Meet Bill, Lars and the Real Girl

Saw a couple of flicks on vacation ...

Lars and the Real Girl (4.1/5)
Pretty darn good movie about a topic, mental illness/delusions, that would never, ever, be addressed in a studio movie. This was light most of the time, while getting serious occasionally. Definitely not a feel good movie per se, but also not so heavy you want to go jump off a bridge. Ryan Gosler did an excellent job portraying the earnest, lovable, but struggling protagonist ... quite a different turn than his star creating roll in the Notebook. All in all, it was an interesting look at something that doesn't turn up much in the movies, and was worth the watch.

Meet Bill (2.1/5)
This was a pretty stupid movie about a guy having what was essentially a midlife crisis. There wasn't anything really redeeming about it. The acting was "eh", the story kind of lame, and in the end it was really kind of pointless. Initially I was thinking 2.8, but dropped it after I wrote this ... steer well clear!

Movies I've seen recently:
Juno - 4.8/5
Slumdog Millionaire - 4.6/5
Iron Man - 4.2/5
Lars and the Real Girl - 4.1/5
Wall-E - 4.0/5
Traitor - 4.0/5
The Dark Knight - 3.9/5
Star Trek - 3.9/5
Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist - 3.7/5
Kung Fu Panda - 3.5/5
The Passion - 3.5/5
Valkyrie - 3.5/5
The Incredible Hulk - 3.4/5
New in Town - 3.2/5
Horton Hears a Who - 3.0/5
Meet Bill - 2.1/5
Jonah, a VeggieTales Movie - 2.4/5
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - 1.9/5
Burn After Reading - 1.5/5

Back Baby!

So, we're back. Working, playing, doing the summer thing, yeah!

We had a great trip! Here's the quick recap:

• Friday/Saturday - on the road. Driving, stayed the night in MO and enjoyed the pool at the hotel both Friday night and Saturday morning. Hung with my cousins, Marc and Erik a bit on Saturday. It was fun to catch up with them.
• Saturday pm - hit the cabin! When we first arrived, a decent sized oak tree was down across the whole driveway! Luckily we could park in their "guest" parking spot. Cyndie and I managed to pull the limbs out of the way with Uncle John's old F100 pickup! (I gave him a hard time that with all the equipment/tools/etc he has out there, he didn't have a chain saw!) Fished a bit, swam a lot ... this will be a re-occurring theme for the rest of the vacation.
• Sunday/Monday/Tuesday - our good friends, the Hobbys, and their six kids visited. That was a lot of fun. The kids really liked playing with their kids. We had fun just being with Chris and Vicki. I think it was Monday morning as Chris, I, and their two older boys were shoving off to go fishing, that Chris got his cell phone out and had this conversation (with his boss), "how would you feel if I extended my vacation a day?" It cracked me up that he made the call from the fishing boat!
• Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday/Friday - relaxing with Cyndie and the kids. Daily activities included swimming, games (UNO, Game of Life, Monopoly), rides around the lake in the golf cart (Emma did a great job driving all by herself ... once I convinced her that she needed to press the gas and brake with the same foot so that she couldn't depress both at the same time. Tim, not such a good driver. He's convinced that to drive you need to constantly turn the steering wheel ... left, right, left, right ... makes for a wobbly ride!), fishing (after the Hobby's left we stopped saving the fish and threw them all back. But we had one big meal where all 12 of us had fish!), playing on the association playground. Good stuff!
• Friday/Saturday - Uncle John and Auntie Diane stopped by for the night. It's always fun to spend time with them!
• Saturday - slowly packing up, while still enjoying the cabin.
• Sunday - marathon trip home. Left the cabin about 6:40a, pulled into Lake Geneva around 6:05 p. It actually wasn't too bad of a drive!
• Weather - smoking hot!!!!! It was in the high 90s or 100 all week at the cabin. Even the evenings and mornings were not much better. We were SO grateful that the cabin had AC! The lake was very refreshing, but by the end of the week, it was probably in the high 80s temperature wise.
  

Now we're back in the swing of things, and looking forward to a long July 4th weekend!

