Olympic National Park and Boeing

We're having a great time on our trip to Seattle. The weather here is certainly unusual. It changes by the minute. It can be sunny and raining at the same time. Today was very windy. Highs have been around 50 degrees.

Thursday we drove to Olympic National Park. We took the ferry across Puguet Sound.

The National Park road to view the mountains was closed due to snow. We did see the mountains from the main coastal road. We went from sun to clouds to rain to sun all day.
We stopped at the visitor center in Forks. This is the town where the Twilight books take place. They had a replica of the truck Bella drives in the movie. Every other business in town had a name relating to the Twilight movies. There was the Twilight Diner, Twilight Delights, and Bella's First Aid Pharmacy (which she will probably need if Edward bites her and turns her into a vampire).

We hiked down a few trails along the Pacific Ocean. The surf was amazing. The tumultuous waves were crashing to shore. The picture doesn't do justice to the power of the waves.

On the other side of the park was a temperate rain forest. It is part of the only rain forest in North America. It starts in Alaska, comes down through Canada and then into parts of Washington, Oregon and California. The average anual rainfall is 240 inches. The moss covered trees were beautiful. It felt like we were in another world.

Yesterday we took a tour of Boeing. Their main production building is in the Guiness Record Book as the largest building in the world by volume. To put it in perspective, you could fit over 2,000 average size homes in the building. It was impressive to see the facility and the airplanes being built. They have over 30,000 people working at their facility just north of Seattle. Their flight museum was interesting. Here we are next to the tailfin of a 747. It's over 3 stories high!

We spent the afternoon at the Pike Place Market, home of the Pike Place Fish Market. This is the place that has become famous for the "Fish Philosophy" books being used in corporate America. The employees have fun at their job bantering with the customers and throwing the fish to each other. Several years ago, the principal of a school I used to work at gave every employee a copy of the book. It was a very interesting concept. Too bad my current employer hasn't adopted the ideas. We ended the day having dinner at Ivar's Acres of Clams in downtown Seattle. It is a seafood restaurant which has been in business since 1938. The food was delicious.

Today we plan to head back to downtown Seattle. This vacation has been "just what the doctor ordered". I really needed to get away from my hateful job and the stress of selling the house. Hopefully, our next vacation will be in the RV!!!

Much Needed Vacation

Our family is leaving for a vacation to Seattle on Wednesday! We'll be gone for a week. I love vacationing with our adult children. We have had some great times. They are very appreciative and there is no more "he's on my side of the seat, he's looking out my window, he's picking on me" to listen to. :)

Every few years we have taken our adult boys on a trip. It started in 2004 when I told my husband that we should take them on a trip because it would probably be the last time we would go on a family vacation since they were adults and had girlfriends and would be too busy to go. We decided to go to San Francisco and had a great time. Then in 2005 Kevin turned 50 and our youngest son turned 21. Kevin enjoys Vegas so I just had to plan a family trip to Vegas to celebrate his birthday. This would surely be the last trip both boys could take with us. Two years ago Easter was very early. Spring training was still in session during Easter break. This is a rare occurrence. Our entire family are big Milwaukee Brewers fans. So, of course, we had to go to Arizona for spring training. Since we were pretty sure we would be fulltiming sometime in 2010, it made total sense to plan one last family vacation before we were on a more limited income. I asked the boys where they would like to go. I was expecting a cruise or Disney. Instead, they said we had never been to the Northwest; so Seattle here we come. I can't wait!!! I'm sure this will be the last family vacation we take them on (wink, wink).

We had showings 33, 34 and 35 of the house this weekend. Showing #36 is this afternoon. Still keeping our fingers crossed. I think they may stay permanently crossed after all this time. We appreciate all the support we've received. Thanks!

From what we get, we can make a living;
what we give, however, makes a life. Arthur Ashe

RV Accessory Shopping

Last Saturday we drove to Camping World in Madison to purchase some items for the RV. It's items we will need while camphosting this summer at Astigo County Park in Columbus, WI.

