Team Armstrong News

Team Armstrong Wishes you the Best!!!

What a wonderful year it has been. We are happily settled in Brownsville and love every minute of small town living.

Eric -- He now works for Pioneer Pacific College as the IT Program Director and a teacher. He loves the hours because he now gets Fridays off and the two weeks at Christmas as well as a week in the summer. It works great for the family to have a three day weekend (every weekend) together. He is still racing and this year he won Best Male Competitor. He is also the current president of Willamette Motor Club.

Andronica -- I graduated with my AA Degree and Paraprofessional Certification. I have also attended additional classes on Autism and Children with high needs. I am now working at Central Linn Elementary where Amy goes to school and Erica will go next year. It is great to have the same hours and days as the girls in school and I LOVE the work. I am assigned to work with 2 different high needs kids during their day to day activities in class. I also raced this year and won Best Female Competitor.

Mariah -- She started 7th Grade this year and moved up to the middle school. She loves her teacher and our house is a revolving door of sleepovers and social get together. She spends enough time on homework to currently hold a 3.8 gpa while; texting on her phone, emailing, posting on her MYSpace and playing games with her sisters. Mariah played volleyball this year and had the best time. She improved with each practice and the coach is already talking to her about next year.

Amy -- Ever tender hearted Amy is VERY happy to have a wonderful teacher this year who understands her completely. Amy played soccer this fall and had a great time with her friends and exploring the new world of “girl gossip” too cute. She has a group of friends they call themselves the posse. It is so wonderful to see her exploding in reading and writing, she has the best penmanship.

Erica -- Although Erica turned 5 at the end of the summer her dad and I thought that she would do better to attend a year of preschool and then go to kindergarten next year. It was the perfect choice. She loves being home with Nana (my mom) and the two of them have fun walking downtown and getting this and that, going to the thrift shop or library. Her favorite thing is to go with Nana to the bakery and pick out donuts for everyone after dinner.

We hope this gives you a glimpse of what we do and want to wish you all the best for 2009.

Family time in print

I was going to make different blogs for the different aspects which are happening in our lifes...however, I realized LOL I can hardly keep up with one let alone anymore than that. So, here is where you will find all the happenings of Team Armstrong, the happy parents, the drama for a tween ager, the innocence in 2nd grade, the opinions of a preschooler and the arrival of our newest member. I hope everyone feels welcome to post comments, I love to get them and it keeps us in contact with each other.

Mariah is home

It has been a week now since Mariah came home and I think we are getting used to things again. I has been a whirlwind of sleepovers, tweens coming and going and laundry. Now on to bigger news. Tomorrow is Erica's birthday she will be 5 years old. WOW how time goes by I can't believe it. She is very cute, obviously, but so stubborn...hum I wonder where she gets that from. She will begin preschool in the fall and I think it will be great for her. Amy is having a wonderful summer and would live at the river if I let her. We go down there quite often and she is the first in the water when we get there and the last to get out.

On the adult side Eric is loving his new job, how can you blame him when he has a 4 day work week now. Which is nice because I accepted a full-time position with the school district this year and it is also only in session 4 days a week. I am also still coaching on Fridays which I love because I can plan what I would like for the classes. I will also be graduating with my AA and Paraprofessional Certification October 12 this year. Time went by fast I am so glad I went back to school. I was going to continue with my BA right away but, Eric is looking at going back to school for his MA and I think it might be a bit too much with both parents working full-time, both in school and the girls sports and..oh yes Amy and Erica both in Girl Scouts.

Tomorrow is the day!

39 hours and counting to pick up Mariah at the airport.

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My dear Mariah...

I can't believe how fast three weeks went by. I am now counting the hours instead of days when I will go to pick her up from the airport. Daily life around here has been quiet with a TON of cleaning. I have to say I am quite glad with the result of how great the house looks, even the laundry is all caught up. That is amazing! Tomorrow all I have left is to tackle Mariah's room and the downstairs. We have been using it as a catch all with her gone but I want to make sure it looks great for her return. I have been trying to think what she will look like when she gets back, older and more sure of herself. Will I survive? I have a bad feeling make-up is in my future shopping with her. Erica, of course will be right in the middle of it wondering when she will get to wear make-up. 47 hours and counting...

Day one...

Everything has a beginning and here is mine. I have a wonderful husband and three beautiful girls. We live in a small rural town in Oregon and have had the blessing to be able to buy our first house. What a difference it makes to know if I want to paint a wall a different color I can. My husband and I still get a kick out of shopping for something for the house. We can spend hours looking at the faucets wondering who comes up with all these choices...that could also be that going to the big hardware stores requires a trip to the big city which we only do about twice a month. We have only been in the house a year and I am finding I need to be more organized to spend less time on the road and more time enjoying my home. I am open to questions and look forward to meeting new friends while learning about this blogging stuff. Thank you and I hope you will leave comments to help me on my way.