So One More

Well, we're sitting here killing time between eating breakfast and a swim in the pool, so I'll make use of the last bit of internet connectivity for one last post. We had a pretty uneventful drive yesterday. A good stop in a Burger King with a play land in Sterling, IL. We stayed the night in Bethany, MO. Crazily, it turns out we went to the same Subway here for dinner that we stopped at 20 months ago when we were driving the opposite direction during the move. We enjoyed the pool here last night, and will get in one more swim this morning before heading off to KC to meet my cousin Marc. The kids had a bit of a rough night ... sleeping in the same full bed, with us in the room, etc. Oh well, that's life on the road!

Exiting Stage Left

Yep, The Life and Times of the Wildwood DeVries is about to go silent for 10, agonizing (for my loyal readers who won't get to hear about the latest coming and goings) days. Yeah baby! We're headed off for vacation at the Larsen cabin (thanks Uncle John and Auntie Diane). I was just talking with the kids at breakfast and telling them that this is where the summer really heats up ... action wise. We have this trip, during which we'll see some good friends from college, the Hobbys, and their six kids, then we'll see Auntie Diane and Uncle John, then we'll get home and Grandma and Grandpa D will be there and Auntie Jane will be there for July 4th, then we'll have Grandma Cathy and Grandpa Fred come for a visit, then our friends from CA, the Armstrongs (and their kids who are the same age as Em and Tim), will be visiting, then there's day camp for Emma and a trip to Auntie Jane's house (just her and her cousin Sarah), and somewhere in there a new cousin will be born!!!

Whew ... why don't you just site back and take that in for a bit ... that's a lot of action!

So we're off; we're hoping to leave around 10 ... drive to Bethany, MO where we're staying the night at a hotel (with indoor pool). Tomorrow we'll meet up with my cousin Marc to get the keys and have lunch together (maybe see his new house and puppy). Then it's off to the cabin for a week plus. The Hobbys will join us from Arkansas for a Sunday/Monday. Then Uncle John and Auntie Diane will be there the last weekend with us. Can't wait!! I took a poll at breakfast and Timmy, Emma, and I all voted that we were most looking forward to the fishing. Apparently we're becoming quite the fishing family. We decided that the best plan would be for Cyndie to be the pilot of the little boat, and the three of us would fish (and she would probably read)!

So enjoy the peace and quiet that I'll leave you ... expect more when we get back!

Star Trek, a review

Gow and I hit the fabulous Showboat Theater on Saturday for a view of Star Trek. Here's the take:

Star Trek (3.9/5)
I very much liked this movie. Not being a Trekkie (my Star Trek exposure is limited to The Wrath of Kahn and watching the Next Generation on TV), I didn't have much in the way of expectations, at least in regards to who the cast should be and how they should behave. That said, I expected a "big", "summer" movie, lots of explosions, action based plot.

The movie delivered on that, plus more. Now it was no Oscar type film, but it was a tight, well told story with more depth than 90% of the summer flicks. The acting was good, the effects top notch, and the team was able to tell the "origins" story for this iteration of the Enterprise while also giving us an interesting adventure/story.

Kudos all around, I recommend this movie.

Movies I've seen recently:
Juno - 4.8/5
Slumdog Millionaire - 4.6/5
Iron Man - 4.2/5
Wall-E - 4.0/5
Traitor - 4.0/5
The Dark Knight - 3.9/5
Star Trek - 3.9/5
Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist - 3.7/5
Kung Fu Panda - 3.5/5
The Passion - 3.5/5
Valkyrie - 3.5/5
The Incredible Hulk - 3.4/5
New in Town - 3.2/5
Horton Hears a Who - 3.0/5
Jonah, a VeggieTales Movie - 2.4/5
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - 1.9/5
Burn After Reading - 1.5/5

Good Stuff, Reader

Yesterday was fairly typical ... had the Caspari kids around all day as Amy and Dave where down in Chicago for some tests on his liver function (please keep them in your prayers). But the fun thing I wanted to share today was what I discovered this morning when I went into Emma's room to open her curtains and let some light in. I'm in there, like I said, opening the curtains. Emma's not there. She walks into her room with her nose in a book (Cam Jansen ... thanks for turning us onto those Amy and Sarah). She's reading as she walks, and kind of wanders over toward me. I ask her for a hug, and she complies, then kind of settles onto my knee (I'd knelt on one knee to hug her) and leans back against me to use me as a chair while she keeps reading. Good stuff. It would appear that our "summer reading program" that we've instituted to try to challenge her a bit to read longer/harder books is already paying off!

