Another One Bites the Dust

So, two weekends in a row Darin and I got to cross things off our 2011 bucket list. With the house closely looming, we decided that we needed to get away with the pup and go do something. Ok so that's not entirely true, Darin is a diabetic and he had made an appointment with his Endocrinologist on President's Day months before, and because that holiday is a paid one in my office I thought that it would be nice for us to make the trip a family outing. So Monday morning bright and early we packed up our stuff and hit the road to San Luis Obispo at 8am. I know, why SLO? Well you see his sister goes to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. When she discovered this doctor (she is a diabetic too) she told Darin how wonderful she was and Darin decided to switch and start going to her. The drive isn't too bad, and the scenery is wonderful.

Driving through the country and next to the beach is so calming that I was too busy looking out the windows and before you knew it the 2.5 hour drive was over. Darin went into the office and Shelby and I decided to take a walk. Once Darin was done, we hopped back in the car, en route for Solvang, CA. I had been there as an adolescent, but Darin hadn't. I remembered it being a cool place for photos and food, so it was perfect. Here's a little background on the city:

Named by Sunset magazine as one of the "10 Most Beautiful Small Towns in the Western United States," Solvang's rich heritage dates back to 1911 when adventurous Danish-Americans traversed the plains from Iowa to establish a settlement in the golden state of California. They purchased 9,000 sun-drenched acres of the former Rancho San Carlos de Jonata and situated their new community adjacent to the historic Old Mission Santa Inés. To preserve and promote Danish culture, the founders constructed a Danish folk school and church (the building now houses Bit O'Denmark Restaurant); then built Atterdag College, which opened in 1914 and educated through 1970 (now the site of Solvang Lutheran Home). Founded by Danish immigrants in 1911, Solvang boasts authentic architecture, thatched roofs, old-world craftsmanship and traditional windmills. Over 1 million visitors come each year to experience the northern European culture, cuisine and unique boutique shopping. 

"Danish Capital of America". It was not until 1946, after the end of World War II, that promoters of the idea of a "Danish Village" were finally able to move ahead with plans to redesign the existing facade of the town, and to mandate this style for new construction.

We arrived, found some parking and decided to get something to eat.  We went to this quaint little restaurant called The Little Mermaid and ordered some sandwiches. They weren't too keen with the dog, so we found another place to eat our food, and then decided to walk the city. Darin is a budding photographer, so I thought I would just take in the scenery with our pup and let him do his thing. We wandered around looking at all the cool architecture, and people watched. Because we had the pup, even though some stores had dogs welcome signs, we did not go into any stores and shop. It was very crowded as it seems many people had the bright idea to take the three day weekend up in this village.  I wandered into a bakery to try and get a danish, but after 10 minutes of trying to decide which one to pick, I just gave up. I didn't need all that sugar anyways. We people watched some more and wandered around outside the Hans Christian Andersen museum, but around 2:30 the rain clouds started to loom ominous and our bodies were screaming at us for being up so early after too much the night before. (we had a birthday party we attended) All in all it was a good trip.

Stereo Love - Edward Maya & Vika Jigulina

I have decided that with their being so many great songs; past, present and future that I was going to post weekly with a new or old song that I have fallen in love with. I will try and post a video, but if for some reason I can't find it I will just post the lyrics. Today I am featuring Edward Maya and his song "Stereo Love"

When you're gonna stop breaking my heart

I don't wanna be another one

Paying for the things I never done

Don't let go,

Don't let go

To my love.

Can I get to your soul?

Can you get to my thought?

Can we promise we won't let go?

All the things that I need

All the things that you need

You can make it feel so real.

Cuz you can't deny

You've blown my mind

When I touch your body

I feel I'm loosing control

Cuz you can't deny

You've blown my mind

When I see you baby

I just don't wanna let go.

I hate to see you cry

Your smile is a beautiful lie

I hate to see you cry

My love is dying inside

I can fix all those lies

Oh baby, baby I run, but I'm running to you

You won't see me cry, I'm hiding inside

My heart is in pain but I'm smiling for you

Can I get to your soul?

