Out With The Old, In With The New

It's spring and newness is in the air. Jodi and I are entering into an entirely new season.

The best new thing is our new beautiful baby girl. She was born last Sunday and weighed in at seven pounds flat. She's been such a joyful addition to our family. The boys have been excited and obviously love their little sister. Today is actually Jodi's due date, but we're glad to be able to say that we're done with all that delivery business and can just sit back and enjoy what Jodi's been cookin' up these last nine months. Her name is Ezra Montagne which means 'God's helper on the Mountain'. Montagne was Jodi's maternal grandmother's maiden name. In French, from which it hails, it means 'mountain'. It was, no doubt, originally pronounced "mon-tan" but when Jodi's family emigrated to the U.S. the name got Americanized, in pronunciation but not in spelling, into "mon-tang". So, to honor the American side of the Montagne family (since they're the only ones we really have ever known anyway), we will be pronouncing her name as "mon-tang".

We also sold the van and bought a new car. A 2006 Mazda 5, to be more specific. I listed the van on Craigslist and watched it pull out of the driveway just under two hours later. Goodbye van. You served us well. On the other hand, we welcome our new car with open arms. It fits our family well and gets us around for a whole lot less gas than we've been burning. It's 12 years newer and about 240,000 miles less driven.

The third new thing is a new job. I'm thankful for the job that I've had at Diesel Exchange for the past year and a half, but I've known all along that it wasn't the place for me. Of course, I'll miss some of the people there, but I couldn't be more ready to leave for good. Next Friday is my last day. Then, it's on to First Degree Fitness. In the old days I would've been too fearful to leave the job I had and too nervous to start over somewhere, but I'm getting a lot better at letting God lead me these days and not giving in to fear. It's comforting to know that I'm not in control of this. I know that that sounds backwards to some people, but it's very much true for me. God is more successful at my career than I am anyway so I don't mind letting Him be the provider.

The last new thing on the list is a new phone. I officially switched over to Verizon, got rid of AT&T for good, upgraded from a dumb phone to a very smart Droid X, am very happy with the change, and am even going to save hundreds of dollars over the course of the next eleven months that I would have been with AT&T had I not paid the early termination fee to get out of my contract. In two months, the savings pay for the termination fee! I'm just glad that I figured this out now. Sometimes I figure out these things after the fact and wish that I would have been smarter and richer because of it later on.

So, what has been new with you? Any new discoveries, new kids, new jobs, new pets etc.?

Posted in: autobiography,automobiles,family,life,work