Katie’s bday was a blast. Bowling was awesome and Dad of course schooled us all. Katie did beat me tho, so I’m far from my high school turkey days. Sunday was good. Went to chruch with Landon then down to Albany to take him home and see Katie’s Mom for a few. Overall a good but

On our way to Big Al’s for some bowling and arcade time . Rainy stormy days chases us inside.. Hopefully it’s not too busy. Nice relaxin morning with some German pancakes. Landon came up to visit too so hopefully I’ll be able to beat him at bowling at least once.. We’ll see…

Come out and hang out with us!! I’ll upload some pics as the day goes on

So I’m in the process of developing a new website.. well quite possibly 2 of them. I’m aiming to develop out a site that is a personal one and one for my professional stuff. I’ve been thinking about it and listening to the words of an acquaintance in the industry it would be better for me both personally and professionally to divide them. I’m thinking I create a new one for my personal stuff.. well opinions?

Here’s a quick preview of what’s to come -

I hope so, cause that’s how its been for me lately. I went from looking for work and scrounging for some part time freelance projects to doing nearly 50hrs a week with my sis and bro-in-law. Don’t get me wrong, it’s been great working again and I enjoy being on my feet and keeping myself thinking like the job does, but it’s been a big, fast transition.

I should have blogged more over the last couple of months, especially because I had time to, but.. well I just wasn’t in a spot where I felt like it. I’ve lived so much of my life via the computer over the last 3 years that I’ve been trying to focus more on the not virtual side of me. It’s been good too. I’d missed physical work and have enjoyed getting outside and getting things done. Between my parents re-doing the driveway and excavation around the house to re-doing the wood pile out back, while looking for a job and attempting to maintain and build a few websites, I feel like I’ve been swimming 5 feet under. I’m attempting to weed thru my subscribed shows on Hulu and reduce my time watching shows to just a couple that I really enjoy (it really is hard) and I don’t really get on social networks anymore cause I just keep myself busy with workish things when I’m on the computer.

I have realized that I really enjoy web development now that I’ve been away from it. I like making myself learn something just to get a project complete and being able to constantly improve on it. I’m still trying to find a entry-level developer position some where, but I have a feeling that nothing will really turn out until after the first of the year. In the meantime, I have work to pay off past due bills and get back on my own 2 feet again. Let me tell you, it’s a great feeling.

As to the rest of life.. Katie and I are doing quite well, learning to communicate and be patient with each other. The family is doing well, staying pretty busy but still find time to have time to get together. Chris is doing pretty good in Afghanistan. He called me last week, I really had a great time talking with him. They are having a baby boy now! I’m super stoked for him and am praying he can be back for the delivery. My Grandparents were able to stay here in their trailer for a few weeks, but it sadly got to cold for them and they are back in AZ now, but they are doing better in the drier warmer weather and it was good to get some time and have them so close. Looking forward to them coming back in the spring!

Well, I’ve got to be off now. Got a to-do list that has been staring me in the face for a couple weeks and I want to get a few things checked off. I’ll try to keep the blogging up more, even tho I’m managing about 5-10 hits per week

Cheers!

Wow… I haven’t posted up in a long time. Life just hasn’t slowed down.. Good things happenin tho.

First up Katie got a job she just started at Cinetopia this weekend. She enjoys it and we are excited about it.

I’m workin on finishing a project this weekend. Stoked to finish it and start on the next ones.

I’ve got some changes to make to my site soon. New design and some drastic changes to the general use of it. I’ll post up the changes to it soon.

Off to chill with friends and fam. Post later this weekend. Cheers!

This last weekend Katie and I celebrated our 1 year. Its been a while since we got out and with just getting back from AZ we got to spend some quality time wanding the city across the river (P-Town). First we had lunch with a friend of hers and discussed some website things for him. Next up was 23rd. Just after we parked and started walking I spotted a camera way over a car – Google Maps!!