In other news, we booked our trip to Cancun in July for our 15th anniversary. Cyndie and I spent some time, just before bed, looking at the website for the resort and anticipating the trip! We're excited!

Many Zeros

So, following up yesterday's post, the high did indeed come today when we checked (online) our account balances and saw that they had gone up SUBSTANTIALLY! Yeah baby!

So we had a celebratory dinner ... steaks all around ... with Laura and Gow and Sally. Followed up with the boys going over to my friend Eric's house for a late night of Settlers (with a sweet victory for me in the second game ... swiping it out of Gow's hands at the last second!).

This morning we set about using some of the money ... we're going to immediately pay off about 60% of the loan on this house, the remainder of the car loan, and the heater/AC bill, but want to do a little research and praying about how we want to invest the rest of the money.

The rest of the week will be scurrying around getting ready to leave for the Larsen cabin for our week of vacation there. The Caspari kids are up here with us today as Dave has some tests done to check his transplanted liver's functioning properly ... pray for that one.

Complete! Finished! Done!

The house closed ... whoohoo! Yeah God ... you did some cool things.

So, we've officially closed. After all the wrangling and phone calls and emails over the last month, it's seems like almost a little bit of a let down to just receive an email from our realtor which "just" said "Yay!!!!! We Closed!!!!". Especially because there was no immediate large check in our hands. I suppose that high may come today when (supposedly) the money is wired to our bank account.

Anyway, God is good, and he was very faithful during this process. Now we're really praying a lot about how to invest the money and how we can be good stewards of what he's given us now that things will be a lot less tight.

Weekend Recap

• Fishing ... Timmy caught 3 fish over the weekend (we went a couple of different times ... Saturday evening, Sunday after church). Both of the kids are doing great with it and seem to enjoy it quite a bit. A friend of mine, Eric, works at the camp (Covenant Harbor) and he wants to do a regular time out on one of Harbor's pontoon boats with our kids (his oldest is 3 1/2). I think another friend Rico and his kids may join us too. That would be a blast!
• Church ... had church at the camp, then a bunch of church kids fished together, then a potluck for lunch. It was fun to all hang out like that and get to spend more time with the church family than we usually do.
• Swimming ... at the pool (the lake's too cold still). Good stuff. Both Timmy and Em are doing really well with being in the pool and stretching themselves. I was throwing Emma up into the air ... fun for both of us! She's so light I think I could throw her probably 10 feet in the air! Tim is doing well jumping into the deep end and not being bothered much by getting water in his face.
• Garage sales ... Cyndie and my sister, Laura, hit a bunch of sales on Saturday morning ... got a pretty good haul.
• Movie* ... Gow and I went to see Star Trek ... it was a good one!

*Review to come ... I know the public will be clamoring for one.

Now it's the work week. I think this will it will be pretty hard to focus on work as we'll be leaving for vacation on Friday (to the KS cabin of my aunt and uncle). The whole family is excited!

