There's a first time for everything

This is the first time I've ever published anything. In a weird way I feel exposed. To a large extent I've lived my life privately, kept my thoughts private, and now I feel like I'm starting the process of peeling away some of those layers.

The real purpose of this site is to give friends and family a means of tracking my life... a journal or diary of events I guess. I think in starting this, I hope to make my life full of amazing stories and adventures so that this is worth while reading. But to begin, I think I need to briefly recap last year.

2006 is already behind us, and I can honestly say that it was a great year. Katie and I made the bold move to leave our little apartment in Cupertino in late May, and made the monumental decision to lay down roots in Texas for a season. Looking back, I'm not too sure what the plan was.. but it seemed more lucrative than living in our little cave, or attempting to buy a larger, more expensive one in Northern California. With a little baby girl on the way, we had to do something...

We toyed with the idea of moving to Southern California, Orange County to be more specific - but felt a little deterred that by doing so, my brother, Dave and his wife, Sarah wouldn't be able to afford a home. We liked the idea of finding common ground for both families - and the idea of both families being able to afford a home was the goal.

Texas seemed like a logical solution, I suppose.

On moving here I found that it was hard giving up the great California weather, and equally hard giving up many of the friendships and associations that we had cultivated during our three year adventure. The people there are so fun to be around. Traffic moves at 80 miles an hour, and it seems that everyone holds down six jobs, or is involved in starting up a company, buying and selling real estate or something else ingenious to find a way to pay for the mad cost of living.

Texas, on the other hand, still moves at a more reasonable pace. People seem to have more time on their hands, and there appears to be a lot more families, with kids. Ironically though, it seemed easier to make friends in faster paced California, and ironically - our 2 year old son, Jacob - had so many more friends to spend time with. I still have a hard time figuring that one out.

But Texas has also come with it's advantages. For one, we learned that owning a home comes with a new sense of pride and responsibility. I can testify that owning a home, and renting an apartment are two very different things. With owning this home, I found myself constantly worrying about things I've never worried about before. Things like: how annoying our shedding rugs are, or those pesky weeds that poke out-of-nowhere in the lawn, when to water.. how much, fertilizing, dusting, cleaning. And for some reason it feels like I'm constantly taking out the trash.

Lilian was born this year. Katie and I were hoping desperately that she would be a good sleeper, and a good eater. Jacob, our oldest.. struggled with colic and slept in two hour spurts. It was difficult to say the least. So.. when she arrived, and quickly adopted great eating and sleeping habits.. it felt as if our prayers had been answered. Believe it or not, our little two month old sleeps an average of 8 hours a night, and has done so since the 3-4 week mark.

Jacob has grown a lot since moving into this home. Katie and I can see the benefit of having more room and a backyard. The backyard has been sparsely used, since the Fall came.. but having the room indoors has proved invaluable - giving him the opportunity to build his train tracks, and run around. He's so light-footed. It's fun watching him run because his style of running gives the appearance that his feet don't touch the ground. It's hard to explain. I think I'll post a video clip to demonstrate.. (first I need to figure out how to do that).

But to all of you, those who I've spoken to and those I haven't. I wish each of you a happy and prosperous 2007. This may be my first, but it won't be my last.