Saturday Summary

I had a fun day today. We went to the Teddy Bear Parade in downtown Gresham this morning. Katie and I sat and watched the parade while Jonathan and Rob were in the parade with Jonathan's classmates. The Montessori school had a spot in the parade. Jonathan rode his bike. (I will have to post pictures later.) I think he had a fun time.

Later on in the day I took Jonathan to Target to get a birthday present for a party we are going to tomorrow. Nothing like shopping at the last minute! He had a blast looking at all of the toys. I picked out what we were going to get his friend. He just looked at each and every toy and said, "Oh Mom, look at this! Look at this! This one is neat too! Wow, this is neat..." I'm embarrassed to say that half of the stuff he looked at was in the "girl aisle". While at Target I noticed that they were having a 75% off sale on back to school items. I was able to get Jonathan a new backpack for just under $4! He needed one too. I also got he and Katie new lunch boxes for $3 each. These were things I wanted to get before school started but didn't have the money for. What a blessing to find them so cheap today! On the way home Jonathan couldn't thank me enough for the backpack and lunch box. He was so happy and lovey-dovey! At home he even told Katie that he loved her!!! I couldn't believe my ears!

Tonight Rob and I went out to the movies. We saw the new movie called Fireproof. It was a good movie. If you want to know what the movie is about check out the website http://fireproofthemovie.com. I am not that up for describing the movie right now. I'm kind of tired. If you end up seeing it, let me know. I'd love to hear what you think of it.

Learning A Lot in Real Estate

Well, if any of you went to the garage sale this weekend looking for all of the kids clothes that I had to sell, you probably noticed that the clothes weren't there. That's because I had NO time to even take a glance at the boxes of clothes let alone do something with them for the sale this weekend. Oh well, I will try to sell them some other way.

I am still in the midst of the Sandy home sale. Doing the run-around with lenders who want to take their own sweet time, not really thinking about the needs of others. I was told on Wednesday that I would be receiving a fax within 24 to 48 hours, and as of this morning, I still hadn't received it. On Friday when I called to check on the status of the fax they said I should be receiving it soon. Hmmm...

I had my first experience with taking Buyers to look at a home and them having an argument in front of me today. Now that was interesting. Guess I am going to have to learn what to do when that happens again. (Because I'm sure it will.) I felt a little awkward to say the least.

But I love my job still. I have a great time with the other agents in my office. I've had a full week. Somewhat stressful, but fun too.

Where I've Been

It's been several weeks since my last post. I wish I could tell you I've been basking on the warm sands of some tropical island. But I have not. I have been deep in the chaos of my home and life. It's a fun chaos though, although a bit busier than I can handle.

Jonathan and Katie both started school several weeks ago. Jonathan is in 1st Grade and Katie is going to Preschool two mornings a week. They both like it. Katie's teacher is Mrs. Strong, but with the way Katie talks she calls her Mrs. Pong. Jonathan doesn't like going to the after school care program at his school, so we have some pretty big crying spells on the day he has to stay late. That is hard for me.

I closed my first transaction at my job, and I was very excited! To celebrate we headed to the Golden Arches (I let the kids choose where they wanted to have our celebration dinner) and I splurged and bought myself a milkshake with our meal. I hope in 5 years from now my pay day celebration meals will be a bit fancier! Anyhow, I am in the very middle of another transaction. It is definitely a learning experience. After this home sells I won't have any more listings, so I will need to find some more ready and willing clients. If any of you know someone interested in buying or selling, send them my way. (Please)

We had a yard sale on Saturday, which was a ton of work! We had quite a few people come, but not enough. We still have lots of stuff left. We are going to take it to a friend's garage sale this weekend in hopes that we can sell off more of it. I've got 8 large boxes of kids clothes for sale. Rob is selling at least 100 books. Then we have the usual assortment of rare and eclectic items for sale as well. Let me know if you want info on where the sale will be this weekend.

Dahlia Day

Today Rob and I and the kids went for an outing to Canby to a Dahlia Festival. It was held at the Swan Island Dahlia farm, where they grow several hundred varieties of Dahlias on over 40 acres. They had an indoor area where they had arrangements to look at. We were glad about this because when we arrived it was pouring rain outside and we were not dressed for rainy weather.

