Island Dancing

Some of you might remember this night at the Cooper-Otts.

Jane was being very persistent about my dad continuing to dance. Those older ladies can be so tough ;)

I hope we can have many more dances like this with Jane.

Nap time

Marilynn is hard at work making a baby ;) It's just about the end of the first trimester and everything is going great. M feels much better now and has much more energy then a couple of weeks ago.

We are amazed by how much stuff is out there for babies and how much of it is purported to make you life easier. I'm not sure most of the stuff out there is too helpful... Baby wipe warmer?

I am excited to be building a changing table/dresser for us. I'm sure changing diapers will be a treat with this :) But really, once the kid is out of diapers they will have a dresser for clothes and have room to grow into it.

Mrs. Hart is also making some cool things for the baby. She is an incredible knitter and makes everything from a sweater to a stuffed toy. Just an example below. She already has some great stuff put away for the kid.

House Hunting

Day 411-

Be verwy quiet.... We're hunting howses.

Home prices are still falling in Portland, inventory is still increasing, and home owner's are still delusional about the value of their home.

For example... 349,900

Things are looking our way though. It's almost spring and that is one of the classic times when everyone buys and sells. This will at least create more inventory and more options for us.

Another thing that will be going in our favor for the next couple of years, is that all these people who got into a house with an 5 year ARM (Adjustable Rate Mortgage) are having them reset at the end of 5 years. This equals a higher interest rate and a house that they cannot afford and a bargain for us!!

I know that is a shrewd way to look at it.

Here is a house that is more in our price range, but still not exactly what we are looking for. Location is such a sticky point.

We'll let you know when things fall into place and we're going to buy. Keep your fingers crossed for a nice house in a nice location!

Mirabella

This is where I am working right now... down on the South Waterfront building the Mirabella retirement center. The job is just starting for the most part and is going to be one of the biggest construction jobs going on in Portland.

It's a one and a half year job for me, so maybe I can make it through the recession. The construction industry is taking a beating right now and things are very slow for a lot of people.

Well anyways, we are on the second floor of the tower and there are 28 more to go! It is going to be massive with a swimming pool on the first floor, restaurant on the 28th floor and a double decker parking garage with car stacking lifts.

I will keep new photos coming as the building rises.

Snow... again?

Some of you weren't in Portland when we had our huge snow storm. There hasn't been snow like that in as long as I have lived in Portland. I think we topped out at 18 to 20 inches! Today they are talking about more snow... I am done with it. It's time to plant the garden and get spring here. More later on the garden. These pics were taken after freezing rain decide to add to the mix.

Here we go

Well, I have finally made a blog and I am not sure what to do with it... Brandon has one so why not :)
Well to catch you up, Marilynn is 11 weeks pregnant and is due in Late August. We are pretty excited to have a baby on the way and are still trying to figure out how it will effect our lives and how life will be once the baby is in the picture.
We are going to the Alma Birth center, you can look them up online http://www.almamidwifery.com/ and are very excited by what they have to offer. We didn't want to go the usual route through a hospital and this seemed like the perfect place to have the baby.
That's all for now...