MLS to Portland 2011

What an exciting day for Portland soccer fans! Yesterday (Friday), the commissioner of Major League Soccer announced that Portland has been awarded a franchise that will start play in 2011.

As season ticket holders to the Timbers, this is awesome news that we have been looking forward to for over a year!

It's a girl!

We had our ultrasound on Tuesday and we found out that it's a girl. Since both Brook and I were convinced that it was going to be a boy, we now have to go back to the drawing board, and start fresh with names. Of course, we could just follow suit with our dog...we had planned on getting a male dog and came up with the name "Kenji." However, the litter was 100% female and we kept the name. She doesn't seem to have too much of an identity crisis...so maybe our daughter could handle it as well.

Of course when it comes to names, I might should just stay out of it. I'm not sure, but I think I might be responsible for naming my parents cat (Spanky) and our cat is named Tigra.

In all seriousness though, Brook and I are both super excited to be having a daughter. I am already plotting ways to scare off future boyfriends and Brook is already figuring out how to avoid accumulating too much pink.

Everything appears to be good in terms of health. We are just over 20 weeks into this thing. Brook is starting to feel a lot better. August 3rd will be here before we know it.

Winter Wonderland

As most of our friends and family are, we too are buried in a layer of 6-8" of snow, 1/2" of ice, topped off with another 2-4" layer of snow. This is day nine of what local news media has termed "Artic Blast 2008." Kenji doesn't quite know what to think about the snow. She loves playing in it...but she finds it very incovenient to go to the bathroom in. The good news is that her igloo in the backyard is now truly an igloo (although the spoiled dog doesn't spend any time in it).

The good news is this: we finally have time to update everybody as to our undertakings over the past several months. Since our last post, we really haven't been up to much, so this should be fairly short.

In late September, we went to Playa del Carmen, Mexico for a week on vacation. We stayed at a beautiful all-inclusive resort called the RIU Playa Car. It was a wonderful week filled with lots of time sipping margaritas by the pool and swimming in the ocean. I think the only thing we did active all week was take a tour to some Mayan Ruins near the town of Tulum. Overall, it was a much needed time of rest and relaxation.

Work has been uneventful for both Brook and me. The bad economy hasn't really affected either of our jobs. Brook works for a not-for-profit, so obviously times are getting tough as folks cut back on their donations. As for my job, there is always accounting work to be done, regardless if it is working on a merger or acquisition or even bankruptcy. I think that during these times, it is important to remember that we are called to be witnesses of Christ and that we can shine during these times because our faith and our hope is not dependent upon our 401(k)'s or our savings account. A verse that I have printed out and on my computer at work to remind me of this is Jeremiah 29:11 - "'For I know the plans I have for you', declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.'"

Brook and I are so thankful this Christmas season for jobs, a roof over our heads, heat, our pets (at least the dog) and family. We wish everybody a Merry Christmas!

Summer Time!

Summer is here and it has been yet another 7 months since I last posted anything. So hang on...and I will see if I can capture everything we have been up to over the past seven or so months.

Brook quit her job with the State of Oregon and has started working for Boys and Girls Aid of Oregon (see link to website on the bottom right hand side of screen). Her actual job is funded by a Dave Thomas grant/program called Wendy's Wonderful Kids. She is the "Wendy's Wonderful Kids Recruiter" for Oregon. Her job is to find homes for hard to adopt kids. Most of these kids have mental, physical or learning disabilities. Most are older in age. Brook celebrates her six month anniversary at Boys and Girls Aid this month and so far, she seems to be enjoying the job much more then she was enjoying child welfare at the State of Oregon.

I (Adam) have survived my fourth busy season and celebrated my fourth year anniversary at Delap LLP in June. Also, as of July 1, I have been promoted to Tax Manager. Even with a promotion, not much is new at my work. My firm celebrates its 75th year of business this year and we changed names (formerly Delap White Caldwell & Croy, LLP). Business remains strong for us in spite of the weaker economy.

We bought season tickets this year for the Portland Timbers. The Timbers are a local professional soccer team that play 15 home games at PGE Park, downtown Portland. They are part of the United Soccer League which is just below the MLS. We have both enjoyed our "date nights" at the park.