Can you get to my thought?

Can we promise we won't let go?

All the things that I need

All the things that you need

You can make it feel so real.

Cuz you can't deny

You've blown my mind

When I touch your body

I feel I'm loosing control

Cuz you can't deny

You've blown my mind

When I see you baby

I just don't wanna let go.

When you're gonna stop breaking my heart

Don't let go,

Don't let go

To my love.

I hate to see you cry, your smile is a beautiful lie

I hate to see you cry, my love is dying inside(x3)

I can fix all those lies

Oh baby, baby I run, but I'm running to you

You won't see me cry, I'm hiding inside

My heart is in pain but I'm smiling for you

Oh baby I've tried to make the things right,

I need you more than air when I'm not with you,

Please don't ask me why, just kiss me this time

My only dream is about you and I

New Look

Please bear with me as I am trying to update the look of my blog. Any feedback is welcome! :-D

Thanks!

Pulling My Hair Out

I figured since it's been a while since I updated on the house hunt that this morning was the perfect time to do so. My last post might have left you feeling like you were stuck without an ending. Well that's because we hadn't heard anymore. Since then we have gotten some news, but lets recap. After two years of searching for a home of our own, Darin and I found a property that was in our price range, well sized to grow into, and in a nice part of town. We put in an offer and we were waiting. And wait we did. Most people when they put an offer in on a home wait, but it is typically a day or two before they find out if their offer was accepted, not accepted or counter offered. With bank owned properties this is not the case. You see, even though we put our offer in first thing on that fateful Monday morning we did not hear back within one to two days. No we waited a whole 12 hours before getting a multiple offer email from the seller. We were asked to put in our best and highest offer. So Darin and I considered our options, raised our offer a little and included a personal letter about why we wanted the property. You see, banks would much rather sell to someone that will live in the property as opposed to an investor that will either rent the property or flip it. (Flipping is when you take a property, make significant changes to the interior finishes, or space plan and then sell it for a profit. A very lucrative business when the market is good, which we all know if not right now.) To make ourselves look as good as possible to the bank, we did everything that they asked for. Thinking we were going to hear back rather quickly like we had the first time, Darin and I went on our merry way back to our lives.

Over a week later, and many emails to the seller we finally got a response. A counter offer. This was to be expected as it was a bank owned property, however it wasn't an increase in price like I had thought. They countered with our original price, with closing costs, but the only thing they changed was they asked us to use their financing. To us it was very undesirable, a higher interest rate is not something that I was interested in. So we decided to counter back with our same offer and financing. I thought, this is it we are out. Off I went to rent.com to see about new apartment complexes. I had this sinking feeling that because we didn't want to use their financing they weren't going to pick us. I still had a little hope though, I had my boss do her good luck tap dance (Hey, it worked for Darin's promotion so why not this?) A couple of days later I was at work, doing work related things, when the phone rang. I looked over at the caller ID to see Darin's number pop up on the screen. I thought, "Here we go, where are my tissues?" I needed the tissues all right, but because when I answered the phone Darin's voice was very optimistic and he said to me "We go it!" To which I responded, "Please don't play with my fragile emotions, are you serious?" We both had a celebratory conversation and I cried. He told me that our Realtor was coming over so we can sign all the acceptance paperwork. When I got home, we ordered a pizza and signed about a billion pieces of paper that we had already signed for the offer. What's with the redundancy? I know when you purchase a home it requires killing a small forest to do so, but we could live without signing the same document more than once. Darin got all the information together for the cashier's check for the escrow company, we had our inspection scheduled for that Saturday, and our Realtor told us that our HOA documents had been ordered. We were in good shape.

