Pico DiPaolo

Wimberley Moments

2006-07-03T13:16:00.000-07:00

* Immediately when we got there, she hopped out of the car and said, "I want to come here lots and lots and lots." * She found a tablet and started writing about "vacation bible school". She likes to write in her vacation journal on vacations now - Nana started that in disney world. * She asked "where's the 'turn up', when I asked Chris to help me find the turn off." * Joelle asked why Nana and Poppie didn't live in Wimberley. (She's still trying to understand that they own that house and that it isn't an hotel.) We told her that it's because they loved her too much to be that far away. She said, "everyone loves me." (matter of factly) * Chris and I loved the assortment of bread products in the freezer: 1. Pillsbury buttermilk biscuits 2. Southern style oven baked biscuits 3. oven baked buttter tastin' biscuits 4. oven baked butterflake dinner rolls. Nana said the last one was bought by Poppie on accident and, admittedly, we brought #3 with us (not knowing there were already so many there) because, well, it's a tradition to have biscuits there. Even Joelle knows that. * We have a new tradition.... we bought the game Cootie at brookshire brothers. Joelle likes to roll the die all the way up the driveway - that's part of the game now. You should see the dice - VERY scratched up. :) * I think we picked every single pricess lea flower (that's a mommie term, no idea what they really are called.) The next morning, when picking commenced again, Chris said in desperation, "did all these grow over night??" * We made it all the way to the falls with Joelle this trip (first time!) and she loved throwing pebbles into the roaring current.

Apple Pie Eating Contest

2006-06-28T07:25:00.000-07:00

Our neighborhood pool is having an apple pie eating contest for the 4th. They have one contest exclusively for the kids. I jokingly said to Chris, "hey, we can enter Joelle!" We both started laughing simultaneously. Joelle had just gone to a tea party where they served cherry cordials. Not knowing that a cherry was in the middle, she popped it in her mouth. Her face quickly turned sour and she spit it out. Later that day, she accused me of hiding a cherry in the banana bread. Clearly, hiding a cherry in chocolate is not on Joelle's list of nice things to do. So, you can see why Chris and I think it's hilarious for her to be in an apple pie contest. She'd take one bite and spit it out! She'd be the world's worst apple pie eatin' princess. Should we do it just for the laugh!?

JOELLE!

2006-06-27T10:15:00.000-07:00

I had to share a funny story that Chris told me... He got the credit card bill and was reviewing the charges. One charge for $195 stuck out and the payee said, "Walt Disney....". Immediately, he thought, "JOELLLLLLEEEE!" What did she do? I thought it was hysterical that he already foresees the day when she'll make some big charge without us knowing - tricky little kids. (It was my charge, btw - for Lion King tickets).

Just some thoughts.

2006-06-27T09:17:00.000-07:00

I'm learning some things from being pregnant a second time. First, when someone tells you that every pregnancy is different. They're wrong. So far, mine have been the same. I'm banking on that now because with Joelle my all-the-time sickness went away a few weeks before the second trimester. I hope that's the case! Little girl has been so patient with a very sick mommie. At this point, I no longer believe anyone that says "each kid is different" either. I'm thinking we'll have a very collicky, poor sleeping baby. That will grow into a very delightful toddler, like Joelle. Second, you worry so much more with the second baby. I guess we were blissfully unaware of just how many awful things can happen to this baby growing inside of you the first go round. On the flip side, I think we truly appreciate what a miracle a healthy baby is. A lot of people answer, "just a healthy baby," when asked if they want a girl or a boy. I say that... and really mean it this time. My mom confirmed that, although my worry has somewhat been shaped by a recent tragedy with my friend's baby, we just know more with the second one. She worried constantly about me, but the thought never crossed her mind that something would be wrong with Joey. Third, Joelle has no idea what's going to be happening in her little life. There's not much we can do to prepare her. I have complete faith that she will be an incredible big sister, but it's going to really shock her. She's excited by the idea, but doesn't really understand. She doesn't like change... I know this about her, so it should be interesting. She noticed that I had on a "sleeping" shirt to go work out the other day and pointed it out. I said, "mommie is already growing and I don't like wearing tighter work out shirts." She said, "Mommie, I don't want you to get bigger!" Oh boy. If that bothers her.... see what I mean?

Per Joey's Request...

2006-06-25T16:45:00.000-07:00

I asked Joelle tonight why she wanted a baby sister instead of a baby brother. She said, "I'm just trying to guess." I couldn't believe it! I asked again in a different way, "So, you don't care if you have a brother or a sister." She said, "nope." Crazy smart. Nana had told her two of the names we like for girls and one of them Joelle doesn't care for: Jordan. I asked her why she didn't like it tonight and she said, "It can be a boy or a girl name and it's more for boys." I'm thinking Nana told her that. How in the world would she know that? She doesn't even know a Jordan! Nana, I'm on to you! ;) By the way, Calliope is her favorite...

Whew, Australia is Safe Now. Stick of Gum Anyone?

2006-06-23T05:13:00.000-07:00

I was looking up tariffs in Australia (yes, for work) and this was the only story on their front page.

Chocolate delivers more "shock" than choc Customs has intercepted more than 500 novelty chocolate bars and other items designed to deliver an electric shock destined for a Brisbane home. Chocolate bars, chewing gum and pens were just some of the items discovered by Customs officers at the International Mail Handling Unit in Sydney when they selected a package from China for inspection. It contained a range of novelty items designed to administer an electric shock including cigarette lighters, dice, toy pistols, calculators, mobile phones, staplers and torches.

I remember seeing this stuff in kids' magazines and catalogs about 20 years ago. Who knew that in some countries you could face a fine of up to $80,000+? It must be a good thing for them that this is the biggest breaking story in Australian customs. After looking at the US Customs site, I guess their web presence is really just for positive PR. The US appears to "mix it up" a bit though, with stories ranging from nuclear smuggling prevention efforts to a riveting piece on the changing procedures for bicyclists entering the port of Calexico.

Stuff to play at the beach...

2006-06-21T18:10:00.000-07:00

Joelle was flipping through an oriental trading company mag today and pointed out some toys for the beach. A limbo thing, flamingo wind flyers, etc. She said, "Let's get a lot of stuff to play on the beach so we don't have to go in the water." Ok, maybe she's not exactly the fish I thought she'd turn out to be.

It's a Boy! .... or a Girl!

