New Job = Fun Times

This week has been an adventure as I began a new position as an office manager for Woody Properties.  I have always loved real estate and jumped at the chance to change careers.  Troy and the kids have been great about helping me get things done!  It will take a bit for me to get a routine built up for balancing both work and home.  The great part is that the business philosophy of Keller Williams is God first, family second, business third.  I will still be able to work from home when the kids are out of school and the office is only 10 minutes from home :)  Troy just told me that I can't buy any of the houses that I list - LOL!  I think we have plenty of properties and we are very happy with our new home.

Crazy Traveling Summer

This June, the kids and I accompanied Troy on a business trip to Boston for a week.  While he took classes, we spent the days riding the train into the city and explored museums and a few historical sites.  Despite the well laid out transit system, I still managed to miss our stops a couple of times and we had to wait for a return train/bus to take us back to the right spot.  On our first day, we headed to the Boston Children's Museum to keep the kids busy and stay cool.  The first thing they saw when we walked in the door was the New
Balance Climb, which is a 3D puzzle for the kids to figure out.  It is 3 stories tall and they stayed there for over an hour!

Alyssa wasn't sure about climbing, but didn't wait below for long.

Ty and Lyssa try out woodworking at Johnny's Work Bench

Our second day was spent exploring the Boston Museum of Science.  We loved the Lightning! presentation  where they discuss and demonstrate electricity with a Van de Graaff generator making lots of sparks and noise.  We enjoyed the show so much we watched it twice.  The second time, they even made the sparks play a song!

The kids loved the bubble lab that they offered in the afternoon.  I want to do this activity at home because it was so much fun!  You just need a plastic cup, a straw and a tray of bubble soap.  You can add pennies for more fun :)

Another fascinating exhibit is a robot that you program (by linking blocks) to knock down a tower you make.

The museum took our whole day again :)  I was impressed with all of the interesting and educational opportunities available at MOS and would definitely return on a future visit.

Our last full day was super hot and of course, we were sightseeing...  Our first stop of the day was at the USS Constitution Museum where we learned about life in the navy during the revolution.  The girls loved the hammocks and said they'd like to sleep that way anyday.

The boys loved practicing their cannon firing skills too!

On the docks, we toured both the USS Constitution and the USS Cassin Young.  We had to go through security to get to the USS Constitution and were only able to walk around the top deck.  I hope to go back in the future and participate in a more thorough tour.  We had a semi private tour of the USS Cassin Young and the kids got to man the guns.  

USS Constitution

Our next stop was lunch at Family Kitchen on Bunker Hill St.  This is a small mom and pop place (just a bar with stools) with delicious food.  We enjoyed everything and loved the owner.  It was fun to get to know her.  This was the kids favorite restaurant we tried.

Our last stop was Bunker Hill.  The museum was closed for remodeling, but the kids enjoyed rolling down the hill.

Family Photo Session with Kasi

American Idol Semi Finals

I was so surprised to finally get an email telling me I could get tickets to American Idol for the show May 18th or 19th after my trip to Dancing with the Stars a few weeks ago!  This time, we were able to work it out so Doug and Troy could go with me - YAY!  Doug and his friend Angela flew out to Orlando and she stayed with the kids while we flew to California to see the taping. 

I decided to watch the performance show and since I had just been to the studio, I knew I wanted to stay at the hotel across the street. 

Doug and I flew into Long Beach and Troy worked in NYC all day and then caught a flight into Burbank to meet us.  The morning of the show, I just kept an eye on the line across the street and headed out at 11 a.m. when it started to form.  Troy and Doug hung out at the hotel to keep the internet access while I held our place in line.  I met a woman from Fresno who grew up in Merced and when to Aunt Karen's birthday parties!  Small world!!!  The woman in front of me had had her hip replaced by a doctor at Grossmonte Hospital on a machine that assists during surgery.  She said her scar was only about 3 inches and she recovered very quickly.  I'm going to see if I can get in to see him.

When they admitted us into the lot, the had us go in groups and gave us tickets with specific seats on them.  Before we went in, Doug asked me where my ideal spot would be and I said, directly behind the judges since the contestants perform to them and walk around their seats.  Due to Doug's height, the people handing out tickets decided we needed to sit in an area away from the normal area so he wouldn't block the view of people behind him.  After waiting on the benches until 4 p.m., we were allowed into the studio and to my surprise, we got my dream seats!!!

