we love country music!!!!

So me and my country-music-partner-in-crime Sabrina attended our first ever multi-day country music festival. It was hot, fun, and dirty!!! And we can't wait to do it next year!!!

Happy Birthday and a country meet-and-greet!!

On Sabrina's birthday we headed out to the Dierks Bentley & Josh Kelley concert. It was Sabrina, myself, and Sean - a friend of Sabrina's.

Before the concert we were wondering around and entered our names into a drawing to win meet & greet passes. Sean won 2 passes to meet Josh Kelley and kindly gave them to Sabrina and I!! We were super excited!

waiting to get to meet Josh Kelley!!

Josh Kelley's signature.

We didn't really know who Josh Kelley was but we are always up for meeting country artists...you never know who is going places and might be big someday - like when I met Taylor Swift, twice!!!!

End of the 2010 - 2011 School Year!!!

This was a good school year. You can travel back in time to see what I was thinking at the beginning of the school year :) I tried some new things from programs to push-in to schedules, I had a student teacher, and I didn't cry :) All in all, pretty good if you ask me.

I started breakfast at Smitty's with Sabrina and Shelley

At the end of the year we all stand at the end of the buses...it is a very exciting moment, as you can see below!!

After waving the kids off!!!

Then we have a few hours of a luncheon where they honor certain people in the district!

Laurie Brown, Pam Gospe, Teresa Miller, Michelle Morse, Tiffiny Slieght, Cindi Peterson all work at my school and have been in the CSD for 10 years!! Dianna Hanawalt for 20 years! And we had Georgia Bailey retire.

@ the luncheon. probably during our round of playing 'words with friends' on my phone.

after HAPPY HOUR!!!

Since the movie Bad Teacher was coming out there was a few of us decided to go see the movie. It was fun to see with fellow teachers but I did not personally like the movie!

@ Bad Teacher

Left row - Melissa, Dianne, Amy (and her husband). Right row - Patty and Shelley

Me, Ellen, Julie, Paula

Shelley, Patty, Sabrina, Me.

end of year/start of summer concert!!

Way back when Sabrina and I bought Tickets to Tim McGraw's Emotional Traffic Tour we were supposed to be on summer vacation!!! Thanks to some "snow" days our district decided upon we had an extended school year. TOMORROW is our last day...and it cannot come soon enough!!

Sabrina and I, of course, had a wonderful time!! We bought what we thought were 6th row tickets and they ended up being 2nd row because of the way they set the stage up!! Imagine our glee!!!

One of our teacher friends was also there with a student and her family and had thought they had "front and center seats" though it turned out they were in a box (which at the amphitheater means a roped off area on the floor with padded seats). We could tell the 4th grader was very disappointed in her seats so for a few songs I let her go down with Sabrina to get the full experience. She was beyond thrilled!!!

I also had my new camera on hand and was fully entertained by playing with the settings on that. Thankfully I got it right by the time Tim came out!!!

The Band Perry

Self Portrait.

The two people up top by the wall are Sabrina's parents.

They bought us each an $8.50 beer...aren't they nice?!?!

Luke Bryan

He was SO much fun to watch!!

This was Sabrina' first Tim McGraw concert!!!

He started in the middle of crowd! Love it when they do that!!

View from the box.

LOVE HIM!!!

Up close. Much better view.

Um, yeah!

Sabrina and Tim!!!

Me and Tim!! The light went out just as she took the picture...

Luke and Tim!!!

This is how close we were!!!

Something like that!! Bree and I's song :)

He was so close and we were so screaming!!!

You can also go HERE to see all the amazing pictures from the concert!!

i have the BEST husband...

Jason's job has a lot of ordinary "corporate" perks. Money, comp days, sick days, retirement, and the one I get to enjoy frequently - free tickets to events!! We've been to many Blazers game, winter hawks games, and very nice and fancy dinners. It is certainly nice.

Yesterday my darling husband did something so nice and so like him! He got 2 free tickets to the Blazers Game. He knew that Sabrina had been wanting to go all season and I'd promised her if we ever had extra tickets she could go. Well, Jason took this opportunity to say "You girls are on spring break, you should go have fun". Isn't he sweet!?!?!

Sabrina and I headed down to his work, got the tickets, then headed over to McMenamins - White Eagle Saloon for a burger and beer. It was SO much cheaper than eating at the Rose Garden. One MAX stop later we were at the Rose Garden!