We haven't spent as much time in the outdoors as both of us would like. We have managed to get outside camping twice so far and have at least one more camping trip planned before August end. Our first trip of the season was to Elk Lake in the end of July. It was Kenji's first camping trip and she loved it! Elk Lake actually still had snow at the campground and therefore was inaccessible by vehicle. We managed to make it up to the lake, find a flat spot for the tent and do a little swimming. Our second trip was to Kingfisher Campground outside of the Bull of the Woods wilderness area. Our good friends Kalina and Travis Morgan along with first-time campers Josh and Sara Sargent joined us.

Fourth of July was spent up at my parents house. It was actually the first time Brook and I have been in the United States for Fourth of July since 2005. For such a little town, Seabeck has quite the fireworks show. We also had the chance to see Abbey and Dave's home for the first time since they moved in.

I completed my first sprint triathlon this summer. Although, I will admit that I did the sissy sprint triathlon because I didn't think I could finish the swim portion of the normal sprint triathlon. It consisted of a 1/4 mile swim, 12 mile bike ride and 5k run. It was held at Hagg Lake. My times weren't stellar, but I won't complain. After all, I was coming out of a four year retirement. I am actually training to do another triathlon with my mom in the beginning of September. That one is near their home and is a 1/2 mile swim, 15.2 mile bike ride and 5k run.

I think that captures the essence of our summer thus far. Hopefully I will find my way back here before another 7 months pass by.

Time Flies

So I created this blog thinking that it would be a great way to communicate. I kind of forgot that in order to communicate, you actually have to write. So here it is December, and my last post was back in August.

We have brought Kenji home and she has been with us for about 5 weeks now. She is 95% house trained and learning new things all the time (both bad and good things). I don't think she quite knows her name yet or how to "come" on command, but she is getting good at the "sit" command and she definitely knows how to eat. She is about 11 weeks old now. And for those of you who actually care about the cat (I certainly don't), they actually like each other for the most part and play with each other quite a bit.

Not much is new to report with Brook or myself. Brook is still actively seeking a new job and I am sitting on the brink of busy season. As far as work is concerned, this is my least favorite time of year. There is this sense of doom on the horizon, yet there is nothing you can do about it now until the year ends and businesses start wrapping up their annual #'s.

I will try to keep my postings more frequent, but there is no guarantee!

Kingfisher Campground

Brook and I went camping with our good friends Travis and Kalina Morgan this past weekend. We met each other at Kingfisher Campground on Friday evening. Kingfisher is in the Mount Hood National Forest approximately 30 miles outside of Estacada, Oregon.

We spent the weekend playing games, swimming in ice cold water and eating smores over the campfire. The weather held out, despite the weatherman's grim predictions. What a great weekend!

Weekend in Rufus

Brook and I spent last weekend with the Macy family and friends in little known Rufus, Oregon. Rufus is a small town approximately 2 miles east of Biggs Junction on I-84. Brook's aunt and uncle (John and Karen) have been living in Rufus for a couple of years now and have 2 small homes next to each other. All three of their kids and spouses (Ben & Landra, Janae & Mark, and Elise & Scott) were in Rufus over the weekend and we were fortunate enough to be invited along for the fun. The weekend consisted of lots of games, food, and fun.

Welcome!

Welcome to our new blog! Brook and I hope that this will be a convenient way for our friends and family members to keep up with what is happening in our lives. So the question is...what is happening?

As most of you know, Brook and I helped lead a group of nine high school students to Russia this summer. We spent 26 days touring around the Moscow region and even up towards St. Petersburg. Even though a lot of things went wrong during this trip, God showed his faithfulness and blessed us all the more. For more details, check out a separate blog that our team kept during the trip at http://ycewrussia.blogspot.com/

This summer, we also decided to finally bite the bullet and add on to our family. Due to be born in mid-September will be our newest member of the family...a chocolate lab. We have already decided on the name "Kenji." Kenji is due home in November. So we have been busy puppy proofing our yard.

Brook is still working for the State of Oregon doing Child Welfare and I am still at DeLap White Caldwell & Croy, LLP working as a CPA. Neither of our employers have fired us yet, so I guess we must be doing good work!

Stay tuned for more postings! We hope to keep this fairly well updated.