Saturday we had our inspection. It was FREEZING in the condo as the pilot light on the water heater wasn't lit so we couldn't use the heater. Everything seemed to work fine, even our fireplace! We had a scare with a reversed switch, but we got it to light! Minor wear and tear and some smoke detectors need replacing, but all in all nothing too crazy! We were excited. We had to organize all our loan paperwork and get that submitted, and work out our down payment. This was all done this past week and we seemed like we were on top of everything that we could control. However on Friday we got an email from our Realtor that she needs a new cashier's check. Um why you ask? Because she gave Darin the wrong escrow company name! Ugh! Pay attention.....also we found out that our HOA documents had just been ordered, not a week ago like we were told. So here we are, 10 days into our 17 day contingency period and we have no HOA documents. I know that this isn't the last hurtle and we will deal with more stress, but come on! If you tell me something, please make sure it is accurate! So that is all the info I have at this moment. Please enjoy the pictures that Darin was able to get at our inspection.

View of Entry and Loft

Kitchen

Fireplace (YAY!)

Wet bar in Loft

View of Living from Loft

Dining

Guest Bath

Linen

Just Like Disneyland Right?

So in an effort to start checking things off our yearly bucket list Darin and I decided to go to The Reagan Library yesterday. I had to go out to Simi Valley anyways and get some blood-work done and get my car registered in my name so I felt that it was a good opportunity for us to go and be touristy. Considering in the 20 years I lived in that valley I had only been their one time and Darin had never been. I went online to find out how much the tickets were going to be and to see if there were going to be any special events going on this weekend. (being that it is V-day weekend and we just celebrated the Former President's 100th birthday) Nothing of pertinence showed up on the site so I thought we were good to go.

We went and ran my errands and took a lunch break at the local mall. It was a beautiful day and it was perfect weather outside. It couldn't have been a better day to go. Apparently everyone else thought the same thing. You see to get to the library (which is situated on a large hill on the backside of the valley) you have to drive up this windy street which is lined, in ascending order, with large banners of every President. Its a very pretty street, but when I saw that people had started to park on it nearly to the bottom of the hill I knew that it wasn't going to be pretty at the top. Luckily we found a spot near the top of the hill and just parked there. (good thing we did because there was a lot full sign at the top) We hiked the rest of the way up to the entrance and turned the corner. We both nearly stopped dead in our tracks because of the line! It was almost as bad as Space Mountain on a Saturday with no Fast Pass! I mean screaming kids, pushy adults, and Docents trying to sell memberships. Needless to say our stay in line was quite aggravating. We finally got to the end of the line and they asked "Did somebody explain to you when you need to come back?" What?!?! We both looked at each other like are you serious? Because they were so busy, this had been the first weekend after their grand opening of an entirely new exhibit and construction, once you bought your entry ticket you received a pass telling you when to return to be able to enter the museum! Ugh, we had to wait to wait?!? Poorly planned I swear. It was only a 15 minute wait so we used the restroom and went outside to view the Berlin Wall and take some photos. After over an hour we were finally inside we were able to see all the new exhibits and wander around a bit, however I must tell you that the people that were the most rude weren't the younger generation with their kids, it was the 60+ crowd. They were pushy and condescending and kept cutting in front of me. I was appalled! I have always respected the elderly and always let them go first, but to blatantly disrespect me made me very upset. Darin and I decided that we would just see the stuff that really interested us and come back when it was less busy to really experience the rest of the museum.

We decided to hurry and go see Air Force One. Well we hurried, again to just wait. 30 minute line to walk onto the plane and we couldn't take any pictures! :-( But they sure wanted us to buy a picture. Souvenir photos of you standing on the staircase and waiving! $15 for a 5x7. Darin and I passed at that opportunity, enjoyed the plane and wandered around a bit more. They had a mock up of the oval office when Reagan was our President which was very interesting. Several cars and military aircraft's. Also a full scale (1" to 1 foot) model of the entire White House. We bought some Jelly Belly's (the President's favorite candy) and paid our respects to his memorial.

I think that it would have been a far more enjoyable experience had it not been so busy. The docent at Air Force One said, "Its just like Disneyland right?" to which I replied "no not really." I usually expect crowds at Disneyland, not at a museum!  We will go back and enjoy it again when everything calms down again. I highly recommend it for people who want to learn more about Ronald Reagan, or for just an afternoon of history and beautiful scenery! Anyways have a look at our photos from the day. We got some cool shots!

