All the Juicy Deets

Some big things are happening in our little family.

The biggest, of course, is that our little lion man continues to grow at an alarmingly fast rate. Christine typically does a great job of chronicling the precious milestones in Ariy's development over at her blog, so I won't bother repeating any of those things here. However, as the primary diaper changer in the house, I will say that the transition to solid foods has been a welcomed one (i.e. what goes in solid comes out solid).

Perhaps the next biggest change is a significant one for our family dynamics. As many of you know, I have been staying at home with Ariy while Christine continues her work at George Fox University. While I love my son and Christine loves her job, our current situation has not been the healthiest for our family (mostly Mommy and Daddy). As such, Christine recently put in her notice to leave her job. She'll be working until the first week of January. The stress of trying to work full-time and be a mother full-time was simply tearing her apart. In fact, she really hadn't been herself since she went back to work. Thankfully, the day she put in her notice she was back to normal -- like someone had flipped a switch. It was both odd and awesome to experience. (And before I continue, I do want to say that this decision had nothing to do with the nature of Christine's job. It was simply the fact she was having to be away from our son. George Fox University has been very good to us, and the only reason Christine hasn't completely lost it is because she actually enjoys the work she does there and has a tremendous amount of support from all her awesome coworkers.)

Of course, with Christine leaving the workforce, the bread-winning baton has now been passed to me. In October, I began working with a church in Portland as their Director of Creative Worship. Basically, I coordinate most of the elements that occur in our Sunday services, the majority of which involve music. I am incredibly blessed to have this position, as it is one that I greatly enjoy. Still, the position in currently part-time, and not quite enough to support our family once Christine leaves her job. Needless to say, I'm looking for another part-time job in addition to this position at the church. You can learn more about the church on our website here and see more about me here. Feel free to check us out!

Finally, we recently had our first family photo shoot with some friends of ours who are professional photographers. We are expecting those awesome pictures (mostly of Ariy) in the coming weeks. You can get a sneak peek here. With that, you can also expect the new blog template I've been talking about for months as well. Well, maybe.

[Editor's note: My apologies for the multiple occurrences of the word "awesome" in this post. I realize this is no longer the 90s.]