Timmy the fisherman

So we've been doing a lot of fishing themed things lately. We got some poles for the kids to take on the camping trip a week ago. But Timmy's was too big, so I went and got him a 2.5 foot pole. He does great with that. Friday, while Emma was at a birthday party, I set up a game for him in the yard where he stood behind a line, and then had to cast into a big circle about 20 feet away. He was very patient and got pretty good at that. Saturday evening we went down to the Lake Geneva dock and fished for about 40 minutes. Timmy caught two little fish! Emma, not so much. And let me tell you, she was not happy that her little brother caught two and she didn't catch anything! Then this morning we had church at the camp, Covenant Harbor. Afterwards was a potluck, but there was plenty of time for the kids to play in and around that. So the kids fished a bit, and Timmy caught another one! He's doing awesome. He casts it well, and is very patient waiting for the bobber to bob (though he'd rather have me hold the rod ... maybe he gets bored during that time). So Emma and Tim each have their own little tackle box. But they want some more stuff, so we're going to go to Walmart now and buy a few lures and stuff with their money (Emma's idea). I'm also going to pick up a fishing license because I'm tired of watching them fish!!! So we're having a great time fishing as a family ... Cyndie enjoys it too, though just as much watching and sitting in the sun as fishing herself.

A friend, Eric, who works at Covenant Harbor, and I and possibly another friend are trying to arrange going out on one of Harbor's pontoon boats to fish with the kids ... that would be a blast, so we'll see where that goes. More fishing news as it breaks!

Summer Quick Hits

• Got home from work and met the fam over at the pool ... I'm thinking a lot of time will be spent there this summer.
• Emma's playdate was a success. The two girls did a great job of including Timmy.
• Had dinner with the Gowans ... excellent pork chops!!!
• Cyndie, Laura, and the kids hit the Elkhorn (city next to Lake Geneva) city wide garage sale this morning ... it will be interesting to see what new things have been picked up when I get home.
• This morning is the last playdate with the Eikenbary-Barber (our pastor who is moving on to a new church in Minneapolis) kids.

Slowly Plodding There

Well, it's not happening fast, but it's happening. The buyers got their loan docs signed yesterday. Apparently those docs need to be FedExed to NorCal, and then there is the last signing of docs, so with the weekend, we're likely to close on Tuesday?! So, it's a crawl, but it's happening.

I think Cyndie's having a little sadness to see the house go, but we're both really excited about not having a mortgage payment and the freedoms that that entails.

Transition

So we're transitioning around here ... school, done; soccer, done; FV house, 99% sold; summer vacation, starting; family vacation, coming in a week and a half; anniversary vacation, next month. Good stuff all around!

Had the last soccer camp thing last night. I think the kids enjoyed it for the most part. I know they enjoyed getting their little "participation trophies" at the end. It was hilarious because Timmy kept saying that he was "going to clean this every day". Hilarious because he's not into cleaning anything. I don't know what possessed him to say that!

Today is the first day of summer vacation for the kids, but that didn't mean that they stayed in their rooms any longer than normal. Emma was downstairs by 6:45 wanting to work on a craft/gift for her friend Olivia who is coming over today for a playdate. Em had to miss Olivia's birthday party last week when we were camping, so she's going to give her something today and have a cake for her.

The house is taking a little longer to close than we had been led to believe, but I think we're almost there and don't appear to be any real snags left (fingers crossed). The loan docs need to be signed still, but that's just waiting on the loan company generating the paperwork which is done in the order it was submitted ... I guess that's just the normal red tape/bureaucracy stuff. Then we should close. Keep praying, but we're more and more confident it will happen.

Next Friday we leave to spend a week at my aunt and uncle's cabin in Kansas. We've been there 4 or 5 times and really love it. It's great to get away from everything and just be there together as a family and enjoy the lake. It'll also be fun to catch up with our friends from college, the Hobbys. They'll drive up from Arkansas for a couple of days. Then we'll also hang out with Auntie Diane and Uncle John a bit before we leave. Good times ahead.

And last, but certainly not least, is the upcoming 15th anniversary trip for Cyndie and I. We've not booked anything yet because we're waiting for the house to sell, but we're hoping to do a beach/all inclusive thing again like we did for our 10th anniversary. Cyndie's mom and step-dad are kidsitting (thanks Fred and Cathy), and we're going to sit on a beach and relax!

Ah summer ... good stuff.

Last day of school!

