General Updates...

Amelia is sick again, although at least there is no fever or blisters, so far. Just a chest cold. Fortunately, I have a big pot of chicken stock ready for action, and she's been drinking tea with herbal elixirs and raw honey all day. I'll do anything to try to make this quick!

Things are going full-bore for Jeff at work, and this will be a very busy year for him. He works at two different locations each day M- W, with a total of 5 work places, not including home visits. We are SO glad for the truck, which has also bumped up Jeff's testosterone levels a bit. (Don't hate me for writing that, Baby!) We never call each other 'baby'.

I am in the very final phase of negotiating on a space for my massage practice. I'll wait until I actually move in to tell you about it. We're supposed to get the key tomorrow and paint, but I have hit a very big bump in the road as of yesterday, and this one IS a "deal breaker." So either we'll get it all taken care of and be open for business in a week, or we'll be starting at square one again. If I don't get the space, the greatest loss will be all of the stress it has caused for me-- I really hope it goes through! Also, I just got a box full of marketing materials in the mail today, and I hope I get to use them-- they have the studio's name and address printed on them.

We're throwing a big party in a couple of weeks, and we're so excited! We only wish that all of our 'old' friends and family could come-- only I can't complain, since it's looking like 40+ people will be squeezing into our yard. I am praying hard for no rain that day!

Our house didn't get painted this summer, but there is a good reason for that. There is a grant for lower income (that's us!) homeowners with small children in Portland that have lead paint on their old houses. We applied and qualified, and it looks like we are going to get up to $10,000 of "lead abatement" done on our house by the city this year in the form of stripping and painting and anything else that needs to happen-- our old windows have already been replaced, so they don't need to do that one. We are SO THRILLED! I don't know when the painting will be done, especially since we're entering the rainy season that lasts most of the year, but we are having an inspection done this week and will be able to find out more then.

My health is about the same although made a bit worse by additional stress, and we're still trying to solve some mysteries related to Jeff's odd medical issues. Prayers in that department would be great. That's all of our not-so-big news for now...