Friday, April 27, 2007

lately.






the collazo family is enjoying spring.

nemo is fast refining his technique on the cool bike he received for last year's birthday. he continuously points out every bike he sees without training wheels (which is most bikes, by the way) and asks when we will remove the training wheels on his bike. keep in mind that portland is quite hilly and nemo puts on his brakes 75% of the time even when not going down a hill...you can imagine how long it takes to go up the hills. he's quite cautious and vigilant about not falling. i have to say, though, that in the last month i've seen his confidence really blossom.

speaking of blossoms, i am loving the gorgeous lilac bushes right outside our apartment...so fragrant, so pretty. nemo is so sweet about pointing out all the "beautiful" flowers all over town right now. portland is gorgeous in the spring.

mia loves to be outside and is also very confident in the newly acquired walking skill. she doesn't quite understand the art of backing herself down stairs and will fearlessly begin to step right off the top, expecting us to be there to catch her, of course! we are also trying to teach her to hold our hand in less safe areas, for obvious reasons. she continues to become very excited when she spots a bird, ball, balloon, dog or cat, and yells out "bah!! bah!! bah!!", while pointing with her sweet little pointer finger. she also likes to imitate the sound of sirens, and as we live across the street from a hospital, she has ample opportunity to practice this.

work is work, and i'm still waiting to hear if i'll get a position on night shift. the extra $5.50/hr would help us out so much, so i'm praying for this opportunity. mia is much more manageable at night now, so i don't have that concern anymore. i'm not super excited about being up at night, but this is a rather temporary (for the next few years, anyway) solution for us and would help us get ahead. that, and if ian and i can get our new little business off the ground.

ian is dividing his time between watching the kiddos, finishing some more magnets for the next crafty wonderland (on mother's day), and learning all he can about photoshop 5.5...together, we're working on the website, coming up with our version of a simple business plan, and checking out what other little companies are doing in the area of photo invitations and announcements. our company will be called nemia creative (the website is not up and running yet, but the address will be nemiacreative.com). both of us are really excited about the potential of this project, but we plan to start simply. i would like to post on our progress from time to time, but eventually will have a professional blog just for the company (no links to this one).

another side project i hope to be starting soon is the sabbatical scrapbook. to my family, i will make up "questionnaires" to send out to each of you so that the final book will have some perspective from all of us...my goal is to have the book completed and distributed to each of you by christmas this year. so, start reminiscing...dig out any of your own photos and memorabilia, and prepare to give your side of the story. if anyone has the yellow t-shirt, i would really like a photo of it...i may still have mine, but not entirely sure.

happy spring.

3 comments:

John and Judy said...

I thought for sure you would name your new company JohnJu creative. Oh well....

Jonathan said...

Michelle...I just called you....second thought I'll just talk to you when you call back...take care!

Melissa said...

What great pics! Emma has bike envy.