A Fresh Beginning

At the risk of sounding too much like Mr. Collins, let me begin with my reasons for blogging.

I used to keep a LiveJournal, and kept at it fairly regularly, but then I met Travis, lost all grip on reality and was too busy falling in love to spend silly time on a blog.  I have kept subject-specific blogs on our (major) travel adventures and our outdoor adventures in the meantime, but I began this blog when we moved into our house back in March.  Our little family of two was settling down and it seemed like a good time to start writing about our life.

In secret, though, I was creating this blog to be a family blog.  We were planning to start trying for a baby in early summer, and I had visions of blogging my family, as I was so inspired to do by Laura, Lara, and Kathy.  So I started it and found some things to post about our house and living up in the hills as we do.  But really I was just waiting until we started trying.

And then we did start trying, and it was such a private, personal process, that I didn't much want to put it out there to share with everyone.  I know there are people that do, and I really appreciate that, because I read them while we were in the process.  But it really wasn't for me.  So I thought, well, I'll wait until I am pregnant!

But I suppose I didn't realize all the secrets that one keeps when one is pregnant: first to share the news slowly, then finding out the gender, not to mention all the awesome bodily functionality you never knew you had...

In the meantime, I've been using Facebook a lot.  For status messages, for sharing photos, for posting links.  But as my friend Laura talked about being so excited about getting her blog archived into print for the year, I started thinking about how transient Facebook is, and how what I'm really looking for is a record.  In addition to sharing our lives with friends and family, I would like a record.  I still go back and look at my LiveJournal and relive my college days.  But it feels like there's a bit of a hole in my record from the past for years.  And as I move into motherhood, I'm feeling how precious recordkeeping is, and I'd like to make it easy for myself.

And so, at the New Year, a time for fresh beginnings and resolutions, and inspired by my blogging friends (the above, plus Shelley and some others), here I am.  I hope to make this my record, instead of the more ephemeral Facebook.  I think I will still maintain our subject specific blogs (travel and mountaineering), and link there from here, if only for purposes of organization.

At the beginning, here we are.  We live on Pine Hill (so named by us) in the foothills nearby Denver, Colorado.  I am 23 weeks pregnant with my first child, a boy, and we are beyond excited.  Welcome to our adventure.