Doug went up on stage to dance during the preshow fun and was given dinner at Chipotle and some hot sauce made in Florida.  The commercials seem so long at home, but they really need the 4+ minutes to get ready for the next song.  My favorite was Haley Reinhart, with Scotty a close 2nd.  His voice sounds much better live than on TV!   After the show we headed to Burbank and caught a flight back to NYC and Troy headed off to work again.  Doug and I flew back to Orlando exhausted but we throughly enjoyed our quick trip!  Special thanks are due to Angela who made it all possible!  We really enjoyed having her and Doug spend a few days visiting.  I don't have my computer with the pictures, so I'll have to post them this fall when I get back to it.

Hip Dysplasia

I was diagnosed back in February and have been to five doctors who have not been able to help me with my hips because I am so young.  The doctors who do hip replacements don't want to do mine yet because there is no guarantee of the length of time they'll last and I'll almost certainly need them done again down the road.  Last Monday I went to a pediatric orthopedic physician in Orlando who does the osteotomy surgery that 2 of the other doctors suggested would be my best option at this point.  After taking more X-rays, Dr. Herrera-Soto told me that I definitely need surgery.  I am going to try to see a few other doctors before making the final decision, but I am glad to have found someone who explained everything to me so thoroughly.  I didn't feel rushed and the doctor was very understanding.  He wants me to complete physical therapy before the surgery so I can make a better recovery.

Principal's Honor Roll Celebration

I was able to enjoy a special awards breakfast for Kate and Jared's straight A report cards last week.  We munched on doughnut holes, cinnamon rolls, bagels, fruit, orange juice and water.  The principal gave all of the kids a hug and told them how proud she was of them.  They have made school a priority and I'm so happy to see the school acknowledge their hard work and commitment.

Closing on the House in MAY

We found out on Saturday that the 2nd mortgage on the new house will require us to close by May 25th instead of our previously arranged date the middle of June, so I've got lots of work ahead of me getting this house packed and cleaned.

House Update Part 3

This past Friday we were very discouraged when the bank rejected our offer and countered it $14,000 higher.  Troy was in NYC that day and was exhausted after traveling out to Utah to go through the temple with Doug, so we asked for the weekend to decide what to do.  On Sunday we decided to counter offer the bank even though we had been told $310,000 was their final offer.

Yesterday we heard back from the bank and they decided to accept $303,000 - YAY!  The paperwork is signed on our part and hopefully the bank with sign off on it today.  Then we should be able to close within a month or two.

Dancing with the Stars Classical Night

On Friday April 9, I got an email stating:

"“Dancing with the Stars” fans….Thank you for your patience in waiting for notification from us regarding the show! You are now receiving your official notification that there are a limited amount of line vouchers now available to next week’s tapings of Dancing with the Stars on Monday, April 11th and Tuesday, April 12th! The line vouchers are to be taken to the show and can be exchanged for a ticket on a first-come, first-served basis.  Monday is the performance taping and Tuesday is results show featuring a special surprise guest performance!

PLEASE NOTE: Due to the immense popularity of the show, there is a system in place to ensure that as many fans as possible get a fair chance to see the show; therefore, if you are unable to take advantage of this voucher to see the show or if the vouchers were gone before you saw this email, then please RE-JOIN our waiting list after Tuesday, April 12th so that you can be notified again at a later date.
  
Please use the link below and make sure to enter your information correctly and choose the correct number of vouchers for your party.  You may also find us on Facebook where we run weekly contests for priority tickets to Dancing with the Stars.
 
For Monday’s show (3:30 PM arrival-8 PM finish) pleaseCLICK HERE.

For Tuesday's show (3:15 PM arrival-7 PM finish) pleaseCLICK HERE.

Also, last minute tickets do sometimes get released, so if there were no tickets left by the time you opened this, please check back on Monday and Tuesday morning to see if any opened up.

Again, thank you for your patience and thanks for being a fan!"


So, of course I requested my tickets right away for Monday's show because I knew I wanted to watch all of the contestants compete rather than see the results.


After confirming that I had responded in time and that I had tickets to the show, I checked with Troy and he couldn't go.  So I posted on Facebook that I had 3 tickets left and my friend Rachel jumped at the chance to go.  I had just talked myself out of going Saturday evening before she told me she'd come and I'm so glad it worked out because Dancing with the Stars was amazing!!!

