We have been hit again

Sadly, we were broken into again in the middle of the night. This time they came into our garage and stole Sara's $5000 mountain bike and her shoes that clip into the bike. So it's someone who obviously knows bikes because I would have no clue on the value of her bike and shoes. We woke up with the garage door open and only those items were taken or so we think. We might not be remembering something else because who keeps tabs on all items in your garage, I mean really. But tons of other items of value were untouched oddly. So that leaves us wondering...is this the act of the same thieves that took everything in Chris's truck who got the garage door frequency or is this a solo act by someone else? We are left wondering and worrying about our safety. We have a motion detector now in the garage that alarms the house. We also unplug the garage door so it can't be opened at night until we plug it in in the morning. We now have weapons in the room and a hammer hidden in the laundry room. We park both cars in the garage every night for precaution. All this after 2 burglaries in 2 weeks. Sad and scary.

Renters insurance n BBQ

Vanna (as in Vanna White) displaying our new "U" cooler
Sara's awesome outfit!
Carr n Case
Chris avoided the camera all night. So this is the only shot I have of him. He was mister BBQ all evening and cooked up delicious food!

Love my gay friend Dan....he gets all the ladies!Jules was so busted in feeding the dogs food. They would not leave her side.
Team #1 on scavenger hunt- including Bojangles of course!
The truth that we learned about Dustin was indeed PRICELESS!
Love Casey's outfit... our theme was tight and bright! He always has the best outfits!
Notice our fun patio lights on our deck..that are blurry but are so festive. We put those up right before the party. Oh yea, and Dan's one drink limit...haha.
Team #2 were the winners!
Sara's family n beau

So just a quick recap... our lives have been incredibly busy lately. It's been mostly busy with work so I won't bore you with those details. We did manage to get $2300 from renters insurance. Unreal. Chris has renters insurance for the sole reason that it makes his car insurance cheaper. Due to his car break in, he made a claim and they promptly sent a check to replace the stolen items! Wow- renters insurance is amazing! And it isn't like homeowners insurance where you have to worry about your rates going up or them dropping you if you make a claim because if they drop you, who really cares...it is just renters insurance. You do have to send some receipts of items you replaced so it isn't money you can blow on whatever. Still...incredible!

Anyway, we had a wonderful Labor Day BBQ with friends. Here are some photos. We did a scavenger hunt and a fun truth game where you say 3 truths and 1 lie about yourself. People have to guess the lie and it was a lot harder than you can imagine. Well to give you an idea. My truths were...1) I can drink shots of vinegar and Worcestershire sauce (which I can do but I don't do very often) 2) I secretly hate talking about collar bones and someone touching a collarbone or my collarbone 3) I once had a roommate who brushed my dogs ass with MY toothbrush and played it off as using her toothbrush. So you can see... the truths were sometimes unknown even to your closest of friends. The lie that I added in the mix was that I once got amnesia from doing a gymnastic move. Chris shared that he once was paralyzed for a month and almost died (giambre), he won $5000 from Pepsi two separate times in one year and that he got in a fight in Europe with 15 English dudes or something. Anyway, we had the best time. It was the biggest party BBQ we have ever had. Our pictures are from early in the day an most people showed up at night.

Small updates...

So in conclusion to the last post that I wrote about.... my clients love the home. I am so relieved, you have no idea!! But since then, Chris's truck got broken into parked in our own driveway! First time since I have lived at the home has something like this happened. The cops got several other reports the same day so someone targeted our neighborhood that night. His truck is always a target so it is no surprise that his car was hit where as our roommate's car was not. They were parked right next to each other too. We have since put up the brightest motion sensored light in our driveway and Chris is now parking in the garage. We were getting lazy with not putting stuff away in the garage so this has taught us an important lesson. Over the weekend, we cleaned and dejunked. We found places for everything. He got some suits stolen, a check which we have cancelled, his check book with his acct numbers (the worst thing of all to have stolen since he had to close his acct and reopen a new one), and a bunch of little odds and ends. What JERKS!!

Trust!

The house...
I don't normally share work stories but I am going to today. It isn't everyday when something new happens. Well, new experiences happen all the time in real estate but usually they are along the same wavelength. But today... I want to share a first for me.

