You Can Call Me Flower, If You Want To

Our recent trip to the tulip farm. Notice Mount Hood (the snowy peak between the two trees) in the first picture:

Cocco did not enjoy sitting in the dirt:

 Giant wooden shoes!

Guidos Here, Guidos There, All These Guidos Everywhere!

Spring has sprung in Portland. Apparently sunny Spring promptly regretted its decision to appear from hibernation and the rainy grey skies have returned for a few more weeks. Alas.

We recently enjoyed an overlapping visit from my mom and Joel's parents. Cocco had some quality Grammy time (Hi, Mom!):

Then the Guidos came all the way from tropical Ecuador. This was the first time John met Cocco. For the first few days, she made faces like this whenever he approached:

But they soon became the best of friends:

We almost killed ourselves biking this scary contraption down the streets of downtown Portland, all in the quest of doughnuts:

Besides my ever-favorite activity of eating food, one of our activities together included hiking. Portland has the largest National Park within city limits in the nation, which is where we had our adventure. Fun fact-- Portland also has the smallest city park in the nation (yes, this is a real thing):

We bonded with some trees:

Worked on our power-walking form:

Stopped to catch our breath:

And finally made it to the top o' the hill where the mansion lives:

And enjoyed the view of the city:

Hey, Cocco-- remember when we visited here last summer and you were this tiny?

Well now you are all grown up!

As always, the visit was quite enjoyable. Thanks for visiting us, mis suegros!

Pre-Christmas Update

Hey all. Sorry it’s been so long since our last post. Many new things have happened since then. Cocco is getting bigger every week and she now can roll over. Crazy! We found a church called Mars Hill and became members in October. Next Wednesday I will start lead a community group, so please be praying for that. We also have been working with two different families on our budget. The good news is that they both thought that we were managing our money well, and the “okay” news is that it’s going to take longer for us to pay off our loans than we thought. Apparently our expectations were not so realistic. Please keep praying that God give us wisdom on how to use our finances and that we be good stewards of the money He is giving us. 

Finally please be praying for this Christmas season, as we are going to multiple Christmas parties and are hoping to be able to share the Gospel with unbelievers.  We are also going to spend a few days with Karyn’s family and hope to talk about Jesus with them as well.  

We miss everyone out in Chicago, Ecuador and anywhere else you may be this Christmas season. God bless and have a merry Christmas!

Baby Guido

The baby has arrived! Cocco Greene Guido weighing 6 lbs and 7 oz at 10:07 A.M. on August 4th. We are so excited to finally meet her and start the journey of parenthood. Her name comes from the maiden names of both Karyn's and my grandmothers. Both of them loved the Lord and had a great love for others. We thank everyone who prayed for us and her. We are excited to she what the Lord has planned for her.

P.S. She came out with alot of hair on her head just like her mom wanted yeayyy. 

 

Employed

I finally got a job. We are very excited to have this new opportunity. I accepted an offer to work nights on a trauma floor at OHSU. This is one of the top areas of medicine that I wanted to work in. Thank you to all who were praying for me. God bless.

P.S. Karyn was due yesterday; that baby is already doing things on her own time.

On Nature (and Babies)

Tempted as I am to entitle this post "Why Oregon is the Supreme State of the Union", I fear that may appear divisive. Plus, I don't care for stating the obvious.


Oregon is supreme, because we live in the city:

(See the orange/brick building with the pointy green hat? We live next to that.)

And, we have this at the bottom of our building:

But with a recent 15 minute drive north, we arrived at the berry farm, for some berry-picking fun! We enjoyed the pleasant weather and friendly farm animals, and frolicked in the berry-bushes:

We ended up with 24 pints of assorted berries. And sunburns. 

(Aren't they pretty? The poor raspberries
 didn't make it into a single photo. Nor did I.)

Sure, it felt a bit like manual labor there at the end, but we survived.


We headed east for 30 minutes the next weekend to enjoy Multnomah Falls. This is the only picture of the falls we managed to capture:

So here is what it really looks like:

Deciding a mile hike to the tip-top was a good idea, we set off pretending to be Lewis and Clark (or at least, I did). Instead of pioneering the trail to the west, we found shooting calf pain and burning lungs. But we made it! You can't see much of the actual falls from the top, but you can see a not-so-flattering sweaty picture of me:

Have I forgotten to mention that we are 30 minutes from snowboarding, 45 minutes from the coast, and have llama farms, wildlife rehabilitation centers, and vineyards galore? Aaaah. Please take this as invitation to come enjoy our lovely state. But don't ask Joel how he feels about Oregon first--he's still "adjusting" to the awesomeness.


In other (baby) news, I feel like a large sea lion floundering around on the sand:

But I exaggerate. I'm feeling well at 37 weeks. The carseat has finally made it out of the box onto the floor (but not yet to the car), and we do have a crib (but it's still in the box). Progress. These are the only things I've managed to pack in our hospital bag so far (plus some pajamas):

So to sum up, we're all set!


Sorry I don't have a picture of my very recent pregnant self. Clearly, neither appropriate quality nor quantity of photography is our strong suit.

No More Homework!

Sorry for the belated post.

On the 13^th of June I (Joel) took the NCLEX (nurse license exam) and passed- hurray. It took me 160 questions and three and half hours. This was the first exam that has given me test anxiety. As I left the exam I noticed that I was sweating even though it was a cool 65 degrees outside.

Now that it’s done, I have been focusing on finding a job. No luck so far. Please be praying that I get a job, that the baby comes out fine, and that we find a church in the local area.