My Parents Visit

We just had our first anniversary here in Washington. During that time, we have blessed enough to have some visitors. My girlfriends came to see us after we had been here only a month. Tom's parents visited us last January. We were also able to she Shaun & Alicia when Tom's cousin Carolyn got married last fall. Since we moved here we've had my parents visit scheduled. Originally, they wanted to come the same weekend my friends were coming. Because of the small apartment we were moving into and the limited time we would have, we decided this was not the best idea. So, they scheduled the following the following Labor Day Weekend instead. I have been looking forward to this visit now for months!
My parents arrived on Monday afternoon, Aug 31st and stayed through Sunday morning May 6th. During that time, we had the opportunity to show my parents around our town, show them the new house we are trying to purchase, and gave my parents a couple of days to take a drive to the Olympic National Park and then to see the famous Forks, WA (which my Mom specifically loved!).

There were several things that really stand out in my mind of their visit here. First is our trip to our new house. Their visit here coincided with our inspection on the house. Tom and I both wanted to be present for this, so I invited my parents along so they could see the house before they returned to Utah. They seemed to like the house and the inspection went pretty good, with just a few things we asked to be repaired. We are suppose to close at the end of the month. We'll let you know how that goes and if it actually happens. Trying not to get too excited until it actually happens.

On Friday Tom of course was at work all day. Here in the town we live in, there is a cool set of trails that run through the entire town. Because this is Washington, we have lots of trees....so you can't even tell you are in the town. It's a beautiful walk and one that Jake loves. So Mom, Dad, and I decided to take Jake on a walk. It was a beautiful day so we all enjoyed ourselves, including the dog the got lots of sniffing done. We then headed over to one of our favorite places, "Central Market". It is a huge grocery store with lot of fun things that we love to hang out at. Most people may think that we are huge dorks for hanging out at a grocery store, but it's a lot of fun. They have a bulk food section that is amazing, a seafood and produce section that is unbelievable (they actually have live crab swimming in tanks), plus a deli section that is as big as a gym. My Mom said she was extremely jealous.

On Saturday night, Tom and I took my Dad to a local restaurant called "The Boat Shed" that we like. It's a cute little spot that sits right on the water. In good weather you can even eat on the deck and look out on the water. However, because it was a little chilly we ate inside. Like always it was delicious and we all enjoyed dinner!

My parents and I left early Sunday morning. I decided to hitch a ride with them so I could see some family and friends. I'll talk about that in my next blog! Thanks for coming to visit Mom and Dad. Come back any time!

Freakin' Short Sales

For those of you not in the know, Tom and I made an offer on a house about a month ago. It was a pretty good deal for the house. There were a few issues on the house, but things we were willing to overlook because overall the house was a good buy. Tom might have a different perspective on these things, but for me....here are my issues.

The look of the front of the house is not your normal look I would choose, plus the driveway is really short and the plot is a very strange shape. It's also built kind of on a slope, so the backyard is sloped down on part of it. The backyard is also not landscaped at all, so it will take a lot of work and sweat equity to make it into a workable space. Because the house is built on a slope, the back of the house is a long way from the yard. It has 3 different balconies, but no back entrance into the backyard. What this means is when Jake needs to go outside, at this moment, we would have to go out the front of the house and walk around to the backyard.

However, there are a lot of really good aspects to the house that I love. It is a split entry house, that is fairly new (built in 1995). The inside of the house is in really good condition. The kitchen (which has become kind of important to me) is pretty large and the kitchen, dining room, living room, and upper hall ways have wood floors. Plus there are a lot of open windows and good lighting & a gas fireplace. It has 3 bedrooms and an additional living room downstairs.

So, I like the inside of the house not so much the outside. However, with a lot of work it has potential. Here's the problem we're running into though, it's a short sale. For those of you that don't understand what I'm talking about, a short sale is a house that the owners can't pay the mortgage on and hasn't had any luck selling the house for the amount they owe the bank. So, the bank has agreed to accept less (or short) of what they owe. The problem with this for buyers is that your offer has to be approved by the owners (who get nothing from the sale so probably could care less) and any bank or banks that are owed money for the house.

