The Alabama Chronicles - Day 2

Early start, late finish!

Drew picked me up at 630AM! Good thing I was already up and awake. I couldn't sleep very well last night. Wes met us for breakfast at the Cracker Barrel. It's like a Dennys, or Elmers. It's really good. I had buttermilk pancakes with blackberries on top. After that it was straight to the office where we brainstormed and discussed objectives and great ideas for our new website. Jonathan came by and the four of us talked about every possible option and outlet for our new business to work.

1230PM - LUNCH TIME! We ended up going to this greek place (the name escapes me). I had an egg sandwich. It's great food! After lunch, it was back to the grind.

530PM - Dinner... After almost falling asleep because of the extreme work ethic that Wes, Drew and Ania have (also the food coma wasn't helping), we went to Johnny Rockets for dinner. Chicken Tenders and Onion rings! YUM!

We left around 6, and I returned to the hotel at around 610. I took pictures of the office and the outside building. I'll post it when I get home. I just want to go home already and see my family! I miss them so much!

I'll be up tomorrow around 430AM. See you guys soon!


Update: As promised, here are just a few pictures of the office and the building. I really only took a couple of pictures while I was out there. I was too busy doing everything else!

So here's the team (minus Jonathan who had to run an errand). On the left looking very professional and "busy" is Wes. Drew is in the middle working hard (or hardly working? LOL), and Ania on the right (who is actually working!).

In all seriousness, these three are really great workers and even better people! I am really great to have met them all and it makes me feel that this new business venture is going to go FAR!



Here's the outside of the building. At first glance it looks like an old firehouse. It was actually built to look like one! It's just another office building that houses several businesses.

In the building is a BBQ restaurant that uses the place as their corporate headquarters. The place has a very casual business environment and even has a dog running around. :)

I wish I took more pictures of Alabama. It's a really great place, and it's very beautiful. When I arrived it was very humid and hot (kind of like Virginia weather), but it was tolerable. The nights were still warm, and it felt like you could stay outside forever. The people are all friendly and have that "southern hospitality" that the south is famous for. It was a great trip and one that I will definitely remember. Thanks again to Ania, Drew, Jonathan and Wes for a great time out there. Here's to us and our new business together! Cheers!

The Alabama Chronicles - Day 1

What a day! The drive to Portland Airport (PDX) was really fun. I had to wake up at 245AM and left at 315. I arrived at PDX at 445, and boarded my plane at 535. We took off at 6AM and I landed in Houston at around 12PM Houston time. On the plane, I sat next to a mother and her 5 month old daughter. She was ok for most of the flight, until around an hour left on the flight she got all fussy, so I started distracting her by waving at her and making her smile. Cute baby, but our kids still take the cake! After the flight I had to RUN from Terminal E to Terminal B, where my connecting flight was taking off in ONE HOUR! Still, I was able scarf down a hot dog before boarding the plane. That's all I got to eat until dinner! The flight from Houston to Birmingham was definitely memorable. Still tired and groggy from an early start, I vaguely remember hearing the pilot saying that this was his first, second, or third time flying commercial airplanes. Not that the plane itself was making me feel any more confident, it was literally me, the aisle, and two other seats in my row. It was a three seater plane! Wow did I ever feel the turbulence!

After landing and kissing the ground (no, not really), Drew picked me up and brought me to the hotel. There I rested for 2 minutes, and it was off to the office. The office itself is cool, the building is made to look like a firehouse, but it really wasn't. The tenants of the building are really cool, and there's this BBQ restaurant that holds its HR office here. Pretty nice place.

Dinner was great! We ate at this place called the Village Tavern. They have this REAL delicious marinated flank steak. THAT WAS YUMMY. After dinner it was back to the hotel and on to sleep... after missing the first 1/2 hour of Heroes because I'm now on CENTRAL time!! :(

I'll post pictures of places later... For now, enjoy reading!

On a plane and far away from home

Albert left at 3:15 a.m. to board a plane bound for Alabama to meet with his business partners. He has been in talks with 2 of his previous agents to start up a web based company to analys merchant statements. It is a new endeavor for him and one that we pray will be successful. He will be returning home to us on October 1st. It has been a long time since we have been apart and the first time he has been away from Emma by himself.
UPDATE: Albert arrived safely to Alabama at 12:40 pst!

