Living in Portland has been a riot for us, we both really love it here. It has been such a supportive place for us to be, especially raising Roman. There is so much opportunity for us to teach him great things here - for instance, how to take care of roses!
Recently, Roman has been taking up tons of our time - we didn't expect any different I guess. Ben has been gardening a lot over the summer, and there were Pomodoro tomatoes, and a few different kinds of heirlooms. He also grew blueberries, eggplants, collard greens, and green beans and two "unknown" tomato varieties given to us to plant by our neighbor, KS. KS has become our total best friend in Portland and it almost seems like we live together.
Work on the house has come to somewhat of a standstill until we can decide what to prioritize next. After the super-hot summer in 2006, we considered the most important thing to be (ta da!) air conditioning. We had central air put in last winter so that we could avoid the horrendous suffering we went through last summer, when our house got up to 100 degrees or hotter on the INside. This past summer of 2007 was much more comfortable!
Roman's paternal grandmother is coming to visit us in January, which will be a lot of fun. We recently flew back east to see both sets of family in October, and that was a blast.
We are encouraging our neighbor KS to start a photography business because she is SO talented. She has already taken us on several "photo shoots" that have been extremely professional and produced some amazing results. She took Jenny's maternity shots, our best family pictures, and now some great pictures of Roman. If anyone needs a photographer here in Portland, let us know - we think KS is just as talented as our wedding photographer (who was GREAT - but she now charges $5000 a pop!!!)!!!!
Other than that, we are just watching our son grow up way too fast already. We are looking forward to the cooler days of autumn and winter although we know that means rain. We are looking forward to Roman's second Christmas in December.