So in all my years of selling, never have I had a client trust me with the house they bought so much that they never have seen it themselves!! So get this, I have a military family moving here from Wisconsin. They searched online before they came out- for weeks. I went out and previewed homes for them and sent them pictures. We got a huge list of homes to see when they got in town. I think we saw about 50 homes atleast when they did arrive in town. They were in town for a week and we looked at homes everyday. We placed 3 offers in that time. Due to us being outbid on the first home (this is typical- buyers have to miss out on one home because they want to "offer a lot less". They get stung with reality and then they make normal offers after that. It's normal and I deal with it on every client almost). We got that out of the way. On to our second offer which the seller decides at the last minute that they want to rent their house now instead of sell. Tough luck lesson #2. So we are back to the drawing board a day before they are leaving to go back to Wisconsin. They are starting to get that freak out feeling since they can't take more time off work to come out and look at houses. They pick a home the day they leave and place an offer. We go under contract and move forward.

I still looked at homes after they left. I don't know why but I just did. Turns out, I found one that I thought they would like and I sent them photos. I went back again and again to the house. In my mind, I think they will love it but I am not sure. You never know. They talk it over and want me to place an offer. Ok so I move forward still not totally thinking it will go thru. That was 3 weeks ago. They just closed on the home today. It is officially their home. They have never seen the house!! They relied 100% on me. I feel so much pressure. Tomorrow is the moment of truth. They are in route here from Wosconsin with a moving truck and I am so nervous!

small painting job

BEFORE (paint and fixture upgrades only) photos....
Gawd awful vanity and floor I know. One step at a time....
BEFORE photo of office
AFTER photo after paint and fixture change (light, towel bars, etc.)

AFTER photo of office
Not major improvement but every little bit counts. One glorious day, I will get a new bathroom vanity and travertine the shower and floor. I am excited for the happiness of that future day. Until then, this small improvement will do. You have to celebrate the small victories in life right!

Dream board

To make a FREE online dream board (that you can print), go to www.digitaldreamboard.com. I love this website!! It turns out amazing!! You put images from the internet on it so you don't have to go out and buy magazines and get a close version of what you want. I love putting my goals up so this dream board is my new favorite thing. I put it together in about an hour and it is the best dream board I have ever done. I even put it as my desktop background. I hope someone loves it as much as I do!! Again, it is free and so easy. And when you accomplish a goal, your dream board is saved so you can go in and easily replace the one image with another. Such cool stuff!

Moving work offices

our old building

Old office
Old conference room in old office
New conference room in new office!!
Our new office building
Next to Famous Daves-yummy barbaque!
We are upstairs on the second floor. You can see the reception desk thru the window.
Here we are packing (photo to come) up the old office as we prepare to move to a nicer building in Midvale area. Most real estate offices are downsizing and a lot of offices have closed their doors even. Luckily I am with a brokerage who is expanding in this crazy market. I am grateful to be with Everest Realty Group even after being there almost a year. After going thru an interesting previous year with Remax...(basically them not living up to the hype that they build plus some other things), we are very content in our new or not so new office. We still pass our old Remax office everyday and we see the car numbers shrink as more and more of their agents have and still keep coming over to our company. It makes me chuckle because we were the first ones to jump ship close to a year ago and a steady supply of agents (good ones I might add) have followed us. We are in a great environment which we hope continues. You know when things are good, sometimes you wonder how long can they really last as they are?? Well, I continually ask that and in my head, if I stay happy with Everest for 2-3 years, what more can I ask for. Anything more will be icing. So that is all I give it in my head. I've found it is sometimes better to have lower expectations than higher....old age maybe too.

So anyway, we are still getting our office settled with the move. Our building is next to Famous Daves if any of you are familiar with the area. Every time I walk outside around lunch I smell yummy baked beans and meat. That place probably gets a lot of traffic from our building. How can you not want to eat there every stinkin day!

6 days in Vegas....

Good lordie that is a long time in Vegas heat!! It was around 115 degrees everyday. Even at 3 am it was 110 degrees. Crazy hot and I have no idea how those Nevadans live in that. Anyway, we had a successful week at Mike Ferry (real estate seminar). Got some business while we were gone. Chris is pumped to work hard in real estate. I am pumped because of something else which I will share at a later time. We saw two comedians while we were there. We loved Craig Shoemaker (http://www.craigshoemaker.com/). He had us laughing so hard our cheeks and stomachs hurt. I was thinking to myself that he is the funniest person I have ever seen live. He is not a clean comedian however just to warn you folks. We work with some mormoms and they got up and left in the middle. Apparently they didn't like his humor. The next night we saw another guy who paled in comparison. Poor guy, he had a tough act to follow. While I was watching the second show, I was actually reviewing things that I needed to get done in my head. Not good. He did have clean jokes though.

We had this awesome lady come into our house two times a day to walk Bojangles and feed him while we were gone. He liked that a lot better than going over to someone else's house while we were gone. So we are thrilled to have someone we trust take care of our baby in our home and keep my flowers alive while we are out of town. Keep living the dream everyone....

