Passed!

We are so excited. We are going to be starting a Real Estate Brokerage soon. In order to start your own brokerage you have to have at least 3 years of experience (I'm going on 6 years) and you have to have 60 real estate points. I have like 160 points. So I took the required 120 hours of Real Estate Broker School and then took the State Exam and guess what!!! I passed! We (Austin and I) are going to be starting our own Real Estate Brokerage soon!

The Friend Party

India has a friend who actually shares the exact same date of birth. How cool is that. He's such an awesome friend too. He wants to be Justin Bieber when he grows up. So I thought it would be fun to have a joint party with him and then have the two of them perform for us. They did such a fabulous job. Hopefully I figure out how to get the movie off the camera of their performance.

Tangled

So we saw Tangled a few days after India's birthday. We saw it in 3D. Usually we don't like watching 3D movies but this time it was so beyond magical. There's a part where all of these illuminous small mini-air balloons are floating through the sky. We looked over at India and she had her hands up in the air and she was trying to touch them. It was so cute. The movie was also very touching and we give it an A++

The Blue Hair

The blue hair gets a post all to itself. India got the coolest blue hair wig. Seriously everyone was coveting it. I don't think I even snapped a picture of everyone who tried it on. I think I remember Bampa even put it on. I don't know if these pictures can even capture the blue hair craze that went on that night.

India's Birthday Party at the Bowens

I think India was quite pleased with her Birthday party at the Bowens. She was beaming the whole night. We can't believe that she's 5.

India!

Today is a very special day! Our Incredible India was born 5 years ago. I remember not being able to sleep even though I had been in labor for 29 hrs because I couldn't stop looking at her. She had so much hair and it felt like I was holding a little kitten. She was so perfect.

Our freakishly large snow man

Austin gets the credit for this snow man. I kinda helped but then my hands got too cold and I went inside. When he built this snowman it was vertical but by evening it was somehow defying gravity.

The Bowen Bash

We also had a party at the Bowen house. I've never seen a little kid get more gifts in my life. When you add up the two days of parties the birthday girl was overwhelmed with gifts.

At the end of our party we had a push up contest. Alayna was the finale. She did the most push ups of us all. We're planning a rematch for Thanksgiving.

Birthday party at the Elliotts

Our littlest monkey turned three. Here are pictures from her party at the Elliott's house with all of her cute Elliott cousins.

Somebody just turned 3!

This is the birthday girl at the party store

Her sister helped her pick out the balloons.

Our little dancers

This is in my mom's basement. We have some sexy dancers on our hands! Where do they learn to dance like this?

Groovie Movie (1944). Funny jitterbug instructional video.

Now that I know how to put youtube videos in my blog I don't know if I'll be able to stop. This is one groovy movie. As most of you know I'm a Lindy Hopper and I love swing dancing so I pay homage to this type of thing. It's past midnight and I can't get dancing off my mind so I hopped on the computer and watched Groovie Movie and then I got the genious idea to share it with you. I know...I'm such a good sharer.

Far and Away (More on the American Dream)

Yes, I'm on a land kick! I can't find the exact clip I want of when Tom Cruise is having a dream/inspiration and he is remembering how his father talked about land ownership on his death bed. But this will suffice. I love America!!

Gone with the Wind

Yay, I figured out how to put youtube videos in my blog. I just love Gerald Butlers wisdom at the end of this clip. "To the Irish the land they live on is like their mother. You're just a child, it will come to you, this love of the land."

At this point in the movie Scarlett doesn't care for Terra but by the end of the movie she loves Terra with all her heart. That's how I feel about my house. When I bought it I had no emotional attachment to it. We bought it as an investment property because it had a mother-in-law basement. Over the years I've put time into my house fixing it and cleaning it and making it mine and now I dearly love my house and my land, it's a part of my family. I would never sell it.

The American Dream

Another person has just taken part in the American Dream! This one is a lovely story too because it's a short sale and the seller's bank is Bank of America. Ugg!

My client made an offer on this house last December. We were in a back up position for a few months. The bank approved the offer in first position (an investor's offer). The investor wasn't sure he wanted the property but he was willing to sell it to my client at the price my client had offered (the other agent disclosed the price of our offer without our permission). So we knew that our offer must have been significantly more than what the investors offer was. So we withdrew our offer and the investor decided he didn't want the house. So the investor walked. My client then wrote up a new offer for $15,000 less. The listing agent submitted our offer and got an approval within a month or so but there was a big catch. Her assistant had accidentally typed the wrong names into the system and Bank of America wouldn't allow us to just fix that and move on. So we had to resubmit our offer AGAIN with the correct name. Then we get a letter from B of A saying that they weren't going to accept a short sale and they were going to sell the loan to a different company. We were in limbo for a few months and then they came back to us saying, nevermind we will do a short sale. A few months later they said they would approve our offer if my client agreed to pay $1000 more than the amount he offered. So we said "FINE". Then we went through some hell with getting his loan done and finally today we closed (one day before the deadline from the bank to close). Jim and I keep letting out big sighs of releif! Ahhhhhh! FINALLY!!!

A few days ago Jim wrote me the following email:

Rachael,

I am so glad I met you and you are helping me with everything. So far you are the only competent professional I have worked with. Not to mention the previous 9 months of hassles with Bank of America and their flakiness... America First has just screwed up more paperwork for the 3rd time and the VA appraiser is still dragging his feet. Lets hope the other people involved with the closing know how to do their jobs. I think everything is actually going to work out but I am betting they procrastinate to the max and I end up closing on the 10th. If this was my first rodeo I would be nuts by now. A short sale is definitely not something I would attempt with a first timer if I were you. I just wanted to say Thank you for being so good at your job and how happy I am to have stumbled upon you.


Sincerely,
Jim

I'm grateful that Jim stumbled upon me too! He bought an awesome house at a great price and it will be a great investment for him. The past year has all been worth it!

Stop growing!

My nephew, Baylen is getting so big! Look at him!! Who said he could get such cute little chubby cheeks?