APPROVED to Purchase New Home!!

My Mom, Paul, Lori with Kaimon, Amber holding Cooper, Chris holding Kenzie


Paul & I have been looking to purchase a house for about 2 years now. It seems like everytime we would find a house we liked and wanted to put a bid in, the home was already in escrow or the seller was accepting many bids and would accept the highest bid. Every door was closed. That's how we ended up renting for a year, which was such a blessing. In the year that we have rented home prices have dropped dramatically. The house that we are purchasing a year ago would have been at least $100k more. When we found this house and called our realtor we were expecting the same result -- either the house was already in escrow or they were wanting many offers. Much to our surprise there weren't any offers on the house at all. It's a foreclosure home so we figured because there were no offers, maybe the home was in bad shape -- no applicance, no flooring, etc. Again, much to our surprise the home was in awesome shape. The bank had just repainted the entire house, all the applicance and flooring was in take, it was perfect. We decided to put in an offer, figuring it would take the bank at least 2 weeks to get back to us. Another surprise, the same day we made the offer the bank made a counter offer. The next day we countered the counter offer and the bank accepted our offer. So within 2 days everything was settled. We have received loan approval, we're getting our down payment together, the house was appraised yesterday, the inspection is scheduled for next Tuesday, closing is scheduled for March 31st. Everything is coming together. Our lease doesn't expire until May 31st, so we will have some time to move slowly versus the rush of having to move everything in a weekend. The other great part is our new house is in the same neighborhood we live in now. Kaimon will go to the same school, ride the same bus, have the same friends. God is soooo Good!!

Living Room

Dining Room

Kitchen

Dinette

Kaimon Becomes a Cub Scout

Last night was Kaimon's first Pack meeting, where the kids get any awards, badges, pins, belt loops, etc for the achievements they have been working on. As of that meeting, Kaimon is officially a Cub Scout. As you can tell from the below picture he is VERY excited.

Dad pinning his achievement on Kaimon's shirt.

Proud family!

One of the pack leaders giving Kaimon an award.

Kaimon's pack leader giving him some other awards.

Kaimon is giving the final flag ceremony instructions at the end of the evening.


Kaimon at home in full uniform after the event.

Kaimon's Science Project

Kaimon had to create a container that would protect an egg which was dropped from a ladder 10 feet high. Kaimon made a box a filled it with packing peanuts and styrofoam, then painted the outside of the box to make it look nice. His egg survived the fall!!

Jan/Feb Birthday's

We had several birthday's in the months of Jan & Feb.
Grandma Virgina - Jan 8th turned 88
Chris (Paul's son-in-law) - Jan 15th
Justin - Jan 26th turned 25
Judy - Feb 2nd turned 40
Paul's Mom Carmel - Feb 4th
My Mom - Feb 8th
Stevie - Feb 8th
Kaimon's Uncle Mike - Feb 8th
Amber (my neice) - Feb 11th

We had a birthday party for Paul's family. We meet at Wabi Sabi for lunch, which is a Japanese gril where they cook the food in front of you. Lots of fun. Afterwards we went to an indoor go-kart racing track. When you get a bunch of boys together with the smell of gasoline and speed -- watch out.

Pictures to follow.

Christmas Vacation - SNOWBOARDING!!!

The day after Christmas we left for Lake Isabella for our Christmas Vacation. We rented a cabin for 10 days near Shirley Meadows, which is a ski resort. Justin joined us for the weekend and we meet our friends Kristi, Eric & their boys at the ski resort for the day. 2 snow storms had just recently swept the area, so there was a lot of snow. Kaimon & I didn't go snowboarding on the first day as the resort was packed. So we enjoyed tubbing instead.

This was the view of Lake Isabella from our cabin.

Paul coming down the mountain. Justin taking a ride on a rail.

Our friends Kristi & Eric. Kaimon & Cade plaing in the snow.

Justin teaching Kaimon how to snowboard. We were amazed at how well Kaimon did. We figured he would be a total chicken and not want to do it. Much to our surprise he took right to it. Before the trip was over he was going down the "big" mountain. Between Justin, Paul & a couple of classes both Kaimon and I were snowboarding. Unfortunately on the first day I learned I fell and hurt my shoulder. Four weeks later my shoulder still hurts!

While we were there someone got hurt pretty bad and had to be airlifted out. It sorta frecked me out as "the boys" were on the mountain and I had no idea where they were. The ski resort staff did not know who was being airlifted out. So I was frantically trying to find them. Thank goodness I found Justin, then Paul & I arrived ... all safe.

On New Year's Eve my parents joined us. We had a great time relaxing, site seeing, hiking, play cards & games, and watching TV. We found a new TV show that we all loved. It's on the DIY channel called Renovations Realities. It's filming real life couples doing real life home renovations. Oh my goodness, it's awesome. The women getting snotty and the men get short. It was so much fun to see other couples experience the same things we all do. I loved it.

We went on a hike to Keyesville, which is an area off Lake Isabella near the ski resort. It was so cool to see how the water had erroded the rocks with these deep round holes. Very cool hiking spot. Our friends Kristi & Eric recommended the spot.

This was a hike we took along side the river where the big bridge was located. It was so beautiful. Walking along the river made us dizzy. You really had to watch where you were walking.

On our last we went to a ghost town near Lake Isabella. It was a cute place.

Grandpa, Kaimon & Paul in Jail!! Picture of the "town".

One day Paul, Kaimon & I went exploring. We found a Boy Scout camp to explore. We built a snowman near the river bank.

Christmas 2008

We had a wonderful Christmas this past year. We had the church party at our house, which was awful working up to, but wonderful when it actually occurred. I get myself so worked up about having the house clean and everything in order that I drive myself and everyone else in the house crazy. About 30 people showed up. We went Christmas carolling around the neighborhood, came back and ate, then had a Christmas ornament exchange. It was a lot of fun!

We got together with Paul's family at his sister's house, Judy on Christmas Eve. What a beautiful family!! We ate great food, played games and opened presents. Fun was had by all.

We had Christmas with my mom and Bill on Christmas Day.