21Dec |
Christmas 2010 from Nathan
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Note: Casey will probably writer a much better version of this.
Eight years of doing this Holiday letter thing. How American of me! Which makes me want to make sure you know, I am now an Austrican. That is an Australian American in case you did not know. I became an American on August 4th, President Obama’s birthday. You can read about all the shananigans on my blog.
It has been a year of challenges, with many amazing highlights! The Inn has been a challenge. We do ok, but not ok enough to travel (to Australia if no where else) and generally live a comfortable stress free lifestyle. We have spent a lot of time working with a Small Business Development Center, Economic Advisor, in the past few months. We also are working with one of Casey’s old colleagues who now works for a different Credit Union. So to cut a long story short. We were close to doing our dream expansion, but the financial black hole that is the Gig Harbor Duplex, put the kibosh on it. The bright side is we may still be able to do a refinance on the Inn and be looking better for it!
So to sum up that crappy stuff, we love Innkeeping. We love our Bed & Breakfast. Something has to give though! If it was not for the generosity of my parents we would be stuffed. So we are considering everything and anything right now. Selling it all. Moving to Australia. Living in a yurt. Living on a boat. Living in a regular house. I have applied for a couple of jobs. Came a close second for a Hotel Manager position. None of it was meant to be! So there must be something great around the corner!
We also said goodbye to Carrot the cat. He was miserable around Lauren and we worked with the boarding place to get him placed with a good family. With his physco-alopecia he was looking awful. We said he was best suited to a home with a little old lady and no dogs. He is missed but hopefully happier!
So on to the amazing stuff that makes life worth living!
Olympia. My home, my family, friends, festivals, events, day trips, short breaks. All from this perfect little seaside town. It is a wonder more people have not heard of Olympia. We are definitely not seen as a tourist destination, but should be. It is a great place to have a family. We added Evan Franklin Allan to the mix of our family 5 months ago. He is named after his brothers Charlie and Jackson, with his name sharing the same meanings. He is so great! Lauren just loves him so much, and he gives her big smiles all the time now too. He is bigger than Lauren was. We think he is trying to catch up to her so he can join in more. The kids and Casey really make life interesting.
I was really happy to be able to volunteer and help with the creation of the Madison Avanti Giving Garden, at the local elementary school. It is a professionally designed and run vege garden for the kids. It was a lot of fun helping the whole school create a paver each, not so much fun hauling gravel and digging through clay!
We got to do a couple of short trips this year. When my parents were here we went down to Oregon and back up the coast, to show them a friend’s carriage house and yurts. Then to Seabrook, which we managed to stay at three times over the year. We love it there, and in a perfect world would be able to afford a vacation home/rental there. At least that is one of our dreams.
So to sum up, we all have our health, we have the best kids anyone could wish for. We have great friends and live in a fantastic neighborhood. I hope you all have a Merry Christmas, and I hope it is more about being with family than the crazy need for consumerism, because when it comes down to it, family and friends is all that matters!
Oh and Happy New Year! I hope 2011 surpasses your expectations!
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13Dec |
Christmas / Holiday Season 2009
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Wow! We must have an older child now, we are getting our cards and letters out in the month of December. We know a few of you in Australia might not get them until after the holidays, but it is closer than last year! 2009 has been a year of growing, learning, experiencing and such joy. Lauren is growing like a weed, and she has such a little personality on her.
Just after arriving home in January we got news that Casey’s mom and step-dad were moving to Wichita, KS. Jon got a fantastic job there, and while it was sad for everyone to move so far away we understood. The Inauguration of President Obama excited everyone in the house. Nathan even completed his citizenship paperwork while we watched the ceremony. The end of January, just after her 4th month checkup we started Lauren on her first “solids”. It was rice cereal, and we weren’t sure how something that could be sucked through a straw can be called solid, but none the less, solid it is labeled. She wasn’t so sure at first, and then she went to town, couldn’t get enough of it. At four months Lauren weighed in at 16lbs, 9oz and she was 26.625″ tall.
At the beginning of February we boarded Sydney for the first time. We weren’t sure how she was going to do, but we had a meeting in Sequim and didn’t have any scheduled guests at the inn and couldn’t find anyone to house sit for us, so we decided it was time. We went with a recommendation from fellow innkeepers and friends and Sydney had a great time! No issues what so ever. We thought for sure we were going to hear about “issues” at playtime but they said she was great.
Valentine’s day was a huge success for the Inn and the Day Spa. If we could have weekends like that every weekend we would be set! It was really amazing. We even had a last minute cancellation in the spa (as in the 10pm the night before), but we posted it on our website to call at 10am the next day to book, and exactly at 10am the phone rang and the time slot was filled.
Lauren was scooting and rolling and even pulled herself to a semi-standing position, but as any parent knows they do things on their own time and true crawling and walking were still a ways off for us. We did have a scare with Lauren’s Angelcare monitor, the alarm went off one night in late February, but with all the noise we were making trying to scramble to get in there and the light coming on she stirred and the alarm turned off. What a scary feeling. On February 24th Lauren got her first tooth! Quickly followed by her second tooth on February 27th.
On March 1st, Lauren celebrated her 6 month birthday, and we were working on sending out our cards and birth announcements from 2008. We hadn’t really thought it was going to take us that long, but we really liked the way her birth announcements looked in the end. Also in the beginning of March grandma took Lauren for an evening and we had a date night and went to see Lucy at the Pacific Science Center. The history of Ethiopia was amazing. The whole exhibit was really well done. It was good for Lauren to spend time with Grandma before she left for Kansas.
Lauren’s official 6 month measurement still had her in the 90th percentile. She was continuing her trend of being above average. We started attending book babies at the library, which she loved, anything involving books she just gets so excited about.
April brought Lauren yet another tooth and working on words, mostly just babble, and no signs yet although we were working on sign language. For Casey’s birthday grandma came down and we had another grown up night out and went to the movies and out to dinner. The next day we had Easter lunch before grandma had to head home so she could go into work the next day. The time was slowly ticking down for grandma to be heading to Kansas.
April is when Olympia really comes back to life. The farmers market reopens, and everyone is out and about enjoying the spring weather, including us. We started walking everywhere. If it was within a reasonable distance and we weren’t getting anything huge we walked there. Lauren and Casey were very much enjoying momma baby yoga downtown, and the walk before and after was perfect. By the end of April Lauren had her front four teeth and was still growing like a weed and grandma had moved to Wichita. It was sad to see her go.
In May we were focusing on outdoor projects. We started a lot of seeds indoors and transplanted those as well as eating lots of fresh fruit and vegetables from the local co-op and the farmers market. Lauren said her first sign (milk), and Nathan and I celebrated our 3rd Wedding Anniversary. The 3rd anniversary is leather and we both had the same idea, but Nathan was faster, he got us a leather bound album of our wedding photos. It is beautiful. Lauren was commando crawling everywhere. Definitely mobile, but still not what some would say “crawling”. It got her where she needed to go though.
Then came June and our busy busy season along with it. We started having issues with the tile in the shower in the day spa. The built in bench tile was started with one cracked tile, but then quickly became several cracked tile and lifting tiles. We kept trying to get in touch with the tile guy who installed it but our calls went largely unanswered. At the beginning of June we also started Casey’s birthday present, ballroom dance lessons. It was a lot of fun, a couple hours once a week. We haven’t put them to good use as of yet, but we know they will come in handy some day.
Lauren was pulling herself up to standing. Sometimes she would let go for a couple of seconds but would quickly grab back on or fall. She also had an onslaught of words, from babbling to dada, dog, cat, good, and if she is upset, momma. The biggest thing that happened in June was that Hayden came for a long overdue visit, and boy did we have a lot to pack into her two week visit.
