...and summer is over

Wow, the summer sure went by fast. This has been a huge summer of change, and a lot has happened. I won't go into a lot of detail but here are a few things that happened.

• Heather got a facebook account. Another reason we haven't updated this recently. I (Scott) might take it upon myself to keep our blog updated for those who still read it :-)
• We bought a house!!! We are now residents of the booming city of Sandy. :-) With our mortgage, home insurance, and taxes we now only pay $40 more a month than we did in the house we rented. Not bad, and it's ours. Although I've been doing a lot of home improvement projects. More on that later.
• We went to Tahoe with Heather's family. It was a blast seeing Beth, Thomas, Andrea, Gavin, and Kade. Little Bentli is to be born any day now. It was also interesting having 10 people staying in a two bedroom condo. Well worth the time and memories.
• We found out that Heather's pregnant with our second baby!!! ETA March 20th.
• Scott worked with the Multnomah Education Service District (MESD) on some math test question writing. Not very exciting, but it paid well.
• Scott ran the Hood to Coast Relay. I ran with a group of Barlow teachers/counselors plus a few others. I surprised myself by running mostly sub 6:30 minute miles, and on my 7.72 mile leg I was able to pass 34 people. Although I did get passed by someone who was running sub 6 minute miles maybe even 5 minute miles. It was a great time, and I'm hoping to do it again next year.
• A few days after we moved into our new house we had Urska (pronounced Ursh-ka, Stanley says are-da) stay with us for a week and a half. Heather met Urska in 2003 in Slovenia at Heather and Urska's first Josiah Venture English Camp. In 2006 when Heather and I went that was Urska's fourth and last English Camp. The relationship has continued, and when Urska was visiting the United States this summer (she worked at a summer camp in Connecticut for most of the summer), Heather invited her to stay with us. She was very helpful with Stanley, and we really enjoyed having her stay with us as our first houseguest. She flew out this morning to visit San Fransisco, and when Stanley woke up he was calling out "are-da, are-da." Yes Stanley already misses Urska too.

Now that summer is over, we'll be getting back into a routine for the school year. Our "normal" always changes, and "normal" this year will be much different than what it was. As Heather grows around the middle with a new baby forming inside of her I will be tackling one home improvement project after another while trying to balance work and family, and with Stanley getting bigger and more vocal, things will never be "calm" around here again. But we are so thankful for our home and family. Hopefully, I can keep you more updated on some of our adventures to come. Hope everyone is doing well and please let us know if you read this blog or if you only do facebook now.