Albert-Please be safe and take care of yourself. We are praying for you, love you and miss you!

Weekend update:
Eden went to her first party. She was invited for a swim/birthday party with 7 other girls at a private lake. She had so much fun!

Emma is getting to be Ms. Independent. She found our rice despenser and dumped rice all over the kitchen floor. Albert discovered this and tried to scold Emma but she thought it was cute. I proceeded to bring her to the scene of her crime and told her "no, no, we don't throw rice!" I had to use my stern voice and she began to cry saying "rice, rice..." while pointing at her mess. She had her first timeout. =( I don't think she will be doing that again, I hope.

The baby is beginning to move and kick more often. It happens most right after I eat or when I am trying to sleep, go figure! I have my ultrasound appointment on Thursday. I am happy to report that I did NOT develop gestational diabetes this time around. Thanks for all your prayers! This is becoming a much more enjoyable pregnancy then Emma's.

Baby Names!

So, we're in the hunt for baby names. Again, we're not going to find out what the gender is, but we want to know what the general consensus is from our friends and family what we should name our third (and last) child. :)

Please comment below and give us a couple of suggestions for a boy and/or girl. There are some stipulations:

• Must have two names (i.e. Eden Noel, Emma Rose)
• It has to "flow". Eden and Emma's names flow well together.

Please comment below and let us know what you think! Thanks everyone!

New Beginnings!

Hello everyone! We're going to start this all over again. We had a couple of posts from 2007, but it wasn't that great really. :) With the new baby coming along, and with us moving up to Oregon, we thought that it'd be a great time to start over and get back to trying to keep in touch with everyone.

Our apologies for starting this blog out late, and honestly not telling everyone that we moved. It was all very sudden, and just as surprising. Joy and I thought that we'd never move up here; that it was a great place to visit, but not to live. After coming up here for Memorial Day, and seeing some of the houses (huge AND affordable), we put a litle thought into it. We really felt that God was calling us up here. The schools are a lot better, and there's hardly any crime! Fast forward to August 1st, and we're on our way up here! It's beautiful up here and VERY green.

Here's an example. This is in Silver Falls. Beautiful place, although I (Albert) have never been there. Joy took this picture, and as you can see, the trees are EVERYWHERE!

So, back to the family. Eden (bottom) and Emma (top). Both of them are very wonderful and CRAZY daughters. We love them very much! Eden is VERY athletic and book smart. She's in sixth grade and is already in a higher level of math than most of the other sixth graders! She's going to middle school, and is loving the transition. Emma is turning two this year, and is walking and babbling. She can say a couple of words like "daddy", "sissy", "what", "please", and "butt", among other things. She's really into animals like dogs, cats, and rabbits (Joy's parents have all of these as pets), but she's also into farm animals and has a huge red barnyard playset in her room.


This is Joy. Yep, she's THAT beautiful. Currently, she's the executive assistant to the President of Willamette University. Sounds cool huh? A little background on Willamette, it's the oldest established university on the west coast, being founded in 1842. Also, it's pronounced Willamette (damnit). She's the gatekeeper to the all powerful (but very down to earth) President. No one gets to see him without giving Joy some candy or coffee. :) She's also pregnant! We're going to be seeing the baby for the first time on October 2nd. And no, we don't want to know what the gender will be this time, so please don't ask.


Yep, that's me. This was taken on my 27th birthday. And yes, I'm THAT awesome... I got a pumpkin pie for my cake!

Currently, I'm working with a couple of partners on a consulting website for outside agents who sell credit card processing. It sounds crazy, but I know it'll work! My other full time job is to watch these crazy kids run around and clean up the messes that they get themselves into!


So that's us in a nutshell. And we're adding another one on the way! Are we crazy or what? We miss everyone a lot, and we all hope that everyone's doing well in their endeavors. Once we get settled into our own place we'll definitely be inviting everyone up for a housewarming party! Thanks for reading! Look out for new postings as well! For now, I'll leave a video of Emma saying "What?".

Take care and God Bless everyone!