We went kayaking, walking, painted pottery downtown, camping at Mt Rainier, Wolf Haven, the cider mill, the zoo, had family portraits taken, with our own tie dye creations, lots of cooking, gardening, went to the 4th of July celebration in Tumwater, and just enjoying the family time. Lauren and Hayden got along very well and Lauren was even saying Hayden by the time she left. Two weeks went by way too quick and we all wish we could see her more often.
After Hayden left we got stuck into paving our Rose Garden. Casey was sick with bronchitis (who gets bronchitis in July) so Nathan set to the dirty task of pulling up the sod and getting the ground mostly level. Not easy work. On the good side, not too far under the sod was a nice layer of gravel so we didn’t have to have any brought in. It also explains why that grass probably died every year, not enough ground to hold water, the drainage was too good. Next we made a temporary and level frame around the perimeter and started bringing in sand. During this time the temperatures were 100 degrees plus. It was grueling. Every morning we would go out ant try and accomplish as much as we could until the sun came around the corner of the house and then we would go back out late in the evening to work on it more. In the end it came out beautiful and just in time for the wedding we had scheduled. While just the sand base was in Lauren also started crawling properly. She was wearing just a diaper and didn’t like the feeling of the sand on her belly. She was so cute, wagging her tail as she crawled along. With the oppressive heat Lauren also got her first pool, a really cute inflatable pool with a built in shade. We filled it up and let it sit in the sun for two days and the water was still ice cold! It felt great. Lauren didn’t like it as much, but she had fun walking around the outside.
August brought plums ready to harvest, so many plums. TOO many plums. I think it was over 100lbs of plums that Casey either made sorbet out of, or turned into plum butter, or plum puddings. Anything Casey could find to make with plums it was made. August also brought a dilemma. What to do with our vehicles? We liked the van but it was too big to drive around all the time. Lauren’s new car seat and the recommendations that she remain rear facing until at least 2 years old meant that we couldn’t use Casey’s bug, and well Nathan’s Miata only seats two, which isn’t very practical for a family of three. Then the government announced the Cash for Clunkers deal. We looked and if we got the Toyota Prius we would get $4500 for our van. We didn’t really want to see it crushed, but we had to do something. We listed Snow White for sale for $4500 with the reasons why we were selling and why the price was non-negotiable and everything we knew that was right and wrong with her. We sold her for $4500 to an Australian living in Canada saving her from the crusher and giving us a $4500 down payment on Sandy the Spaceship. We are very happy with our new car purchase. It fits the three of us easily, and gets amazing gas mileage and has so much storage. So far the largest purchase we have made in it is a 4-burner gas grill already assembled. The sales people said there was no way it would fit, but it did!
To stretch Sandy’s legs we took a trip to the beach, Seabrook near Pacific Beach. It was Lauren’s first real time she could play on the beach and she loved it. She was completely muddy and gross from all the sand but she slept like no ones business that night, she was exhausted! We also had our first repair at the end of August when one of our tires was slashed in of all places the local food co-op! Not sure what happened there, but it was definitely slashed. We had to wait a week for a new tire to come in because the car was so new the dealership hadn’t stocked the new tires for it yet.
September was a great month. It started with Lauren’s first birthday! Yea! She had a lot of fun at her party and it was great to see everyone. Those of you who couldn’t make it were missed. At one year she weighed in at 22lbs, and was 31.25 inches tall. Advanced in size and verbal skills. Doctor would swear she was 18 months if she didn’t know when her birthday was. She has so many words, learns more every day. We had contemplated a road trip to Kansas, but we really didn’t have that much time, about 7 days, we could be away from the inn, so it would have been a real stress to get there and back. We would have loved to go, but the more we thought about it the crazier we thought we were. In the end we took a nice break and went to Leavenworth and then San Juan Island (via the North Cascades Hwy) and had a wonderful time away. While we were in Leavenworth, staying in a friend’s B&B, Lauren stood up on her own for the first time (not pulling herself up). Casey shouted to get Nathan’s attention and Lauren promptly sat down and refused to do it again.
October saw a slight slow down at the inn, but not as great as past years. We started a new group, Baby Dinners. Every Thursday one family from the group hosts dinner and we don’t have to bring anything. It turns out that pretty much we only have to worry about cooking dinner on a Thursday once a month! Having a set scheduled thing works really well, and we like knowing that Lauren will get to see some of her little friends at least once a week and interact.
Our grapes on all three of our vines were ripe and they were definitely hefty producers this year. Casey made raisins out of a lot of the seedless ones, after trying to give them away and serving them to guests and Lauren. The concord grapes this year Casey made into grape juice, thanks to her food mill. There are lots and lots of grape concentrate in the pantry. We even invited friends over to pick grapes and we still had a lot that just fell to the ground.
Nathan went to a travel writers conference on behalf of the Washington Bed and Breakfast Guild so for a couple of days Lauren and Casey were on their own with a full house! Don’t worry everyone survived just fine. For her first aware Halloween, (last year seeing as she was almost two months old), she was a dog. Seemed appropriate, everything on four legs is a dog, woof woof. Not that it is the only animal she knows, if you ask her what sounds a cow makes, she moos, and a sheep she baaahs, and a duck she quacks, but everything is a dog, even birds flying in the air. So Lauren was a dog, and we took her trick or treating downtown and then to the Governors Mansion for a photo op and a chocolate bar. She was so happy, saying HI to everyone and barking like a dog…until we got to the governor. Then she cried. We still had a great evening.
At the beginning of November we took a trip to Eugene, OR. It was a fabulous trip. The innkeeper that we stayed with was so welcoming and there were some uncanny similarities between their inn and ours. You would never guess, another inn and another first for Lauren, she took her first steps! We really liked the area, had some great meals, and got to visit Pacific Yurts, which we have wanted to do for years. Of course it gave us a lot more ideas, that yurt village may still happen one day. Just after we got back from that trip we had a meeting in Seattle for the bed and breakfast guild. Lauren and I missed most of the meeting but we had a lovely stroll through Volunteer Park and the neighborhood and a really great meal at the end of the day.
By mid-November, Lauren was walking unassisted, and quickly went from a few steps to walking across the room. It is amazing. To see her little head bopping along as she explores is fantastic. We will miss the wagging your tail crawl, but the tipsy walking it pretty cute too. We took a break before Nathan’s birthday and went to Seabrook for a couple of days, and they were really relaxing days on the beach, with record setting waves, it was incredible. In some spots on the beach drive up there was sea foam at the highway and no beach whatsoever! We really like Seabrook, if we had the extra cash we would look into purchasing one of their smaller properties.
On November 15th we had very exciting news at our house. We found out Casey is expecting again! We couldn’t be more excited. The expected due date is July 10th, which means that the baby (just one) will either arrive on July 1st (for a boy), or July 4th (for a girl) as Casey’s family trend is for Boys to be born on the 1st of the month and Girls to be born on a holiday. Lauren was born on both! Now the great name debate has begun. Again we are going to keep the name to ourselves, it is just easier that way. For Nathan’s birthday we just celebrated at home as we had a full house and a wedding the following day. Casey and Lauren bought him a very nice Chinese Elm bonsai and again it was a complete surprise!
The last week in November brought some bad news. After winning our judgment against the tile contractor (not that we have seen the check from his insurance yet), and thinking we would be able to get a few of the guest room windows replaced, our downstairs furnace kicked the can. What a pain. So we were left with what to do. Buy a furnace we didn’t want, or heat the downstairs alternatively (gas fireplace, and heaters) until we can afford to do what we want. After dealing with the salesiest salesman, we decided we were going without a furnace, and we are still that way.
