House Hunting

So, our year lease ended this month, the housing prices are at an all-time low, we're pretty sure we will be here for a couple more years, there's a huge tax break for first time home buyers, and we've been saving up....so that only means one thing! We are looking for a home to buy!!


Well, really a condo or a townhome, since we can't afford a real house anywhere in Orange County. But it's still pretty exciting! We've spent 3 weekends looking so far. Last week our first offer fell through. Yesterday we put down two different offers, so we'll see if we get one of those.

(These are the types of places we've put offers on!)

The only thing we don't understand is what a "buyer's market" really is. We thought it meant that the buyer gets to pretty much negotiate any price they want, make the seller pay for closing costs, and that we can pick and choose and take our time. That is NOT the case that we have found ourselves in...at least in this area with the pricerange that we are looking at, which are all mostly bank-owned properties.


Instead, we are finding that if we want any sellers to take our offer, we have to bid 10-20 thousand ABOVE the asking price, agree to pay our own closing costs, avoid FHA loans, and we cannot be picky or take our time. We pretty much have to decide while we're looking at the place whether or not we're going to make an offer. That's because every place that we've seen has had at least 3 offers on the property before we even walk in the door. These condos and townhomes are going like hotcakes! Our first offer that we put down was 13,000 above asking price and they turned it down because someone else offered 5,000 more than we did!


So correct me if I'm wrong, but it don't sound like no buyer's market to me! Not in this neighborhood. I hope that's a good thing for our economy, but it certainly doesn't make it easy for us as dinky, little first time home buyers.

Robertson Family Pictures

Insert Title Here

As part of therapy (Jeremy is my therapist), I am being challenged to write this blog post in less than 15 minutes. Why? Let me explain...

Jeremy and I are trying to figure out why I am spending so much time working at the school. I swear I am always doing things that have to be done. I have a priority list, I am pretty organized, etc. Well, I'm starting to realize that a lot of my time is spent writing and re-reading emails and letters to teachers or parents.

Last Sunday, Jeremy caught me preparing a letter for some parents. I typed up the first draft in about 20 minutes (way too long for length of content) and then I spent an additional 45 minutes tweaking, rereading and editing. He kept trying to tell me that it was fine, but I couldn't get myself to leave it be!

Then, during the week, I caught myself working on a short email to another teacher for nearly 35 minutes. Later, I found myself spending another 30 mintues writing a different email. It was rediculous.

I know why I do this. During my first year of teaching, I had a very bad experience that had to do with emails. I sent an email to my boss about the janitors locking my room when I was still in the building, either when I went to the bathroom or was working in the supply room. Since I was not the only teacher having this problem, I asked her if it was possible for the teachers to lock their own rooms when we left the building. Later, she tried to use that email against me to prove that I am an insubordinate employee. It was an awful situation to be in--this only being a sliver of it-- and needless to say, aside from everything else that happened, I have become totally paranoid about any email that I ever send to anyone.

Okay, it's been fifteen minutes. Ugh!! I'm not done yet!!

So now, in an effort to avoid ever being in a pickle like that again, I scrutinize everything I write. I have really become obsessed with it. And it drives me nuts knowing that no matter what I write, and no matter how nice it sounds, someone could still take it offensively. Some of you will say, "so just talk to them in person!" But I can't go running around the school just to ask someone if they are going to have their class come to music due to holiday parties. Yes, I get obsessed and paranoid about even sending the most mundane emails.

Hopefully I can begin to get rid of this obsession by writing blog posts without obsessing over it for hours like I usually do. Hence, the reason I don't have a real title for this blog, as I usually spend too much time coming up with one. I guess I'll keep you "posted" on how getting rid of this obsession goes!

[Ahh! I have a lot of anxiety posting this with only re-reading it twice!!]

Puerto Vallarta

It's pretty cool to think that we were able to visit two "Puertos" in 2009.

Puerto Vallarta, Mexico was awesome! This was the first time that all of SarahLynn's sisters have been together since our wedding, so it was extra special.

We had a lot of fun together. Jeremy almost got engulfed by an enormous manta ray that had a wingspan of 14 feet. Tanya got super tan using every waking moment of sunshine. SarahLynn was the loudest screamer on our zip-lining adventure. Desha took the most (and the best) pictures. Dad threw up about 9 times on our scuba diving trip, and Mom performed the most consistent serves in tennis.

One of our favorite parts was when we found a newborn baby humpback whale learning how to swim alongside his mother. We were less than 100 ft away from them! We also enjoyed when the whole family ate together at all the resort restaurants. The food was amazing (and unlimited). But even better than the food was that we were all together.
Jungle Adventure
This is SarahLynn free-falling in the jungle!
More Pictures from the Trip
Mom and Dad marked their 32nd wedding anniversary while we were together!

Tanya dropped her ice cream cone. It was funny cuz she waited in line almost 15 minute to get it.Notice that both of our elbows are up? We had no idea we were both doing the same thing. It must be genetic!