2006-06-21T18:07:00.000-07:00

Seriously, we don't know much more after having our first ultrasound (there is NO way Dr. Levine could tell girl or boy at this point), but we do know that it's just one baby!!!! She said, "this is good news, I think." Chris and I both agreed with a quick, "yes, definitely." When I broke the news to Joelle that she would either have one brother or one sister, she said, "I want a sister." Does this just mean we'll definitely have a boy? Poor thing... she can't get her way on any of it.

Brainteaser of the day

2006-06-16T19:37:00.000-07:00

There is a common English word that is nine letters long. Each time you remove a letter from it, it still remains an English word — from nine letters right down to a single letter. What is the original word, and what are the words that it becomes after removing one letter at a time? (not a trick question) I imagine just going in from scratch that that is a tough one - I happened to see the answer at the same time I saw the question. Here's a hint - try starting with a one letter word (ok, "i" or "a") and then build to see how long of a word you can make. I'll try to think if I can think of any ones that are at least 7 or 8 letters long though (besides the one that is the answer). I'll post the answer in a day or so in the comments section. If you can't sleep because of it let me know and I'll e-mail it to you or it can be found on the web (since that's where I found it). While we're on the subject of brainteasers, check out this guy. At the same time both utterly amazing and useless.

Parenthood: Lasting mental benefits?

2006-06-16T14:41:00.000-07:00

Everyone knows that having a kid changes your life. But mentally? The only major things I noticed was gaining the ability to live on less sleep and losing the ability to do moderately difficult math in my head (this never came back). Apparently, having kids might not just "make you crazy":

"No one can deny that becoming a dad is a life-changing experience. And despite an increase in sleepless nights and newly acquired diaper-changing duties, most would agree that it's a deeply enriching and positive one. New findings by brain researcher Kelly Lambert, professor and chair of the psychology department at Randolph-Macon College, suggest that fatherhood may change more than just a man's lifestyle – it may actually cause lasting benefits in his brain."

[From ScienCentralNews via Digg] This is similar to what researchers have found in females (in both cases using animals in place of humans):

"Some of these sites are involved in regulating maternal behaviors such as building nests, grooming young and protecting them from predators. Other affected regions, though, control memory, learning, and responses to fear and stress. Recent experiments have shown that mother rats outperform virgins in navigating mazes and capturing prey. In addition to motivating females toward caring for their offspring, the hormone-induced brain changes may enhance a mother rat's foraging abilities, giving her pups a better chance of survival. What is more, the cognitive benefits appear to be long-lasting..."

[From Scientific American, January 2006] There have been tons of studies on how parental care affects children, but I don't see as much (understandably) on how having children affect the parents. I hadn't really thought much about it, but I would be curious to read/hear more about the other side of the relationship there. And I still don't understand what happened to that math ability...

Day in the Life of Joelle

2006-06-16T10:05:00.000-07:00

Joelle: Daddy, my watch says it's time to go. Daddy: Does your watch also say it's time to get dressed? Joelle: (pause) No, it doesn't say that. Joelle: Mommie, will the juice go all the way down to my toes? Mommie: Yes, it will Joelle: Why? Mommie: Because the juice has to nourish your whole body. That comment made me think of myself when I was little. I used to not understand how aspirin knew where you had a hurt. Joelle pictured herself being filled up with juice, not understanding, of course, the digestive tract.

White Cadillac

2006-06-16T09:56:00.000-07:00

I look out the window, perched in my usual blue chair where I work. I notice a white cadillac kind of drive over the curb getting into a neighbor's driveway. She gets out, walks to the house. The whole time I'm thinking, huh, she seems a little older to be visiting that neigbhor. After standing at the door a long time, she gets back in her car and goes to the driveway of the next house over. I think she went to the wrong house! hehe. I've actually done that myself, but it's funny to imagine someone having watched me do it! :) Apparently, Nottingham West has had a crime surge (they are separated by Kirkwood from our neighborhood, luckily). If every neighbor could witness as much as we do sitting in our dueling blue chairs at night, I bet a lot of crime could be averted! Then again, we saw our blow up Christmas Tree get slashed, but didn't exactly deter that from happening. We still comb the neighborhood streets for that black jeep... beware.

Goldfish?

2006-06-13T19:04:00.000-07:00

On the way to school today, Joelle informs me that she wants a pet. She says she wants a kitty cat. Darn, all these books touting happy kids and their friendly pets. Although, Chris and I prefer Olivia where Edwin the cat fits our picture of a cat. It goes something like this, "Olivia moves the cat, brushes her teeth and moves the cat...." However, most books picture sweet little puffs to cuddle up with. I say, "well, Nana and Poppie have cats - those can be your pets." She says, "nah, they aren't friendly." I laugh and say they are like most cats. I say, "maybe a goldfish." She gets all excited until she remembers puppy dogs. If only Joelle understood what a track record we have with pets. We have owned not one or two, but three pets that just didn't work out. For all those folks who say, "first comes a pet, then a baby carriage..." Whatever, I can handle babies. I think they're worth it - pets, well, they aren't. I know all you pet lovers out there are aghast. Before you cast me off as an individual, I will say that I actually do LOVE pets. In fact, I don't know what is wrong with me. I adored my dog, birds AND fish growing up and certainly like playing wither other people's pets... I think a goldfish sounds nice. I wonder how long we'll get away with it?

Can you hear what I hear?

2006-06-12T18:45:00.000-07:00

One of my co-workers stops by my office and asks if I will take a "test". Sure, why not? She has me listen to an audio file from her computer. "Did you hear anything?" she asks. "Yes, it was pretty annoying." She smiles, "I don't hear it." She then explains what it is - below is an excerpt from NPR.

British shopkeepers tired of teenage loiterers have turned to the Mosquito teen repellent, which emits a high-pitch frequency that most teenagers can hear -- but not most adults. But now teens have struck back against the Mosquito: They are using the same sound to communicate without adults' knowledge.

Apparently, if you're under 30 or so you can hear this sound, otherwise nothing. I'm the only person in my office who can hear it, so needless to say I knew when someone new was being tested next door. I wonder if it fades away or if one day you just don't get that frequency? Here is the sound ...can you hear it? Here and here are a couple other related sites.

Survival of the Fittest

2006-06-11T18:04:00.000-07:00

This cat apparently thinks it's a lion.

