House For Sale

Our house has officially been on the MLS for 5 days now. Too bad it would have sold by now if it was two years ago!!! I just had the first realtor/buyer come through a couple of minutes ago. I wasn't expecting it, but now I know how to be more prepared so bring on the lookers. P.S. The realtor didn't call and give me any warning (tsk tsk).

Here are some photos of the house with some changes. I know you probably are getting bored of my house pictures, but hopefully we will sell it and you won't ever have to lay your eyes on it again.

We painted the front door maroon to give a feng shui kind of welcome:

We replaced some of the Pergo flooring due to some water damage under the fridge. It is a laminate named Tropical Seagrass. We like how it looks, but laminate sounds so cheap when you walk on it:

Our newly staged bed:

Google!

After interviews with 11 different people, I finally got offered a job at Google. I start April 17th :)

We're totally excited here, and I can't wait to start. I looks like an awesome place to work; everyone is super sharp, they don't sweat the small stuff (like you don't have sick days, just stay home if you're sick), and they feed me for free (3 meals a day).

We'll probably end up moving into the Silicon Valley somewhere. Shannon is the resident real estate wizard so I just leave it all up to her. She has a talent for finding diamonds in the rough.

You've probably heard about it since I've been interviewing since January, but now its official!

Cake and Fire

We had our friends Peter & Danika over today to make cakes for our neighbors kids. They're (our neighbor's twins) are turning 2, and they wanted Thomas the Tank Engine cakes.

So Shannon and Danika put together some awesome cakes for them.

Also, Peter is a member of the juggling club at work and has been juggling for about 5 years now.

So be brought over his fire clubs :)

I think I'm going to have to get me a set of these.

Garage Sale Season!

Its that time again, or at least it will be when the rain stops. We had a little break in the storms on Saturday morning so we had a garage sale.

As garage sales go, we set out to sell the bookcases, but we didn't. Our neighbors sold about 3 bags full of babyclothes though, so it should be considered a success.

The ducks are back again this year it appears, and as the photo below shows, the neighbor girl had a lot of fun playing with them.

Aden turned 3!

My little buddy turned three on January 25th. I also celebrated my two year anniversary working for Aden's family. I have never been as happy at a job as I am with Aden and Kyle's family. Kyle is seven months now and wears 12 mos. clothing. He is in the 100% for height. Here are some party pictures:

One of Nanny's gifts:

Kyle and his mommy:

Aden's parent's rented a 101 Dalmations bouncy house:

Aden has such a developed vocabulary so I always treat him as if he is 14, but then moments like this happen to remind me he is a sweet, young boy. While everyone was partying, Aden remained in his birthday seat sipping every last milk bubble from the bottom of the glass. He was so lost in the moment:

Happy Birthday Big Guy!

Finally, some postings!

I apologize for not posting in a long, long while. I blame my husband since he has stopped posting stories on our "family" website. I guess it is up to LuLu and myself to keep this blog going!

Here are some pictures from this weekend.

1. We repainted our kitchen "natural raffia." It is a tame yellow that makes our cabinetry look so much better (unfortunately, it makes our grout look dirtier).

I am going to hang my Grandmother's cruise pictures above the kitchen cabinets.

2. Andrew and I traveled south to the San Jose area to check out the Silicon Valley and it's offerings for the weekend before Valentine's Day. We stayed in Cupertino, but explored the horrific real estate prices of the Silicon valley, ate a wonderful fondue dinner at La Fondue in Saratoga, and visited Hakone gardens in Saratoga the next day.

Hakone Gardens (http://www.hakone.com/)

3. The weekend before that, we went to Andrew's co-worker's Superbowl party. I can't remember who won (football, schmootball), but I ate enough to become a linebacker.

Everyone enjoyed playing Guitar Hero on the Playstation 2:

Life has been fun.

Goodbye 2005

Andrew and I wish everyone a Happy New Year! Yeah for 2006. I personally enjoy even years better than odd ones. Here are some photos from the holidays spent with friends and family.

Ty'Tiana (my "Little") and I spent an evening baking homemade gingerbread cookies. She enjoyed decorating the huge gingerbread men and ate many on her way home!

Off to Oakhurst we go:

I am now embracing Andrew's Finnish heritage and calling it my own. I decided to bake some Finnish bread for the family. The ring is a sweet bread and I made a dense loaf for dipping in the lutefisk.

Here are the merry carolers. Although Andrew said we were out of tune, we had a great time caroling for the family. On the left is Auntie Shirley, Ellen, Myself, Stewart, and Erin.

The kids.

The adults.

On Christmas day we drove from Oakhurst to Sacramento to spend a few days with my family.

My family.

For Chistmas I made baby Kyle (Aden's brother) a play quilt. It is in the pattern of the town of Livermore. The roads are geographically correct and represent 580, Livermore Blvd., and Concannon (where their house is). I also made the roads intersect to make a "K" for Kyle. There is a fountain in the middle with blue strings to represent the famous Lizzie fountain. The library in the right corner opens and closes so he can stick little books in it when he gets older. The prints represent the parks, local wineries, and the golden hills. The letters are made from jean and will fluff up once washed a few times. Kyle likes it and looks pretty cute on it.

the back:

I hope your New Year is happy and full of peace and love.