Our site has 50 amp electric, but no water or sewer hook-up. That meant we needed to buy a sewer tote. For those of you who aren't familiar with RV camping, let me explain. You know when you use that toilet and shower in your RV, the waste has to go somewhere. It goes into holding tanks attached to the underside of the RV. Some RV sites have a sewer pipe in the ground. When your tanks are full, you just hook up your sewer hose to the pipe and flush away. If you don't have a sewer site, but you only camped for a short period of time, you empty your tanks at the dump station.

The park we will be staying at has a dump station, but that would mean we would have to hook up the entire trailer every 5 to 7 days to dump the tanks. Somewhere along the line, someone invented a portable tote to take care of this nasty little chore. You empty your RV tank into the tote, hook it onto your hitch at the back of your vehicle and pull it to the dump station. Then you use your sewer hose to make the dump. This will definitely be Kevin's chore!

We also bought another fresh water hose to put water into our fresh water tank. There is a water outlet near where we will be parked and we should have enough hose now to fill from there. If not, we may need to buy a water bladder. I didn't even know there was such a thing. It hold 45 gallons of water. It folds up into a 12" x 12" x 4" square when not in use. You put it in the bed of your truck, fill it up, take it back to the camper and fill your tank.

I also bought a 200 watt inverter so I can use the laptop in the truck while we travel. We have internet through our cell phone so can be online while we travel as long as we get cell phone service. Cool, huh!!

We have never stayed at a place for any length of time without water and sewer hook-up so this will be a new and interesting experience for us. We really didn't want to turn down the opportunity for this camphosting gig because we will get some experience and it will be a resume builder. Plus we really like the park. Our site is right on a river. We'll be sitting under our awning looking right at the water.

Our main job will be to rent canoes and kayaks. We are required to work 15 hours a week (3 hours a day for 5 days). That's it. We don't get paid, but we get a free campsite, electricity and firewood. We will be co-hosting with someone who was there last year. We may also help out with some registrations and selling firewood.

We're excited to get started. Today are showings #31 and #32 of the house. Now all we need is an offer. Keep your fingers crossed for us :)

There are two primary choices in life;
to accept conditions as they exist,
or accept the responsibility for changing them. Denis Waitley

Decisions, Decisions and What Ifs

Last week we had temperatures in the 50s and 60s. If you have been raised in Wisconsin or anywhere in a northern climate, you know that this is considered a heat wave for March. Kevin and I decided to take advantage of the balmy temperatures by taking some walks after work. I absolutely love going on walks with my husband. We do some of our best talking on these walks.

Since our house still hasn't sold, we talked about the what ifs. Our real estate listing contract will expire at the end of May. The federal stimulus money for home buyers will expire at the end of April. What if we get an offer before the end of April? That would be the best news, but how will we coordinate the start of our volunteer camphosting position with cleaning out the house. Will Kevin have to stay at the campground, and I will stay at home to take care of details. That could work.

Worst case, what if the house hasn't sold by the end of May. What will we do? We discussed several options. Kevin is no longer employed. My job is becoming more unbearable by the minute. Could we make it work if neither one of us was working anymore? That's a huge what if. It seems like this is all we ever talk about.

We have had a nice couple interested in a lease to own option since last year. The husband is in graduate school and will be finished in about a year. He has a job lined up, but they can't get a mortgage until he is officially employed. It's a scary thing to contemplate. What if they didn't pay? What if they trashed the house? What if, what if, what if????

We are not irresponsible people. We have weighed every option from multiple angles. Financially, we could make it work until the house sells. But, do we take the risk? Is starting the dream now worth having less money for a rainy day? How safe should we play it? In this economy, it appears that thinking outside the box is required. Probably some risk-taking is also required.

We have now had 30 showings of the house. It is amazing what buyer's expect and want. Our home is older and priced to sell for its age. It is priced under assessed and recently appraised value. This still doesn't seem to be enough for buyers. They seem to want a new house at a used price.

What if the people who looked at it over the weekend make an offer? Wouldn't that just be great!!!!

Keeping my fingers crossed in "balmy" Wisconsin.

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” Mark Twain

Happy Birthday Little Brother

Yesterday was my "little" brother's birthday. He is my only sibling and is 9-1/2 years younger than I am. I thought I'd share why there are only two of us and why he is so much younger than I am.

My parents were born and raised in Germany. My mom lived in East Germany and my dad lived in West Germany. They met at the confirmation of a mutual family friend. They married in 1956 when my mom was 18 years old. My dad really wanted to get her out of East Germany as quickly as possible so they didn't have a long courtship.