When we were considering weather to make an offer we were told that the seller's agent said she had spoken to the bank and had a verbal agreement for the sale price. However, we knew from other stories we had heard that it was iffy. Turns out we were right. We put 30 days as the expected time to hear back from the bank. Our 30 days are up on Monday so we have little hope that we'll hear back on anything in that time. Last we heard it would be probably the beginning of Sept. Than another month or so to close. However, we have friends that are in the same boat and are still waiting to hear on their house that they were suppose to know about a month ago. I personally don't have a lot of faith in this process. The most annoying part is not having any idea when we'll know. It seems their process is to say we'll be getting an answer any day and then say the next thing the next day to string us along. ANNOYING!!!

So now we're thinking maybe we'll spend more money than we were originally thinking. This has been kind of difficult for us. Going from real estate prices in Utah and Idaho to here in Washington has been a bit of an eye opener. It takes some mind warping to not freak out at the higher prices. And now to go even higher than we were originally anticipated is even funner. The reason for this is the quality of the house. You go from a house you're so so about to houses that are actually in pretty good neighborhoods and are in good condition. It does bump up our monthly price by about $150 per month, but there is a part of me that thinks it might be worth it.

What do you think? Not that it will change my mind, but I'd like to know what you think!

The Weekend

This weekend was kind of fun! Although this may all be very boring for all of you folks, I have decided I should blog more. My main problem with blogging very much is I just don't see why people would possibly be interested in all my movements. However, I know that I'd rather know what my sisters are doing regardless how interesting they thought it might now be.

Friday: Just as I was getting ready to exercise Tom gave me a call to invite me to lunch. There is a little place down there that serves pancit and lumpia (this is Filipino food for those not in the know....where I served my mission). I had told Tom that I wanted to come to lunch with him so we could go back there again. It was delicious of course. I had chicken adobo with rice and pancit. Tom had Teriyaki chicken with fried rice and pancit. Teriyaki is not really Filipino but it goes well with the rest of the food and is widely liked. We both enjoyed it and had enough left over to eat it for dinner that night. That night after "dinner" we got to finally go see Harry Potter at the movie theatre. Loved it. It had been long enough since I had read the book that I didn't remember every single step of the movie, but still remembered enough to understand what was happening in the grand scheme. (As a side note, Tom had just recently started reading this book). I thought they did a really good job with the movie!

Saturday: We spent the morning cleaning our church. We only have 2 wards that share our church so we have cleaning assignments every other month. They have a pretty effective method here than I've ever seen. They have a peg board with about 10 jobs hanging from them with laminated paper. You grab a job and move it to the "done" pegs when you're done. When all the slips of paper have been moved to the done spots you are finished. It only took about an hour. That afternoon Tom's office had a picnic at a local lake & park area. We brought sugar cookies that I of course bought at the store not made by hand. Sugar cookies are impossible. Especially the frosting. If anybody has an easy frosting recipe I'd love it! I ruin it every time I attempt it. Anyway, I got a little off topic. So, we went to the picnic. Tom of course had volunteered to take pictures at the picnic. It turned out to be pretty fun. It was kind of a chilly day, but I know myself well and dressed for it so I stayed pretty warm. Tom had a few guys that he originally started at the shipyard that work in the same "department???" as him that I had met before that were there. Very nice guys. One of them brought his fiance that I had previously met as well. Overall (including the food) it was an enjoyable evening.

Sunday: Sunday evening we had the enjoyable experience of having Tom's cousin Jared and his wife Nicole over for dinner. Luckily for me Tom decided he wanted to make dutch oven for them. Than means very little prep for me...yeah!!! I had made some bannana bread earlier that week and made a green salad. Tom did most of the work by making BBQ ribs. They were very good, but a little spicy. Plus we both agreed that the next time we make these we will buy a better cut of meat. These were a little fatty and lean on meat. The dinner was very good, but the company was even better. We had a lot of fun and even got to walk around the dock area when we dropped them off. Jake was pretty good with them too, so everyone had a great night I think. Plus they brought cheesecake!!! I love cheesecake and it was delicious!

Awesome weekend!

