Why hello, its been a minute since we last spoke. I think around this time last year and here I am again – following up with another wrap up and review of the year. Its been an interesting year with some surprises that I would never have seen coming.

So let’s start with the curve ball that I did not see coming. Our second baby daughter was born at the last possible moment in 2022. She graced us with her presence and after a couple of months, my wife noticed that she seemed that there seemed to be some craniofacial abnormalities. After a couple months of observation and a couple visits to the doctors office it was confirmed that our baby girl had craniosynostosis and would need to have surgery within the first 6 months of her life.

This was quite a bit to take in, as our little 6 month old stared up at us from her crib. After consultations and many late nights researching what would be involved and what the consequence of inaction was – we pulled the trigger and in May of 2023 our little girl had dual neurology and plastic surgery with a 3 day inpatient stay in the hospital following.

Thankfully our little girl came through the surgery with flying colors.

Around this same time my wife and I decided to walk down the pathway of setting up one of our units as a airbnb. A cool $10,000 later we had a functioning Airbnb and although its performing right at expectations we are still working out the kinks. I’m hopefully we can continue to iron any wrinkles and make it even more efficient.

I won’t go quite into as much depth for some of the other events of the year but I thought the example above gave you a taste of the most impactful events of the year.

Accomplishments:

Learning

• Took a Igbo Classes and learned a good bit about my own culture
• Also took VBA scripting class and learned the beginnings of object oriented programming – depending on the effort I put into continuing to hone this skill there is wide applicability into automating many of the monthly tasks I accomplish every month at work
• Explored Access as potential database for creating monthly reports and stumbled upon PowerQuery as a improved option.
• Completed Revenue Cycle Certificate from ASHP

Work/Career:

• Received Novartis Payout which topped off our emergency fund and 6 month savings! ($62k)
• Converted a long term rental into an Airbnb and started receiving guests

Travel:

• Traveled to NC to pic up Keisha’s family then traveled to DC to visit the African American Museum at the National Mall (March)
• Traveled by myself to the 340B Conference for a couple of wonderful sun-soaked days
• Family joined a couple days later and we had a great time exploring San Diego, the USS Midway Museum
• We also visited the Sesame Street Theme Park and then spent the last day enjoying a blustery view of the seals off the San Diego Beach (March)
• Visited Destin, Fl and had a amazing stay at the Henderson Resort -which was just lovely (July)
• Visited Cancun for my Birthday (August)
• We visited Montego Bay Jamaica with both Keisha’s Family and Mine (July)
• Visited Miramar Beach with the church family for a couples/family retreat (September)
• Ended the year hanging with my family in California for 11 days and then finishing out the year in Portland.

Traveling has been by far the biggest expense for our family this year and I 100% value each and everyone of these trips.

This is by no means a complete account of the year but it does help me to look back as I try to get a handle on what 2024 might look like.

Fly or Fall.

OFO