Jack, a 15-pound orange-and-white cat, cat sits under a treed black bear in a backyard in West Milford, N.J., Sunday, June 4, 2006. When the bear climbed down, the cat chased it up another nearby tree. Neighbor Suzanne Giovanetti thought Jack was simply looking up at the bear, but soon realized the much larger animal was afraid of the hissing cat. The cat's owners called it away and the bear ran off. (AP Photo/Suzanne Giovanetti)

Schlitterbahn

2006-06-11T07:36:00.000-07:00

Ironically, my morning sickness really picked up after Joelle got well from her stomach flu. It's as though she passed on her nausea. Jeff gave me the "weenie" award at Schlitterbahn because I got sick on the lazy river, yes, the lazy river. I will say that the "lazy" river wasn't so lazy at some parts. Anyway, Joelle sat on daddy's tummy and we shared a double ring. On the fourth go around, I looked at Chris and said, "I'm going to be sick." I was sick - luckily, I got out of the lazy river in time. That would have been embarrassing! Earlier, Ashley and I had gotten on with Joelle on my tummy. (separate rings though - I say this because my arm is STILL sore from holding on for dear life.) I tell this story to enumerate the truth of the lazy river not being so lazy. We both wanted to float with our legs over the tube, but we could NOT get into the lazy river because the waves kept pushing us on shore. Finally, we both got grounded on the shoreline with the waves pounding on us. Joelle was dismayed, but we just laughed. Finally, we asked a guy standing around to help us, but he misunderstood and started trying to pull Ashley out of the tube with her trying with all her might to stay in the tube! At last, we conveyed to him that we wanted in the river and he pushed us in. We would have then been fine, except that there is another branch to the river and, of course, we went the wrong way and ended up in the ocean part of the river where you, once again, get pushed to the shore with the waves. Very comical. Our jaunt around the lazy river took MUCH longer then the rest of the group (who I might add left us floundering on the shoreline in the first place!) :)

All of Them...Daddy Watered the Rest.

2006-06-11T07:27:00.000-07:00

After some tense sick moments, Joelle appears to be back in full force. Her lingo and her pretty color came back when she started to feel better on Thursday. * She called my visor a "geyser". * She told me that I smelled like a puppy flower. I think she says this because I picked upthe phrase Noonie uses and tells her she smells like a "puppy dog" when she comes in from outside. * When I asked her what flowers she watered outside with daddy, she said, "all of them. but then Daddy watered the rest." Our girlie has apparently inherited my skin color - a darker shade of pale. So, she has a little tan line from the beach and the pool. She likes to pull her panties up to show us the tan line, like the coppertone baby.

Pandora rocks....most of the time

2006-06-07T20:28:00.000-07:00

For those of you that aren't familiar with Pandora it is a website where you enter in an artist or song (or multiple artists/songs) and it creates a virtual radio station for you based on the "musical qualities" of what you tell it that you like. 6/7/2006 10:20 PM - up comes "It's A Small World (Shorty Remix)" by Baha Men, yes if it sounds familiar they are the one-hit wonder behind "Who Let the Dogs Out?" that tortured souls more than any song since "Macarena". The resulting IM conversation between my brother and I sum it up best. Chris: pandora just gave me a mix of "it's a small world" by the baha men Daniel: wow Chris: yeah, that's all I could say Daniel: that's a wow on several levels Daniel: wow what does it "sound like" that you like Daniel: wow that exists Daniel: wow they have it Daniel: etc

Calliope

2006-06-07T20:13:00.000-07:00

The name game begins. Before I've even seen my baby or know the sex, we're thinking of names. It's a lot of pressure and the most lasting impression you can have on your children. All your hopes, dreams and pragmatic wishes in a name. My family all recalls one Thanksgiving when Chris and I said that we really liked the name, Calliope. We got unanimous and vocal threats about naming our next child Calliope. Recently, Chris told his mom, "... don't worry, we've settled on Calliope or Gustav." She said, "I like Gustav better." Come on, Gustav? Nana said, (sigh) "that's fine, I'll tell everyone her name is Callie." Come on people! What's wrong with Calliope? Nana said, "It's an inanimate object." Chris and I actually both thought first of the muse in Greek mythology. NOT the musical instrument. Having looked up the musical instrument on Wikipedia to even see what it is.... Poppie should be all about Calliope: A calliope is a musical instrument that produces sound by sending steam through whistles, originally locomotive whistles. Most calliopes disappeared in the mid-20th century, as steam power was replaced. Without the demand for technicians that mines and railroads supplied, no support was available to keep boilers running. Only a few calliopes have survived, and these are rarely played. You can see why Chris and I don't think of a musical instrument first. For those who would like to know one reason we like the name... In Greek mythology, Calliope (Greek: Καλλιoπη, beautiful-voiced) was the muse of epic poetry, daughter of Zeus and Mnemosyne, and is now best known as Homer's muse, the inspiration for The Illiad and The Odyssey.

Typical Customer Service

2006-06-07T19:30:00.000-07:00

My car registration sticker expired, oh let's just say a while ago. Even though we actually went through the trouble of changing our address to get new drivers' licenses and Petie received her registration renewal I never got my renewal form. On the way to a party the other night we hear an ad on the radio about how bad it is to have an expired auto registration. How often do you hear that advertised? Anyway, I go in to renew it. I leave work a bit early since the office closes at 4:45. Roll in and see a long line. Typical. 'NO CREDIT CARDS ACCEPTED' blares signs at 2 foot intervals in the office. That's OK - I have $66 in cash and I know it's $64.30 since Petie just renewed hers. Everyone in the line is renewing theirs - "$54.30 please", "That will be $54.30", "$54.30 cash or check" for 8 people in a row. Huh, I must have remembered wrong - 54, not 64. I stroll up and lay $60 on the counter with my license and proof of insurance. So prepared. "That will be $125.30 if you want to renew through July 2007 or $72.30 if you want to renew just for the next month". First lesson - it's not like inspection stickers where you can miss a month and get it "free". Second lesson - apparently cars model year 2004 and later are more and cars before 2000 are less (the popular $54.30 - why is it cheaper for older cars?). I tell the lady that I only have $66 and that I don't have a checkbook. "So", she replies, "are you going to get it?" Uh, yeah. I was tempted to ask if I could charge it to my library card.

Rain

2006-06-02T18:55:00.000-07:00

Joelle: Mommie, why is the rain knocking on the umbrella? Mommie: It wants to get in. Joelle: Why does it want to get in? Mommie: Rain loves to get everything wet. It wants to get us wet. Each time it's rained all week, she's asked me if the rain is trying to get in and get us wet.

