The funny thing about the glasses is she goes into the toy box and you hear her searching around for about 10 minutes. Then she comes out with 2 or 3 pair of the strangest glasses ever. Then she puts them on and laughs.
Brian started his second semester last night. He is taking 2 classes this time so we expect to see him less than last.
Here is another glasses picture for you.
Hey! Where did this one come from? Ugly people.com?
Our escrow has been moved up to the 10th of September, but we don’t take possession until the 25th. It was a little worrisome at first when we found out that our loan officer had mistakenly locked us in at a good rate on a 30 day escrow. We didn’t have a 30 day escrow though but at 45. So the current occupants will pay rent to us which will cover the extra closing costs. It pretty much evens out but we were worried because if the seller had not agreed, our locked in rate would have expired and the new rate would most likely have been several points higher, increasing our mortgage by several hundred dollars every month. So all is well again. We spend much time scouring the internet looking for the best prices on flooring etc. and plan to sell the 4-runner and get something more economical with a cheaper monthly payment. As soon as September 10th comes and goes, we will be making some more major purchases. Here is our little nerd.
We have a few pictures, but as it is a condo and small it is difficult to really get any good ones. There are people living there right now so all their junk is everywhere. We will be doing an inspection tomorrow and intend on taking a few more and measuring some things. When we take possession next month, we will take some before and after pictures. We have some moderate plans to make the place nice. Working on a very tight budget though, so we may have to get inventive to make some of it work.
We’re in Escrow!!!
For those of you who may not know, our offer made last Saturday was accepted and we are officially in escrow. September 25th is the day we take possession and we can hardly stand the wait. We are very excited to finally be moving on, on our own again. It is a condo in Santa Paula which is a little northeast of Oxnard and maybe 15 minutes or so from Gary and Liesls. We hope that the pull of a swimming pool will entice them to come and visit on occasion. It has everything we needed including a 2 car garage which will be nice for storage purposes. It was a little higher than our set price range and with interest rates taking a slight upturn it more expensive than we hoped. However, with a little finagling, like selling my fancy 4-Runner and getting something more economical we should be able to pull it off with some TIGHT budgeting. We both agreed that we were willing to make some sacrifices to do this.
Come September 25th we will start the cleaning and painting process and then Brian will do a little handy work with some flooring. We have a scheduled visit to Las Vegas the following week and so will put the full move on hold until after we get back.
We are also extremely excited to welcome the newest member of the family, Georgianna. She was born on Great Grandpa Brower’s birthday, August 12th, and so was named for him. We have yet to meet her as she and her mom are spending some recovery time alone. Hopefully today we will make a short visit.
July 23rd – before we left – Serra~V~ had a doctor appointment and is growing nicely as most of you can witness. She is still taller than the average bear but not too chubby. She has added a few words to her repetoir. I can’t really keep track of which ones I have reported already, so she says “ot,ot,ot” for hot. “bebee” for baby. She understands a lot and many times when I will say something and not necesarily to her, she will raise her prevalant eyebrows and say “huh”. It is very remeniscent of a 4 year old David Arnell. “Hi” is still by far the most commonly used word, and there is a constant chatter going on otherwise. I hear her often going about her 1 year old business throughout the house singing songs and humming in a high pitched voice. She is so full of personality, we get a big kick out of her.
July – 24 – Holiday for the Utahrds, travel day for us. We actually got off when we planned around 8 am. We hit Vegas around 1pm and popped in on Brian’s mother at the Library where she works. We couldn’t have planned it better as she had just started her lunch break. We were able to visit for about half an hour and I think she was really happy to see little Serra. They have a very special bond. It doesn’t seem to matter how long in between visits. Serra~V~ has always gone to her excitedly and cuddles in for loves, and then cries when it is time to leave. We didn’t have time to see everyone else although we would have liked to.
We arrived a little after 9pm in Provo and Grandpa Brower was already in bed. We invaded anyway. I don’t think we did much on Friday except visit with Grandpa and Julie, Jared, and Serra~A~ who showed up that afternoon. We did take Serra~V~ for a swim since it was quite warm.
Saturday July 26th – Brower Family Reunion – Quite a good showing this year. About half of all the cousins were there which is pretty good considering the amount of cousins there are. All of Grandpa’s children were there plus spouses except for Dad, and the Kochs (Germany is a little far to commute from) Lots of new babies, and spouses I hadn’t met. Large gatherings are a little overwhelming to me so I just kind of sat back and got tidbits of conversation here and there while I tried to keep track of Serra~V~. She had a great time with all the kids around. Serra~A~, Julie, and I embarrassed ourselves by singing. It was requested and so we put something together the night before. I guess it’s the imperfections that make it entertaining. I didn’t hear any of the family business because I was too busy trying to get SV to sleep (no easy task when there is soooo much stimulation). We did hear that Curt and Shayla and family are changing thier last name from Windhorst to Mclaughlin. Bizarre. The German have become Irish. Quite a change.
