Beauty blossoms from the Ashes.

Here’s an idea of what some of my days look like here in Portland.

During the week, on a typical work day I:

- Wake up around 7 when Robin get’s in the shower and Amalea starts talking
- Take a quick shower, get dressed, run downstairs and feed Amalea.
- Then the process of getting ready for work and taking Amalea to daycare begins.  I pack our lunches, get her dressed, pack her bag and try to get out the door by 8:15 so I get Amalea to daycare and make the 8:45 bus to work…
- I take the #19 bus all the way from the bottom of our street to downtown where I work, which takes me about an hour.
- My new job is great. It’s at a web design company in downtown portland, and right now I do “contract” work for them… which means I don’t really have full-time job there, but I do about 20 hours a week.  It’s fun to be doing web design (it’s more like programming, I don’t do any design really) – but it’s staring at a computer screen all day, so the day drags towards the end.
- I’m attempting to figure out how to take the bus back home, though I haven’t been successful yet – and Robin has had to come and get me from the gateway transit center the last few times… but I’ll figure it out soon.
- The rest of the night is about the same every day… figure out what’s for dinner or if we’re going out, watch some Cash Cab on Discovery and then Jeopardy – and then it’s bath time.  Robin and I alternate nights giving Amalea a bath and putting her to bed.
- Once Amalea finally goes down… Robin and I either watch a couple shows, or I do some of my own web work I need to get done, or we go on our computers…

And that’s almost every week day.

It’s hard.  It’s been hard.  And now that Robin is pregnant, we are both exhausted all the time.  Amalea doesn’t give us a chance to slow down – ever – so sometimes it feels like we’re just getting by.  Hopefully in the months and years to come, we will have time and energy to explore Portland and Oregon more, to go camping and swimming and all the things we wanted to do when we moved up here.  Right now, with the economy the way it is, I’m just glad Robin and I have jobs and we are getting by.  Amalea seems happy even though she has to go to day care 3 or 4 days a week.  Robin and I are doing our best to find time together… and Robin is doing a super job being pregnant, taking her vitamins, and making sure amalea doesn’t butt bomb her belly and squish the baby!

That’s about it for this update…