We flew to Boston Sunday where we met and enjoyed clam chowder from Legal Seafood and took the 66 bus out to the boat pier to take a walk around the harbor by the airport.

The weather was slightly chilly, so we were glad to have jackets.  After exploring that area, we headed back to the airport for our flight to Long Beach.  All of our flights went smoothly and we landed in Long Beach around 9:30 p.m.

We decided to sleep at the airport and then woke up in the morning and bid on a room by the airport on Priceline.  My first bid of $40 was accepted by 2.5 star Best Western of Long Beach.  They had a shuttle that picked us up at the airport and we were able to enjoy breakfast before catching the Metro up to Hollywood.

We had a room on the third floor.

The Metro stop is right in front of the hotel!  So convenient!

  We went over to the gate to ask what time we should plan to be back in line and they told us 2 p.m.  So we walked around the neighborhood surrounding the CBS studio and grabbed a bite to eat.  When we got back to the gate, there was already a line at 1 p.m.  Next time I'll have to remember to bring an umbrella and a folding chair and get there earlier.  A man was renting chairs for $5.  Not a bad business...  We waited in line until 2:30 when they started clearing us to go inside the fence.  After having our IDs checked, we were escorted to benches to wait until 4:30.  They had upscale port-a-potties for us to use with running water and mirrors - LOL!  We could touch up our make up!

Hurry up and WAIT

Heading in :)

When they allowed us into the building, we were taken up to the balcony right above the judges table.  We were on the first row of that balcony right in the middle.  I wore my white dress and it made it easy to pick myself out of shots on the TV screen.  I was so excited to see the set up for the orchestra.  I don't think there could have been a better show to watch live.  We couldn't hear a word that Tom and Samantha said into their mics.  The noise in the studio was crazy!  I had to keep reminding myself not to watch the taped packages because I could see them later at home.  I wanted to see how the show was run and watch the set changes.  We were excited because Tom and Samantha came up to our balcony early in the show for part of the taping.  Later the violinist came up also.  During the commercials, we enjoyed cheering and laughing at the audience guy who is trying to keep everyone enthusiastic and in line with the rules.  We had to stand up to be able to see the judges.  Bruno has a hard time staying in his seat!  Len got the biggest BOOs of the night criticizing the Harry Potter routine.

 I loved being there for this show with such talented musicians accompanying the dance routines.  David Garrett (violin) and Katherine Jenkins (vocal) were fabulous.  Poor Kirstie had a shoe malfunction and couldn't get it fixed fast enough, so she danced the rest of her routine with the two smallest toes hanging out of the shoe :(  Poor thing!  She had been practicing so hard all night.  I know she wanted to nail it after the problem the previous week.

After the live show ended, we got to stay and watch a piece taped for Tuesday's show with the violinist and the professional troupe.  They ran through it twice for the cameras.  I was excited to get to see more because the evening flew by and I didn't want it to end :)

The dance routines were to the following songs:

Romeo & Chelsie: Palladio

Pros Nicole & Ted: I can

Kendra & Louis: Time to Say Goodbye

Sugar Ray & Anna: Waltz of the Flowers (From The Nutcracker)

Petra & Dmitri: Les Voici! Voici Le Quadrille!

Pros Peta & Tristan: O Mio Babbino Caro

Ralph & Karina: Love Theme from Romeo & Juliet

Hines & Kym: Explosive

Chelsea & Mark: Hedwigs Theme (Theme from Harry Potter)

Chris & Cheryl: In The Hall Of The Mountain King

Kirstie & Maks: Flower Duet

PIE FESTIVAL - MMmmmmm!

The whole family spent Saturday April 9th at the 2011 Great American Pie Festival at Lakeside Park in Celebration.  The day was gorgeous and very toasty in the 90s.  Thankfully we had a breeze and a nice shady spot in the rocking chairs at the front of the entertainment seating.  If anyone likes to bake, here's the link to the winning recipes.

Alyssa and I got tickets to the pie buffet and enjoyed eating all kinds of pie:  chocolate covered key lime on a stick (my favorite!), apple cranberry, raspberry peach, Chocolate Mint Brownie Blast, pumpkin, cherry, blueberry, etc.