Our final goal with heating is to install radiant floor heating on the first floor with a semi-commercial gas instant hot water heater. We really want to eliminate our hot water tanks, we currently have three, and one is dedicated to one bathroom so when that room isn’t rented it just keeps running even though none of the water is being used. This will eliminate any hot water issues we currently have, plus give the downstairs a nice gentle heat source and we can have zones so our personal area doesn’t get too hot which it did on the previous furnace. We are staying warm with the use of our eco-heaters (they are wonderful things) and a few electric ceramic heaters, plus we purchased an electric fireplace with heat that will eventually go into the Astoria room. So far we are staying fairly warm, even with the cold snap that December brought us.
December is here, and the weather is below frigid. We are still managing quite well, but we are really looking forward to the high of the day being above freezing. We had holiday photos taken with Lauren in front of our decorated tree, and are getting ready for the big holiday that is just a few weeks away. We took Lauren downtown to see Santa for photos and she was not having any of it! She was fine while we were waiting, and then Nathan walked up to Santa with her and she just exploded in tears. So we let a few other people go while she watched Santa, and she was a little better, she let Santa hold her, but she was still crying. Then Santa got up and was being silly and she even smiled and waved at him, but she wouldn’t let him hold her. The one photo we got with no tears was her sitting in his chair looking up at Santa who was standing behind the chair. Casey is kind of hoping that the photographer sends us one of the crying photos too, lest we forget that she cried!
So this Holiday season we hope all is well in your family and you have a happy holiday and an exciting new year full of joy and happiness.
Christmas / Holiday Season 2009!
Wow! We must have an older child now, we are getting our cards and letters out in the month of December. We know a few of you in Australia might not get them until after the holidays, but it is closer than last year! 2009 has been a year of growing, learning, experiencing and such joy. Lauren is growing like a weed, and she has such a little personality on her.
Just after arriving home in January we got news that Casey’s mom and step-dad were moving to Wichita, KS. Jon got a fantastic job there, and while it was sad for everyone to move so far away we understood. The Inauguration of President Obama excited everyone in the house. Nathan even completed his citizenship paperwork while we watched the ceremony. The end of January, just after her 4th month checkup we started Lauren on her first “solids”. It was rice cereal, and we weren’t sure how something that could be sucked through a straw can be called solid, but none the less, solid it is labeled. She wasn’t so sure at first, and then she went to town, couldn’t get enough of it. At four months Lauren weighed in at 16lbs, 9oz and she was 26.625″ tall.
At the beginning of February we boarded Sydney for the first time. We weren’t sure how she was going to do, but we had a meeting in Sequim and didn’t have any scheduled guests at the inn and couldn’t find anyone to house sit for us, so we decided it was time. We went with a recommendation from fellow innkeepers and friends and Sydney had a great time! No issues what so ever. We thought for sure we were going to hear about “issues” at playtime but they said she was great.
Valentine’s day was a huge success for the Inn and the Day Spa. If we could have weekends like that every weekend we would be set! It was really amazing. We even had a last minute cancellation in the spa (as in the 10pm the night before), but we posted it on our website to call at 10am the next day to book, and exactly at 10am the phone rang and the time slot was filled.
Lauren was scooting and rolling and even pulled herself to a semi-standing position, but as any parent knows they do things on their own time and true crawling and walking were still a ways off for us. We did have a scare with Lauren’s Angelcare monitor, the alarm went off one night in late February, but with all the noise we were making trying to scramble to get in there and the light coming on she stirred and the alarm turned off. What a scary feeling. On February 24th Lauren got her first tooth! Quickly followed by her second tooth on February 27th.
On March 1st, Lauren celebrated her 6 month birthday, and we were working on sending out our cards and birth announcements from 2008. We hadn’t really thought it was going to take us that long, but we really liked the way her birth announcements looked in the end. Also in the beginning of March grandma took Lauren for an evening and we had a date night and went to see Lucy at the Pacific Science Center. The history of Ethiopia was amazing. The whole exhibit was really well done. It was good for Lauren to spend time with Grandma before she left for Kansas.
Lauren’s official 6 month measurement still had her in the 90th percentile. She was continuing her trend of being above average. We started attending book babies at the library, which she loved, anything involving books she just gets so excited about.
April brought Lauren yet another tooth and working on words, mostly just babble, and no signs yet although we were working on sign language. For Casey’s birthday grandma came down and we had another grown up night out and went to the movies and out to dinner. The next day we had Easter lunch before grandma had to head home so she could go into work the next day. The time was slowly ticking down for grandma to be heading to Kansas.
April is when Olympia really comes back to life. The farmers market reopens, and everyone is out and about enjoying the spring weather, including us. We started walking everywhere. If it was within a reasonable distance and we weren’t getting anything huge we walked there. Lauren and Casey were very much enjoying momma baby yoga downtown, and the walk before and after was perfect. By the end of April Lauren had her front four teeth and was still growing like a weed and grandma had moved to Wichita. It was sad to see her go.
In May we were focusing on outdoor projects. We started a lot of seeds indoors and transplanted those as well as eating lots of fresh fruit and vegetables from the local co-op and the farmers market. Lauren said her first sign (milk), and Nathan and I celebrated our 3rd Wedding Anniversary. The 3rd anniversary is leather and we both had the same idea, but Nathan was faster, he got us a leather bound album of our wedding photos. It is beautiful. Lauren was commando crawling everywhere. Definitely mobile, but still not what some would say “crawling”. It got her where she needed to go though.
Then came June and our busy busy season along with it. We started having issues with the tile in the shower in the day spa. The built in bench tile was started with one cracked tile, but then quickly became several cracked tile and lifting tiles. We kept trying to get in touch with the tile guy who installed it but our calls went largely unanswered. At the beginning of June we also started Casey’s birthday present, ballroom dance lessons. It was a lot of fun, a couple hours once a week. We haven’t put them to good use as of yet, but we know they will come in handy some day.
Lauren was pulling herself up to standing. Sometimes she would let go for a couple of seconds but would quickly grab back on or fall. She also had an onslaught of words, from babbling to dada, dog, cat, good, and if she is upset, momma. The biggest thing that happened in June was that Hayden came for a long overdue visit, and boy did we have a lot to pack into her two week visit.
We went kayaking, walking, painted pottery downtown, camping at Mt Rainier, Wolf Haven, the cider mill, the zoo, had family portraits taken, with our own tie dye creations, lots of cooking, gardening, went to the 4th of July celebration in Tumwater, and just enjoying the family time. Lauren and Hayden got along very well and Lauren was even saying Hayden by the time she left. Two weeks went by way too quick and we all wish we could see her more often.
After Hayden left we got stuck into paving our Rose Garden. Casey was sick with bronchitis (who gets bronchitis in July) so Nathan set to the dirty task of pulling up the sod and getting the ground mostly level. Not easy work. On the good side, not too far under the sod was a nice layer of gravel so we didn’t have to have any brought in. It also explains why that grass probably died every year, not enough ground to hold water, the drainage was too good. Next we made a temporary and level frame around the perimeter and started bringing in sand. During this time the temperatures were 100 degrees plus. It was grueling. Every morning we would go out ant try and accomplish as much as we could until the sun came around the corner of the house and then we would go back out late in the evening to work on it more. In the end it came out beautiful and just in time for the wedding we had scheduled. While just the sand base was in Lauren also started crawling properly. She was wearing just a diaper and didn’t like the feeling of the sand on her belly. She was so cute, wagging her tail as she crawled along. With the oppressive heat Lauren also got her first pool, a really cute inflatable pool with a built in shade. We filled it up and let it sit in the sun for two days and the water was still ice cold! It felt great. Lauren didn’t like it as much, but she had fun walking around the outside.
