Hello there!

In December 2005 we sold our tiny California beach house and the five of us headed north for a better life. We were able to buy a newer house twice as big for the price of a two-bedroom “tear-down” in our old neighborhood. We traded a breathtaking ocean view for a vista of the green hills, a river and trees instead. We swapped schools struggling to increase test scores for a district known for excellence. We left family and many dear friends behind but were lucky to find some wonderful people up here in Oregon to add to our circle.

The exciting news of the day is that the boys’ favorite uncle, we’ll call him Uncle JD, moved up from San Francisco two days ago for his new Job at the new “The Nines” hotel in Portland(sorry Uncle D and Uncle JB, but Uncle JD can play electric guitar making him a rock star). His wife, Auntie C is a wedding planner and will follow him up in mid-October after her last wedding in California.

Speaking of music, son number one came home from school today telling me he might want to learn to play the upright bass. Huh? The informational meeting for fourth grade students who might want to learn to play a strings instrument was YESTERDAY. When I asked him and his twin yesterday morning "are you SURE you don't want to learn to play a strings instrument?" they each said "yes, I'm sure I don't." Part of me wants to say "too bad, we missed the meeting - maybe next year" but a louder part of me wants to say "okay, we'll see what we can do." You see, the louder part of me wishes that I learned to play an instrument or read music. Tonight is curriculum night at school so I guess it wouldn't hurt to check into it.