New Challenge

Yesterday in church a young man, who recently graduated from High School, bore his testimony. In his testimony he told about how he had read the entire Book of Mormon in one month. He figured out that if he read around 18 pages a day he could do it. It was a very interesting testimony and idea. To just read the book consecutively without doing research along the way. It's something I've heard before occasionally, but never really considered doing personally.

After the talk, Tom decided this was something he wanted to try. It had been a while since either of us had read straight through the Book of Mormon. I tend of jump around a lot and go really slowly. I also usually do a lot of research as I'm reading as well. I decided this was probably a good idea for me as well. We decided not to do it together (too difficult) but we are reading approximately the same passages on the same day....just separately.

I've done it two days so far and have really enjoyed it. Of course I am very familiar with the stories I am reading, but to reading it as a story instead of looking deeply for lessons that I should learn from it has opened up new emotions. It's going to take a lot of dedication and focus to make sure I complete this goal. I hope I'm able to complete it. It helps that Tom is there to encourage me along the way!! I love you babe!

Girl's Camp

For those of you not in the know, a while ago I was put in as YW President in our ward. One of my first jobs (which I failed at by the way) was to find 2 camp moms for girl's camp. This was an alien idea for me. When I went to girl's camp, many many many years ago, we did not have camp mom's. Pretty much it was the YW presidency. Also, in my era it was a stake acitivity, but operated on a ward level. Not so in the here and now. In my stake, each ward sends 2 camp moms to girls camp, but the girls from my ward (which I call "my girls") do not actually stay with the camp moms all in the same cabin. They seperate all the girls by age. However, if there are more than 1 girl from your ward in the same age group, they do keep them together.
I have a very small young women group right now. I had 4 of my girls graduate this year. Not a big deal for most young women groups, but four our small group it was quite a hit. Most of our young women attended camp, all 6 of them. One of them was what is called "YCL" which is a Youth Camp Leader, but in addition we had 2 1st years, 1 2nd year, and 2 3rd years.

I tried talking to almost every mother plus multiple other members of our ward. I also tried emailing the entire Relief Society. None of these things worked. I finally ended up beggin my friend Nicole to come with me (she also happens to be my 2nd couselor). Fortunately for me, she agreed to come with me because I couldn't find even 1 person to agree to go. It was very frustrating but we both enjoyed ourself. I think it helped for us that we were already friends, at least it helped me.

We were assigned to a cabin of 1st year girls. This automatically meant we got our 2 first years got to be in the cabin with us. As time drew near, I have to admit I was quite nervous. I haven't been to girls camp in about 17 years. It suddanly occured to me part way through camp that almost all the girls there had been alive less time than I had been not going to girl's camp. It made me feel kind of old actually!

Another difference between girls's camp now and when I used to go as a teen was the actual camping emphasis. They gave us a list of requirements for each year that had to be done before they went to camp. They said this was because there wasn't enough time at camp to finish the requirements for every girls. It's an interesting idea. I don't really know how I feel about it though. There is a part of me that thinks you should use girls camp for actual camp related activities and EFY for EFY activities. The Young Men still go camping and do scouting activities. They haven't replaced it with EFY. However, most of the girls seemed like they had a great time!

Our First Cruise

I've been wanting to go on a cruise for years. Tom and I actually had been planning on going on one after he graduated from college. He said it would be my graduation present for supporting him through school. About 1 1/2 years ago, my parents decided to take all of us (my siblings & spouses) on a cruise as a celebration for my brother's return from his mission (when I got home from mine, we went to Hawaii....but we had no spouses at that time). Needless to say, we were all very excited. None of us had been on a cruise before, so this was a new experience for everyone. My parents decided to take us on a cruise to Mexico & we all counted the days until it happened. Unfortunately, we had no way of predicting Swine Flu.