August brought plums ready to harvest, so many plums. TOO many plums. I think it was over 100lbs of plums that Casey either made sorbet out of, or turned into plum butter, or plum puddings. Anything Casey could find to make with plums it was made. August also brought a dilemma. What to do with our vehicles? We liked the van but it was too big to drive around all the time. Lauren’s new car seat and the recommendations that she remain rear facing until at least 2 years old meant that we couldn’t use Casey’s bug, and well Nathan’s Miata only seats two, which isn’t very practical for a family of three. Then the government announced the Cash for Clunkers deal. We looked and if we got the Toyota Prius we would get $4500 for our van. We didn’t really want to see it crushed, but we had to do something. We listed Snow White for sale for $4500 with the reasons why we were selling and why the price was non-negotiable and everything we knew that was right and wrong with her. We sold her for $4500 to an Australian living in Canada saving her from the crusher and giving us a $4500 down payment on Sandy the Spaceship. We are very happy with our new car purchase. It fits the three of us easily, and gets amazing gas mileage and has so much storage. So far the largest purchase we have made in it is a 4-burner gas grill already assembled. The sales people said there was no way it would fit, but it did!
To stretch Sandy’s legs we took a trip to the beach, Seabrook near Pacific Beach. It was Lauren’s first real time she could play on the beach and she loved it. She was completely muddy and gross from all the sand but she slept like no ones business that night, she was exhausted! We also had our first repair at the end of August when one of our tires was slashed in of all places the local food co-op! Not sure what happened there, but it was definitely slashed. We had to wait a week for a new tire to come in because the car was so new the dealership hadn’t stocked the new tires for it yet.
September was a great month. It started with Lauren’s first birthday! Yea! She had a lot of fun at her party and it was great to see everyone. Those of you who couldn’t make it were missed. At one year she weighed in at 22lbs, and was 31.25 inches tall. Advanced in size and verbal skills. Doctor would swear she was 18 months if she didn’t know when her birthday was. She has so many words, learns more every day. We had contemplated a road trip to Kansas, but we really didn’t have that much time, about 7 days, we could be away from the inn, so it would have been a real stress to get there and back. We would have loved to go, but the more we thought about it the crazier we thought we were. In the end we took a nice break and went to Leavenworth and then San Juan Island (via the North Cascades Hwy) and had a wonderful time away. While we were in Leavenworth, staying in a friend’s B&B, Lauren stood up on her own for the first time (not pulling herself up). Casey shouted to get Nathan’s attention and Lauren promptly sat down and refused to do it again.
October saw a slight slow down at the inn, but not as great as past years. We started a new group, Baby Dinners. Every Thursday one family from the group hosts dinner and we don’t have to bring anything. It turns out that pretty much we only have to worry about cooking dinner on a Thursday once a month! Having a set scheduled thing works really well, and we like knowing that Lauren will get to see some of her little friends at least once a week and interact.
Our grapes on all three of our vines were ripe and they were definitely hefty producers this year. Casey made raisins out of a lot of the seedless ones, after trying to give them away and serving them to guests and Lauren. The concord grapes this year Casey made into grape juice, thanks to her food mill. There are lots and lots of grape concentrate in the pantry. We even invited friends over to pick grapes and we still had a lot that just fell to the ground.
Nathan went to a travel writers conference on behalf of the Washington Bed and Breakfast Guild so for a couple of days Lauren and Casey were on their own with a full house! Don’t worry everyone survived just fine. For her first aware Halloween, (last year seeing as she was almost two months old), she was a dog. Seemed appropriate, everything on four legs is a dog, woof woof. Not that it is the only animal she knows, if you ask her what sounds a cow makes, she moos, and a sheep she baaahs, and a duck she quacks, but everything is a dog, even birds flying in the air. So Lauren was a dog, and we took her trick or treating downtown and then to the Governors Mansion for a photo op and a chocolate bar. She was so happy, saying HI to everyone and barking like a dog…until we got to the governor. Then she cried. We still had a great evening.
At the beginning of November we took a trip to Eugene, OR. It was a fabulous trip. The innkeeper that we stayed with was so welcoming and there were some uncanny similarities between their inn and ours. You would never guess, another inn and another first for Lauren, she took her first steps! We really liked the area, had some great meals, and got to visit Pacific Yurts, which we have wanted to do for years. Of course it gave us a lot more ideas, that yurt village may still happen one day. Just after we got back from that trip we had a meeting in Seattle for the bed and breakfast guild. Lauren and I missed most of the meeting but we had a lovely stroll through Volunteer Park and the neighborhood and a really great meal at the end of the day.
By mid-November, Lauren was walking unassisted, and quickly went from a few steps to walking across the room. It is amazing. To see her little head bopping along as she explores is fantastic. We will miss the wagging your tail crawl, but the tipsy walking it pretty cute too. We took a break before Nathan’s birthday and went to Seabrook for a couple of days, and they were really relaxing days on the beach, with record setting waves, it was incredible. In some spots on the beach drive up there was sea foam at the highway and no beach whatsoever! We really like Seabrook, if we had the extra cash we would look into purchasing one of their smaller properties.
On November 15th we had very exciting news at our house. We found out Casey is expecting again! We couldn’t be more excited. The expected due date is July 10th, which means that the baby (just one) will either arrive on July 1st (for a boy), or July 4th (for a girl) as Casey’s family trend is for Boys to be born on the 1st of the month and Girls to be born on a holiday. Lauren was born on both! Now the great name debate has begun. Again we are going to keep the name to ourselves, it is just easier that way. For Nathan’s birthday we just celebrated at home as we had a full house and a wedding the following day. Casey and Lauren bought him a very nice Chinese Elm bonsai and again it was a complete surprise!
The last week in November brought some bad news. After winning our judgment against the tile contractor (not that we have seen the check from his insurance yet), and thinking we would be able to get a few of the guest room windows replaced, our downstairs furnace kicked the can. What a pain. So we were left with what to do. Buy a furnace we didn’t want, or heat the downstairs alternatively (gas fireplace, and heaters) until we can afford to do what we want. After dealing with the salesiest salesman, we decided we were going without a furnace, and we are still that way.
Our final goal with heating is to install radiant floor heating on the first floor with a semi-commercial gas instant hot water heater. We really want to eliminate our hot water tanks, we currently have three, and one is dedicated to one bathroom so when that room isn’t rented it just keeps running even though none of the water is being used. This will eliminate any hot water issues we currently have, plus give the downstairs a nice gentle heat source and we can have zones so our personal area doesn’t get too hot which it did on the previous furnace. We are staying warm with the use of our eco-heaters (they are wonderful things) and a few electric ceramic heaters, plus we purchased an electric fireplace with heat that will eventually go into the Astoria room. So far we are staying fairly warm, even with the cold snap that December brought us.
December is here, and the weather is below frigid. We are still managing quite well, but we are really looking forward to the high of the day being above freezing. We had holiday photos taken with Lauren in front of our decorated tree, and are getting ready for the big holiday that is just a few weeks away. We took Lauren downtown to see Santa for photos and she was not having any of it! She was fine while we were waiting, and then Nathan walked up to Santa with her and she just exploded in tears. So we let a few other people go while she watched Santa, and she was a little better, she let Santa hold her, but she was still crying. Then Santa got up and was being silly and she even smiled and waved at him, but she wouldn’t let him hold her. The one photo we got with no tears was her sitting in his chair looking up at Santa who was standing behind the chair. Casey is kind of hoping that the photographer sends us one of the crying photos too, lest we forget that she cried!
So this Holiday season we hope all is well in your family and you have a happy holiday and an exciting new year full of joy and happiness.
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13Dec |
Christmas 2008, A very tardy Christmas letter indeed!