Waiting Game

I am not a patient person. Sure sure I may seem like it on the outside and I seem to take things well but when I am waiting for something I get very anxious and drive myself crazy. I am a horrible person to buy gifts for because I usually know what it is. (sorry Darin) Surprises, forget it. Darin tried to throw me a surprise birthday party this year with the help of our fabulous friend Hope, but alas I found out. Don't think that I went snooping, he left it open! I was helping plan another surprise birthday and I went into Facebook to look at my messages because both the subject lines were the same. I click on it and see responses from my friends and I got confused. Whoops. Darin have left his account logged in. So I knew and I was bummed! I had a wonderful party but it stinked that I couldn't be surprised.

So Darin and I have been shopping around for a home of our own. We found a condo that we really liked and decided that it was in our price range and we would make an offer. We had a very stressful weekend and once Monday rolled around we got together with our Realtor to sign the offer. This wasn't your typical offer, because we had to fill out addendum pages and many other things went into it. 20ish pages turned into about 60 or so! I mean c'mon. This is just for an offer that might not be accepted. We signed all the necessary pages, gave her our credit scores, (which I was pleasantly surprised that we were above average and in the excellent category) wrote the check and off she went. A little bit of a weight had been lifted but now there is the waiting game.

Tuesday we go into work like normal and have our normal days when around 11 o clock we get an email from our Realtor. Subject line: REQUEST FOR HIGHEST AND BEST. This means that the property got multiple offers on Monday and the seller is requesting that we put in our highest and best offer on the property. My father-in-law and our Realtor had done comparable research and we were right in the competitive area so I was annoyed that they were asking for us to reconsider our offer. To keep us in the running we decided to increase our offer and to write a letter to go with our offer so that we would be seen as people instead of just dollar signs. Since this property is a bank owned I knew it would probably not get seen, but at least it made me feel like I had done everything in my power to get the property. See letter below:

Dear Seller,

Hello! My name is Diane Kimball and my husband is Darin Kimball. I was raised in the Simi Valley area and graduated with a Bachelor’s degree from Cal State Northridge in 2007. My husband has spent the majority of his life living in the Santa Clarita area and went to Valencia High School as well as College of the Canyons. I am an interior designer, with The Wren Group, and my husband is a personal banker, with Wells Fargo Bank. We met in 2001 through a mutual friend and it was love at first sight. We were married in 2007 at the Wood Ranch Golf Club in Simi Valley. We have been renting from the Promenade Apartments for the last 3 years, and have really had a large desire to purchase a home so that we may progress to the next stage in our life; starting a family of our own. Because of Darin’s love for this city and his many years living here, we both know that this is the best place for us to put in some roots and start our family.

We are thrilled by your properties proximity to urban areas, as well as being convenient for my commute to Pasadena and my husband's drive to work will be simple as he also works in Santa Clarita as well. The openness and light of the living space made us feel welcome, and the extra bedrooms made me think of the pitter patter of my future children playing in those rooms. With a well sized kitchen and loft, we felt that it has the perfect amount of space for us. The community is wonderfully maintained and seemed like a perfect place to meet new friends and neighbors.

We hope that you will carefully consider our offer, and we hope to meet you in person soon.

Sincerely,

Darin and Diane Kimball

I went into our Realtor office to sign the amended offer and make sure everything was ready to be turned in by the 1PM deadline on Wednesday. I was told that all offers were going through the selling realty office and they would pick the best offers and send to the bank.....why not ALL go to the bank? So here we are 24 hours and counting. Waiting to hear back if our offer was considered, rejected, countered or accepted. I HATE THIS! I will keep you posted on all things, but until then I am waiting by the phone.......

Invites, games and music! Oh My!