Boating a few weeks ago

Fun in the SUN! We celebrated Brandy's b-day early this year in style. A perfect day on the lake. Thank you Dalley's... We LOVE you!! Happy 10 year anniversary!!

Summer fun and work...

So Bojangles is growing still... like a weed. I want him to stop growing because he is getting heavy! He is over 20 lbs I bet. He is definitely a mix of like scottish terrier or something. No yorkie is this big.
He is a lovable licker though....

I have been so busy lately, it has taken a flat tire on my car to slow me down enough to post on the blog. Argh! Nice surprise this morning. I must have run over a nail yesterday or something. So while I am waiting for Chris to come home and help me, here is a catch up...

I have had a client in town from Wisconsin. We looked at homes from morning til night for a week straight including Sunday. Rough week-draining, exhausting, and the worst part... we missed out on their 2 favorite homes due to multiple offer situations and also the seller deciding to rent at the last minute. So they left without having a home under contract. I had to place two offers on homes they aren't excited about....which to me is so sad! So I have pressure to find them a home on my own to surprise them with something better than what they are settling for... Shoot me now.

Guys playing beer pong...
Girls get together...
My awesome roommate Sara

Putting up the hammock...
My boys relaxing...

A simple pleasure in life...

So for 5 days straight, I have gone through about 30 oranges. You might ask why. Well for the simple reason of... being able to drink freshly sqeezed OJ. Nothing tastes like it in this world and I am addicted. I can't think of any way I would rather start my day than with freshly squeezed orange juice. Heaven!!

King of the neighborhood

So our little guy Bojangles is a mean bully. He has this secret alley way in our backyard that leads to ... well we don't know for sure. But he loves going back there and we suspect he has a nice collection of socks, panties and a slipper where ever it leads. One place that we know for sure it leads is my next door neighbor's backyard. And my neighbor has 2 dogs and a cat. So when Jengles sees the cat, he immediately runs through his secret alley and into the neighbor's yard. We just discovered this and boy were we surprised! We had no idea he was getting into our neighbor's yard at all. That explains the toy duck that he brought into our house that we have no clue where it came from. Also, we suspect he has been going to the bathroom over at her place too because we don't have any clean ups surprisingly. So here is his other backyard where he travels frequently... ie. everytime he sees their cat and he knows the dogs are inside...
peeking over the fence.... Imagine the first time I saw my baby over there...I was so shocked.
He hangs out on their deck taunting the dogs from the sliding door.... Until they get let out and he runs for safety (squealing like a little girl).

The board we put up to stop him from going back into his alley way.

i am so lucky

Its 10 o'clock at night and my honey is in the kitchen making tomorrow night's dinner... beef brisket! And he stuffed it with stuffing or something. He is the best. He loves cooking and I am so grateful!! And I am just lounging in bed waiting for him. He is the cutest and I am lucky.

A fun trip to Texas...

Chris and I went to Texas for a few days to visit my Mom and Michelle. We had a really great time. One day we floated down the river in an intertube. Normally I would freeze doing this but since it was close to 100 degrees and there was high humidity, I managed alright. I am a wimp when it comes to cold water.
We hit the local swap meet... one of my favorite things to do.
We cruised through San Antonio.... while my mom waited for us in an air conditioned hotel lobby.
The cool river walk...
One of the cruising boats that we rode on...

After a yummy brunch at the Four Seasons
More photos from our boat ride...
A cool tree
Here is the start of our trip to Michelle's new home...She definitely lives in the boonies. There is no walmart or a target. She has 1 bakery, 1 post office, fire station, rifle club, and a grocery store. She absolutely loves the laid back pace of life. Chris and I could not live there in a million years except if we were in the witness protection program. Pray that never happens. Those poor people never go to cool places I bet. Just rinky dink places. That would be cool if you got sent to Tahiti or somewhere. Sorry random thoughts.
Michelle's new boyfriend Russ. He is an EMT. And they have been serious for 1 week.
Michelle's new stray dog that she just adopted, named Molly. Lots of new things for Michelle. She has had Molly for 1 week and already she has made huge improvements(sadly she was a beaten dog).
Every night her driveway is covered in frogs! It was so funny. I have lots of photos of her night friends.
The camera can't adjust to the humidity so this is why this photo is blurry... It truly was that sticky out. We were amazed that electronics don't cease to work altogether. But anyway, this is her backyard. She owns 10 acres. It is beautiful.
Sad to say goodbye. We had a great trip visiting. Russ cooked us up great barbeque. We watched the darn Lakers win the World Championship in basketball. All six people watching at her home were for the Celtics. Lakers are too damn cocky. Darn them.