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A very tardy Christmas letter indeed! (We originally sent this out in April with Laurens Birth Announcement!)
What a year 2008 turned out to be. We were really happy to see 2008 come to be, and one of the first things we did was pick up the beautiful prayer wheel that we had made for Charlie and Jackson. It was made by an artist in Bellingham named Chris Moench and what an amazing artist he is. The wheel was even more beautiful than we imagined and we enjoy looking at it every day and remembering the boys.
The very day after picking up the wheel we found out that we were expecting again! We had decided that we didn’t want to wait to try and get pregnant again, that we would just let nature take its course and if Casey’s body was ready it would happen. Apparently it was ready. We were excited, cautious, and scared all at once. We decided not to tell anyone outside our parents until we couldn’t really hide it any longer.
Also in January we decided to upgrade all of the rooms in the inn to king size beds. At first we didn’t think they would fit in all the rooms, but with some furniture musical chairs from room to room we decided that they would. Though a local wholesaler we found out about Paramount Bedding in Oregon. They are a small company and all their mattresses are hand crafted. They use natural latex and organic bamboo fabric. Hands down these are the most comfortable mattresses we have ever slept on. Our guests have not stopped raving about them.
We had one big project for Nathan and his Dad to complete during their stay, a Murphy bed for the “Garden Room” in our new extension. We purchased the kit online and it was delivered with a DVD and complete written instructions and cutting guide. The cutting and drilling had to be exact or the pieces wouldn’t work, and in the end it works really well. As of yet we still haven’t stained it or finished the bookcases that go on either side, but the Murphy bed is there in case we have any visitors, this way we don’t have to take away from the inn.
After the Murphy bed was complete we took off to Vegas for a week. Casey is the only one out of the five of us that had ever been. What an experience. We arrived the day after the Monte Carlo caught fire. By the time we left it had been repaired and the casino was reopened, they certainly don’t waste time. We went to the Red Rock Canyon, Grand Canyon and saw a few shows and ate a lot of really good food. The only negative things were that the weather was colder than it was at home, all the cigarette smoke, the water tastes awful and a slot machine somewhere got nearly all of us sick.
After the family went home we settled into our day-to-day routine of the inn. We started seeing a chiropractor and we now can’t imagine not seeing him and Casey started yoga again which really helped with the aches and pains of pregnancy.
We went to the Seattle Flower and Garden show where we ran into Jamie Dury. He made his start in Australia and has now taken over as host for the Victory Garden on PBS. We had our picture taken with him and talked a bit about Victory Garden and Australia, but I wasn’t smart enough to take a video of us with him as I had our little Flip camera in my purse and the photographer never emailed us a copy of the photo like she said she was going to, so we just have his autograph. He has our card and an open invitation to stay at the Inn.
As we were nearing summer the day spa in our attic was dragging along. This project had taken years longer than we ever thought it would or were told it would. The drywall was finally done in March and since Casey was preggers Nathan had the fun task of priming and painting, a job he didn’t really want. But in April Casey did tile the bathroom floor up there so the vanity and toilet could be set and save some time so no one would have to come down the two flights of stairs to use the bathroom.
In April we started our rose garden. We now have several varieties of bush, climbing, tea and floribunda roses and Casey is excited to add more. This year we are going to be adding to the rose garden, removing the grass (as it dies very summer) and paving it to create a little courtyard with the roses and fountain.
Towards the end of April we found out we were having a little girl and her name was confirmed in our hearts but we weren’t telling anyone what it was. We know that if you tell someone the name you are thinking of someone will have known someone with the name and a preconceived impression of that name because of that person with the name. So we waited.
May passed like we were standing still. At the beginning of May we made our annual trip over to visit Casey’s Grandpa George and Grandma Betty. We had heard he wasn’t doing very well and wanted to make sure we got out there to see him before the baby was born and to be the first to tell him we were pregnant again. It was a really nice visit as they all were. We told him the name we had chosen and he was so happy for us. He told us that it broke his heart when he heard that we had lost the twins but that he was confident that our little girl would be strong and beautiful.
We had our second wedding anniversary and since it is cotton Casey ordered two brand new Egyptian cotton robes from the company we order towels from. It didn’t turn out to be as big of a surprise as she had hoped though because Nathan opened the mail and asked why we were being billed for two robes. The robes are very soft and comfortable though and came in really handy after Lauren was born for making trips into the nursery every few hours.
For Father’s day Casey gave Nathan a blowtorch for the kitchen. It really confused him. Then she revealed she had emailed the Wynn hotel in Vegas and asked for the recipe for the Gourmet Banana Splits they had when we were there and the chef emailed it to her. So she made him banana splits for Father’s day. They are so delicious.
We had the first two windows on the 2nd level, the guest room level replaced, they are beautiful, and so energy efficient. Now we can’t wait to replace them all, but they are expensive! We are doing them one room at a time when we can afford it. Hopefully it will make a difference on the energy bill when we get them all done.
At the end of May we had our first harvest in our garden. Broccoli, spinach, and lettuce. Fresh veggies are the best! We are trying to stretch what we plant and when so that we at least have a two-season garden and hopefully three when we get it where we want it to be.
June marked the 28-week mark for Lauren, which was excellent. Every week that passed by was making us both feel more confident. Sydney had a bout with something. We think a bee stung her, her face was all swollen and then she stopped eating (which is saying something when she stops eating) so we took her into the vet and with some coaxing (with chicken broth and eggs) she started eating again and everything returned to normal. Then on June 28th we received a telephone call from Grandma Betty that Grandpa George had passed away. He lived a full life and we will miss visiting him, but hope now he is with Grandma Max enjoying himself being pain free.
July brought our first berry harvest with our late blueberries, our first strawberries and our first raspberries. They tasted delicious. It was hard not to just eat them all before they even made it inside. We had a celebrity chef stay with us, which made Casey nervous, but he was super nice and complimented us on our breakfast. We also started our Hynobirthing classes in July in preparation of baby’s arrival. Then on July 28th we received a telephone call that Beach Nan, Beryl, had passed away. Her health had been failing and like Grandpa George she had lived a full life and we don’t think she had any regrets.
With the heat of August Casey started experiencing some major swelling almost overnight. It was a little scary how much she could swell in a 10-hour period. Everything else though was normal so it was just excess water retention. I am not sure how that happens when she was peeing every 5 minutes, but ok. So 80+ degree weather and thigh high compression stockings. Not very fashionable, but very hot, and not in a good way. We chose Lauren’s pediatrician and got her nursery done and decorated. Much Ikea furniture was assembled. We hit the 36-week mark and celebrated, but Casey didn’t do any jumping up and down, she was too large for that now. We went away for a babymoon (like a honeymoon, but before baby is born), to our friends B&B in Olympia and went kayaking. It is a good thing their kayak is an open top double otherwise I don’t think Casey would have fit. We had a good time, and a delicious 3-hour dinner at Gardeners. Then when we returned home we had a baby shower thrown for us, there were so many friends and family there that we hadn’t seen in a long time and it was hard to spend time with everyone but so good to see them all!
While we were away for our babymoon Casey discovered sorbet and convinced Nathan to buy an ice cream maker. Then she went a little overboard and made sorbet out of everything, but it turned out for the best because it was an easy, refreshing and cool fruit course. We served them in saucer champagne glasses and they look very pretty. It was also a nice way to use up the plums from the plum tree and made for an interesting flavor.
At the end of August Nathan participated in the Sand in the City event with our friends’ team from BECU. He had a lot of fun, and at the Gala he enjoyed himself by drinking his two drinks plus Casey’s, as she wasn’t using them anyhow. That night Casey drove home the Miata and parked it in her own special way so she could actually get out of it. When you are 9 months pregnant a Miata is very small and close to the ground. Well needless to say, when Nathan hopped in it the next day and threw it in reverse and accelerated without looking he caught the front wheel fender on the post to the carport. Oops.
