SOLD! (Can we say that yet?)

We were back in California this last weekend (Jenna's still there until Wednesday night after the movers come) and got to see family and friends again, and take care of last minute loose ends, pack, etc.

It was a refreshing sight to see the SOLD sign in front of our house. We decided to have my dad take a pic of us standing in front of it. While we were taking the picture, strangers who were driving by kept honking and cheering and waving... I think maybe they thought we were the new owners... We realized afterwards that is more of a "this is our new house" picture... It probably pushes it over the edge with Jenna's rediculously cute pregnant belly.

I like to think maybe they had all gotten used to seeing the "FOR SALE" sign there since last May, and were just happy to see that we finally sold it... Either way it was kind of cool.

My dad let us borrow his "weekend car" a BMW Z3 convertible (Bond Car), so we got to cruise around OC like a couple of... regular residents? I kept thinking the car was really flashy, but then realized that half the time I was driving next to Mercedes' and Lexus' anyway, so it wasn't out of place at all. We really don't belong in Orange County...

Anyway, the countdown is in effect. Hopefully if all goes well, we'll be able to move into our new house a week from today!

Short trip for me, I'm already back and went to work today. Jenna will probably post about the baby shower and her last few days after she gets back.

Silver and counting...

Today is truly a monumental day. The official results so far are 61 consecutive days with snow on the ground as of this morning... and still counting! If we make it to Wednesday we tie the all time record of 63 days, and we take the gold on Thursday!

WOOHOOO! GO DENVER!! (oh wait, we're just competing against a different year, not a different city) GO 2007!!

Lets hope it all melts Friday, though. We don't need to get too crazy with this snow thing.

In other news, Jenna's getting bigger. Here's the latest belly shot:


Everything seems to be moving along with the two houses... Still a little on the flaky side with the Tustin buyer, but that's okay as long as we end up with the check in hand.

Babies are being born at a rediculous clip at my office. There are only 50 people working there, and 8 pregnancies, all due within about a 5 month span. We'll be number 7 I think...

We're out in California this weekend to say goodbye to the house, pack, prepare for the movers, have a baby shower, visit with friends and family, and possibly pass by the beach, etc. We've been looking forward to this trip for a while... Because it means our house sold! Much better circumstances than we were expecting less than a month ago when I was starting to plan out how we were going to move our stuff out here and rent the house at a loss...

Things changed really fast. We still have trouble believing that the day we've been waiting for for 8 months is finally approaching. Such an indescribable blessing. It still seems unreal.

OK, gotta go... 24 is on!

The Update

Its a huge pain to post a blog with dial-up, so sorry no photos this time (just picture Jenna's belly slightly bigger).

We put the offer on the house (from the last blog), and after a little negotiation, we're good to go! We're in the middle of the excruciating no-man's land known as "escrow".

Its a much more stressful period of time than I ever imagined it would be. We've got a LOT riding on the fact that a total stranger will be ultimately handing over a large sum of money for our Tustin house for us to put down on the Colorado house. We've got our plane tickets, our movers, our escrow closing date... Just waiting for each individual milestone to pass by without incident.

Things are moving along with the Tustin house's escrow, albeit a little strangely... Our realtor is having to constantly harass their realtor to get them to share anything about the progress on their loan application, appraisal, home inspection (which they may not be doing, seeing as how they only have until Wednesday), etc. Apparently while the closing date is etched in stone here in Colorado, its more of a "guideline" in California, which perplexed our realtor out here... So we're not quite sure when the specific day will be. According to the contract, we should be closing escrow on February 28th. We set the date on the Colorado house for March 2nd, just to give a little wiggle room, and thankfully, they have indicated that they will be flexible if the other house doesn't quite close on time.

Anyway, we're in this strange mental state now where we are completely excited about moving into the new house on the one hand, but trying as best we can to keep our enthusiasm under control on the ever-decreasing possibility that it might not work out. Also we're fighting off the temptation to mentally fill the new house will all kinds of glorious material possessions, maybe to make up for the past 8 months of living super thrifty. We are budgeting for a few things, but its really easy to keep adding to that list.

We'll be out in California on the weekend of the 24-25th, and Jenna will be staying until Wednesday the 28th for the movers. Hopefully we'll get an acceptable amount of time to see everyone while we clean up and put some finishing touches on the house for the new owner, pack up the last few boxes, pick up some baby furniture from my brother and possibly make an IKEA run for some of those glorious material possessions I just mentioned (there's no IKEA in Denver yet, I keep hearing rumors, but still no Blue and Yellow).

