Holy Poo!!!

We put an offer on a house!!

Yeah...let me back up a minute. Shawn and I decided that once we got back from our travels this summer, we'd start looking into the idea of buying a home. We met with a realtor that some friends highly recommended, and then we talked with a couple mortgage brokers that she recommended. It took us about two weeks to discuss things with each other (and with Shawn's mom, who's a realtor in Denver) before we decided to let the realtor know that we'd like to work with her and that we were ready to start looking at houses.

On Wednesday, our realtor, Grace, emailed us a couple listings that were in our price range, and we decided to go look at one of them. That evening, Shawn and I drove over to the one that really intrigued us, and we confirmed that it's in a pretty ideal location for us. (Basically, it's close enough to where we live now that Shawn could still ride his bike to work.) When we did our drive-by, we noticed that there were 3 or 4 other people/couples looking at the house. This made me wonder...if we end up liking this house, how quickly will we need to move on it? It seems like a really great deal on paper, and there is obviously a pretty decent amount of interest being shown on this house.

On Thursday, Shawn emailed Grace to ask her that question...and she called him back pretty quickly. She said that she found out that there were already multiple offers on the house, and that the bank had decided to only accept offers until 9:00 that night (it's a bank-owned house). So about an hour later, we met her at the house to take a look around! After looking through it and asking Grace lots of questions, Shawn and I went to a restaurant to get a snack and talk it over. And we decided to go for it! So we called Grace, and she met us at the restaurant with all the paperwork, and we put in what Grace thought was a "strong offer." Wow!

On Friday afternoon, Grace let us know that our offer was definitely in on time, and the listing agent said that at this point, it's up to the bank to decide which offer has terms that they like best...but we're definitely contenders! Unfortunately, they won't let us know anything until sometime on Monday.

So yeah.......we literally have put an offer on the first house we looked at! When we were talking about, we basically decided that it is a pretty darn good financial deal, and although we're offering more than what we had originally intended to spend, we can make it work. There's also LOTS of work that will need to be done on this house...so if we get it, feel free to come visit and help us out! :-) But overall, our main thought is this......if it's God's will for us to get this house, then the bank will accept our offer. If God has something else in mind for us, then we won't get this one. Not a really big deal.

So that's the latest news on our end! We spent the afternoon today wandering through Lowe's, just getting an idea of how much certain things cost (like flooring, kitchen cabinets, countertops, bathroom vanities, tub surrounds, overhead lighting, paint...you know, the basics). I'll let you know when we find something out!

What calms YOU down?

The other day, Shawn and I drove through a neighborhood fairly close to here, and I laughed out loud when I saw this sign:
"Traffic calming devices ahead." Hmmm...what could this mean? Shawn and I started brainstorming. What devices could possibly be used to calm the traffic? Zen-like meditation for cars? Yoga classes? Maybe the neighborhood pipes in Gregorian chant and plays it through loudspeakers set up next to the road. Aren't crystals supposed to give off a calming energy? Maybe these have been set up along the road. What do you think?

Frankly, we didn't see anything particularly "calming" in this neighborhood except some old trees which were kinda pretty. The road itself was kind of annoying with a bunch of speed bumps.

Our New Best Friend

If you're not familiar with the Seattle climate, I should explain that it's typically very mild. Generally speaking, the high temperatures in the summer are in the 70s or maybe the low 80s. In the winter, it doesn't normally get very cold...typical high temps are in the 40s. The average yearly snowfall in Seattle is only 8 inches, which explains why everyone around here freaked out when we got 5 inches in one "storm" back in December. This is my first summer living here, but I know that it does occasionally get hot. It just doesn't happen very often, which is why most apartments we looked at aren't air conditioned. It's just not necessary most of the time.

However...starting late last week, the weather gurus around here started getting anxious. We've been getting weather alerts for close to a week now, letting us know that this area is in for "extreme heat." Yep...it got over 90 yesterday! Actually, the forecast is for high temps above 90 all this week, which is very unusual.

Unfortunately, like I said, our apartment has no air conditioning. (In fact, our gas fireplace, which is the source of our heat in the winter, never actually turns off....but that's a story for another post.) We do have a ceiling fan in the dining room, but that's it. So if there's no breeze coming in the windows (which was the case yesterday...there's also an "air stagnation warning" for this area), it gets pretty darn hot in here.

I headed to Walmart yesterday afternoon to buy a fan, but apparently I wasn't the only one who had that idea. Walmart had one fan left, and it was actually an outdoor fan that you could hook a hose up to and use as a mister...and they were charging $70 for it. No thanks. Fortunately, not as many people had thought to check Walgreens, and that's where I was able to buy our new best friend!