Skills

2006-06-02T18:46:00.000-07:00

Some people teach their kids the important things... their home address, how to read, not to talk to strangers, etc. I think the real flourish of parenting is the idiosyncrasies you teach them. * When you see someone "hit the deck", climb on their back (she learned this from "riding" on Chris's back for pushups and will now hop on anyone's back should they lay down.) * Making up random songs to tunes you know. Take the song, "money, money, money, mon-ey". Joelle changed it to "honey, honey, honey, hon-ey" when I got out the honey for the pancakes. * How to make a fake cry that is so real, Noonie doesn't even believe us when we tell her it's fake. * How to appropriately position your hand to get a stamp after any kind of class (gymboree, gymnastics, music, etc.). (hand goes on top of the head to wait for stamp to go on, remove hand, enjoy stamp) * How to properly handle the bait and switch. In the grocery store, she points out some blueberry muffins that she'd like to buy. Ok, we think - it's healthy enough. As we look away, she grabs the chocolate chip ones instead. I think she learned skills like the bait and switch from Disney World when we had world class maneuvering to limit her line time. The "bubba chuck" relay was our favorite. See dumbo line. Chris and Joelle enter Dumbo line. Mommie counts 12 sets of people and gets in line behind approximately 12 sets of people. (There are 12 Dumbos). Chris and Joelle enjoy Dumbo. Mom grabs Joelle after their ride. Mom and Joelle enjoy Dumbo. Apparently, we're teaching her some handy skills.

Twins

2006-06-02T16:03:00.000-07:00

Many of you know, Joelle's omen of demanding twins (one boy and one girl - she's very specific) has me thinking about them. If we are graced with twins, I'll treat it as just that - fate and a blessing. I had always thought that I was more likely to have them because my dad had two sets of twins - one on each side of his family. I knew it was hereditary, but dad was right, it's only passed down by the mom. All these years, I thought I would have twins. Not that we are guaranteed not to! Apparently, there is a 1 in 90 chance. My good friend Laura pointed out today that statistics can be looked at in two ways. Sure, if there's a 99% chance you won't have twins, you're probably not going to. However, there are also 1% of people who will. What about that 1%? They're out there.... Some facts about twins: http://www.webmd.com/content/pages/2/3608_753.htm * The incidence of fraternal twins does vary. It's related to several factors, including the mother's age, nutrition, number of prior pregnancies and family background. In some parts of Africa, the rate is 1 in 20; in some parts of Asia, it's about 1 in 150. * If a woman has a family background of fraternal twins -- if she herself had fraternal twins before or if her mother, sister, or grandmother had fraternal twins -- it's possible that her chance of having fraternal twins is increased. * Unless you use fertility drugs, your overall chance of having twins is probably the same as the rest of the general population, about 1 in 90 pregnancies. * Your chances of twins goes up significantly if you're over 35 and goes up slightly in your 30s vs. 20s.

Tink Socks

2006-05-30T18:56:00.000-07:00

Joelle has a habit of stalling for bedtime. It's the oldest parent and child dance, there is nothing new or unique about Joelle's typical requests: I need to go potty, I need two straws instead of one, I need tissues... you get the idea. Tonight, she requested different socks after we'd already put on her socks. (Requesting the socks was already a stalling technique. It's summer and she has a down comforter, socks aren't needed.) Specifically, she wanted her "tink socks." So, that's where we drew the line. "No other socks. Good night." She didn't fuss too long, but did come out again from her room with a request to go potty. So, while I was helping her go potty, I decided I would get her tink socks because she didn't fuss so much. I wanted her to know that we get things for being good. My Dad once did that for me when my CD player broke. I complained and bitched about not having one. When I stopped fussing, one magically "fell off the truck" in front of my Dad and he gave me a new one. Anyway, I know everyone is thinking, where is this story going??? Joelle had already put different socks on, UNDER the socks we'd put on. I asked her why she did that and she said, "So you wouldn't know."

Reunited... and it Feels so Good

2006-05-28T17:14:00.000-07:00

So, Chris and I used to go to Pappasito's every Friday night. We kept this up for a very long time. We once figured out just how much money we'd spent there and it was embarrassingly much. We hadn't gone in a long time, but decided on a whim to go tonight. Wow! I forgot how much I love that place. There is no coincidence that we own a full set of Pappasito's "limited edition" glasses. Hands down, they have the best chips, salsa, margaritas and fajitas. Why go anywhere else for classic tex mex? However, I will say that we were both disappointed tonight to find that they've changed the birthday tune. It used to be "Hey baby, que paso? It's your birthday we all know." Thankfully, they still bring you the sombrero. You may wonder why we had a hiatus... I think part of the reason is that we thought it was so FAR from our new house. Ironically, it's 6 minutes from our new house and 2 exits. Our old house was over 10 exits from Pappacitos and 15 minutes. Obviously our tolerance for driving has significantly been reduced since the move. Today, over coffee with my friend Alli, I asked her if she liked living in Houston. She said, "Yeah. Why do I feel like I have to qualify that or say something like, it's crazy, but yeah?" It's true that almost all Houstonians who love it here kind of sheepishly admit to it. We're afraid people won't understand why we love it here. I can say though that one reason I do love it here is our new area of town. I feel like we live in a small city, but have all the amenities of a big one. We unofficially counted tonight and think there are possibly over 100 restuaurants within 10 minutes of our house! Chris says, "I know why I like Houston - it's cheap and we get everything a big city has to offer." Although Hungry's, Sam's and Sandy's are all significantly closer to the house, I think my vote goes to making the "trek" to Pappasito's now and again. I sure did miss that place. (Yes, Joelle LOVED it, too. She actually had a round belly after dinner. Their "kid" sundae was enough to feed three people. It was HUGE.)

Amateur Security System

2006-05-27T17:48:00.000-07:00

On the way to lock the back door before bedtime, Chris found another use for the cool blinky shoes that you can buy for kids. Joelle's were left by the backdoor and Chris tripped over them. The room filled with a blinking red light as the house was pitch black. (Since we're conserving energy, only the rooms we're in are lit.) For a moment, his heart raced as he tried to figure out what alarm he had tripped. I say it's a good way to set up an amateur security system. Take that crooks!

