2019 – December part 1

December and down to the wire.

At this point, we are getting to the point where if we don’t get this home business shored up, we will be losing money, and then staying in the area won’t make any sense. We opened the area that we were looking in to include the whole east side of Portland. There was a yellow house in a not-so-great area that was pretty nice.. but decided against it. We came across an Opendoor house. This house didn’t require a realtor to visit which made the experience a little more laid back. All you needed to have was an account with Opendoor (who had your driver’s license on file in case you damaged one of the properties) and then you could remotely view the home by yourself. We tried it on this home (pictured below). Even opened up the garage to see if our car would fit. It did (even though the perspective of the picture makes it questionable).

Anyway, we mentioned this house to Michelle as well. The mornings were getting super cold outside (as seen from the ice on the window). As we were nearing Christmas we stopped and got a new Ornament. The Enterprise! Arabella was excited and to be honest I was just as excited. We went to church and were a part of the annual tree lighting that they have. It was a little funny because this year they were doing the countdown and at the count of 7 someone lit it and realized they were too early.

Arabella was super excited about the Star Trek Ornament. Why? It’s simple, she loves Spock. She thinks he is just the best thing, funny AND super smart. She finally got the “Live Long and Prosper (LLAP)” hand sign down (see above). We also made a point of going to Christmas light displays along the way.

We stopped at the house again… it seems like this one is a pretty good fit. Nice neighborhood, good condition house. The open layout was nice, so yeah- let’s make an offer and do this thing.

During this whole process, I had to leave town for a work event. There was an annual hub meeting down in San Francisco to which I was required to go. Okay twist my arm- I suppose I’ll go. I hate traveling! If you know me at all, you know I have no issue with travel. It was a bit sad leaving the family for a while and it made it a little harder as this was the first time in Elijah’s life that I would be away overnight. Here are some pictures of the event (and check out the plane wing photo, where the shadow of the plane is circled in a rainbow) – kinda cool.

We met at Golden Gate University Center for our day-long meeting. In the photo are Jack and Arlene working on some of the items of the day and our views from the corporate office. I had to order in for meals while we were traveling and it afforded me the opportunity to try a new steakhouse (even if it was to go). It was really good! The other photo is of my “Happy Holidays cup” from Alaska Airlines on the way back. I was surprised to find out they serve Starbucks on the plane as the regular coffee.

My first day returning to work was a really pretty day (see below) of the office building, downtown in the distance, and the sun bursting through the clouds. There was a meeting where we all went to a lecture hall for some updates. On my way in I have to say I was embarrassed by the photos above the entryway. Trump and Pence, who would have ever thought our country would get to this point? Not me. Yet it seems like a nightmare that won’t end.

There is all this talk about a virus coming soon, but nobody really seems to care. The rest of the world is panicking but the US? Nah, we are good.

We wanted to take more trips to see the art that was around us. It led us to places we drove by all the time but never stopped to appreciate. Then we stopped at a Providence Health office park where they had these HUGE metal umbrellas. The kids wanted to get out and stand under them and use them.

Can you really blame them? It seems kind of fun in a Marry Poppins kind of way.

just Pray

note: this post was published on 08/30/22 but moved the publish date back to the middle of December 2019 to keep chronological order.