So I am helping my mom and aunts throw a baby shower for my cousin in March and I have been put in charge of invitations and party games. Invitations were relatively easy because really all I needed to do was put the address together with some cute verb-age. Yes I know I might have borrowed the wording from a friends shower invite, but it was so cute that I couldn't pass it up. Also it helped because the baby has already been born, so images of little Charlee (Charlotte) took up space and served as an announcement as well. Well today when I went to order them from Costco.com, thinking that my mom could pick them up tomorrow and send them out by Monday, I get this little error on my order. I couldn't pick them up! What?! Don't you hate it when you think that you can do something, just to get shut down! I called Costco and they told me that my items were not available for in-store pickup. I mentioned to them that they should probably disclose that a little earlier as to not waste the customers time. I ordered them anyways, and paid the extra $30 for overnight delivery! It will be worth it though, cause they are cute!

Card Front

Card Inside

Card Back

My next task is where I need a little help. I have a game that I am for sure doing, but need a couple more additions. Here are some ideas that I had:

*Heavy Purse -  Have a scale and weigh each guests purse. The guest with the heaviest purse wins a prize.

*Dirty Diaper game - Option 1. You'll need (5) cloth diapers or disposable diapers and some miniature candy bars (5 different flavors). Put a different mini candy bar in each diaper and slightly microwave them (be sure you keep track of which is which)! Pass the diapers around to see IF they can figure out what candy bar is in each diaper. This is a RIOT!!! Your guests will laugh the entire time! The person who guesses the most correctly WINS! Option 2. You can hand make small individual diapers out of paper or fabric and put a small "stain" (chocolate, mustard, etc) in a winning diaper. As guests arrive give each person one to pin on their shirts. The guest who receives the "stained" diaper is the winner!

*Guess the Baby Food - Have a couple of baby food jars, without the labels and guests have to guess what the food is by smell or by taste.

*Name that Baby Tune Artist - I searched online at Lyrics.com for songs using the word 'Baby.' I then downloaded ten songs that I selected from Walmart.com (88 cents each). I wanted to cover a range of time periods to give the older moms and the younger moms a better chance at guessing the artists. I had songs such as Cat Stevens (Wild World), Peter Frampton (Baby, I love your ways), the Supremes, and the Drifters. I would begin playing the song and the first person to yell out the correct artist got a point. At the end of the game, I gave a prize to the top two guessers. (If I do this, and I might because I have already gotten a huge list together, I would have them right down their answers as I play and whoever gets the most right wins)

"Hey Baby" - No Doubt
"Baby I Love Your Way" - UB40

"Maybe I'm Amazed" - Paul McCartney
"I Can't Get Enough of You Baby" - Smash Mouth
"Don't Worry Baby" - The Beach Boys
"River Deep, Mountain High" - Too many artists but maybe the Glee version
"Baby, One More Time" - Britney Spears

"Magic Dance" - David Bowie
"Whole Lotta Shaking Going On" - Elvis Presley

"The Twist" - Chubby Checker

"Baby I'm A Star" - Prince

"Dreamlover" - Mariah Carey

"Black Magic Woman" - Santana
"Candy" - Mandy Moore

"Baby" - Justin Bieber (Please don't stone me!)

"All That She Wants" - Ace of Base

"What is Love" - Haddaway

"Paparazzi" - Lady Gaga

"Baby Got Back" - Sir Mix-a-lot

"Baby Come Back" - Hall & Oats

"Kiss From a Rose" - Seal

"Crazy" - Aerosmith

"Sexual Healing" - Marvin Gaye

"Push It" - Salt-N-Pepa

"Every Breath You Take" - The Police

"Ice Ice Baby" - Vanilla Ice

"The Way You Make Me Feel" - Michael Jackson

"Express Yourself" - Madonna

"Bright Lights" - Matchbox 20

"Bohemian Rhapsody" - Queen

"Canned Heat" - Jamiroquai

If you have any other games that you have played that are entertaining or have any baby song suggestions please feel free to shoot them my way! I think I need some more older songs. Any and all help is appreciated!