Today is Emma's last day of school! I'm working from home (all Wednesdays since Cyndie has sailing at 4:30), so we all had french toast together to celebrate while we finished watching Star Wars. We had a family movie night last night in part because Cyndie wasn't feeling too great. Emma had a fun day yesterday, getting a preview of 2nd grade and playing all kinds of fun games in the afternoon during the field day. Cyndie helped out and said that all the kids really enjoyed themselves and it was really well done.

Emma is excited for summer and play dates. She's having her good friend Olivia over tomorrow, then there's a final play date with Anya, our pastor (who is moving to another state)'s daughter on Friday, followed by a birthday party for another friend in the afternoon. Timmy gets to participate in that one as Anya's younger brother Lukas is exactly Timmy's age (and was in his pre-school class). In Timmy news, all his pants are making it to just over his ankles and his long sleeve shirts are not horribly long anymore. Time to move up to 6T I guess. When we were outside this morning, all waiting for the bus, Cyndie and I were talking about some landscaping that we want to do. Emma said, "you're not going to get rid of this (the one closest to the mail box) parking spot are you ... that's Auntie Jane's". Funny how certain things are associated with certain people and circumstances!

That's it for now!

Edging ever closer ...

Well, today may be the day. The buyers did the last walkthrough of the house and are supposed to sign off on that. They removed the contingencies (finally). Supposedly yesterday they signed their loan documents (haven't heard one way or the other on that), and today is supposed to be closing, which would mean tomorrow is "receive a huge check day".

The contingency removal is a huge deal as it gives us the earnest money. Of course the next big thing is the big check! Keep praying with us!

No Soccer!

So yesterday was a bit cloudy and overcast, but it didn't really rain too much. So we figured, "soccer is on" for the kids. Not so much. We ended up over at the Middle school with the kids at 5 pm, and the weather was great! Sunny skies, and in the upper 60s/lower 70s. So instead of soccer, we had a track meet on the high school's nice track. We ran sprints and relays and explored the tall stands that are next to the field. Good stuff. Then we headed home and had breakfast for dinner ... scrambled eggs, bacon, and homemade cinnamon rolls ... tasty!

It looks like we're in for ups and downs on the weather front for much of the next week or so. Today looks nice, which is great because it's Emma's penultimate day of school, which mean's Field Day. That's a bunch of games and relays and stuff out on the field of the school. Emma was pretty excited about it. Her class is wearing baby blue, so last night we went through her clothes and found a baby blue tank top (she made sure it had wide straps ... no skinny straps are allowed at Woods School), baby blue undies, baby blue socks, baby blue short, baby blue sweater in case it's cool. When she came down this morning, she was looking very blue ... baby. Her other excitement today is that they spend the morning (Field Day is in the afternoon), in the second grade classroom. She's feeling very grown up!

Weekend Catchup

So camping was a lot of fun and, praise God, we really didn't get much in the way of rain. It was a bit cool on Saturday, and rained hard for about 5 minutes, but other than that it was pretty nice. Our activities:

• Dale and Jeannine's popup camper had a flat about 100 yards from the campsite! That was fun, but luckily Dale had a good spare to get them the rest of the way, and back home. Excitement baby!
• We had adjoining campsites. The kids made a little trail through the high-ish grass between the two sites. Both sites had cool clusters of 6 - 8 trees that had kind of grown together and made for some great tree climbing for Anna, Emma, and Tim.
• Timmy had quite a hard time with his allergies, not helped by us forgetting allergy medicine for him. That culminated with him having an "I can't wake up, but my cough is really hurting me" attack in the middle of the night on Saturday night which resulted in he and Cyndie driving back home (40 minutes or so) to sleep, bath, medicine up, etc. They rejoined us Sunday morning.
• We did a bit of biking around the camp ground and to/from the lake.
• Fished 3 or 4 times. It was Wisconsin's "free fishing weekend" so the adults didn't need a license. The DeVries boys represented well tallying all of the weekend's fish (three total, two for me, one for Timmy, all little panfish that where around 4 inches "long").
• Ate lots of good camping food including the DeVries classic camping dessert, the POS.
• Ran into a bit of a hitch Sunday when we were leaving. Dale and Jeannine's van battery died. Completely. It took 45 minutes or so of wrangling to get it started (we weren't able to "just" jump it). In the end, we started their car with our battery, then took it out and they drove home battery-less.

