becoming all the wiser

This past month has presented a huge learning curve for Jeremy and me. We really feel like grown-ups now that we figured out how to buy a home! Thanks to Jeremy's hard work, we closed just 3 days after we were supposed to, which we've been told is a miracle these days. We were still able to move in on Saturday! And now it's my Spring Break, so I can spend all week unpacking!! We feel very blessed and grateful that everything worked out for our good. But it was mostly very stressful and confusing. Here's a few things we learned. For those out there more naive than us, maybe this can help you in the future.

• Make sure you have a spouse with a lot of ambition, who is really smart, and who is willing to fill in the gaps when you can't/don't. There is no way this would have happened without Jeremy.
• Don't ever throw your W2 forms or tax papers away- even from several years ago. You're gonna need them to buy a home.
• Don't wait around for people at escrow to file the papers or get them ready. It's up to YOU to get on their case and make it happen. (Good job, Jeremy!)
• Escrow will try to charge $250 to send your documents from one office to another. Just offer to transport them yourself, and they won't charge you.
• Make sure you get both electricity AND water set up before you move in. No one reminded us about the water. (Small detail that makes a BIG difference). Luckily we still could go potty and shower in our old apartment for 3 out 5 days that we didn't have water in our home.

• Magic erasers are the best for cleaning an apt. If you haven't used one of these, you've got to. They get rid of every scratch and scrape. I swear, we left that place SPOTLESS. (We better get our deposit back!)
• Try to find the blessings in all of the incoveniences. There was a huge earthquake on Sunday. Maybe Heavenly Father knew that if our water was on, the earthquake would mess up our pipes, so he made sure we didn't get our water until after the earthquake. Who knows?!
• Remeber that when you are applying for a loan, all of your financial info is at risk. Be ready to have people steal your identity. That happened to Jeremy. But at least we have brand new credit cards now!
• Craig'slist is wonderful. We were able to sell and buy several important items in record time!
• God answer's prayers. I knew we would close and move in on time because we had been praying earnestly and doing our part. That's all it takes!

We're Home Owners-and other news

So, it's been a while. Here's a quick update:

• We bought a cute town home in Huntington Beach! We will close on March 29 and start moving in later that week!! 2 bed, 1.5 bath. Washer/dryer hookup, fireplace, our own upstairs and downstairs, patio, and lots of opportunities to fix up the place. The location is just down the street, but we will be in a new ward at church, so it should be fun to meet new people. Our commute to work will be the same. And we can still ride our bikes to the beach! Now we have a guest bedroom, so come visit!!
• My school had their Open House in mid-Feb. It marked my one year of teaching at this school! It's so weird to think that I've only been there one year. It feels like ten!
• Jeremy has been really succesful with selling new Hormel products to his grocery chain customer. This store has been really notorious for not buying new products like Hormel's party trays and yummy pork tenderloins, so Hormel has been giving Jeremy high fives for all the new things he's getting this store to buy.
• I went to Sacramento last week for a 3 day MENC conference (music education thing). I stayed with Jeremy's family and had a BLAST. They took me to Sutter's Fort, Bowling, and Grandma's. We also celebrated our youngest cousin's 1st birthday! It was actually pretty fun being there without Jeremy. I got to have Matt, our little brother, all to myself. Oh yeah, I also learned a lot for my job at the conference.
• On Thursday, my 3rd graders performed their musical. I wrote the show and called it "So You think you Can't Dance." It was a spoof on the dance TV shows. In this show, the contestants think they can't dance, but the judges know they can. It was really cute. The students danced to folk songs and works by great composers, showing what they've learned about tempo, rhythm, melody, and beat. They choreograhped some dances and improvised to others. We also sang a few choral pieces. I was SO proud of them.
• Last night, Jeremy and I fell asleep at 6:30pm watching TV. We woke up at 10:00pm, but only long enough to roll into bed. We were zonked out until 8:30am this morning. That's 14 hours of sleep!! What the heck!? I guess that's another testiment to the fact that we have been really busy.
• Today we went to the beach to play beach football. The weather was gorgious!!