Anyway, it was very obvious that Aunt Teresa put in a lot of work planning this years gathering and I thought it was very well done. Uncle David and Aunt Barbara had a lions share too since it was at their house. I hear that it took months to get the yard in order and the time was well spent. They have a beautiful home and it was perfect for the occasion.
I headed to Logan with Julie and Jared and let me just put in a side note that Serra~V~ travels so well and sleeps a lot along the way. The only problem is that she is not tired when we reach our destinations. I spent most of this week or so up until 2am or so with an untired kid.
Sunday was relaxing. We sang in church (the same three, not the same song), ate, and lay around. Monday, Julie was off to work and while she did that Serras and I, Doug and Dave did lunch and visited Walmart. We made a few other stops around Logan. That little town is not so little anymore. It has just about everything now. When Julie got off work we all piled in a few cars and headed up North of Preston to the Onieda Narrows where we floated/kiaked/nearly drowned down the river.
(side note: as I go I submit now and then just in case. Well, Xanga just ate the rest of this entry and it was the last half and so now I have to start all over, curses)
The boat Serra~V~ and I were in didn’t come with a paddle and so my foot and hand were used to push off rocks and trees blocking our path. There were a few close calls and I was nervous most of the time. SV was not impressed AT ALL. She cried most of the way and when she wasn’t, was trying to climb on top of me. This did not make manuvering the boat very easy. Julie spent some time in the river bouncing from rock to rock and had to salmon it upriver to get back on her raft. Funny tidbit, the thing she was worried about most were her expensive sunglasses. Doug had complained that the rental place made him rent all this safety gear along with the kiack. I mean, he knows how to swim, who needs a life vest or a stupid looking helmet. He did apparently. When he overturned and spent some intimate time with the rocky river bottom. Luckily kiack inventors included an emergency rip cord for those not able to turn themselve up right. He looked a bit shaken when he got to shore. Next time it would be a lot more fun not worrying about a 1 year old. I think she will not be going until she is a bit older. On the way home we picked up Fat Boys from Caspers in Richmond. 50 for 9 bucks. That should keep Dougs and Julies freezers stocked for a while.
Tuesday July 29 – Mom joined us in Logan the night before so we could go to Bear Lake. Grandma Arnell called at 9am just as we were getting up and told us to get a move on, we were wasting her day away. We made it up there by 11 (David drove the speed limit through the canyon) It is always nice to be in Bear Lake. We were fed well, and we enjoyed the quiet and kick back of small town USA. Our family that live there are lucky. It is a wonderful place, mostly unknown to the rest of the world and therefore remains relitively untouched and untarnished.
Wednesday – Mom, SV and I headed back toward Provo with only a slight miscalculation that put us in Downey Idaho. We had to stop at Maddox in Brigham City when we got back on track to re-fuel. It is a really good little drive-in that has the greatest fried chicken I’ve ever had. Their bathroom door reads “drive thru bathroom”. Now how does that one work? Other stops included Aunt Dorothy who is Grandpa Browers sister, Zaila of Bruce and Zaila Koch (five days in on a new baby) and Jeff and Maren. We visited with Jeff while we waited for Maren to get home from work. We ate at California Pizza Kitchen where Serra made an all time, record breaking, mess. It was fun though. We were in Provo by 9 I think and Serra got her nap from 8-9 and so I was up til 2:30 with her. FOR FUN!
Thursday - I was able to visit with Grandpa and Grandma Gee for a while until Serra was no longer able to contain her nap needing behavior. The rest of the day and Friday were spent cleaning out Grandpa Browers basement. He is to the point where he needs someone with him most of the day to help him remember to take medication, cook, and other daily tasks. He is also no longer a safe driver and so needs help with that as well. His children are hoping to have a couple move into the basement and perform those tasks when he is there at his home. Other times he will hopefully be able to be in CA with Mom or with Aunt Teresa, and with Uncle David as he had been, just not back and forth so much. This is really a hard transition for him though and has come on really fast. He was not taking it very well, and was confused much of the time. It is really hard to see him struggle with the loss of his independance and I am sure a great deal of pride. Getting old really stinks. Uncle David and Aunt Barbara have been amazing the last few years though and have really had to deal with this mostly unaided. So it is time for some change. It still stinks though, mostly for Grandpa.
Saturday – off to California – made it in 12 hours with one detour through the raging metropolis of Beaver for some Cache Valley Squeaker Cheese. Don’t ask me how they manage to call it Cache Valley when it is Beaver Valley, but it was. Serra~V~ was really good especially when Serra~A~ let her use the head phones. She thought that was great and danced and sang along to whatever it was. The boys were really glad to have us back and they both looked a little skinnier. All that hard work and no dinner to come home to for 10 days took its toll. Serra was really happy to see her daddy too. She kept on kissin and kissin.
Yesterday Brian got off work a little early and we went to look at some properties. We have expanded our search to include the valley and Sylmar. I am really hopeful as prices seem to be working in our favor there.
So there you have it.
