Happy New Year.

Happy 2007!

We spent the night in Portland last night with our friends the Locken's. This was the second year of their kid-friendly party and again, it was perfect (especially the part where we get to spend the night). And we got to meet two-week old baby Sawyer. Sigh. Love that.

Now it is time to get back to reality. Back to work and to schedules and to a couple months of travel. I am making some big changes this year with my schedule. I have events scheduled for the first three months and then after that I will only be traveling/teaching for CKU's and at trade shows (+ meetings in Utah). I will miss meeting all the awesome people at store events, but this is the right choice for our family at this time. I am taking on some more responsibilities for the magazine that will enable me to be home more (doing more work from home). Look for some exciting things to come from me - including another book - later in the year.

I am really looking forward to hunkering down here and getting creative, challenging myself to take things in new directions.

Chris gets to move into his office at the state capital in Salem tomorrow. He has his office number, his desk number on the house floor, and his hour and 20 min commute (one way) to look forward to (excited to do a layout about the new numbers in his life). He will be sworn in on January 8th and immediately getting into his new groove. Can't believe it is all real.

Simon has one more week off before heading back to school and getting into his normal routine. This next year will see a re-evaluation of his diagnosis and in the fall, a potential move to kindergarten - depending on how it all goes (and what his teachers recommend). He has come such a long way over the last two years - it will be exciting to see what is next for him. One of my favorite things from this last night was comments from both Amy and Jason on how much he has developed - and how much more he is talking - since just a few months ago. Love that.

One big deep breath in and out. Here we go.