Fall 2025

Before a Christmas tree takes its place in our home today, I wanted to reflect on some of the moments the last couple of months served up.  

With Lily starting to drive more and more, Nate back at work 4 days/week, and Nate and Paul REALLY making it clear how much they love Toyota 4Runners, we bought their dream car.  It's fun to drive but the most fun was seeing just how happy Paul and Nate were and still are about getting to drive it.  Elise, Lily, and I like it a lot too but on a different level.

From an activities perspective, Elise continues to row with Rose City Rowing Club on the Willamette without much complaint and is super active with her Girl Scout troop.  She also really likes taking German lessons and asks me a lot about going to Germany.  I need to make that happen.  Paul had a lot of fun competing with his mountain biking team, running x-country, and continuing his tennis training.  He continues to be a super fun teammate and really enjoyed the improvements he saw this season while competing. 

Lily continues to really love volleyball and it shows with just how dedicated she is to improve.  It's fun to watch her hit the s*it out of the ball and only get smarter on the court.  She puts in the time to get stronger and smarter and her dream to play college volleyball continues to take shape. She made the team she wanted for club season too so her volleyball journey is about to kick into higher gear.  

  

I had a really good start to October visiting family in Chicago. I was spoiled with summer-like weather the whole trip.  Visiting my brother's grave, his new memorial bench overlooking Lake Michigan, hanging with family, and going to a UofM tailgating party with the friends and family that really knew my brother was what I came for. My sister and I laughed and cried so much together on that trip.  

One of Lolo's happy places is going to Cubs games and she took me to the final wildcard playoff game.  I get it!  Super fun atmosphere.  

A family picture on Eric's memorial bench recently installed near their Lake House in Fennville, Michigan at Pier Cove Park.  

I was most distraught at Eric's grave.  I was a bit blindsided by the intensity of emotion I'd feel being there.  It didn't bring a level of comfort like the bench did.  The finality of it, like the biggest punctuation period at the end of a sentence of the last line in a great novel can bring.  I didn't like the feeling one bit and I made the mistake of fighting it instead of leaning into it.

We had fun together exploring Holland Michigan too.  What a fun little town.

Family picture with Opa doing the signature Eric signal.  

A picture of my brother Eric exploring the beach near his bench.  My sister reminded me of this picture and I'm glad I found it.  

Elise underwent her 4th surgery this Fall in relation to her macrodactyly condition.  For the first time, it wasn't an operation on her special foot.  Instead, it was addressing her leg length difference.  The doctor said to Elise that she was putting Elise's growth plates to sleep in the tibia and femur of her longer leg.  This will hopefully give the other leg time to catch up during Elise's expected final growth spurt...and yes hopefully stop at the right time and not overshoot it.  This was a preventative surgery to have a lower chance of future pain related to mobility.  Elise made it clear in "Eric" fashion how she felt about it but overall she did great.  

Birthdays and Thanksgiving is what keeps us the fun kind of busy in November every year.  My Dad turned 88 and my mom turned 84!  I know it's kinda weird to say as a daughter but I'm simply super proud of them and what they do and endure on a daily basis.  It's great to have them back in Portland.    I'm inching closer to 50 too and felt the love.  Sharing a meal with friends of over 25 years was a highlight.

Thanksgiving with my parents and neighbors brought some fun laughs thanks to Elise and the secret dares everyone had.  I had to speak in an accent throughout the meal and Opa had to bring up the penny in conversation every chance he could are some examples.

Opa/Paul - soccer time

From a work perspective, the company I work for, Ampere Computing, was acquired by SoftBank, a Japanese conglomerate, and the deal officially closed this past week.  The CEO has an AI vision that we are now a part of.  I like to think the work we do designing technology for AI solutions will help solve humanity's issues and help empower humanity rather than replace it. From a personal perspective, it was nice to see my 5 years at the company get a bit of a reward and be part of a start-up that reached this point.

Nate's work has been more rocky, as his manager who he's known for 25 years was let go and he now has two new layers of management above him which are unknown quantities.  At least the company is now on more solid footing than it was a year ago.  Hopefully the seeds for a big turnaround have been planted.

Nate and I were spoiled with an overnight at Silcox Hut on Mount Hood celebrating one of our favorite friends turning 50.  Silcox Hut is part of Timberline Lodge, about a 30 minute hike up closer to the peak.  You can see that ski season is definitely not underway with how little snow there is.  Stunning views.