Sick

2006-05-27T17:45:00.000-07:00

Chris and Joelle suffered from the worst, a summer cold, here is some of their "sick talk." Mommie dodged the sick bullet this go round. Second in a row, I'm doomed next time! chris: I coughed! jolle: take some m's chris: boy am I sick joelle: lamby's not doing a flip today (frown) chris: aw, is he under the weather too? joelle: no, he's sick like you

Joelle Snippets

2006-05-27T17:28:00.000-07:00

On the way to swim tonight, Joelle reported to us that she had spines on her arms. (Arm hair) She said, "I don't want them there." Hm... She commented on another song that came on, too. "What? What, are they saying to teach us to say 'good-bye'? We know how to say 'good-bye!' " (The song says, "Learn to say good-bye.") By the way, she dove off the pool edge to Dad over 25 times at the pool. She has had a complete turn around with the water in one week. It's amazing. She was even eyeing the mushroom waterfall at the pool. I think she contemplated running under it! That guarantees getting wet. Other Joelle snippets: * The other night, Joelle thought her injury of falling on the concrete was particularly painful. She said, "I want a parent band-aid." (Plain brown, no character) *Randomly wished nana and poppie a happy thanksgiving when they left the other day. She often likes to give us hugs and wish us a happy valentine's day. * "Nah, I don't want water. Water will spoil me up." *We were reminded of something Joelle used to say A LOT when she pulled it out of the air and said,"take away" for the water. (She wanted juice). She used to say that for 30 minutes straight when she got frustratedwith a toy when she was much younger.

What it Feels Like for a Girl

2006-05-25T18:37:00.000-07:00

Today, Jojo asked me, "What does it feel like to be a girl?" I responded, "I dunno. You're a girl. What does it feel like?" She said, "kinda dancey." Girls, take that to heart. There's the good and the bad to being a girl, but it's always, "kinda dancey." For those of you who are Madonna savvy, the question comes from yet another song of hers. Yes, I skip the songs that aren't something I want her to hear, because she is listening very carefully to the lyrics now. Like, she asked me today why, in a song, they said, "...tell the sun not to shine." I found it strangely hard to explain that the song writer was explaining that love is true because she says, "tell me love isn't true, tell me the sun doesn't shine..." On another unrelated singing note, we were serenaded tonight to... "Jeremiah was a book club." Tia Ria and Uncle Joey will have to bring down music when they visit to introduce her to more. She loves it.

Ever Wonder When Kids Get Freckles?

2006-05-24T17:55:00.000-07:00

When Joelle was born, I noted that her skin was flawless. Aside from one birth mark on her waist, she was plain white. So, I asked everyone when people got freckles and no one knew. The answer is almost 4! After spending the morning at Noah's Ark pool, she has three freckles!! We told her they were angel kisses and her badge of honor for being so brave about swimming. Kind of like Nori, from Mermaidia, when she swims down to the depths of despair and earns her courage tattoo. Yes, I watch a lot of kid movies! We saw Brokeback Mountain and Mermaidia is in close competition...

We Have a Convert!

2006-05-24T16:43:00.000-07:00

Today, after Joelle's third swim lesson, she asked me to sign her up for more. Yes, two days ago she was pleading with me to never take her again. I still see a few bumps in the road as she gets more and more used to going under water, but she's definitely seen the light! She was SO proud of herself after finishing class today. It was a lovely thing to see. So, when I signed her up for more swim classes... they asked me what coach I wanted and I said, "um, actually, I know this is really random, but can we get in a purple or pink poker chip class?" Wouldn't you know, they're all booked up. So, Joelle got special permission to take a purple chip for her extension classes. (The extended classes are just once a week, thankfully. I see the purpose in going every day for these first 2 weeks, but it's wiping me out.)

Second Day of Swimming

2006-05-23T15:24:00.000-07:00

Turn the corner in this random neighborhood of Southwest Houston, and you've discovered the Mecca of swimming. In a sea of tastefully neutral SUVs and minivans, the cars are crammed into all four streets leading to the Ka'bah, the pool. Every 30 minutes, a new flock is herded to the pool for lessons. Today, the pink ring was not given to her. It had to be earned. In the first class, the instructor ended the class by giving them each a diving ring. Joelle, being materialistic, loved this part of the class. In this second class, they actually had to dive for it (with the help of the coach) and Joelle did it! She did cry the majority of the class, but did every task and was proud of herself in the end for doing all the tasks. She did also break into one tiny smile when the 4 kids in the class got their own two buoys to clutch before being paraded around the pool with Coach Rudy. Four little ducklings holding tight to the buoy that kept them afloat. Swimming to the promised land... If she learns to go under water in these two weeks, I'm a believer.

I Want to Be a Duckie!

2006-05-22T18:13:00.000-07:00

So, Joelle started her intensive 2 week swim lesson regimen. 2 weeks, every day. fun. Once the garage door lifted, the new crew of swimmers ran in for their 30 minute session. Joelle, although ticked that she didn't get the pink or purple poker chip (each teacher has a color poker chip and the kid has to find their teacher's basket to put the chip in), was eager enough and ran to find her coach. We, the parents, watch from behind a mirrored observation room - just like in law and order. She was happy, listening to the coach and doing as instructed while with him or playing with the watering can / trying on googles when it wasn't her turn. Until... She was dunked underwater. I heard her scream from behind the glass observation room. She cried through the rest of the 15 minutes left. TWO different life guards came over to cheer her up. I could see that she was giving them quite an earful; however, she was not to be consoled. I continued to hear about it for the 30 minutes home. I just kept repeating, "give it two weeks, every day for two weeks and if you still don't like it, I won't make you go again." Somehow, she got it in her head that she won't be dunked again. Good luck with that tomorrow Coach Rudy. As another consolation approach, we told her about all the things she can do in the water once she learns to swim. Go down slides, play under the water with googles, join a swim team, etc. So, we told her what swim teams we were on and what she could be on: barracudas (Petie), gators (Chris) or the sharks (her swim team in the future --- maybe). Poppie said she could be a barracuda like her momma and she said, "No, I want to be a duckie." I said, "You know even duckies put their heads under water." I got quite a scowl on that remark. The saga will continue... 2 weeks, will they break her?

Jogging Routes

2006-05-21T12:10:00.000-07:00

One day while jogging I found a track less than a mile away and told Petie about it. She goes running the next day and runs on the track. I mention that it's annoying that it's so close to IHOP, you have to smell pancakes while running. She's surprised I can smell that from the track. She mentions that the track isn't in great condition. It looks pretty new to me. Odd that people running on the same track see things so differently. Anyway, I went to run some timed intervals so I needed to run 1/4 mile in 2 minutes. I take off and do a lap in just over a minute. Obviously the track isn't 1/4 mile, it's 1/8 mile. I tell this to Petie, thinking that she's only been running half as far as she thought. Turns out she found a DIFFERENT track that was similarly close to our house. She happened to run across a random field on the way to "my" track to get to it. :-) Another story: One morning (around 5:45 am) I'm running on a sidewalk next to a major cross street near our neighborhood. A car passes by and slows down. I hear someone in the car yell "HEY....WHAT THE F*** ARE YOU DOING?........JOGGING??" and then they laugh and speed away. Drive by jogger heckling. I'm not sure if they have that category on the neighborhood crime report.

