During the evening just before Halloween, the old willow tree in our backyard fell entirely on its own. We've been having a lot of rain lately and although I knew half the tree was dead, I figured it was a solid tree and would hold up for a few more years so I could one day slowly cut it down piece by piece. Although it was a sad dying tree, the ( Read more... )

It has happened! Scarlett is walking! It began a couple weeks ago but really got going when she was with us on our trip to be with Nicole's immediate family in California for Christmas. More on that later, but Scarlett continues to astound and achieve. With her walking, she's now more capable and squirrelly so it's become even more challenging to ( Read more... )

Ugh, I'm starting to slip when it comes to making these journal updates before the month ends. It's now six days into December but I'll cover November ( Read more... )

Nicole is thirty weeks along with her pregnancy! We continue to have wonderful check-ups at the doctor's and things are proceeding wonderfully. Our daughter likes to bounce around and poke at the womb day in and day out and although it's been rough for Nicole to get a good night's sleep with the girl inside her being awake overnight, it's ( Read more... )

December marks the one-year anniversary of purchasing the house Nicole and I are living in here in McMinnville, Oregon. It's impossible to believe it's already been an entire year. It feels like only a few months have gone by since we got here. But when you look around at this house and all the things we've done to it, you do start to get a sense ( Read more... )

And it's been a long December and there's reason to believe
Maybe this year will be better than the last
I can't remember all the times I tried to tell my myself
To hold on to these moments as they passThe December month that just wrapped up was quite possibly the strangest of my life. Or at least my recent life. So much happened. I'll lay it all ( Read more... )

For a little over a year now, my wife, Nicole, and I have been house hunting with our realtor braving the weirdest housing market ever. Not only is the market still white-hot here in Portland, but it's unfazed by the COVID-19 pandemic and its accompanying economic situations including the rise in unemployment. We looked at houses all around the ( Read more... )

2019 is gone so it's time to take stock of some of the things that went down!

In January, my late aunt, Diane, was laid to rest. February was full of being stressed out from changes at my job including the slashing of my team from seven people to three. In March, Nicole and I escaped the stress with a vacation to the Oregon Coast.

April was the ( Read more... )

2018 was a building year. If 2017 was the year my family began to repair and grow from the loss of my father in December of 2016, then 2018 was the year we picked up speed on our way to what should be a successful if not triumphant 2019. Let's talk about it.

In January, I bought a new laptop and we met Nicole's best friend's baby girl, Mabel. ( Read more... )

This year, Nicole and I spent Christmas with her parents and brother at their family home in central California. It was a short trip bookended by the ten-hour drive to and from. This time of year, driving from northern Oregon through the mountains to get to California could be dicey, but the weather cooperated and we survived. This was a special ( Read more... )