you believe school is coming to an end? Because I can't). Congrats Kevin into getting into 2 of your top 3 schools! I love you and am more amazed by you everyday!

OHSU CAMPUS

Diamond Rio

While Kevin was here to "visit" (it's sad that my husband had to come visit me) we decided to go to the Diamond Rio concert at BYU-I. We even convinced my parents to join us. It was a fun night with some great (speedy) company. When I say speedy I mean my mom was in a cast because she had surgery 4 weeks before and my dad has a bad knee and I was out of breath trying to keep up with them walking to and from the concert.

Aren't they cute!

Dad is stretching :)

More Girls

The following weekend I had the Hammon Girls over to play. We also ate ice cream and enjoyed a movie and popcorn. We however spent the next day at the park with this cutie.