And Old Trip with some New Tricks

Two weeks in Hyderabad

In my first trip to India, I've been subject to culture shock in a way that I did not expect. It's hard to capture everything that is around me, but here is a short video of a walk I took just outside my hotel in search of a snack.

Portraits of Daughters in Black and White

Live a little

It's Friday!  Welcome to the weekend.  We're celebrating with the usual accouterments and hoping you are, too.  We have big plans this weekend - it's RAMEN EXPO in Dallas, Texas!
What's happening in your area?

Boo! It's almost Halloween and we're BACK!

There was this one guy...

I don’t know how you found your way here: either you’re an incredibly devoted fan – or perhaps some fancy computer program you long ago forgot to turn off has sent you an email that someone has updated this site.  Or maybe, like those old choose your own adventure books, despite not having any real path to this particular page you ended up here anyway. 

It’s been a long time since last I sat down and wrote anything of any length to put in this particular place.  So very long…. the girls are older.  Cadence is practically in college now… well, okay, not really.  She’s started gymnastics here in our new home town.  Wait – I’m ahead of myself.

We’re living in Renton, Washington.  Actually, we’re coming up on the end of our first year living back in Washington State.  We sold our house in Alabama shortly after the move here; in a blessedly short amount of time to be honest; we will always love that house and the friends we made there.  I think coming back to Washington has felt a lot like an extended vacation more than a return home because we left so many fond memories and great friends behind in Alabama.  Of course, we returned to a lot of great friends here in Washington, too – and that has really made the trip here rewarding.  We’ve had a chance to visit a great many of those friends and hopefully will continue to catch up and visit others we’ve been meaning to connect with.

 Another big difference is that for the first time in a long time – we’re not home owners; we’re home renters.  Although there are plusses and minuses with each – there’s a sense of permanency missing when you’re renting – and of course, the looming knowledge that at some point in the near future we are going to have to move.  On the flip side, we’re also rolling stones of a sort and that was probably going to happen anyway, (preferably to a foreign country that starts with the letter “A” and ends with “ustralia”) – so maybe renting is for the best – at least for now.

Girls… A house full of girls – a life full of girls, pink is the new pink, and pink is everywhere, dahling!  Cadence is every day a revelation into how amazing a little girl can be.  She’s smart.  I won’t bore you or patronize you with stories of how smart she is because every parent thinks their child is the smartest child since this amazing list of wunderkids.  But she is smart – and she has an amazing memory that surprises every day… as in “Do you remember that thing I told you six months ago,” she asks – “I do” she says.  Sheese!

The twins are growing up into their own little people and I have to remember to call them anything other than “The Babies” because they’re not babies – or even just “The Twins;” they’re little  individuals.  They’re personalities.  They’re people – and that’s amazing!  It’s like a new discovery every day.  Speaking of girls – we have a live in Au Pair who has joined our family from Macedonia (that’s near Greece).  Monika has lived with us since March and has been taking care of the girls while Lilah and I go and play at work.

And then there’s the new addition coming this December, baby girl number four.  Must be in the water.   And I am completely out numbered… Even my male dog is half the man he used to be (poor guy).

Jobs: Lilah is working again; she’s doing very well in fact.  As always, I keep hoping that they’ll call her up to run the whole company so that I can finally retire and live the dream.  But, until then I remain incredibly proud of her and all of her accomplishments – which are many considering she was away from the company for about 5 years before coming back.  And we of course moved back here because of the big Blue B.  This was a transition to the commercial side of the house and my first trip to a position not in the defense industry since before I went to college.  I am having a blast at doing what I am doing, which is early technology development and internal venture capitalism – real sexy stuff that makes it exciting to get up and go to work.

Well, I’d love to say that this is the start of a new habit, but who knows.  I hope the update is of some entertainment. 

Ping

This is a post

I Make Cute Babies!

Airport

At the Seattle airport on my way out of town after a good week of meetings. Thought i would share some pictures but I can't figure out how to load them from my iPad. I wonder if there is an app i could use?

More About the New Additions

The twins are finally home and we're starting our routine of getting to know each other. Before we left, Cadence had a chance to come to the hospital and meet her sisters for the first time. She's doing really good at being a big sister and though there are a few moments of regretting that she's not the only child any more, she's been a real trooper.

Life is pretty tame at this point. A bunch of getting used to the new routines with two babies that are barely the size of a loaf of bread. Nanna and Poppa are here to help out and that has really been a sanity saver. Hopefully we'll have our routines in shape before they leave!

By the way, we're also having major house work done at the end of the month. How that works is still in question, but it might likely involve Jason staying in Huntsville while Lilah and the twins go to Dallas. Where Cadence ends up in still in flux - but what we know for sure is that we cannot live in our house as they will be ripping up all of 2000 sq ft of hard wood floors and replacing them, which includes removing all of our kitchen cabinets, too. Fun times!

Anyway, that's all I've got for now. We keep more frequent updates on our Facebook accounts, but for those who don't catch us there, we'll post periodically here as well.

Jason