Back after a LOOOOONG absence!

I have a couple friends who have inspired me to get back into blogging. There are links to both of their pages from my page. Thanks Rachel and James! Originally I started this blog to post pictures of the kids when we lived in TN for family and friends back in Oregon (original blog name was Oregon Girl in Tennessee). I saw this mostly as an online photo album for grandparents. Then around the time of my last blog post, I discovered Facebook and decided it was much easier to share photos through that medium. Hence, the long absence. I've been engaging in Facebookery ever since and lost touch with this blog! Now after checking in with my friends' blogs, I see the value in this page of mine as more than just a photo album. It really is a place to record thoughts and memories as well. That really appeals to the writer in me! While very few (or no one at all) will probably ever visit this site of mine, I guess I will have to be content with the idea that it is a place for me to revisit my own thoughts, memories and pictures. After all, I don't have anything nearly as exciting to share as my two friends do in their blogs! Every time I come back to this site I enjoy reading about what was happening with us in years past and looking at the pictures of the kids (how much they've grown!). It occurred to me that I've really been remiss in recording our current happenings and realized I have few current pictures of us together as a family. All the Facebookery and working on my masters is responsible for that, I think. So, I'm going to start today by posting the last pics I have of us as a family together - 4th of July 2010. I'm also going to work hard to take more pictures of us together - which I think means we need to start doing more things together as a family so I have something to take pics of! I've realized after reading through Rachel's post on bringing home their new baby Grace that I haven't been cherishing my own family enough - and the kids are growing so fast! I don't want to regret lost potential family time together when the kids are grown and gone. I know my new job and working on my masters degree is partially to blame for us not spending time together, but I am working to find the balance that allows me to still have time to nurture relationships. Perhaps this little blog will help propel my motivation to spend more time with the family - I'll have to have something to blog about! Wish me luck as I work to find that balance, but for now enjoy the pics of our 4th of July on a pontoon boat at Vallecito Lake.