House update

Big news, folks... After a looong process of looking, waiting and wondering, our latest offer on a house was finally accepted yesterday!

It's the one we call "The Ruby House" (because it's on Ruby St.) and is located in the middle of downtown (for you Fresnans, being downtown is a good thing in E-burg).

We originally made an offer about a month ago, but the house had only been on the market for a week at that point, they didn't bite. So last week, we decided to try again and see if they'd reconsider.

The cool thing is that they counter-offered at first, but when they heard we were going to counter, they decided to just take the original bid. Bottom line, we got it for $15,900 less than the asking price. Not bad, huh?

The house was built in 1910, so the wiring and systems need a close look.

Other than that, it's a cute, solid house with a lot of character and potential. It's technically a two bedroom/one bath, but the entire upstairs is one room, so we're going to put the kids up there to give them plenty of space to play.

It's got a HUGE laundry/utility room, a ton of kitchen cabinets, a decent amount of counter space, a separated one car garage and two unfinished rooms in the basement. So it's livable, but we already have a lengthy list of additions and upgrades, starting with paint and some kind of flooring to correct the ugliest kitchen linoleum on the planet.

The day we got the news was also the day of another big federal rate cut. The same day Graham says his investing hero Jim Cramer suggested going out and buying a house!

So this looks at this point like yet another instance of God timing our housing situation perfectly.


Our next step is to bring in the inspector. Should he find any major concerns, it's up to us to either agree to take care of them, or bow out of the deal. But if everything works out, we'll be moving in mid- to late March!

Now if we can just scrounge up some actual appliances somewhere...

A taste of home

Hannah and her new old friend

Over the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday, we had our first overnight guest. Kristin Karlsson, our dear friend from Fresno, braved the cold weather to come spend the weekend with us. We had such a great time showing her around town and introducing her to our friends. We also used her visit as an excuse to visit the local ice cream shop, the famous "Palace Cafe" (since 1892!), and the radio station where my grandfather worked in the 1940's.

The kids loved having Kristin around, too. Hannah took to her almost instantly and was glued to her hip the whole weekend. Gideon, of course remembered her from Fresno and loved having a new person to play trains and playdough with.

The evening before she left, there were several times I had to remind myself that I wasn't in Fresno. It all started with a Java Mocha frappacino from Starbucks combined with hanging out with KK. Then we went home and played Nertz until about midnight, depite the fact that we had to get up at 5:45 the next morning to get her to the bus station. Sigh...the good ol' days.

Yeah, we sure miss our friends/family, and getting that little taste of home made us wonder if we made a big mistake by leaving. But we know God brought us here for a reason and we truly are making the most of it.

Happy 4th Birthday, Gideon!

Tuesday the 8th marked 4 years that Graham and my lives were changed forever: we become parents of Gideon Garrison. Although four years sounds like a long time, it seems like just yesterday that we rushed to the Clovis Community hospital only to wait eight hours for his arrival.

This birthday was the first one that he didn't celebrate with any extended family, but it was also the first party where a majority of the guests were kids. Considering we've only been here for four months, he had plenty of friends to invite. Half of the kids were from the neighborhood (Connor, Riley, Kayti & Jonathan) and the others were from church (Emily, Kiah, Bailey & Luke).

When planning the party details, Gideon came up with the theme "video games," so we rolled with it. One of the things the neighbor kids like to do when they come over is play our little 5-in-1 80's games consul which has Ms. Pac Man, Mappy, Galaga, Xevious and Poll Position. So, I baked a Pac Man and a Ghost cake (power pellets and all!) and we hooked up the consul for entertainment. It was a hit!

The party was last Saturday, so for his actual birthday, we decided to go out to lunch since I had to work, and that night was the first night of Awana. Gidders chose to go to "Old McDonald's" so he could get a strawberry sundae. Unfortunately the play area was closed for winter, but he had a great time anyway.



After lunch we had him open the gift we saved for his actual birthday, the Duplo "Cranky." He also got Calling All Engines from Uncle Dave and Auntie Brittany which he had been asking for for a year. He had a great time putting stickers on the card from Grandpa Harold and Gramma Sara, and sang along when Grandma Karlinda & Tante Mikey sang "Happy Birthday" over the phone.


It ended up being a great day, and I think this year he was old enough to realized how special and fun a birthday can be.

My job update

Now that I've made it through my first quarter as the International Student Advisor, I have to admit that the start of winter quarter was much, much easier. This quarter brought in 55 new students bringing my total advisee list to a whoppin' 204. Yikes!

Thirty of the new students are a cohort group of men from Vietnam studying Aviation Management. Although I know nothing of this topic, I will serve as their Advisor for the next five quarters. Learning their names has been...well, interesting, but they're a great group of guys and have been very patient with my lack of experience with Vietnamese students.

The greatest part of my job right now is that word is starting to spread to the students that I'm here, I'm nice and I'm willing to help. It's a great feeling when a student walks away with direction for a major. Or now understands what she has to do to graduate. It's been especially rewarding to talk with students who arrived when my position was vacant and to hear them say, "Oh, I'm so glad you're here." It's also been nice to see the students who were new last quarter and actually know their names and recognize their faces. I don't feel like the "newbie" anymore and am actually able to do what I came here to do [sigh of relief].