Hershey Kisses

2006-05-20T15:53:00.000-07:00

Looking at my brother's blog reminded me of a piece I saw on TV a while ago. I can't remember where I saw this, but it's a really interesting concept. A teacher was showing students how humans react to ownership vs. sharing with a simple experiment using Hershey Kisses. First, she passed out a jar of Hershey Kisses. The students were allowed to take as many as they wanted and no one else saw how many they took. All the Hershey Kisses were taken. The students knew that if any Hershey Kisses were left, they'd get three more for each one left. Yet, they were all gone. Next, when she gave each person 3 Hershey Kisses that they were told belonged to them and told them to eat as many as they wanted, almost no one ate all three. Like the experiment above, the students were given three Hershey Kisses for each kiss left. So, since they had ownership of their kisses, they cared if there were some left because they belonged to them and they would then also own the surplus. Now, imagine instead of Hershey Kisses, these were fish and the jar was the ocean. This explains why fisherman continue to deplete the ocean of fish. It's a public domain and they don't own it. It also explains why pollution is so hard to beat. We don't own the air.

Why did the sun talk to the cloud?

2006-05-20T09:20:00.000-07:00

I never thought much about our sense of humor being developed over time, but we can see that is the case with Joelle. Over the last few months she's started to tell jokes. I think it probably started when Nana got her a Disney advent calendar that had riddles on it. Example: What do you call a dance that you hold in the winter? A snow ball! We would emphasize the answer with a smile and laughter and she would just laugh as a reaction, having no clue what was so funny. However, she picked up the pattern: Why did NOUN VERB NOUN? Because XYZ!! HA HA!! So now she'll get on a roll and want to tell us jokes. Last night she gave us a few like: "Why did the sun talk to the cloud? Because it was moonlight time!" and "Why did the milk talk to the lemonade? Because he liked the sweet!" Usually she'll speed up her talking and start laughing as she is giving us the "punchline". Last night she thought a couple were funny enough to give a real belly laugh instead of just the "ha ha" kind of laugh.

The Spanish Inquisition

2006-05-18T13:31:00.000-07:00

Joelle is fond of telling us that she wishes she could go back to the old house. We've kind of grown accustomed to her rhetoric and dismiss it as crazy. After all, she has TWO rooms in the new house. Two really cool rooms: her sleeping and play room. So, last night when she said this, Chris actually started drilling her with questions. "Why do you like the old house better?" "Why do you want to go back?" "What did your room look like?" Suffice it to say, her answers weren't all that clear. For example, she said her old room was pink, it was yellow. Yet, I do wonder if she is trying to conjure up memories of the old house. It was her first home and she felt safe tucked in her nest. Perhaps it's human nature to be nostalgic.

Historical Joellisms Part I

2006-05-17T19:32:00.000-07:00

We actually did keep an archaic journel (in pen!) of some of the things Joelle has done and said. I will start to slowly add them to this format so that they will all be in one spot... and to share them, of course! 11/11/05 * Calls chapstick, "chopstick." She was rubbing it all over her belly one day. Shocked, we asked why and she said, "I'm putting on my deodorant." * She drops the consonants off words sometimes - fru nacks (fruit snacks). * After we moved to the new house, Nana was taking Joelle home one day. Joelle was complaining about something and Nana said, "Don't worry this will be a fast trip." Joelle said, "Nana, do you know a short cut?" * When Nana and Poppie came over to pick me up for dinner one night (Joelle was in the car), she said, "Why are we stopping at Petie's house?" * Nana gave Joelle a bath and later she figured out that her pig tails got wet. She said, "What did my Nana do to me?" 10/28/05 * When she wanted a Quaker bar she said, "I need to eat or my tummy will growl." * When saying "back and forth," she says "back and for with." 10/22/05 * When she asked daddy why she couldn't sleep with a necklace around her neck one night, Chris responded, "...because you could choke and die." (He'd had a long night, ok). She said, "No, I'm not gonna dye blue. I'm not going to dye orange or brown. not going to dye pink." * When daddy was reading a story to Joelle and came to a part that said "karate instructor," she stopped him and said, "no, karate teacher." She made him re-read it. * At her birthday party, she desperately tried to make every kid wear a party hat. She looks very focused in all the photos.

Taking Freakonomics Seriously

2006-05-17T05:11:00.000-07:00

The other day Joelle had all of her "Little Miss" books laid out and wondered "how many do I have?". So, she proceeded to count them - 10. Then her gaze turned to the bookshelf full of books - "how many of those do I have?". Good question - turns out she has 242 books in her room. For those of you who have read Freakonomics, you might recall that one of the 6 things that correlate with high test scores is "The child has many books in the home". I guess we take that book seriously :-)

What Happened to the Dinosaurs?

2006-05-16T19:13:00.000-07:00

I like to ask Joelle what she did in school in the evenings after a school day. Sometimes I already get, "nothing," but sometimes I'm rewarded with a fun story... Joelle reported that her teacher, Ms. Jennifer asked, "What happened to all the dinosaurs?" These are some of the answers she told me her friends gave: Evan: They're in jail. Max: They're in the sun. Vivi: They're playing in the sandbox. Alexander: They're on the farm. Ms Jennifer: Are they on Jupiter? (I swear, she really reported to me that she said, "Jupiter.") Joelle: They're on vacation at the beach. (Although she said that Blaine said it first, and then Erin said it first and then Joelle said it first. So, I'm a little fuzzy on exactly who said this.)

My Cake

2006-05-15T10:01:00.000-07:00

For Mother's Day dinner, we went to Hungry's (Nana, Poppie, me, Chris and Joelle). This was NOT to Joelle's liking. She wanted to go to Fuddrucker's. Again. Luckily, there are two reasons she likes Fuddrucker's: free cookie and lemonade. Hungry's fulfilled both prerequisites, so I think we'll be able to "drag" her there again. They gave all Mothers a free dessert last night. Additionally, we still got the free cookie. So, we asked Joelle if she wanted some of my chocolate cake or her cookie. She said her cookie, but after getting a lick of my chocolate icing, she quickly realized her folly. I proceeded to give her all the icing of the cake, her favorite. When I took a bite of the cake, she said, "What are you doing with MY cake!" We all got a good laugh out of that one. She didn't even like the rest of the cake, which had layers of mousse. Oh, one other result of last night. There was one other table with a family that had 6 kids. Chris and I were in shock and I think we did make a few comments because they were up and down and back and forth to the bathroom a lot. So, this morning Joelle tells me she wants 6 brothers and sisters. I said, "yeah, you'll be lucky to get one." She then said, "no, I want one brother and one sister." I said, "The only way you're getting that is if we have twins." She said, "yes, I want twins." We continued back and forth like that until it was actually a true argument. "Joelle, I can't decide that - twins are luck of the draw." Joelle: "I want twins." Folks, this is going to be the true test of Joelle's will. I see us having twins. (No, I'm not pregnant.... Although, Joelle sure acts like I am....)