A little over a year later I was born. They lived in a very small village far from any hospital or even a doctor's office. I was to be born at home with a mid-wife in attendance. Well, I ended up being 3 weeks late. I weighed about 11 pounds (can you say huge!) My mom was in labor for a very long time. The mid-wife was very afraid we would both die. Finally, the mid-wife told my mom to give it one more try and push as hard as she could or the baby would probably not make it. My mom gave it one more heroic try and miraculously I was born. My mom had to stay in bed for an entire week because of blood loss and other complications.

A year later they immigrated to the United States with my dad's parents and brother. So now they were in a new country with a baby, didn't speak English and didn't have much money. But, this was the land of opportunity. Well, it wasn't as easy as they thought. They struggled to find jobs. Eventually, they found jobs, worked very hard and were able to make a decent life for us.

My dad had always wanted another child. My mom was having none of it. She never wanted to endure that experience again! Finally, almost 9 years after I was born, she agreed to try for another child. So, in 1967 I finally got my little brother. He was born in a hospital and everything went very well. I was the happiest little girl in the neighborhood. I had waited a very long time for a sibling, and I mothered him to death.

You can see that he is special to me. I'm sure he wasn't always thrilled to have a big sister mothering (or should I say smothering) him, but he didn't complain too much. So, Happy Birthday, Ron. I wish you many, many more!

A brother is a friend given by Nature. ~ Jean Baptiste Legouve

Happy Pi Day

This is for you mathematical types out there. I am a school secretary in a middle school. On Friday one of our math teachers reminded us that today is Pi Day. As in pi = 3.1415....
Get it: 3.14 as in March 14th. I am math challenged so it doesn't mean anything to me, but I thought some of you might want to celebrate :)

We had 2 house showings this weekend. Our agent tells us that things are getting much busier because the home buyer incentives will end April 30th. Many buyers are now window shopping in the hopes of finding a home they want to make an offer on before the end of April. The closing can be as late as June 30th. So, we are still keeping our fingers crossed.

It seems there have been so many times in our lives that things happened for a reason. When looking back, we understood that by being patient, everything worked out for the best. I believe God has a hand in these outcomes. Hopefully, He has a great outcome in the works for us regarding this house selling business because waiting is so VERY hard :)

"We must be willing to get rid of the life we've planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us" Author Unknown

Home Inspectors - Are They Worth It?

This is going to be a bit of a rant on our recent experience with a home inspector. So get ready!

Our house was built in 1977 and we moved into it in 1984. That means the house is 33 years old, and we've owned it for 26 of those years. It is priced to sell as a used home; not a new one. It is in excellent condition. We have worked hard to maintain it.

About a month ago, we received a low-ball offer from some buyers. After 4 counter-offers, we finally agreed upon a price (still a very good deal for them). Now to the home inspector. He came in and wrote a 26 page report. He actually found only a few minor items that needed to be repaired (which we have since done). However, on every section of his report he wrote "potential for failure" and recommended having a licensed electrician, plumber and HVAC service person inspect all the mechanicals. One pipe in the basement had a bit of rust on it so he wrote there was a possibility of a substantial leak behind the wall and this too should be inspected by a licensed contractor. He charged the buyer $420 for this report in which he took no responsibility and passed the buck on everything.

The buyers went nuts. They now wanted us to pay for licensed contractors to come in and check everything. They also wanted us to purchase a home warranty and replace items that were in perfect working order. They became so unreasonable, we had to back out of the deal.

When we bought this house, there was no such thing as a home inspection. I think the original idea of having a professional inspector check to make sure there weren't any hidden problems was a good concept. Our real estate agent told us that in the past few years some inspectors have been sued because buyer's felt they missed something so now some inspectors are recommending contractors inspect everything to cover their behinds.

So, what was once a good idea to protect buyers has now become a nightmare for sellers. I'm sure not all inspectors are this ridiculous, but here is another example where our litigious society has gone haywire.

Thanks for listening to my rant. I would be interested to hear if anyone else has had this experience with a home inspection. Well, we have another showing on Saturday; maybe this is the one.

Trying to stay hopeful .........