That was pretty sweet and fun. I haven’t gone looking to see if they updated the shots yet, but hopefully they do. Katie was getting a kick out of my reaction. I just completely enjoyed a 2nd chance to wave at the Google car. Yes my previous car is on Google street view. Not me, just me inside the car. As we wandered thru some shops I spotted Jesse P. from his modeling days back in the ’70s lol -

– Random and sweet .

After some gelato from Alotta Gelato we went to go visit her siblings on the east side of town. We had an awesome time taking them to Wunderland just down the street. After some major acardeage and Katie winning everyone loads of tickets we wandered back and Katie kindly gave her sis her sunglasses (they look quite large on her sis’ face, see) -

Following that we went home and watched Yes Man with Jim Carey. It was really well done and Jim still is hilarious. Sat was me mowing the lawm till the tractor ran out of gas and then we went and watched Taken with Liam Neeson. We went to Pop’s house and watched with Josh and Kassi. Another awesome movie that I would say is a must see.

Sunday was strait forward. I finished the lawn, we went to SPO and then we went to the airport with Landon and Fletch. It was fun down there having the planes land right over our heads. We hung out there for a while, watching the planes fly in and chatting about this and that. Here’s a couple shots of how close we were.

and another

So that was my weekend. Now on with the work week and life again.. but it was a super nice weekend off…

My parents wanted to bring us up to the GC (= Grand Canyon) and it was pretty awesome. Its way bigger then I thought.. I made something around 200 photos. I’ll edit them and upload them a little later today, prob tonight. It was sweet. We got on a sunset tour and I was making HDRs the whole time. I think it will be the only way to expose the GC with a good shot of the sunset. We’ll see.

Grandpa has a chemo treatment so please be praying that he feels ok soon. Also keep praying for whatever cancer is left to be gone very soon. He is hoping to come up north before my cuz, Chris, ships out to Afghanistan. Also I would really like prayer for him. I trust God to take care of him over there, but its still a little nerve racking for me as he just had an adorable little girl.

To finish this post I just want to say that I have had a great time here in AZ and am glad to get this time with Gpa and Gma. I am sure that they will be up this summer, but nothing is garunteed in life ya? This last week has been fun and hard. I miss home. The heat was nice for a few days and now I’m ready to be home with Katie and the cooler weather. (104 isn’t my cup o’ tea) I look forward to goin home and gettin back into the groove of things.

Cheers!

Just got to the gate, we don’t board for like another 25 min. I got to sit down with Katie and Fletch at starbucks for a few and then we went down and met up with my fam at Red Robin. Good dinner and I am glad to be able to spend some time with Katie before I’m gone for a week. I miss her already.

Anyways, Grandpa has a bone scan in the morning. Had a treatment today. Hopefully he feels better over the weekend. Never been golfing before and wanted to go with him. Thanks for praying for him, please keep him in your prayers, he’s not out of the woods yet.

Update when I get there. Cheers!

After a semi-frustrating week of work (I didn’t get any solid time to focus, everything was interrupting me) I now get to do laundry and prep for a trip to AZ to see my Grandparents. My Gpa (thanks to the Nies’ for that acronym) is doing better, but still fighting off cancer. He had half of his left lung removed back in Nov ‘08 and has had a few complications since. He is now going thru chemo and from what his facebook says, he’s doing ok. ? Gpa’s Fbook.

I’ve also realized that soundtracks are the best to work to. I used to listen to music w/ lyrics but found that it was too distracting and I need something going on in the bg to keep focused. So if anyone has any awesome suggestions for soundtracks let me know. I have a collection of about 12 movies currently. Anyways, chat me sometime to catchup. Later!

I need to apologize to a few people. I have been neglecting my personal projects lately. Specifically JessicaBlanck.com. Her family has gone on without my help recently and I feel horrible I’ve left such a big piece of what was put together for her memory.

We’ve just passed the 2nd anniversary of her tragic death, along with what would have been her 23rd birthday. I have a new design that I need to spend just a couple more hours on to turn into something usable. I also installed the latest version of Wordpress so It will be much easier to access posts and comments.

I will keep everyone up to date here, just search this tag – JessicaBlanck. Cheers.