The baby is kicking like Mia Hamm (Or maybe David Bekham, depending on the gender), and we went on a tour of the maternity ward at our hospital. I was really impressed. It has to be the nicest hospital lobby I've ever seen (its a 70 foot tall atrium with an equally tall, nicely detailed stacked stone fireplace). And the waiting area for the maternity ward I noticed has its own fireplace and a fantastic view of the front range (rockies). This baby is going to be starting out in style!

Also, in an unrelated note, we are now the number 3 year for the longest consecutive days with snow on the ground in Denver. On the 21st, we take the NUMBER ONE spot! I was a little worried it might melt this past weekend, but we're getting a little more tomorrow, so hopefully it'll put us over the top (we made it this far, why settle for bronze when we can go for the gold!)

Good news and a growing belly

Jay tried to post about this yesterday, but the internet was not cooperating at all...so I have posting duties today.

We have fantastic news! After about 8 months of waiting, we finally got an offer on our house in CA!!! We are excited but trying to stay realistic and not get our hopes too high because, of course, everything has to get through escrow before we officially can put on that "sold" label. Our realtor feels confident about the offer though and the buyer had a pre-approval letter, so all should go well. Please keep praying that everything goes through as it should!

Since we are feeling pretty good about the sale going through in CA, and since we've had all this time to look at neighborhoods and houses here (I'm positive we've walked through at least 100 houses since we've been here), we also decided to put an offer on a house here. I think it's really God's timing because there's this resale house we really liked on the market before the holidays but they pulled it for a few months and are planning on putting it back up in spring. Well that realtor knew we liked it and he has been calling our realtor quite frequently to see how we're doing and to let us know that even though it's not technically on the market we can purchase it. The ironic thing is that not only is this house available, but the one we put the $5 hold on several months ago is also still available - and now finished being built. We did go by to check that one out, and the lot is really the selling point (views and open space and a park accross the street), but when we walked in it just didn't feel quite "right" and, even though it is a bigger house, that means a bigger price tag, and we just don't want to be in the same situation we were in back in CA - strapped to a mortgage.

So here is a pic of the resale house that we are going to put an offer on this week:

Another cool thing that I just found out about the neighborhood is that there are several families with new babies on the street and also a couple who are due soon! And it sounds like everyone is pretty neighborly which is really something we're wanting in a neighborhood. It's on a culdesac wich also helps that community feeling, I think.

Speaking of babies, the one inside is growing and doing well. My drs visits have increased to every 2 weeks now, which means I'm officially in the 3rd trimester! Wow, the time has really gone fast so far. Here is the latest picture, or as Jay likes to say, the January belly:

Christmas, New Year's, Anniverary, and The Son of Holiday Blizzard

But first thing's first... check out how cute my wife is pregnant... check out that belly (we're at about 25 weeks)!

Since we've gotten extremely lazy about this blog since we started using dial-up, we've missed a few weeks, and Jenna keeps telling me I need to do an update.. so here goes.

After the Holiday Blizzard of 2006, we dug out and I was able to go out and buy a couple of presents on the 23rd (as per my usual routine), but alas no snow shovels to be found... We got another light dusting of snow on Christmas Eve, which was just enough for effect. It was really picturesque to come out of church after singing christmas carols to some light snowfall, and come home to some hot cocoa and a warm fireplace.

Christmas morning, therefore, was nice and white (all the dirty road-snow had been covered over). This was the scene from our living room:



We went down to the Heldts and had some tasty Christmas dinner at their house, and admired the depth of the snow in their backyard (which I still don't see any snow angels in)

We went back to work for the week between Christmas and New Year's, only I actually got just 2 1/2 days in, because Holiday Blizzard #2 (aka Son of Holiday Blizzard) reared it's ugly head on Thursday afternoon. Not wanting a repeat of the previous week's adventure, I decided to bail out early while I could still get home. Luckily we avoided the worst case scenario, and a second weather system battled off the worst of the storm and kept it in southeast colorado (where I heard 30,000 cattle died, and there are snowdrifts up to 15 feet!). We still got about 10 inches of snow, however, making the freshly plowed roads completely nasty again. Our parking lot is still icy and rutted... but at least we don't have 15 foot snowdrifts...

New Year's Eve Eve was our FIFTH anniversary, which we wished we could have been a little more extravagant with, but given our budget, we made the best of things and went to Bucca Di Beppo in downtown Denver with a gift card we had gotten from Jenna's aunt for Christmas. We weren't quite prepared for how cold it was that night, and both stepped in puddles of melted snow and ice up to our ankles, but despite the freezing cold soggy feet, we had a good night celebrating five years of marriage (and 8 years together total!).