This lovely creature was pretty easy to set up...took me about 10 minutes yesterday. It kicks off a good amount of cool air, and it oscillates enough to hit all of our seating in the living room (or the entire bed in the bedroom). It made hanging out in the living room bearable last night, and it made sleeping pleasant. It even has a remote control and a timer (so we can set it to turn itself off...I'm guessing while we're sleeping, so we don't wake up cold?). I'm loving this thing. Definitely $30 (after a $10 mail in rebate) well spent!!

It's a Sweep!

My birthday was back in October, but I just got my present this weekend. The Cleveland Indians came to town to play a 3-game series against the Mariners, and my present was tickets to all three games. It was awesome.

Friday night, Shawn and I had great seats...we were in the second row of the upper deck, right in line with the 3rd base line (draw a line from 3rd through home plate and just keep going up to the seats...that's where we were). The game didn't start until 10:10 EST, so unless the fans in Ohio stayed up pretty late, they missed a good game. The Indians beat the Mariners, 9-0!

Saturday was a day game, and our seats were in left field, about 10 feet inside the foul pole. For some stupid reason, this game was blacked out nationwide, so the only ones who could see it were those of us who were there! My brother even tried to watch it online and couldn't. We were in the sun the entire time, and it was really hot out, but it was still another great game. The Indians beat the Mariners, 10-3!

Finally, on Sunday, we went to another day game. It was hot again, but our seats were in the shade for the entire game (well, we were in the sun for the first half of the first inning or so). We were back in the upper deck, a bit higher up than Friday, and we were on the 3rd base side. A group of our friends from church were at the game, too, but I'm not sure where they were sitting. (We already had bought our tickets before we knew that friends would be going.) Once again...it was an awesome game! This time, the Mariners took a 2-1 lead after the first inning, but reigning Cy Young winner, Cliff Lee, settled down pretty quickly after the first, and the Indians beat the Mariners, 12-3! We swept Seattle!!!

Safeco Field is a really pretty park. It was actually designed by the same guy who designed both Jacobs Field in Cleveland (I refuse to call it Progressive Field) and Coors Field in Denver. Here are a couple shots of the park.
So this weekend, I had the privilege of watching some great baseball with my wonderful husband, who cheered for the Indians with me. My team swept the Mariners by scoring 31 runs in 3 games, and we enjoyed a lot of good food. (I'll admit that the hot dogs at Safeco are the best I've ever had, and they also make some darn good garlic fries there!) It was a wonderful birthday present!! So what if I got it 9 months late? :-) Thanks, love!

New Job!

There's been a lot of stuff sort of simmering in our household this summer. However, I haven't felt like jinxing anything, so I've tried not to blog about things until I know they're actually happening. So unless I talk to you on a regular basis, it may come as a surprise to know that I got a new job! Starting this fall, I'm going to be teaching English online through Aventa Learning.

I actually applied for an online teaching position in late May or early June. I honestly don't remember if this is one of the online schools that I found through Craigslist (job posting) or if this is one of the schools I found by googling. Either way, I found the school and sent in my resume, and then I forgot about it until I got an email while I was in Colorado in early July. I had a phone interview on July 6th, and I thought it went really well. However, I didn't hear anything back until last Friday, when I got another email for a second phone interview. That interview took place on Monday, and it couldn't have gone better. We'd only been chatting for about 15 minutes when she let me know that, without even finishing the interview, she already knew she wanted to hire me. That was nice to hear. :)

I've already had a lot of questions about this job, so let me explain basically how it works. I'm not sure if this was just a conversation that teachers had, but do you remember probably 10 years ago when people started wondering if someday computers would replace teachers? There was talk that someday, everyone would just sit at home in front of their computer...the teacher would teach from home, and the students would watch on their monitor. Yeah...that's not how online teaching works, at least not usually. Instead, think of this as a sort of correspondence course entirely online. Students log on to a virtual classroom where they can see the syllabus. In any given unit, students will have some things that they need to do on their own (like reading a book or studying a website). They will also often need to submit homework assignments (like an essay or questions to answer); they will submit them by uploading them to the teacher's "inbox." Students may need to take a quiz or test, which they can do through the online virtual classroom. They can also be required to participate in an online "classroom" discussion, which takes place via message boards.

So where does the online teacher come in? I'm there to make sure the students are actively participating in the class. I'll be able to see how much time each student is spending "in" the virtual classroom. I'll also be available to answer students' questions via email or phone. And of course, I get to grade all their work and provide feedback on their assignments. If students are struggling to grasp the material, I can create and provide supplemental assignments to help them reach a better understanding.