The kids area had a pie making station where kids could roll out dough and have it filled with cherry or apple pie filling and then decorate the tops.  They got to take their pies home to bake later.  Another booth had baked crusts from Village Inn that they could decorate with frosting, sprinkles, syrup, raisins, and nuts. There were several bounce houses to play on as well, so Jared and Tyler got a wristband to enjoy them all day.


Kate and Jared won their pie eating contests this year.  Jared's round was berry and Kate's was chocolate cream.  What a mess!!!  I'm still hoping to get the stains off of their clothes.  Tyler was very disappointed that he didn't win too.

We enjoyed some fun entertainment during the afternoon.  It included a magician and a comedian and a pie making competition.  We watched the comedian twice :)  Later during a baking demonstration, Kate was chosen to help make a chocolate banana and hazelnut creme pie.  While she was on stage, they asked her what her favorite food to cook was and she told them WAFFLES!  Like mother, like daugher, right?

Latest Doctor Appointment

On April 6th, I met Doctor Dore in Celebration for my first exam.  Three out of the past four doctors have been nice, but he was the most helpful so far.  He gave me a steroid injection to help with the bursitis in my right hip.  He also ordered MRIs of both hips and is consulting with other doctors to determine the best course of treatment.  If I was 6, he said their would be no question of how to handle my diagnosis.  I'd need osteotomies on both femurs and both sides of the patella.  If I were 60, he would do total hip replacements.  We'll see what the MRIs show on Saturday...  He talked about having me go to Boston for further treatment.  Thank goodness for JetBlue!!!

NYC America's Got Talent Trip

After taking a day to recover from the last trip, I got up early and caught a flight to NYC to see a taping of auditions for America's Got Talent on Friday April 1st.  It was cold and rainy, but I was determined to make it there anyway.  I waited in line for a couple hours to make sure I would have a seat.  They threw away my water bottle and all the food I had with me before going into the Hammerstein Theater.  I wasn't as early in line as last year, so I ended up on the front row of the 2nd balcony.  The main floor is reserved for groups mostly from area high schools and for the friends and family of the performers.  During my taping, I saw 13 acts and 8 of them made it to Vegas for the next round.  I liked 7 of the 8...  The other one was an example of why they require kids to be 14 to attend the show.

When the taping ended, I walked to Home on 8th for some soup and pot-stickers and then headed over to Doughnut Plant in Chelsea again for a creme brulee doughnut.  While I was there I picked up a coconut doughnut too and enjoyed it later that evening.

Then it was back to the airport where I found out the flight I was hoping to take home was full.  All the flights out of JFK were packed, so Troy helped me find a way to get home by flying to Syracuse and sleeping there.  You have to go out of the secure area and then go back in the following morning.  They don't have food services open late, but a police officer said several places will deliver to the airport.   I have decided that Syracuse is my favorite airport for sleeping.  The benches are comfortable and it is quiet at night.  The next morning my flight left at 7 a.m. and got to Orlando by 9:30 a.m.  Troy came over to pick me up when I got home :)

AAA to the Rescue

After our spring break adventure, we flew into Orlando at midnight to discover we had no keys to the van parked at Troy's office or to our house.  Thankfully I had my AAA card on me and called them to request a locksmith who could give us a key to get our van started.  Unfortunately, the key was $160 and AAA only covers $50.  Replacing the key would have made our other two keys stop working we discovered when the locksmith arrived.  I was really impressed with the locksmith.  He was so helpful and he was able to open the car and find the code that told him which key to make.  We debated how to save some $ and decided that the cheapest option was to have him make us a key that would unlock the van and allow it to shift to neutral but not start the engine.  That was covered completely by AAA :)  Then they called a towing company to tow the van home with Troy so he could use the remote to open the garage door and get into the house to get our spare keys.  It took a while to find a flatbed tow truck for us, but AAA worked hard to call around until they did.  Troy's office is 9 miles from our house and basic AAA membership covers the first 5 miles and charges $5/mile after that.  It was a good thing we had some cash since that was all the driver would take.  He was very friendly and helpful.  By the time Troy came back to pick us up, it was 4 a.m. and the kids were sound asleep in the hallway of his office.  I have never been so glad to see my bed and we were only out $20 for the extra towing - yay!!!  AAA has been $ well spent!  Last year I used 3 of my 4 service calls.

