Watch out!

Someone's a natural with a rifle!

Playing with the Greens

We hung out with some of our friends and had a weeney roast. Our two girls played with 5 little boys, which was very different for our girls. They found themselves getting pushed over more than they would if they were hanging out with girls.

Yorkie

One of these days...when layna is potty trained we are going to get a puppy (not necessarily a young dog, but in our family all dogs are called puppies). I'm really leaning towards a Yorkie. Austin is leaning towards a beagle.



Cast your vote and tell me why.

Coco Before Chanel

My most favorite perfume is Coco Mademoiselle by Chanel. I just love the smell. It has such a mature smell (it kind of has a smell that seems like older ladies would wear it) and I especially love smelling it in the fall and winter cuz it smells kind of like it has a spice undertone. Well, I was looking at some used movies and I saw this Coco before Chanel and it sparked my interest and I bought it without ever seeing it. It was very interesting to learn the life of Gabrielle Chanel (nickname Coco) and how she started out as an Orphan. I absolutely love love love her style. She lived in a time of corsets and puffy hats and she would make herself very sleek and simple clothes and hats and she made her clothes for comfort. When most people would wear white or cream colors she would wear black, grey or brown. Oh, and she would make clothes that had some masculinity to them which somehow accentuated her femininity. I visually loved this movie.

A Halloween Party We Actually Attended!

Every year we miss out on Halloween parties because of illness. Just last week we missed a party because we were sick. Thankfully we got better and we made it to this family party.

I was on facebook and saw that one of my friends was asking to borrow a costume. I volunteered my maid marian dress and she said that she'd trade me her flapper costume (thank you Shellee!!!). I was so excited, especially since I'm tired of being maid marian!

Our girls were fairies.

Sister and Brothers in law

First-time buyers!

My Dad has been in contact with Michael & Catherine for about 2 years and out of the blue he received a call from them. They said that they found a house they wanted to buy and they wanted to walk through it. My dad also found them a few other houses to have them look at. He couldn't meet with them at the time they were available and so I said that I could show them the houses. We looked at a few homes and they said that their heart was set on the house they originally called about. So we wrote an offer and got things negotiated. Everything went so smoothly. Even when our buyer found out that there was a small crack on the water heater the seller was so nice about it. She replaced the water heater and even got them a 12 yr warranty.

The seller wrote my clients a note at closing that she gave them along with the keys. She said that she loved her house and she felt like these buyers would love her house like she did. It was so sweet. It was so nice to have a deal that had no conflict. I don't think I've ever had such a pleasant deal, I think Michael and Catherine must be livin' right!! :)

Sandy Short Sale

Yay! Another short sale that worked out. I listed this home last year and it became clear in January that we weren't going to be able to sell it for what my sellers owed. My poor sellers fell on hard times and also couldn't make the payments and so we decided that a short sale would be the only way we'd be able to sell it.

We received an offer on this home in April. The buyer was a first time home buyer who wanted to get the $8000 tax credit (which would mean that we needed to close by June). I talked with the agent and said that I had no control over when the bank approved the offer or even IF the bank would approve the offer. She said that her client wanted the house even if we wouldn't be able to close in time for the buyer to get the tax credit. That made me feel comfortable about moving forward.

I got the bank (B of A) all of the documents and I followed up with them at least weekly and we didn't have an approval in time to close by June. The buyer said that she would continue waiting because she really liked the home. Then she found out that the government extended the deadline to close until Sept 30th. She was elated. So the beginning of September we still didn't have an approval. Everyone was getting nervous at this point...was Bank of America going to turn their brains on and approve this offer since the buyer had been waiting and waiting and hoping for the tax credit?

Somehow the loan officer started working on the loan without the final approval. We got the approval from B of A on Sept 28th and everyone was quite literally scrambling trying to pull everything together in 2 days. It was impossible. The loan officer called us at 2 pm on the 29th saying that there were appraisal required repairs. I met the other agent at the house and we got some help to make a few repairs ourselves. Needless to say, although we worked our brains out and it didn't close until Oct 6th.

So the good news is that it closed and the buyer is getting a good deal but the bad news is that Bank of America is slow and the poor buyer didn't get the $8000 tax credit.