.....my every other day or so posts have diminished down to one a week or so. I'll try to get better.
We had John's "1 year portrait" taken a few weeks ago (albeit a few weeks late). It's amazing to see how much he's grown in a year. For some reason, he looks chunkier in this picture than he really is, not that that's a bad thing.......
It seems like things are calming down a bit now. Sharon's band season is practically over (they only have one last "fun" performance on Halloween night), and they did very well at their last competition. Tech football is in a bit of a home-game lull, so the weekends are pretty laid back right now (though I haven't been able to get into it near as much this year).
Work is looking up - the economy was seeming to make some of our clients run and hide, which is unusual because our clients tend to be quite wealthy and usually aren't so affected by market downturns. Things were looking bleak, but we are in contract negotiations on a huge (and controversial) development in south Roanoke that will really boost the company. We are also negotiating another large community project in the Fredericksburg area, and we have our somewhat "normal" stable of residential work. I'm trying to get serious about the ARE (I need to start studying) - my 7 part licensing exam. The boss man is also encouraging me to become a LEED AP (green architecture stuff) due to the fact that the one LEED AP in our office is moving on to a new job. This has been another goal of mine, but it is another grueling exam to study for (and another butt-expensive testing fee).
Sharon's been feeling pretty nauseous and extremely tired lately, so I've been trying to help out as much as I can (fixing John's lunch, making dinners, putting him to bed). I really appreciate all that she does when I have to cover it! It's hard to get everything done at nights; the house is such a mess! I have a lot of admiration for single parents - I don't know how you do it all.
The rope, even though it's slackened up again, seems to be working quite well at keeping the goats out. I still have several small sections to finish - it's somewhat discouraging because now that it's all done, it's too cold to sit out on the deck at night or to grill out.
We are super excited about Christmas this year. It will be so much fun with John really being able to enjoy things (he was only 3 1/2 months old last year). We have added to our Christmas decorations since last year, and are ready to start putting them up! I may have gone a bit overboard on our exterior last year, and I tend to go further this year! My big addition will be a runway for Santa. I only have two deer right now, but I hope to add a sleigh this year and two more after Christmas (when they are on sale). We also started collection the North Pole Village by Department 56 this year (the lit, hand-painted porcelain villages), so it'll be fun to put that up. Don't laugh - they are quite the examples of craftsmanship.
Christmas, here we come!
3 comments:
That's a really cute picture of John. It does make him look a little thicker than he actually is. But it's very cute.
Is it weird that I actually know what LEED is? PS the certification to have a LEED certified building is RIDICULOUSLY expensive. Three of our buildings here meet the standards but only one is certified since it cost $30,000 to put a glass plaque on the wall.
Not only is it expensive to pay LEED to have the building certified, it is extremely expensive for us and the builder to do it for you because of the hundreds and hundreds of sheets of paperwork involved. It's a good cause and a great thought, but a terribly flawed system. Unfortunately, it's the "green architecture standard" right now.
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