Royal Caribbean had to change our ports from Mexico to Oregon, Washington, & Victoria B.C. because of Swine Flu. Unlike some other cruise lines however they gave us several different options even though we didn't have insurance on the cruise tickets. Regardless of the fact that the trip would be a lot colder than we planned & I am from one of the ports we still decided to go on the scheduled cruise. Because of the change of ports the price of the tickets went down, so my dad got a big refund from the tickets and we got and additional $350 per room for on board purchases & $350 per room as credit to use on a cruise within the next year. We couldn't change to another cruise or cancel our flights due to uncooperative airlines. Alaska Air (my airline) was pretty cooperative, but Delta (everyone elses airline) was not helpful at all. The problem was they were only willing to refund them or transfer if they were flying directly to Mexico. Even though we were going to Mexico, we were landing in L.A. This will make me double think using Delta in the future.

Regardless of the colder weather, we had an absolute blast. This was due mostly to the customer service that Royal Caribbean offers. My husband enjoyed the cruise because he's an engineering geek and loves anything ship or plane related. He spent a lot of his free time on board walking around the ship taking pictures! I enjoyed the cruise because I found out I love being pampered & I also loved the entertainment on board. I'm also very passionate about customer service and they went above and beyond in every area to make sure everyone had a great time!

We loved our stateroom attendant, and dining room waiters. The dining room assigns everyone a seat at the beginning of the week and you sit at that table for every dinner all week long. Because we were traveling with such a big group (9 people), our table only included people in our group. In most situations though this enable you to meet other people on the cruise as well as develop relationships to your dining staff. Our table was on the third floor (the "Sound of Music" floor) of the dining room and on the outside so we had a beautiful view every night through a window. Our first night we were even able to witness a group of dolphins leaping through the waves. Very cool! The food in the dining room was very good too! Some of the guys in our group even tried multiple dishes every night. It was all included in the price of your ticket. Our stateroom attendant would leave us animals every night made out of towels. Think balloon animals but made with towels instead of balloons. It was something I looked forward to every night. She was always there with a greeting and a smile every time I saw her. Plus she pointed me in the right direction a couple of times when I got turned around on that huge ship.

I will definitely go on a cruise with them again and I would recommend them to anybody interested in going on a cruise that wants to do more than gamble and drink. There were a lot of activities and other things to do every day. My husband and I even liked our days on the ship cruising better than our ports of call. Of course that could change if we went places we had never been before. The next time I go, I will do a few things differently though. I will book at least one on-shore excursion through the cruise line, I will schedule my dinner for the late schedule so that it wouldn't conflict with shoreline activities (however if you have kids this might not be the best choice), and I will only eat 2 meals a day (being full all the time not so much fun).

In short, I loved the experience and can't wait to go again!!!!

The importance of developing your talent!

This is a topic I've had drilled into me since I was a wee tot! At church, school, & home......yet did I learn this painful and embarrassing lesson? Anybody that knows me will automatically know the answer to this question is "heck no...that would be way to easy"! Then I wouldn't have to do things the hard way and have a learning and a growing experience instead...right? At least that is what I've been telling myself for the last 24 hours.

I had the blessing of being born to two extremely musically talented individuals. They both have amazing voices that they have developed through their entire life. Being their oldest child I spent a lot of my growing up years striving to be as good and as talented as they are. The mistake I've made recently is not keeping up on the practice to keep that talent fully developed. This mistake caused me a bit of embarrassment.

As some of you know, I was recently called as the Young Women's President in our ward. This has been both fun and challenging. It's fun because I already love the girls in the program and I really enjoy spending time with them & the other leaders involved with the program. It's challenging because I feel like a juggler sometimes. I feel like I have to sometimes keep 10 balls in the air at one time. For the Easter lesson this year I decided to have our Laurel Advisor give a joint lesson to our entire young women. Brittany is a very talented teacher and all the girls love her.

She had a no talking lesson with a lot of props, videos, & music. She had already asked a couple of amazing singers in our ward to sing 2 songs, but was still in the need of 1 more. I made the mistake of volunteering. I only had to sing "I believe in Christ". I thought this would be a piece of cake because I've sang in a million times in church. However, I neglected to remember I hadn't sang a solo anywhere for years. I didn't really get nervous until the last second....then my knees started shaking & my voice was quivering. Nice and embarassing for no reason, since I knew everyone in the room. But I was disappointed with myself and my performance. Oh well!!! I finished the song better than I started it and I learned a personal lesson.