It's a secret...

2006-05-15T05:57:00.000-07:00

Reason #452 why Joelle isn't ready to be a CIA operative - she loves to spill the beans. Against logic and past experience, I decided on Friday to show her what "she" was giving Petie as a mother's day present. About five minutes later we are in another room playing and Petie comes in. Joelle says "you're getting a present!". OK, no problems yet. You see, we went over this a number of times because I knew it would come up. "Joelle, the important thing is to not say WHAT the present is". We even tried a few role playing experiments to see if I could get her to say what it was and to see if she would tell. She passed. However, come crunch time, the preparation went out the window. Joelle whispers "it's a necklace". I say, "you weren't supposed to tell her - it's a secret. So Joelle responds (in a whisper) "but I told her softly". Close! The next day, my mom was getting her mother's day gift which was clothing, including a scarf. As she's opening her present, Joelle says "hey, daddy is the scarf in there?" When Joelle first told Petie what her present was, she thought I might have fed her misinformation to trick her. I think I'll have to use that for the next "present" occasion just for fun. Maybe for my dad's birthday I'll tell Joelle we're getting him a tie (he doesn't have much need for a tie) so when he's opening the box she'll blurt out "It's a tie!!!" before he finds out whatever it really is...

Cardio Gliding

2006-05-13T11:31:00.000-07:00

It occured to me while working out today that Joey and I both benefited from our parents working out all the time. My dad was an avid swimmer when I was little. He would go swim laps while I played on the bleachers at the dad's club. Mom played tennis - even playing against my future mother-in-law once. (No, Chris and I didn't meet then, but I like to think it was already in the cards.) It sounds like Joey is turning into an accomplished biker and I've now uped my workout schedule to at least 5 times a week, usually 6. ...and I feel like I need to do more! I hope Joelle also turns into an athletic type. With our genes, I fear that she'll inherit the dreaded slow metabolism. I wish for her three things in life: 1. To workout because you like it (meaning she has a naturally fast metabolism) 2. To find true love and 3. To have a passion that leads you to what you want to do with your life. So, it is hard to keep motivated about working out. Here are some of my tips... * Working out to music helps so much. For example, I usually watch TV or read, but I just jammed to my Dell with this past workout and burned 20 more calories then usual! * Learn to be an avid people watcher. I know everyone who comes to my typical classes. One of my favorites is "Jane Fonda" who must have been a cheerleader. She has coordinating arm and leg movements for everything. After 1o minutes into most classes, the avg person ceases to use the arms much. Not this girl. She also has her step on the highest setting. Even Chris can't go above setting 2. The best though is the "green beans". After the new year, I get frustrated that I have to get to class earlier to get a spot because of all the new year's resolutioners, but I'm at least rewarded with some new blood. I love to watch them flounder and leave within 5 minutes. Mean, I know. It's so entertaining though! * When all else falls, just watch tv or read. It's a slower workout, less motivation, but at least you're moving. Some exercise dont's.... * try not to forget to fill up the water before you get on the glider. I once walked in to find the bottle on the floor where Chris had thrown it in frustration. * Avoid going to class when it's expo weekend or a holiday, they are likely cancelled. * Know when the AC is out at the gym (I'm kidding on this one, how could you know? I have gone over a dozen times when the AC is out in the Group X room. Although you burn more calories, this is VERY frustrating.) * Avoid classes where it's obvious that the mean age is much older then you. You won't get much of a work out and the music generally sucks. * Remember to charge up your batteries on the IPOD, Rio, Dell or whatever "flavor" you use.

I-10

2006-05-12T16:40:00.000-07:00

I greet the I-10 expansion with predictable glee. After all, if I drive past my beloved "5 mile radius," I use I-10 as my main vein to get where I need to go. However, I will say that on my drive home from a lunch and a visit to daddy's office, I had a moment of confusion. The I-10 construction isn't just an expansion, it's actually recreating the entire freeway and everything on the feeder. What was the Old Katy Road is now the new feeder. That alone is HUGE. They're tearing down some businesses and leaving others standing - I'd seriously like to know how they decided that and how some businesses drew the ace. Anyway, aside from my 4 year stint in San Antonio and 5 year hiatus in Spring, I have lived on I-10. That's 22 years of driving down the same freeway - a lot. (I went to high school in town...) So, I realize this about myself... While I am grateful for change and welcome the 6 lanes of concrete heading our way (I think 6 lanes each way), I am also sad for the way it was. Perhaps this is the underlying reason why I was so skeptical about having a second baby. I love our family now and was scared to mix up the make-up of our bonds. I think though that it will only be bigger and better and that I'll get used to all the changes that come along with it. I think I'm getting used to the idea and it's ok to try. Kids do make good blog material.

Lost in translation

2006-05-12T15:50:00.000-07:00

Petie compared being a parent to being a detective, there's also an element of being a translator. The language is unique to each young child but it has elements that are common among children. Who knew that some of these elements could be applied at work? I'm at work as our Houston office and our Dallas office are having a joint meeting via phone in a conference room. The Dallas office is running the presentation and we are looking at documents separately via my laptop in Houston. When I asked which document they had up, the connection breaks up. We hear "It's the document titled Huh-uh-ay-ay-mmm". I immediately pull up the document titled "Hurricane Claim Form.doc" from the list of 20-25 documents. Alan (co-worker) says "only someone with a little kid could have understood that gibberish". Too bad they start speaking more clearly just as they are coming of the age where they will start saying some embarassing things in public :-)

Joellisms Part II

2006-05-11T14:51:00.000-07:00

How fortuitous, I was cleaning out a drawer today and was rewarded with finding a scrap of paper with more of the funny / cute things that Joelle says. I didn't find what I was looking for, but that's ok this is more fun and shows the magic of a junk drawer. (We have several.) * She says, "Texas, our Longhorns." She even knows the fight song... Chris made it his ringtone and she kept humming the tune even after the ringing was over. * When she was peeing (post potty training), she said, "it's raining out my butt!" * She calls her signature book from Disney World (with the princesses autographs, of course), her "science book." (sign, science. I assume that's where she got it.) * In the car one day she asked me, "Why is it so dusty outside?" (It was foggy). * In the morning when she wakes up, she always opens 1 out of 4 of the plantation shutters to make sure the sun is up.