Later, when we were done indoors we went out and walked around their farm. There was a neat pond where Katie enjoyed looking at the Koi fish.

Dahlia's are my favorite flower and I hope to grow them someday. I will have a hard time choosing which ones to grow, though when it comes time to plant them. I saw so many that I liked!

Busy Broker

I'm excited to say that I'm in the midst of my first home selling transaction! I listed a house on the 13th and two days later an offer came in for it. I've been in the process of helping my Seller negotiate the terms of the agreement. We're expecting it to close in early September. I am thrilled about how quickly this is going, but it has been a learning experience. So many forms to fill out, so many deadlines. There is a lot to know, that you don't learn when you go to school to get your license. I am grateful to have a very knowledgeable Principal Broker who helps me all the time, as well as a trainer, and many other people at the office who are answering all my questions each day.

I've also been having a great time meeting new people in my business. I've been going to appointments meeting For Sale By Owners (FSBO's). There are some really great families out there, I wish I could find buyers for them. Do you know of anyone who wants to buy a vacation home in Welches, or a vintage home in Gresham? I'd be glad to hook them up. I don't mind working with FSBO's as long as they don't mind working with me.

I heard about an interesting website today while at work it is http://www.walkscore.com Check it out. Enter a location and it will tell you what stores and restaurants are nearby, and it will give you the walking distance. This is great if you are planning a trip or visiting a new city. (or if you like to walk a lot you can find great places to visit that are "walker-friendly".)

I've got a lot of other things going on besides work, but that will have to wait for another post.

So last week was pretty much shot. Thursday and Friday Katie had what we called "runny poop". It was awful! And I couldn't really go to work and leave a babysitter to take care of her (although I did get out of the house Thursday morning thanks to a very brave sitter so that I could get more lysol wipes, chicken noodle soup, applesauce, bananas, more lysol spray, sponges and pedialyte. I'm sure the checker at Winco was sympathetic based on what I had in my cart.)

So this week I have been back to work full speed ahead. I was able to get the paperwork signed so that I now have an official 2nd listing. Last week the guy took the paperwork home to read it, and didn't bring it back until this past Tuesday. I'm excited, and will start listing it on the market next week! On Monday I took some walk in clients around looking for houses in Sandy. I hope that I can help them find what they're looking for.

This weekend we are going to the church campout at Ft. Stevens. The kids are very excited about it. I am looking forward to getting away from my computer for a few days. (I'm taking my phone, though so that I can find out details about Tim and Heidi's baby delivery.) I hope we can leave for the campout tomorrow. Unfortunately Rob got the "bug" that we all had last week and has been home the last few days. Hopefully he'll feel better tomorrow.

This is Not What I Expected!

So I was so pumped to get back to work this week, after having been so busy with VBS last week. On Sunday I made this long to-do list of all that I wanted to do at work to try to meet new people and drum up some possible contacts.


Monday morning: Jonathan feels sick, like he's about to throw up. I cancel the kid's plans to spend the day with Grandma. Guess I'm staying home today. Jonathan sleeps on the couch most of the morning and finally starts to feel better by dinner time.


Tuesday morning: Right as the babysitter is about to arrive Katie throws up all over the floor. Uggh! Thankfully, she is an Angel and she is willing to stay so that I can go to a meeting at work. I arrive an hour later than I wanted to, though because of all of the clean up that I needed to do before I left the house.


Tuesday night: I am not feeling so good...Oh No! You guessed it. I got sick. I lay in bed all night tossing and turning. My stomach hurts so much. I ended up sleeping in the guest room just so Rob could get some sleep.


Wednesday: I lay on the couch all day, feeling crummy. Not only because I am sick, but because of all that I did not get to do so far this week!


It is Wednesday night. I still don't feel all the way better, but close enough. I had to go in to work this afternoon to meet a client. Fortunately I was up for it. (I hope that I didn't pass any of my germs around, though.) I was able to write up a listing contract to sell his house, so that is great! And I still have 2 more days left of this week to get some work done. It is so hard for me to adjust my plans sometimes. But sometimes there are things that we just can't control. Rob reminded me of that today. He has been an encouragement to me this week, as I have grumbled about having to readjust my expectations for the week.

I'm putting it all in God's hands tomorrow. I have no idea what to expect!