Scarlett is beyond thirteen months and continues to grow and excel. More and more of her personality is coming out and she's using her body in more risky ways. What I mean by that is that she's begun climbing furniture, running, tripping over everything, and standing on things that she falls off of. She also throws proto-tantrums and is very much a ( Read more... )

Well 2021 was kind of more of the same of 2020. Here's the summary:

January was our first real month in our new house where we weren't wall-to-wall renovating 24/7. In February, the weight of responsibility of the house got to us and caused despair. Things got better in March as rooms took shape including my very own home office.

April saw us ( Read more... )

Several more weekends during June were spent continuing the construction fo our new fence. The goal was to replace all 260 feet of 40-year-old chain link fence plus two side gates with wood pickets held up by 2x4's supported by leaving the original metal poles in the ground. We decided to do it on our own (With help from Bryan making a couple trips ( Read more... )

During April, Nicole's mom decided to come to Oregon for a visit alone without her husband. Nicole gets along with her mom better than she does with her dad, so this was an opportunity to see her without the stress of both parents here. It was also a great opportunity to host someone with the house more or less ready for visitors. The house is ( Read more... )

Earlier this month, we had a pretty serious snow and ice storm. It was worse north of here, but it was still a major event. Probably the worst snow/ice storm to hit the Portland area since the crazy 2008 two-week snowstorm event. It started with a couple days of snow that turned to freezing rain which weighed down everything. Around our newly ( 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... )

We've owned Chip for a little under 7 months now. It's been great but it's also been a struggle. Chip is bonding with us and us with him. It's clear that he's part of the family now and everyone just adores his wild silliness. The struggle comes from his apparent anxiety. Whenever he's left completely alone, he gets worried and copes by barking. ( Read more... )

Wow, I can't remember the last time I'd gone a whole month without an update. It's been an incredible month, though, so there's lots to mention ( Read more... )

September has arrived, and so too has the end of Nicole's temporary full time job. Thankfully, they did indeed offer her a job but only part time. It's better than nothing, so she accepted. They upped her pay by 40% (Whoa) and beginning next week, she'll be working 25 hours a week. She also qualifies for dental, medical, health, and prescription ( Read more... )

Nicole has started her new job! They really needed her, too, so they asked her to come in a week and a half early. Her first day was last Friday, the 24th. So far this week, it's been quite a transition for both of us. She's enjoying the job as a scheduler/receptionist at a private medical physiology counseling practice on the southeast side of ( Read more... )