Just a week later was Harbor days and after a day of walking around, a late lunch of Mexican food, Casey’s contractions started. Not that she told Nathan, she was too engrossed in “Blazing Saddles”. Once they were about 10 minutes apart she told him. On September 1st Lauren Maxine Beryl Allan joined our family. She has been such a blessing. We got home on September 2nd just as Nanna and Poppa were unloading their suitcases. The first month we spent with them, they were helping Nathan take care of breakfasts and doing rooms so Casey could rest, as Lauren was very timely in her feedings. It wasn’t until her second month of life that Casey got more than three hours of sleep in a row.
October 1st Nanna and Poppa left for home and it was just the three of us. Pretty quickly we settled into a routine and the inn returned to its new normalcy with a newborn. In mid October our dear budgie Bug passed away and was found by a guest. She had been chirping away earlier in the day, but while Nathan was checking in a guest and the guest commented, “How strange, I have never seen a bird sleep on the floor of a cage.” Poor bug. She is now buried in our budgie graveyard. We are waiting on getting another for a while. We’ll see.
By November Lauren had grown exponentially from her average birth size. She was in the 80th percentile for weight at 12lbs, the 90th percentile for height at 24”. She hasn’t stopped either, but at least she is proportionate. Her pediatrician Dr Beth says she has been consistently advanced and doesn’t see her stopping any time soon. Lauren stayed up with us to watch election results and she still enjoys watching her president on TV. Maybe it is the matching ears. It was such a momentous occasion and historically significant, and we are looking forward to the next four years. Nathan even filled out his naturalization papers during the speech, now we just need the money to submit them!
In late November we celebrated an early Thanksgiving with family and friends as we were leaving for Australia for Christmas. We spent all of December including Lauren’s first Christmas in Australia in the cool and rainy weather. Everywhere we went the rain followed us. Since they have been in a drought we momentarily thought of renting ourselves out to bring rain. But since we were in the rain in Australia we missed the extreme snowfall here at home in Olympia.
We took a special dress with us to Australia for Santa photos, but were having a hard time locating one. We went to one of the department stores downtown / in the city but you couldn’t see the Santa until you committed to buying photos and stood in line forever. So we were walking through the city and there was a giant tree made of stars and just below it was a FREE Santa who was a really really good looking Santa, and the wait…less than 5minutes and we could take our own photos. WIN WIN WIN all the way around. Lauren was getting a bit sleepy at this point so no smiles or anything, but no tears either. We did get some decent photos and were really happy.
We arrived back home in mid January and next year’s letter will start there!
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13Dec |
Nathan’s Christmas 2007 letter
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G’Day!
Another year has gone by and I am now in my mid-thirties writing;
The Fifth Annual Nathan Allan Christmas Letter
Well this year has had many highs and lows. Good times and sad, but not anything bad. I will touch on them quickly as this letter almost didn’t happen this year as we aren’t really celebrating Christmas.
So the highlight of the year was 4 weeks in Australia. Mainly seeing family and a couple of friends. It is hard to catch up with everyone I would like to in such a short time. Casey and I got to see Ayesha’s baby Grace and Ray and Patricia baby Arielle. Both beautiful little girls. We stopped on the way home and spent 5 nights in Hawaii. That was a great break!
Casey and I became parents together on September 1st, exactly 23 weeks in to her pregnancy. Charlie and Jackson Decatur did not live for long but they changed our lives forever and will be forever in our hearts. If you want the whole story read Casey’s blog at islandtimekayaking.com and a little at mine on NetBloke.com. Although this was not expected or wanted it has had a positive influence on our lives. We are closer than I ever thought two people could be. We also were grateful to see how amazing our friends were at stepping in and helping. They were due around Christmas so that is why we really do not feel like celebrating this year.
Finally we went ahead and extended our area of the Inn more. It was originally for the boys to have a nursery and to give us more family space. It has done that still but for the time being will serve to house friends and family when they visit. Again Casey’s blog has videos and more detail. It is a beautiful addition funded through selling my beloved flat in Richmond. We sold that and are selling the Duplex here so we can focus on ourselves and the Inn. Rentals are just a pain sometimes.
So through losing the boys unexpectedly and reassessing life because of that, I have really learned what is important in life. Good friends and family. Nothing else truly matters. As always friends and family have an open invitation to come and stay at the Inn. We hope to have The Attic Day Spa open in the new year. The big project for next year (financing allowing) will be the Carriage House.
You will have noticed I have enclosed a Calendar. We were picked for the front cover even! I hope you enjoy it.
With Best Wishes,
Nathan
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13Dec |
Nathan’s Christmas 2006 Letter
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G’Day!
I sit here in the winter wonderland that is Washington during a cold snap, ready to write the eagerly anticipated;
The Forth Annual Nathan Allan Christmas Letter
What a fantastic and magical year it has been! There is a lot to tell you about, but I will give you the cut-down version!
The biggest highlight on this year’s calendar was my wonderful wedding to Casey. On the third anniversary of our meeting we tied the knot in one of my favorite places, Orcas Island. We held a small weekend long party with 26 people in total. We mixed things up a bit and had a dinner the night before comprising of our favorite dishes, all prepared by the wonderful staff of the Orcas Hotel. We had booked the hotel for the weekend, and it worked out to be a fantastic choice. Our wedding day May 14th was unseasonably sunny and warm, setting records across the region. It was the perfect day! Martin Lund a musician who had stayed at our Inn played at the dinner and then the next morning with Gene Nery at the ceremony. The photo we have used as our Christmas card this year was taken by Des Moines, IA based friend Brian Stevens. He helped make the day memorable. At some point more photos will be available online.
After a short break back at home, we took my parents and sister to Yellowstone. A truly awe-inspiring place! I even met and chatted with Dick Smith and his wife. They as you all do now have an open invitation to come stay at the Inn. We also took a couple of trips to Eastern Washington, visting Grand Coulee Dam and Casey’s Grandpa. We also went down the Columbia River Gorge with my family on their way home.
The Inn is progressing well. We got the shed raised and fixed, thanks to our friend Brian. However I roofed it myself with help from Casey. We laid a bamboo floor in the newly completed office and living room. We also finally got the roof redone, and after a small legal battle overpaid the contractor. We have plans nearly in place to extend our area, adding on two bedrooms for future kids or visitors. We also have plans in progress for building a carriage house for paying guests. Any day now we are going to start fitting out the attic space as a day spa. All things that should make this place even more appealing!
My lawyers convinced me this year to lay Sausage to rest for good. It wasn’t worth the stress, time and money it was costing me. I am better putting my efforts to something else. It is simply upsetting that so many people have lost something that was so great and groundbreaking.
Back to nicer things! Out of the blue Karissa offered to have Hayden come and stay for the summer. So for six weeks she came and stayed at the Inn. We went on trips, to the various zoos and camping. It was a blast! Hopefully it becomes a regular thing but I won’t get my hopes up.
After Hayden left Casey and I had a solid 5 months of Inn business without a break. Great for the bank balance but a little stressful and tiring. So we finally decided in October to go back to Puerto Vallarta for our honeymoon. We stayed at the Villa Premiere, a boutique hotel in downtown with an onsite day spa. It was so relaxing and we had a great time. We even drank Tequila in Tequila!
In September my good friend Eric Bass died, it was unexpected and a terrible loss. He was a really great man. This news led to some serious thinking about simplifying life, so it can be enjoyed and less stressful. So Casey sold her condo and I am selling my duplex. We will put the money in to improvements here. No more landlord duties.