Thank you Jason, for letting me have fun with my friends. You are a wonderful husband!!!

{very belated story} Christmas Eve rescue...

Jason and I were heading home on Christmas Eve when we got a flat tire. This was our second one this year, on the same car, but on different tires. It was SO frustrating because when we got a flat tire in May we bent the jack that came with out car and never got a new one...which is totally our fault. And to kick it all off - we were less than 2 miles from home.

We debated who to call...we'd feel really horrible calling AAA but I guess that is what they are there for but it was like 9pm on Christmas Eve. We could call my parents, they live about 25 miles North. Or there was my friend Sabrina. That is who we ended up calling.

She (and her family) are the definition of amazing people. The SECOND I called she said okay, asked her Dad and he didn't even hesitate to come! Five minutes later there they were...with a plate of cookies to bring us as gifts. We can't thank them enough and are so happy they are in our lives!!

Boo!

Jason and Sabrina's Dad.

Secretly happy to see each other on Christmas Eve...wishing it was in better circumstances.

Seriously. Who comes to help you change a tire in the rain on Christmas Eve AND brings you cookies! Thanks Sabrina!!

teddy bear toss!!!

Really, I'll go to anything that is an excuse to carry a teddy bear around. I do love teddy bears, even my students know it! Though the opportunity had never come it, it finally did this year!!!

My friend Shelley invited us to go to the Teddy Bear Toss that the Portland Winterhawks host every year. It is a night where you bring a teddy bear to throw onto the ice at the first goal. All the teddy bears (or any other stuffed animal type) gets donated to local charities and hospitals. That night I think they said the crowd donated over 12,000 teddy bears or teddy bear friends!!!

We went with Shelley, her various family members, and Sabrina. It was a very fun game. It was actually Sabrina's first ever hockey game...and she thinks she might be a fan! We won too, which is always good!

Our teddy bears saved our seats!!

Buddies with their teddies!

Tom-A-Hawk was loving it!

tarps and tarps of teddy bears!!

:)

The cheerleads let the little girls have the pom-poms. how cute!!

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three.

four.

see the puck in the net?? The Canon takes great pictures!!

Sorry for the jitteriness of the video. It was my first time taking one with the Canon. I might need to get a mono-pod for video making. Plus I was trying to throw a teddy bear. Mine leaves the screen at about 8 seconds in.

country concerts - josh thompson & new boots!

Sabrina and I went to yet another Friday night concert! I really love going to concerts and the singing off key-as loud a you can-no one can hear you or cares-have a few beers moments!!! Though part of me wishes that Jason either a-liked country music because I know he likes concerts OR b- had someone down here to go to concerts with. Unfortunately neither of those is true and while I would certainly go sit through (some) of the bands he likes, it would be just that, sitting through it while probably wearing ear plugs and knowing 2 songs. Though, I would do it! I actually just looked up tickets to one of his favorite bands and they are coming to PDX in a few days and there are still tickets...but he's asleep and I don't want to buy them if he doesn't want to go with me...alas. Back to the original reason for my post.

Sabrina and I headed out right after school last week to Duke's Bar and Grill which is a country bar. We got there super early, mainly because we wanted to drink and beer and eat dinner. The show was a standing room only show if you wanted to see anything, which we did. We weren't leaning on the front row but we were right behind them, a bit off to the side...and right in front of the speaker! My ears were ringing for 2 days! We had the standard "standing room" show troubles of people trying to push and sneak their ways up front but Sabrina and I made alliances with the people around us and did our best to prevent this from happening. It was a fun show. Josh Thompson was one of the people we had see back in September when we went to the H2O Tour. It was fun to see him again and he played a lot more this time around...including some stuff off his album he is working on. I think he's someone to watch in the country world!

Sabrina and Me :)

Josh Thompson.

The band.

He walked within feet of us a few times...love little settings like this!

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Oh...and Sabrina and I had gone out the week before to Coastal Farm and Ranch to get ourselves some cowboy boots!! We were probably there for an hour! Sabrina ended up getting the 'real deal' and I got the super padded 'crazy step sister' boots. Though, they still weren't that comfy to stand in for 5 hours, but then again, nothing is for me.

A total "us" shot. We couldn't decide...

My boots. I really wanted black!

I'm really not a huge fan of the black and blue but odds are I'll never wear them without jeans so I figure I"m in the clear.

These were about $75 so not too bad overall. We both made it out of there with boots that were under $90!!! Go US!