Monday, January 14, 2013

Security system

Jason went out of town this past weekend with his groomsmen for a little pre-wedding celebrating and both nights he was gone, this is what I saw all night... Little pup was at attention and growling (and sometimes barking) at EVERY little noise! :-P She took her job of protecting her mama while dad was away very seriously!

As soon as Jason came home on Sunday night, she fell fast asleep and we didn't hear a peep out of her all night! Poor little thing was probably exhausted (and so was her mama!). It's nice to know I have a guardian when I'm home alone though.

Needless to say, although I'm glad that Jason had the chance to go play for a couple of days, we are BOTH very happy to have him home!


Sunday, December 9, 2012

Sweater for baby Lilly

The 2nd sweater I've knitted and by far the fanciest thing I've done! I got the pattern from ravelry.com (my favorite time suck website!) and was amazed at how easy it was. I'm definitely still a beginner, and all of the mistakes show it, but I was proud of how it turned out :)

Funny thing- at the baby shower, I found out that my friend, Wendi, had made the same sweater!! Luckily, hers was in pink and she stayed true to the pattern and it was long sleeved (I varied it a little and kept it short sleeved) so hopefully little Lilly will get plenty of use out of both styles :) What can I say- great minds think alike!

(http://knitforyourlife.blogspot.com/2009/10/free-pattern-lillie-baby-cardigan.html here is the link to the pattern I used)



Thursday, December 6, 2012

Ag Sales

Those of you who know me well know that I was immersed in all things FFA while I was in high school (and beyond...). The FFA is an incredible organization that teaches and empowers kids to be confident and successful members of society and I am quite grateful for the experiences that I had as an FFA member. Now, as an adult, I have been given the opportunity to give back a little bit of what I have experienced and learned through the school district where I work. I truly believe that my current season at North Marion has been filled with divine intervention from the moment I first turned in m application- the fact that I one of my FFA mentors as a high-schooler is the current Ag teacher here is one reason. Joe is an incredible teacher and the kids here are lucky to be able to learn from him (as I have been doing for the last 12 years!)

This year I have gotten more involved with the FFA program at North Marion and I am dissapointed in myself that I didn't immerse myself much sooner! The kids are amazing! Just this week, we took a group of kids to Silverton to comepete in the Cascade District Ag Sales competiton. We took 11 kids total- none of which had ever had any experience in Ag Sales before! We got started in preparing them a little late (so they only had about a week of preparation) but they did AMAZING! I was ready to bust I was so proud of them! The advanced team we took placed third overall and the beginning team placed first! We had the 3rd high and the 8th high individual beginners and the 7th high individual advanced. I can't rave about these kids enough, I am so impressed with them :)

Joe asked me before we left for the competition if I was ready for it...my first time at an event as a coach. I think that being a competitor is much easier than coaching! I don't remember ever being as nervous when I was competing as I was as a coach!

I am all fired up now about the program and can't wait to get to know the kids better and help them through more events :)
Big kudos to Sid, James, Bobbo, Noah, Kayla, Chase, Robert, Kat, Garrett and Teylor! SO proud of you guys!

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Christmas Bible Study

I decided to participate in an online bible study for the Advent season. This particular study is  4 weeks long and focuses on the key players in the Christmas story. I think that it's very important, especially during the Advent season, to prepare for the upcoming holiday so that you don't get bogged down with the commercialism and keep your eyes on what we are actually celebrating.

A goal of mine for this blog is to use it for journaling as well as for family updates so expect to see my thoughts on this study and feel free to give me your feedback! I'd love to get discussions started :)

Happy Advent!

Christmas Bible Study (here is the link to the study that I'm participating in if anyone cares to join me!)

Monday, December 3, 2012

Lucy Belle

Our family has grown by one in the last couple of weeks- meet Lucy Belle!



She is a 5 month old German Shorthair Pointer and the new love in our lives :)
Here is Lucy Belle's story...
On November 15th (Thursday), I got a message from my mom saying that a puppy showed up at their house the night before. We made a plan to try to figure out where said puppy came from and got to searching. We called area vets, looked on craigslist, posted on craigslist, looked on the Clackamas County animal rescue website, posted there too, checked her for a microchip and called neighbors. No luck. At that point, we were thinking that she may have been abandoned and decided to take her home with us. Jason and I took her home on Friday afternoon and immediately began falling in love! He posted her picture on facebook Friday night and by Saturday morning, he got a message saying that one of his FB friends knew who the puppy belonged to. Jason got ahold of the girl who claimed to be the owner and she identified her right down to the wrinkles in her forehead. I was devastated. After only 2 days of having Lucy Belle at our house I was totally, completely in love with her and the thought of giving her up absolutely broke my heart.

As it turns out- the owner was a girl that I had gone to school with since elementary school. Her dog had a litter of pups and little Lucy Belle was the runt of that litter. There were 2 puppies left unsold- Lucy Belle and her brother. After we determined that she was, in fact, Lucy Belle's owner and made plans to return her, I left to go do wedding stuff with some girlfriends that were in town. I told Jason that I did not, under any circumstances, want any reminants of puppy left in the house when I got home. If I had to give my puppy up, I didn't want to be reminded of it. At about 4:00, he called me (they planned to do the puppy swap around 4pm) to tell me that he was on his way to meet up with Lucy's owner. I was irritated that he was reminding me of what I had been thinking about all day and was a little bit snippy with him. He told me that he was on his way to meet up with her, but after he did that, he needed to go to Wilco so that he could pick up some flea medicine for our dog....

As it turns out, after my girlfriends and I had left the house, Jason called the girl back and told her that I was in love with the puppy and completely heartbroken to have to give her up and he was willing to do whatever it took to convince her that we would give her a wonderful home. She agreed, as long as she was able to say goodbye :)

So, on November 17th, we offically became parents to the cutest, smartest, most well-behaved 5 month old puppy I have ever seen! Since then, our lives have been revolving around this little one and we fall more and more in love every day! She is unbelievely calm, already house trained and loves us (almost) as much as we love her. She loves to cuddle and Mama's lap is one of her favorite places to be. She has a favorite giraffe toy that she cuddles with at night time and cute little bursts of puppy energy that we adore.
sleeping on Mama's lap


She's all legs!

Giraffe cuddles

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Our Happily Ever After story

Welcome to our happily ever after! We are Jason and Erin, and on February 23, 2013 we will become the Bryant family! It will be a day that is many years in the making :)

We met in the fall of 2006. I (Erin) was living in La Grande and had just started nursing school. I was home for the weekend and out shopping with a friend. She suggested that we meet a friend for dinner and he brought his roommate (Jason!). We had a great dinner and became fast friends. For the next two years, we would chat via email from opposite sides of the state periodically. In September 2008, I moved back home to finish nursing school in Portland. Jason caught wind of the move and started his persistence in convincing me that we should spend time to get to know each other better. I was resistant at first, but by February he had won me over and I agreed to a date. We had our first date at the zoo on February 20, 2009 and have been inseparable ever since! Three years later, Feb 20th 2012,  Jason asked me to spend my life with him at the place where it all started, in front of the penguin exhibit at the zoo :) of course I said yes! Nothing makes me happier than knowing that I will get to spend the rest of my life with the love of my life and my very best friend!

This is where our story begins- our happily ever after!