Good times all around. We're planning another camping trip for later in the summer, either Labor Day weekend, or sometime after in September depending upon availability of the camp sites.

We slept a lot on Sunday afternoon, then fished a little more at the Lake Geneva docks and had 49 cent Mickey D cones for dessert with Uncle Gow, Auntie Laura, and Cousin Sally.

Headed out to Camp!

So I think we're all packed up and ready to go. We borrowed Dale and Jeannine's trailer which is now loaded with fire wood and our bikes. The Suburban is loaded with food, tents, etc. We're ready to hit it. Now if it will just hold off from raining tomorrow!

In house related news, I just spoke with the realtor and we are looking pretty good. The buyer should remove the contingencies today. Then over the weekend the final walk through will happen. Monday the buyer will sign the loan docs. Then Tuesday or Wednesday we'll close! Keep praying!!

More House Stuff ...

And it's good, I think. Apparently the buyers want to close by tomorrow ... great, if it happens and there are no snafus! Our realtor said that the house got tented (for termites) fine, so maybe we're close to complete!

In other news, I was looking at some numbers and realized we might get a bit more out of this than I had anticipated since we owe a little less on both of the mortgages than I remembered.

In family news we had soccer last night ... it went fairly well. I think Tim is a little overwhelmed by the number of kids (30 ish), their wide age range (3 - 10), and the few number of coaches (1 - 3 depending upon the day). So he kind of goes hot and cold (within the same session). One minute it's obvious that he's enjoying things, the next he's coming over asking me when it's time to go home. Emma, I think, enjoys it more, mainly because she's used to settings with more kids, and also because she's quite a bit more independent than Tim. I guess it's a bit of a learning thing!

Cyndie and I went out for a breakfast date yesterday ... had some yummy breakfast items at the Egg Harbor Cafe in town. Now the activity for the end of the week is getting all our stuff together to go camping this weekend!

Interesting Evening

Had an interesting evening last night. We got a call around 8:30 p from our realtor. The buyers, we'll call them Stupid and his wife Fearful, had just called and said they were going to need another $7000 credit because the aluminum wiring in the house was going to need to be fixed. This came after agreeing to our proposal for a $1000 credit to fix all the physical inspection items (which included the aluminum wiring). ARRRRRGGGG!!! It was also the night before the tent was to go on the house for the termite treatment (a $1875 procedure). ARRRRGGGG!!!

So we told our realtor "no dice", they're not getting the $7000. She called the termite company and told them to not do the tenting and called the buyers to let them know.

We killed the rest of the night in the jacuzzi and watching Mary Tyler Moore on Hulu.

This morning we got a call around 10:15 (8:15 CA time). Stupid and Fearful have agreed they don't need the $7000, we're back on. The realtor will try to get the termite company to still do their thing.

Annoying!!!

I think that what happened is that Stupid, and his wife Fearful, started reading about aluminum wiring and didn't really understand what it is or what it meant, and freaked out a bit. Aluminum wiring was used all across SoCal and there has been really no problems. Whatever, we're good.

I just got off the phone with the realtor and the tenting for termites is on, and we're good to go!

A crazy night and morning.

New in Town

Last Friday we watched New in Town during the Movie Night extravaganza at the Casparis, and I've already had wild fans clamoring for the review here at The Life and Times of the Wildwood DeVries. So here, to prevent rioting in the streets, is the write up.

New in Town (3.2/5)
I was pretty disappointed in this flick. I think part of the problem was not the movie, but my expectations. I was not expecting a classic, but thought it looked like a good romantic comedy, which I typically enjoy. It turned out to be an average romantic comedy, thereby not meeting my expectations.

The movie was a bit cliched: fish out of water woman meets beer guzzling, oafish man, initially they conflict, but during a poignant moment, they overcome their differences and form a bond. Said couple then conquers all the problems of the world. Granted, it's a pretty successful formula, but that's about it. On the upside, I really enjoyed some of the "Minnesota" moments, and particularly loved how the producers/director "kept it real" and showed what a northern winter is really like. On the downside, Renee Zellwiger looked horrible ... she didn't even look like herself at times. I don't think she'll have too many leading roles after this flick.

