Ain't It Funny How Time Passes By

Hey, y'all! We've spent the past 16 months following our bliss and getting settled in our home. Lots of news here: Daughter Hannah and her husband Lucas brought a little boy named Felix into the world, back in July. He's amazing and just a joy to be around. So glad we live in the same neighborhood. And don't let us forget to tell you all about our first anniversary trip to Ireland at the end of October, 2019. We hiked all over Dublin and Galway and celebrated with a bottle of Champagne on the train in between. Also, we're getting ready to build a garage and carriage house so you can come visit without booking a hotel. Put that money in Felix's college fund, OK?

It took a court order and a couple of trips to the Social Security offices to make it happen. Now it's official. Ashley decided to drop Tara and just keep Ashley Willingham Kandle. It has a nice ring to it, you think? Even now we find mail addressed to various combinations of the above. Some of the bill collectors have just flat given up. Cool.

It all started in 2011 when Ashley moved into her condominium directly downstairs from Kirk's. They soon became good friends and one night in October, 2013, they decided to take a long walk to dinner with friends. About a week later they hiked a couple of miles to a movie. You might say one thing just led to the next. Before long they were riding bikes 500 miles across Iowa and taking trips to Wrigley Field, Costa Rica, and Las Vegas. After about four years, Kirk proposed marriage under the totality of a solar eclipse, August 21, 2017. Ashley and Kirk sincerely believe it's best to "Love thy neighbor."

What were they thinking? With just a couple of months left to plan their wedding, Ashley and Kirk decided to go house hunting. On Kirk's birthday weekend in August, they made an offer on a house right in their neighborhood. They closed that deal on 9/11. Meanwhile, they decided to list both condos on the same day, August 22. Kirk's sold within 48 hours. The closing was Sept. 17. Ashley's sold in about two weeks and she signed the papers on Friday, Oct. 12. All that cleaning and sprucing up two properties for sale while working through the details of buying a new place was enough stress. But wait. There's more! You have to move all your junk and leave the old place clean for the buyers while sorting through utter chaos on the other end - your new home. Then, just as Kirk starts to make sense of the new place, Ashley unloads her whole physical world in the middle of each and every room. They start the sifting and sorting all over again. And on the day of her closing, the final three car loads of stuff gets unloaded on the porch. On October 15, two legs of their triathlon are nearly complete. It's less than two weeks before their big day. Kirk and Ashley are in their new home and feeling a lot of gratitude. They have a lot to celebrate!