Baking for "Cake Boss"

Here's what happened last week, starting on Feb 13:

Jeremy- Hey, SarahLynn. I forgot to tell you that we got a wierd letter in the mail.

SL- Really? Where is it?

Jeremy- I put it in the bedroom. I don't really know who it's from.

SL (upon inspecting)- Hmm. Well, it's addressed to both of us. It's either covered in mud or chocolate. And it looks like your handwriting.

Jeremy- No! That's not mine... Do you recognize the return address?

SL (squinting)- Hoboken, New Jersey. It's from Cake Boss!

(If you've seen the TV show, you'll appreciate what "Cake Boss" wrote to us).

Dear SarahLynn and Jeremy,

Ahh! Sugar! Sugar!

Look, we're really SWAMPED at the bakery this week with Valentine's Day coming up and all. I need yous guys to make a cake to fill one a our orders!

So here's the deal...this really nice couple--and I mean REALLY NICE couple-- is celebrating their 5th Valentine's Day together as a couple. And I just think thas really special, ya know. I mean, not many couples have had five years together for Valentines day and are still THIS NICE.

So here's my vision for this cake...IT'S GONNA BE AWESOME!! We gonna start with some pound cake, multi-layered with some filling, then yous gonna dirty-ice it and add more layers. This things gonna be freakin YOUGE! Then you's gonna cover it in fondant and add some etching, some piping...whatever it takes to really get that romantic kind of classic Valentines feel. Then yous got to cover it with WHATEVER yous guys want. It's like the more you add, the better it's gonna look! Ya know?

Thing is, I need you to start and finish dis thing tomorrow (Feb 14). And make sure yous guys talk wich your families tomorrow, too, cause that's what life is all about, ya know?

Aright, get dis done tomorrow and cousin Vinny will be der to pick it up.

You the best,

Cake Boss

So we didn't quite succeed in Cake Boss' vision. We didn't use fondant or special iced etchings, and I ended up ruining the part with red velevet cake because the box wouldn't let me be creative enough. But we were still able to have fun with a few layers of chocolate cake, fruit and frosting. Thank you Jeremy for a very creative and fun Valetine's Day. I love you!!

Guess Who

We've been learning about a special person. See if you can guess what country he is from based on his circumstances:

1. His nickname is David and he is 11 years old.
2. When he was 7, his dad was murdered.
3. He lives with his single mom in a home with one bedroom. He has eight brothers and sisters. Since his mom cannot work, she is currently making money by renting a corner of their family room to another family with 7 kids. The space is separated by a sheet hanging from the walls.
4. He sleeps on a couch with his brother. Sometimes he falls asleep listening to one of the neighbors getting beaten by her husband.
5. He likes basketball, but can't play at the park near his home because there is too much violence. "My brother's told me that if I go there, I will get shot."
6. He doesn't know what TIVO is and he's never been in a jacuzzi.
7. The school he goes to is only in session four hours a day.
8. His mom cannot work and they don't have a car. Sometimes he does the shopping for his mom.
9. He listens to a lot of rap music and watches the Family Guy.
10. His two older brothers are currently in jouvenile hall for gang violence. His home is surrounded by gang violence and drug dealers.
11. He signed up for "Big Brothers, Big Sisters" because he wants to know what it is like to have a normal brother.

You might not guess he's from America until the last few clues. David is actually from Orange County.

A few months ago, Jeremy volunteered to be a big brother for "at-risk" youth in Orange County. He finally got his new little brother a few weeks ago. Jeremy has played basketball with him, taken him to the beach and arcade, and gone swimming with him. They are becoming really good friends. David keeps saying "this is the best day ever" when they are together. He even drew Jeremy a picture of the Sacramento Kings.

It's amazing to hear the stories that Jeremy tells of this little boy and all the things he goes through. I'm fascinated with the two very different worlds that Jeremy and David come from, yet, they only live 15 minutes away from each other. I love Jeremy for his desire to help make a difference in this boy's life. It's so attractive, don't you think? But I can also tell that David is making a difference in Jeremy's life, too. I hope they become lifelong friends.

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!