So the summary? Decent movie, fairly enjoyable, but probably not too different than any other romantic comedy you've seen over the last 10 years.

Movies I've seen recently:
Juno - 4.8/5
Slumdog Millionaire - 4.6/5
Iron Man - 4.2/5
Wall-E - 4.0/5
Traitor - 4.0/5
The Dark Knight - 3.9/5
Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist - 3.7/5
Kung Fu Panda - 3.5/5
The Passion - 3.5/5
Valkyrie - 3.5/5
The Incredible Hulk - 3.4/5
New in Town - 3.2/5
Horton Hears a Who - 3.0/5
Jonah, a VeggieTales Movie - 2.4/5
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - 1.9/5
Burn After Reading - 1.5/5

Crazy Weather

Hit some crazy weather yesterday in Southern Wisconsin. It rained a bit in the early morning, around 6/7 am. Then by 10 ish, it was hot feeling, with just scattered clouds and a lot of direct sun. It was starting to feel like summer with a bit of mugginess in the air. However, by 5 pm when I met Cyndie and the kids for their soccer camp, it was overcast, windy, and cold. It was probably at least 20 degrees cooler than in the morning. Strangeness!

We're getting ready for our camping trip this weekend. Cyndie and Tim set up the tent we're borrowing (Emma and I did her homework in the tent last night after soccer). There are camping supplies growing in a pile in the basement!

Quick Weekend Recap

• Went down to Crystal Lake for an overnight with the cousins Fri/Sat.
• Progress in the inter-cousin relationships, especially on an overnight. I think the kids are slowly understanding how to interact with eachother in tighter quarters over a bit longer period of time. Plus they're getting older, so that helps!
• Had some delicious stuffed pizza for dinner ... nice job Dave and Gow.
• Did some bike riding (all the older cousins are now on bikes of some sort) in the neighborhood. Only had one accident and one bike malfunction!
• The adults did the "traditional"* movie night ... New in Town.
• Hit the park for a big victory for the Nealster in frisbee golf on Saturday morning.
• Sunday was church, then spent much of the afternoon in the pool at my folk's condo. It was perfect weather and pool temperature. I foresee a lot more of that type of action over the summer.
• Played Settlers with the gang until way too late last night!

*Can you have a tradition if it is only the second occurrence? I hope it DOES become a tradition ... it's fun stuff!

So now we're back into the week. Emma, as she informs us at least daily, has seven days remaining of school. I think she's pretty excited to be out and "free". In other news, we're gearing up for a weekend camping trip with our friends Dale and Jeannine. It's pretty close by, so very convenient, and should be lots of fun!

Feeling Good!

So, I hadn't been on the web much yesterday between church, the pool, and playing Settler's with the boys, but when I checked my email this morning, there was one from our CA realtor saying that the buyers had agreed to our proposal regarding the physical inspection. Huh? What's that mean? Well, essentially, the buyers pay for a guy to come by and evaluate the house to let them know if there are any areas of concern. It could be anything from "you should really have another smoke detector in that room" to "there's a hole in the drywall above the toilet" to "the roof over the garage is about to collapse". Our buyers basically asked for every little thing (some legitimate items, many nit picky ones) to be fixed. We proposed a small closing credit (this is pretty typical in CA ... this way you don't end up haggling over if it was fixed properly or not, the new owner just has the money in hand and can fix it themselves), and the buyers accepted!!!

This is a pretty big deal, because (I think, I'm confirming this with our realtor) that was the last contingency remaining on the contract. That means if for some reason the buyer decides to walk away, we keep their earnest money ... which would easily be enough to leave the house on the market (empty) for at least 3 or so months more. I think we're 90% of the way there. It's exciting stuff, and great to tangibly see God answering our prayers.

I'll keep you updated, but it's good to clear another hurdle and get closer to being sold!