Neeley Family Blog

We have reached the end of our baseball season for the year.  Both boys played incredibly well!  They enjoyed their seasons.  Brayden's team had several boys he had played with years past, Brock created new friendships on his team. Brayden's team was coached by one of my high school friends and Brad.  They put together a great group of boys.  Their season was rough.  They did not win many games.  These 5th - 6th grade boys often got into their own heads and down on themselves.  It would dominate them for one inning, but often lead to their defeat.  Brayden still had fun and enjoyed his season.  He was a great hitter on the team this year- really going after the pitches.  He also got to pitch some, which he enjoys.  Brad would come home raving of his plays at short stop and 2nd that made outs for the team. I only was able to catch a handful of games (often tournaments) due to their game nights being on the same evening...

It took me a bit to come up with a title for this post.  Ending, transition, end of an era, Goodbye Nordstrom- all came to mind. But here I am settled with Opportunity.  I recently came upon an opportunity to apply for a position with the City of Happy Valley.  While on a field trip with Brylee there, one of the Directors mentioned they were hiring.  My friend nudged me and whispered, "You'd be perfect!" I was very hesitant to inquire about the job, but did eventually speak to the HR manager.  I applied later that day.  I had really been searching recently for what I wanted to do.  Stay with Nordstrom, try something different? I kept holding onto my 17.5 years there.  After several weeks of being disappointed by Nordstrom and Happy Valley, I was feeling stuck.  I had started helping a friend at their chiropractic office.  It was a good challenge and change, but I don't think it was for me.  The City of Happy Valley ended up ca...

Brock qualified to head off to the Oregon State Chess tournament! He picked up chess at the end of the last school when he participated in a after school club. Brock enjoyed it so much so that I asked one of our friends about the clubs/programs their kids were participating in to get some more information. She was super helpful in giving me information to get us started. Brock participated in 3 tournaments which was enough to qualify him for state. The state tournament was held in Seaside, Oregon (the beach).  We rented a house and loaded everyone and the dog up. There were pre-tournament games called, Bug House on Friday.  He didn't do that well in those.  I think a combination of nerves and time limits got the better of him.  Saturday he played really well, winning 2 out of 3 games. Sunday he had some tight matches, but ended up winning both. We were unsure about how he would place, due to their scholastic ranking changi...