Now all of my time and effort can be put in to things close to home. My marriage, the Inn, my little online ventures and other things I enjoy. I have even found time to start reading fiction books again!
To sum things up, life is good! It has never been better. I really think it will stay that way now. I just need to loose 30 pounds! If all goes to plan Casey and I hope to go to Australia at some point during 2007. Unlike this past year we will make it happen this time.
So to each and every one of you that are forever stuck on my Christmas List, have a safe and happy holiday season (no matter what version you celebrate!). May all your dreams and wishes for 2007 be granted!
With Best Wishes,
Nathan
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13Dec |
Nathan’s Christmas 2005 Letter
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G’Day!
So it looks like I made it through another year, and here is the hat-trick. I know you have been waiting for it, so here it is:
The Third Annual Nathan Allan Christmas Letter
What a year it has been. The first thing you will have noticed is there is no Christmas card, or photo this year. We are cutting costs, and in a slower time with the business. Plus we just blew all the money we have and don’t have really on a VW Eurovan Weeekender.
On the 16th of December Casey and I celebrate our first year at the Swantown Inn Bed & Breakfast. It has been a great year at the Inn. It has proven to me that I do indeed know what I am doing with marketing still, as we have managed to relatively easily increase our revenue. If you check out our web site (www.swantowninn.com) you will see we have worked a lot on the rooms. Currently we are planning to build a carriage house to replace the carport. This would include a three-car garage with a two bedroom suite above it. This we would market to families with younger children and couples traveling together. We are getting a little hung up on the financing. They don’t seem to like my entrepreneurial spirit, being self-employed is negative, but they like my high credit score. Hopefully that all works out soon and we can start building.
Needless to say the Inn had been a joy to run. We have meet many interesting people and made many new friends. Some old friends and family have stayed with us. That was a highlight of the year. Mum and Dad visited and Casey and I threw a engagement party for ourselves during their stay. It was a good opportunity to show off the Inn. The plan is to get married now on our third anniversary of meeting, the 14th May 2006. It will be at the Orcas Hotel on Orcas Island. The idea is to keep it small and intimate. Most of my friends are in Australia anyhow, so I would not expect them to turn up.
A quick update on the horrible Sausage situation. Yes Harry ripped me off. The majority of my partners and investors vanished in to thin air, and were not supportive at all. There are a couple of exceptions, and they are reading this! I have an amazing lawyer in San Francisco who is trying to help me. He has agreed to do the majority of the work pro-bono yet I am still out around $6K so far. The idea is that we are suing Harry for a large sum, with a fall back of just getting the domain names back. On both counts I have an excellent case, with the later simply costing me more money. If I do get it back with a judgment, I intend on making things right. Primarily I mean with my investor friends, but also with the many old users that have been ripped off buying an inferior product. Of course all things related to this issue require money (and probably some counseling).
Back on to some nicer things. Casey took me to Puerto Vallarta in Mexico for my birthday. On my actual birthday it happens to be Mexican Revolution Day so they have a parade and the like. It was a nice little trip and a great rejuvenator for the year ahead.
One of the biggest highlights was seeing Hayden while Mum and Dad were here. I paid for her and Karissa to come out and visit. Hayden had a ball! I even think Karissa had a decent time for the most part. It was a little weird having the ex-wife stay in the same place as my fiancée but there was no blood drawn! Of course since then I have not heard a word from either of them, regardless of the letters and parcels I send. My hope is, as Hayden gets older she can communicate without needing Karissa. I will just keep doing what I think is morally correct there.
We still haven’t finished building our kayak, but we bought another cheaply to use in the meantime. We need the original finished so we can use it with the new car, and take cheap camping and kayaking trips in the next year.
My hope is to get out to Australia some time in 2006. Casey and I may roll it in to a honeymoon. Beach Nan turns 90 and I would like to be there, but I think timing may be an issue there as her birthday is in March.
So to sum up, life is good! Casey and I are having a great time as Innkeepers. I still dabble in some Internet projects. I serve on the Washington Bed and Breakfast Guild Board. I have meet some great people and made many new friends the past year. I even managed to loose a few pounds!
So to each and every one of you that are forever stuck on my Christmas List, have a safe and happy holiday season (no matter what version you celebrate!). May all your dreams and wishes for 2006 come true.
With Best Wishes,
Nathan
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13Dec |
Nathan’s Christmas 2004 Letter
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G’Day!
Remember last year I started writing a Christmas Letter to go with my Christmas card? Perhaps you forgot about it. Perhaps you couldn’t care less. Perhaps you got added to the list and this is your first. Whatever your case may be here it is:
The Second Annual Nathan Allan Christmas Letter
Last year ended well, with an opportunity to see Hayden, which was great. We speak on the phone every now and then but nothing like I would like. It is still a little strained talking to Karissa but it seems to be getting easier.
Last year I set myself a number of goals and finally this month I believe I have achieved the ones that are most important to me. Achieving a sense of fulfillment has been very important to me this year with all of the disappointments I had had last year.
So what did I get up to this year? I won’t go in to heaps of detail, but I will pick out the highlights and elaborate on some. If you want more details and adventures I normally blog about life at NetBloke.com
The first big event of the year was adopting an Australian Cattle Dog from a rescue organization called Healing Hearts. Sydney came with an appropriate name and she just loves people. She goes everywhere with me, riding shotgun in the Miata. She is five years old and is not interested in fetching at all. In the past month we got a little orange cat we called Carrot. He is Sydney’s pet.
Casey and I got ourselves a Pygmy Kayak, the problem is we have to build it ourselves as it comes in kit form. We are getting there slowly but surely. We can’t wait to take it out on the Puget Sound. It is a double that we are putting a center hatch in to accommodate Sydney. We even joined the Washington Water Trials Association. You could say I am becoming more of a Greenie all the time.
I suppose the biggest event of the year was my trip to Australia with Casey. I purchased a package that included five days in Sydney followed by three weeks in Melbourne. We had beautiful summer-like weather in Sydney, especially for June. We did all the tourist things like Bondi Beach, a Sydney Harbor Cruise and Darling Harbor.
We followed Sydney with a big surprise for my parents. You see we didn’t tell them we were coming. They thought we were off the grid kayaking somewhere up the inside passage in Canada. So first we turned up at the Middle Brighton Safeway Dad works at and surprised him. He knocked off work early to take us home to surprise Mum. It was a great success as neither of them could believe I was there. My sister Kristen didn’t know what to think, she was stunned into disbelief!
I didn’t catch up with many friends while in Australia as I was short of time and wanted to show Casey all I could in the short amount of time we had. We went down the Great Ocean Road, to Wilsons Promotory, the Dandenongs, and Mornington Peninsula. Of course I went to my favorite Nepalese restaurant, Gurakahs Café in Richmond, the Wrap place in the city, and all the other diverse types of restaurants you just don’t find readily in the USA. A highlight was taking Casey to the MCG (where I was surprised to see the Members stand torn down) to see Essendon beat Richmond.
So the trip was great and when we got back to the states we were ready to try and achieve our dream of starting our own Bed & Breakfast. Earlier in the year we had made an offer on one in Ocean Shores, however this became a back-up offer that was never needed. The land we had lined up in the San Jaun Islands was all sold while we were away, or covered by too many rules and regulations for our liking. We were pretty bummed out, but I turned to the Internet for other possibilities. I quickly found the Swantown Inn in Olympia (state capital of Washington) was for sale. The next day I was off to check it out with Casey’s mother. It was everything we could have dreamed for and was being sold turnkey. It is a beautiful Queen Anne/Eastlake Victorian Mansion built in 1893.