The next day Troy called me from work to tell me that we had been blessed by his choice of parking spots while we were out of town.  Apparently a tree fell on his normal parking spot during heavy winds the day before we got back...

Spring Break 2011

We decided to take a trip to Utah for the first half of our spring break and enjoyed staying with Janell and Gretchen.  The kids want a dog and were thrilled with the chance to play with Gretchen and teach her to shake.
 
On Saturday March 26th, Jared, Tyler, Troy and I were able to see A Celebration of Cellos: My Cello Dream which Doug has been working on during the past year.  We loved it!  My favorite number was  Bolero where 4 girls played 1 electric cello at the same time - WOW!  It was a fun night and we enjoyed hearing Doug's voice over the PA system.  This is an article from BYU's paper about the concert and it quotes Doug.  All the hard work paid off to make a wonderful evening to a full house :)

Tuesday morning, I saw Dr. Ferney who replaced both of dad's hips hoping he could help me and take me more seriously than the last doctor I consulted.  Dr. Ferney referred me to another doctor at the U of U because I'm in between the age of normal hip replacement and osteotomy.  He wants me to see someone who specializes in younger adults.  He did diagnose me with hip dysplasia in both hips and bursitis as well.  However, he didn't want to give me an injection since I'd be traveling that evening.

Tuesday evening, we all headed back to the airport for our trip to NYC.  Wednesday morning we arrived at JFK around 6 am and went to sleep while Troy went into the office for work.  When we woke up, we headed into Manhattan to take the ferry out to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.  The weather was chilly but dry thankfully!  We brought our heavy winter coats from Utah and layered them with our lighter Florida coats to stay warm.  I even wore two pairs of pants since cold bothers me so much :)

The kids' shot from the ferry

My 1 shot of Kate sitting to the side of Jared

While we were there, the kids found a quarter and decided to look for more lost change.  This is their haul ;)

We bought a light up Statue of Liberty pen for the kids to take to school before heading over to Ellis Island.  We enjoyed learning more about the history of immigration and since it was the 100 year anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire of 1911, they had an exhibit dedicated to those who lost their lives.

Katie really was with us, but I don't know where she was for most of these pictures.
We were glad we travel with rolling suitcases after viewing all of these heavy trunks!

After returning to Manhattan we took the M20 bus to 23rd Street and walked to the Doughnut Plant to try some of my favorite treats.  The kids loved the Valrhona chocolate covered doughnut the best, but we tried the PB & J, a vanilla bean glazed blackberry jelly, and fresh strawberry glazed doughnut - YUMMMM!  After our treat we grabbed Subway Footlongs for dinner :)

We took the E back to the AirTrain and headed to JFK to take our flight back to Florida.  In the next post you'll hear the rest of the story...

House Update...

The seller's lender had a BPO done and it said the value of the house was $340,000.  So their bank wanted us to raise our price to that value.  The seller argued with their bank and got the price down to $317,000, but still wasn't happy with that.  So we had our mortgage officer order our appraisal.  It came back at $296,000.  I'm so glad it wasn't higher than that :)  I haven't gotten to see the appraisal yet, but just got the amount over the phone.

Final Days at Disney World

Last Christmas we bought Disney annual passes with an extra 3 months free, so they expired March 23rd.  The final 3 days we went to Epcot and Magic Kingdom to repeat our favorite rides since we won't be buying passes there again for quite a while.  We stayed until closing (11 pm to 1 am) each night so the kids got pretty tired, but we had so much fun and the lines for most everything were nonexistent.  We called it our early spring break :)

Monday was fully devoted to Magic Kingdom:  We went to almost every ride in Tomorrowland, Pirates of the Caribbean, and the Haunted Mansion.  We enjoyed watching the fireworks too.

Tyler scored the highest score possible on Buzz Lightyear's ride.

Tyler's driving skills are much improved:  No whiplash this last ride :)

At Epcot, our must do's were:  sodas at the international soda fountain, Captain EO, Sum of All Thrills, Test Track, and Innoventions.

Wednesday night for our last trip, we celebrated with a turkey leg and Alyssa finally agreed to try a bite after refusing for the past year.  She was so disappointed that she hadn't decided to try them earlier.  They are DELICIOUS!!!  The kids will miss eating those.