I'm really excited about this opportunity. There are LOTS of reasons that a high school student might want to take an English class online, so this is an "industry" that is growing by leaps and bounds, and I'm getting in pretty much on the ground floor. Plus, I get to do the fun part of teaching (explaining things to students and providing feedback) without having to put up with a lot of the things that I dislike about teaching (like dealing with students who won't stop talking while I give instructions, or getting up before dawn to drive to work). And I can do it pretty much anywhere that will give me internet access! :)

Left to Tell

Left to Tell by Immaculee Ilibagiza, 2006 (210 pages)

In 1994, a terrible holocaust occurred in the tiny African country of Rwanda. There are two basic "tribes" of people in Rwanda...the Tutsis and the Hutus. There is a pretty involved back story here, but to keep this relatively short, you simply need to know that in April of 1994, the Hutus began killing the Tutsis. There was a lot of political influence and propaganda, and eventually, neighbors began turning on neighbors, and there was very little mercy shown. The goal of the Hutus was complete extermination of the Tutsis. Although the numbers aren't certain, it is estimated that in a period of just over 3 months, somewhere between 800,000 and one million Tutsi people were killed. Here's a wikipedia article that explains more detail, if you're interested.

Immaculee Ilibagiza is a Tutsi by ethnic heritage. She was raised in a devout Catholic home, and she had returned from her studies at the University for the Easter weekend when the killing began. Her parents sent her and her younger brother (and a friend of theirs) to the nearby home of a pastor to hide. Her brother and the friend had to leave the house, but Immaculee survived the genocide by hiding in a tiny bathroom at the pastor's house with seven other woman for 3 months. The pastor didn't tell anyone else in the house that the women were staying there, and he only fed them what he could manage without buying anything extra. While hiding in the bathroom, Immaculee spent her days praying.

This is an amazing story. There are parts of the book that are graphic, and yet the author writes without being gruesome. The things that the author experienced are absolutely horrific, and yet throughout her trials her faith in God actually grew stronger. This is definitely a book worth reading.

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Total number of books read in 2009: 29

Total number of pages read in 2009: 11035

Our Other Auction Win

If you read this blog regularly, you may remember that about a month ago, Shawn and I went to a charity auction/dinner. Feel free to read this post that explains all about the auction and the wonderful "date night" package that we won. Like I said in that post, we went into the live auction portion of the evening expecting absolutely to be outbid on everything we wanted to try for, but we came up with some "maximum amounts" that we'd be willing to pay for a few items so that we could have the fun of participating in the bidding.

One of the things we decided to bid on was the last item of the night. We were both thinking that the biggest ticket item is usually left for last at an auction (right?), and there was no way we could afford what this item would go for. But wouldn't it be fun to say we bid on it? As the auction progressed, we were amazed at the amounts some of the items were going for. To put this in perspective, our "maximum bid" for the last item of the night was less than what a Cajun dinner for 8 went for ($2400) or what a relatively small stained glass window went for ($1800).

When the bidding started for this last item, there were quite a few who offered at the opening bid, but it quickly dwindled to just Shawn against another guy. The bidding went quickly, up by $100 at a time, back and forth. Shawn bid what we had agreed would be our maximum bid, fully expecting the other guy to bid the next amount.....but the bidding fell silent. And we won!

So what did we win? A 7-night stay at a beachfront condo in MAUI!!! Holy cow!!!! As soon as the auctioneer declared Shawn the winning bidder, I think we looked at each other and quickly said, "What did we just do?!"

Fortunately, plane tickets to Hawaii from Seattle really aren't all that expensive. In fact, it's probably cheaper (most times of the year) to fly to Hawaii than it is to fly to Ohio to visit my parents. I booked our flights this afternoon, and although it cost a bit more than I was hoping, it really wasn't bad at all. So in about six weeks, we'll be going to Maui!

I'm really excited for this. Shawn has been to Hawaii before (I think a couple times, actually), but I've never been. For awhile now, it's been on my list of places that I'd really like to go. (Just to prove it, check out this list I made in March...Hawaii is on there.) This was definitely an impulse buy, and had we really taken our time to think about it, we probably wouldn't have bid on this item (just to save money, especially after all our travels already this summer). But hey...it is something we knew we'd enjoy, and how often in our lives will we genuinely be able to afford a beachfront condo in Maui? We got it for less than it's technically worth. And frankly, it's really nice to know that since the owner of the condo donated this week to the auction, our good chunk of money is actually going to a very worthy cause...and we just happen to get an awesome vacation out of it! :)