The next night, we decided to check out the downtown scene for New Year's Eve, since this is our last year without a baby to tote around and put to bed (I guess we still had a baby with us, but in a convenient carry-on pouch in Jenna's belly). We first decided to wuss out and go to the 9pm fireworks show and take off before the drunks were out, but we missed the early train (which were running for free), and ended up getting there around 10:30. We hung out for a little while, got some hot cocoa at Starbucks, watched some obnoxious drunk people for a while, and decided we really weren't New Year's Eve types, so we rode home around 11:15 or so. It made us realize once again that we're just not really into crowds. We walked in the door just in time to watch the last 30 seconds of the countdown on TV!

For some reason every year I get less and less excited about the clock striking midnight... It's nice and all, but some people just seem to get unnaturally fired up about the date changing.

Anyway, I hope you all have a happy new year. We resolve to attempt to make an effort to try and update this sucker a little more often (how's that for weasel-words).

I "heart" Colorado

No new pics today, but I just wanted to post about how awesome Colorado is and how awesome our neighbors are. Today I did not have to go to work, but I really, really, wanted to get to the grocery store, and also my friend and I had planned to do some baking together at her house before all this happened. Her neighborhood got plowed (but only because all her neighbors got together and paid someone to do it!) so I knew if I could only get out of our parking lot it would be clear sailing. Plus I do have to work tomorrow so I thought better to test the conditions today so I know what I'm up against tomorrow.

I was watching out the window all morning to see if people were having any luck getting out of the lot...not really. People kept getting stuck, so I kept waiting for the plow to come. Nothing. I checked again and there were several people down there all shoveling so I thought I'd go see if they were actually going to try to leave or what. They were trying to get out to go grocery shopping, too, and one girl trying to get to work. Everyone was so nice and super helpful. Since Jay had already shoveled my car out yesterday, all I had to do was get backed out and then drive down the parking lot to the main street. This super nice girl who has lived in the snow forever offered to do it for me - how awesome! She actually did get stuck a couple times and luckily there were many people around to help with a push. She drove all the way down the parking lot for me and basically gave me a little lesson and demonstration on driving in the snow. Awesome!!!

So, as I reflect on today and yesterday and all the people and camaraderie, I am just thinking how blessed we are to live where we do and how awesome it is. This would NEVER EVER happen in southern California, especially Orange County (neither the snow nor the awesome people!) Things like this really bring a neighborhood together and I just pray that wherever we end up buying a house will have awesome neighbors, too. I'm sure mostly what people are hearing in the news is all the bad stories, but I have a completely different perspective on the whole thing. Plus, talk about being forced to slow down around the holidays and think about what Christmas really means. People couldn't go shopping at the malls (or anywhere) and most people were forced to take the day off of work. Get rid of the commercialism and stress and take some time off and get to know your neighbors. Give me a snow day anyway!

(By the way, when I got back today I parked in the lot next door, which is also the same condos, because somehow they were lucky enough to get plowed - or maybe they just payed someone!)

OK, I lied, I found a pic that we haven't posted yet. I took this yesterday when the sun came out. Our condo is the one on the top. That is our balcony that Ella likes to hang out on when it's not covered in snow.

The Aftermath...

Well, the rest of the day was a lot mellower than yesterday. The storm wrapped up around noon, and shortly after we started spotting neighbors outside shoveling to get their cars dug out for tomorrow. We don't have a shovel yet, so I decided to head down and see if I could score one to dig Jenna out. The lady I helped get her car unstuck yesterday lives downstairs, and I borrowed hers for a while. A plow is supposed to clear a path in our parking lot, but they seem to be pretty in demand today, as the storm just ended. Hopefully they'll come by in the middle of the night like they have in the past.

You really get to know your neighbors during stuff like this. It reminds me a lot of the neighborhood atmosphere after the Northridge Earthquake... Everyone comes outside and helps each other out. We met four or five neighbors just being out there and digging through the snow. One neighbor brought out hot chocolate for everyone, although it was kind of warm out (notice I ditched the sweatshirt pretty quick). It took longer than I thought to just get the area behind jenna's car dug out (creating a driveway for three cars) - probably about three hours when all was said and done. But, what else was I going to do anyway?

Jenna took Ella for a walk (in her blizzard coat), and we confirmed that she absolutely loves the snow, as does every other dog. There were a bunch of other romping dogs out there during the "shovel party".

So, we survived one of the worst storms in Denver history, and got to meet some neighbors in the process... We're thinking of changing our christmas lists to add: Snow Shovel, Snow Shoes, Cross Country Skis, and, possibly, a Snowmobile?

Snow totals as of 2:00pm were 31.0" in Aurora, and 24.0" in Denver. That supposedly puts us in the top three storms of all time! They haven't released the "official results" yet, but a lot of people who have lived here for decades say they've never seen it like this before.

...and yet we STILL like it here...

Here's some pics of the day:





... by the way, don't expect 2 blogs a day ever again (except of course, maybe when the baby is born) this was just an exceptional day, I don't want to raise expectatios too much..