It's been a while, but I've finally taken some time to get back to the blog. Between changing jobs and having a kid, some things just fall by the wayside, although the blog really does deserve more attention than it gets. I'm actually considering a redesign--I want to streamline the way I post pictures (you may remember a failed attempt last summer when I experimented with a streetpress photo archive), and I want to start using the blog as a research and writing tool, but I want to partition my school enteries from the rest so that people who don't care about the finer points of historical mumbo jumbo won't have to wade through all my rambling. I also have been wanting for more than a year to add a section written by guest bloggers so that there's more meat to the site. Look for this new redesign around the begining of February perhaps.

In other news, we took Halleigh out to Utah for Christmas. It was the first time any of that side of the family had seen her. I think I was most surprised about how excited the kids were. Blaze constantly wanted to hold her, which impressed me because I was always too embarassed to ask to hold my baby cousins when I was his age. Halleigh has also started to laugh which is SO CUTE! She started laughing for the first time on the plane to Salt Lake. I'll put some more pictures in the extended entry that you see by clicking "continue reading" at the bottom of this post.

I think Brooklynne has settled into her role as mom quite naturally and I'm always impressed by how well she handles all the home stuff with Halleigh clinging to her 24-7. I think she feels like this is what she was made to do... not because that's what I expect, but because this is what she has always wanted her life to be about--investing 100% in her children.

Brooklynne and I went back to her cardiologist for a checkup last week, and the good news is that Brooke has been cleared for having more kids in the future. The bad news is that their still up in the air over whether or not she will need to continue on her medicines for the the rest of her life. The pills aren't really that expensive, and it's not really that hard to take a few pills with breakfast in the morning, but it is an anoyance, and it would be great if the doctors felt confident enough to take her off the meds at some point. Still, the possibility of more kids is a relief, especially for Brooklynne.

On the Miles front, I've been experiencing a surge in creative juices lately and I've been painting and taking pictures alot in the past month or so. I now have a backlog of work that I'm really quite happy with, although my critical eye is still more finely tuned than my artistic skill. Anyway, here's an example of one of my recent painings. I saw a picture of this door on a travel website. I liked how the boxy, straight-line pattern on the door contrasts the curved door frame. I've also been working on a series of photos of places around the triangle. I'll include one example of my photos here also, although the shots lose a little of their charm when reduced from their original large-scale format. Other photos I've taken and I'm happy with include, the davie poplar bench, the tobacco warehouses downtown, and a series of pictures of the lucky strike smoke stack. A series of photos at Dook Chapel is in the planning stages too. I'm thinking of starting an istockphoto account if anyone is interested in getting their own copies (and supporting a starving artist while you're at it).

Now that you've wasted an hour reading this book of an entry, click "continue reading" for more pictures. I didn't have time to load links to high res versions, so if you want a copy of any of these, just email me.