Five months after making our offer we finally closed on December 10th at 8:30am. We overcame many obstacles to make this happen. This has made us appreciate the opportunity even more. As I write we are preparing to move in and take over running the Inn this week (December 16th).
No matter where you are we would love to have you come and stay with us. Just understand that we will have to fit you in when we do not have paying customers. It is our goal to have the Inn provide the majority of Casey and my income. Of course I will keep my Internet interests going, such as NetBloke.com andThinkers.com but the Inn is our number one priority. See the Inn at www.swantowninn.com
Last but definitely not least comes Casey. She continues to be the most wonderful and caring person in my life. It is nice to love and be loved by such a fantastic person!
Well there we go! Another year is over. There is great progress in most areas of my life, with only a couple of frustrating and stressful issues to resolve. I hope your year has been meaningful and you have a great holiday break with your families.
With Love and Best Wishes,
Nathan
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25Dec |
Nathan’s Christmas 2003 Letter
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G’Day!
I bet your wondering what this letter is within your Christmas card. Well I thought I would start a new tradition for myself, a Christmas letter that updates friends and family on what I have done for the past year.
Yes I hear some of you saying, “Nathan never sends Christmas Cards let alone a Christmas Letter!”. Well if you will read on lots of things have changed in my life so different things have become more important to me.
Also I cannot lay claim to this idea. I ripped it off from Ann McDonald, an old friend of my mothers who does this every year (so Mum you better make sure this filters to her somehow!).
If your wondering how you got on the list, well it is because you are either family or friend. If your wondering how to get off my list, well tough luck, once you are on it that’s it! Unless I have a computer meltdown, and lose my list, your stuck with me (and I back-up things properly now too!).
So without further ado, here it is;
The Inaugural Nathan Allan Christmas Letter
The year started well enough, my parents and sister were in Des Moines with Karissa, Hayden and I, and we had a great Christmas 2002. Although I knew Karissa and I had issues and problems, I also knew there were other factors that made us not totally comfortable in Des Moines and with our lives in general.
We took my family to visit the in-laws in Kentucky and along the way stopped at the Arch in St Louis, Missouri and Graceland in Memphis, Tennessee. At the end of January my family went home to Australia and the next day I followed.
I went for a number of reasons. To give Karissa some space, to speak at a conference in Sydney and to resolve some issues in my company, Sausage Software.
The conference went amazing, and speaker feedback rated me as high as the keynote speaker. Not bad for a bloke who doesn’t like public speaking. The problems with Sausage ran deeper than I thought, and I found my partners were not really holding up their end of the bargain. They were either out of their depth or incapable of performing at the levels needed to achieve success.
Now let me get into the Sausage issue a little deeper, as this has become a pivotal point in my life, and an issue that is still not resolved. When we purchased Sausage from the SMS monolith that had run it into the ground, our goals were humble. Service the customer base, provide quality software, and add some complimentary services for our customers. Unfortunately our programmers could not provide the software in a timely manner and we got into some financial difficulties. I organized a bail-out by a US based investor, however with my partners unable to follow simple directions the investment has been neither quick or easy as first proposed. With me personally having every last dollar in the venture and that of a number of good friends and family, this has caused stress to no end! However it will work out, the route we are using now is just taking so much more time than anyone ever imagined.
I returned to Des Moines, rejuvenated and changed. I had recommitted myself to my family. To the point that I was happy to do anything to make life easier. I was prepared to give up my role in Sausage and get back to a 9 to 5 slog. Three days later everything changed.
Karissa told me she was divorcing me. For a couple of months I was devastated. I had lost Karissa and Hayden. In what was suppose to be an amicable divorce I was somewhat stupid and left saddled with a lot of the debt we had acquired during the marriage. At the same time I let Karissa keep everything to make it easier for her and Hayden.
Now my only concern is Hayden. Although she is not biologically mine, I have always considered her my daughter and that will never change. I did not fight for custody or visiting rights as Karissa told me we would work that out (plus not being the biological father had me believing I had no rights anyway), however Karissa does not let me have contact with her regularly. I send Hayden letters and the like every couple of weeks and have been told she loves hearing from me. I have been allowed to talk to her on the phone a handful of times. By the way they moved back to Kentucky after the house sold in Des Moines. I am lucky enough to be going to visit Hayden the week before Christmas, which is the best Christmas present ever.
So let me get to the up-beat part of the year. My wonderful father came back out here in April and helped me drive across the country to Seattle Washington. Why here? Well because the investor for Sausage is here plus my amazing friend Eric Bass offered me a place to stay while I got back on my feet.
My Dad was out here for just on three weeks. I was still really depressed and upset about the divorce. The only upside was I lost a lot of weight. I got down to what I weighed as a teenager I think. It was really sad to see my Dad go home, however I had decided to stay here to be close to Hayden (incase I was allowed access) and I needed to see the Sausage thing through to completion.
I decided I needed to get out and meet people. Eric and his friend Janice were, and still are, amazingly good to me, however I needed to get out a bit and get a new zest for life. So I decided to meet a girl that shared a common interest that I had, kayaking. Casey is her name and we have now been seeing each other for eight months. In the beginning I warned her off me, as I had just gone through the divorce and was not sure if I should be dating anyone. She wouldn’t hear it so we kept seeing each other. When it comes down to it she is like a gift from god, at some of my lowest points she was there to support me. Now I wouldn’t call myself a religious person however it was a big coincidence that we found each other when we did.
Things have moved along very quickly with Casey. She is wonderful. She is intelligent and good-looking to boot. We share a lot of the same dreams, and hopefully we can make some of them come true together. We are in no rush to get married or anything like that, but we do have a lot of plans (Hopefully that keeps my cousin Samantha off my back when it comes to making babies).
Casey and I have already had a couple of great adventures together. The first was a camping and hiking trip to the Sol Duc Springs in the Olympic State Park. The second was an even better trip, kayaking around the San Juan Islands for four days and three nights. More importantly this is where we saw a ‘land for sale‘ sign on an island we kayaked past. This sparked an old dream in to reality, that of owning a Bed and Breakfast.
Over the past few months we have both researched and planned to buy land on Decatur Island and build a home that will double as a Bed and Breakfast. We have a name for it already, Island Time Retreat. We have basic plans picked out from Lindal homes, we are basing it off the Greenbriar at the moment, but it will be twice as big and probably have another wing. We plan on doing a lot of the building ourselves.
A horrible thing happened towards the end of November. I turned 30. Really it isn’t so bad at all! Casey took me on a surprise weekend I will never forget. We stayed in a tree house, 50 feet up a cedar tree! (www.cedarcreektreehouse.com) It was a first for the owner who had never had someone stay in there with all the snow on the ground.
Another highpoint was getting my Miata. That is a Mazda MX5 for you Aussies reading this. An early midlife crisis this is not! (By the way midlife is 50 for me, I intend to live to at least 100) I joined the Puget Sound Miata Club (www.ps-miata.org) and started driving in parades and the like. My friend Eric who has a Miata as well got me hooked on the idea. Realistically it was a cheap replacement for the SUV I was lumped with after the divorce. I sold the Suzuki XL7 privately but didn’t make a dime on it.
Oh boy! I am up to my fourth page so I better wind it up just about here. A few quick plans for 2004 first. That way I can report on what happened next year.
- Buy land on island
- Build B+B
- Go to Australia with Casey in April or May
- Sell or renovate warehouse shell in Abbortsford
- Take NetBloke.com to the next level!
- Get Thinkers.com Hosting and Domains profitable
- Get closure on Sausage
- Travel as much as possible
- Enjoy life!
There we go. That was my first Christmas letter. I hope you and your loved ones all have a happy holiday season. Be happy, safe and may you prosper in 2004!
With Love and Best Wishes,
Nathan
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