The Chocolate Bunny

2006-05-11T05:50:00.000-07:00

Poppie asked me to give more background on THE chocolate bunny for Easter. (see below blog, "you better watch out." for more info). Those of you who know Joelle know that she is a very, very "discerning" eater. One of my favorite things to mention is that it is at least refreshing that her pickiness isn't only with real food but also with desserts. The girl likes chocolate. Period. For example, in her Easter basket she also got a lollipop, white chocolate covered rice krispie treat and a sugar cookie. She did not eat any of those.... only the chocolate bunny. She would have eaten all of it in one sitting had we let her. She acts like a desert that hasn't seen rain in awhile when she gets around chocolate. (The only disclaimer here is the kid influence. She will occassionally have a lollipop if a little friend is having one.) Anyway, months before Easter, that was the carrot that Nana dangled in front of her... The easter bunny won't bring you that chocolate bunny if you're not a good girl. I think it really was 2 months. So, it makes it all the more funny that she turned it around and tried it on Nana! A comprehensive list of food Joelle will eat: * any pasta (NO sauce) * broccoli, only cooked * raw carrots, NOT cooked * fried fish (luby's or frozen) * peanut butter sandwich, no crust or peanut butter licked off crackers * goldfish, pretzels, chips, bread (she likes her carbs, at least I usually give her whole wheat) * occassionally, apple - only with apple dipping sauce * chicken nuggets * grilled cheese, no crust * cheddar cheese, american cheese, once in a while string cheese * macaroni and cheese (luby's only) * cashew nuts (no other nuts, except peanuts ground into butter) * sucked juice from the orange, she spits out the "crust" * fruit snacks (but only certain brands) * chocolate anything (M's are a favorite, chocolate cookies, chocolate ice cream, etc.) * cake (really only likes the frosting like her mommie, will tolerate a little of the "cake") * honey nut cheerios and white milk * pancake with honey (with=covered generously) * sometimes the danimals yogurt drink * Lunchable-style pizza meals, once in a while "real" pizza The BS that they feed parents, "...keep offering your child a variety of foods. It takes some kids up to __ times exposure to try it." Whatever. It is NOT for lack of trying that Joelle doesn't eat a variety of foods. I'm just trying to say.... she wanted that chocolate bunny.

Mom's Day

2006-05-11T05:48:00.000-07:00

Some of the things kids in her class said about their moms: My mom is 564 years old. My mom always says, "you can't have something to drink for two weeks." My mom likes to make cookies and all that stuff. My mom is the prettiest when she gets make-up. My mom always says, "I don't know." My mom is big years old. Joelle's: My mom is 14 years old. My mom is the prettiest when going out. My mom likes to make toys. My mom always says, "thank you." My mom is funny when she wakes you up.

Camel Pasta

2006-05-10T13:55:00.000-07:00

Sometimes being a mom is like being a detective. Joelle just reported to me that she wanted camel pasta tonight for dinner. Intrigued, I dove in for more of a description. She said, "It's pasta with a hump in the middle with more pasta in it. It's juicier. Juicy pasta is the best." Are you intrigued as well.... I do have the benefit of knowing what I feed my daughter and figured it out! She wants ravioli for dinner. :)

You Better Watch Out, You Better Not Cry.... Santa Claus is Coming to Town

2006-05-09T18:01:00.000-07:00

Joelle learns from the best. When Nana told her she was going to take a little nap today, Joelle stated, "Nana, you better not do that. You won't get your mother's day present." I guess we now know, taking a nap to Joelle is equivalent to her whining to us.

Helmet

2006-05-06T16:38:00.000-07:00

Joelle: Your helmet is so brave. Chris: He doesn't back down from a fight. Joelle: Your helmet is so brave. Chris: He doesn't take any crap.

Luby's

2006-05-06T14:02:00.000-07:00

Chris makes me laugh. Out of the top 5 reasons I love him, one has got to be that he makes me laugh. Joelle rushed in from Luby's with Nana and Poppie (Nan and pawpE at the moment). She had her usual balloon and "goodie bag." I heard Chris say, "Let's see what in your Luby's bag today!" The bag has the same stuff in it every time, so as he pulled the items out, he spoke loudly so I could hear from the other room.... "graham crackers, crayons and a wet wipe!" Then Joelle held up a straw and said, ".. and a STRAW!" The straw was new so he spoke in his game show contestant voice... "You've won a straw." The best part is Joelle did think it was a treasure. She immediately ran to take into her "sleeping" room to put it in her drink cup. Just a normal moment in our household and I was smiling listening to it.

Lost Kid

2006-05-06T13:26:00.000-07:00

Today, running little errands with mom for some piddly items - new hanging pots and pillows, we saw a little boy who was walking in the parking lot. Yes, the parking lot. No mom in sight, my mother and I commented on how disgusting it was to let your kid wander around. I spotted him trying to go in the store we'd just come from and assumed his mom was in there. (Yes, I still assume mom vs. dad - they may be out there, but I just don't see many stay-at-home dads.) As we backed out the car, the boy did not enter the store. He continued down the sidewalk, passing lots of folks and lots of stores. Finally, I pulled my car back into a parking spot with my mom watching my own child to find out where the heck his mom was. One other lady was attracted to the scene. Out of all those bystanders that he passed, only she and I stopped. We tried to find out where his mommie was but he was only 3 or 4, so he couldn't communicate well. He continued skipping around the corner with us trailing and found his mom. He had walked around the entire shopping complex. I, on the other hand, had momentarily panicked 10 minutes previous when Joelle walked behind some display at the store we were in. I do not let her leave my sight. That little boy has been in my thoughts since finding him meandering towards a possibly disastrous outcome. It brings me to the question, "Who is a good mommie?" I think that few would argue that this woman is NOT a good mommie. However, who really is a good one? I chastise myself all the time for not being the best I can be. My number one fault, of course, is my temper. I do have a lot of patience, but once that patience is soaked up, whoa. I just lose it. I will say that I have not and never plan to hit my child. My anger is shown through my voice and even little Joelle raises her voice when she gets angry at me now. This is why I care so much and do judge myself all the time. Thankfully, Chris thinks I'm the best - he really said that. He said out of all the moms his met, I'm the best. I know he is partly obliged to tell me this, but I thank him none the less. I used to be so self conscious about how I looked - now, that doesn't matter as much to me. I care more for how good of a mommie I am - I doubt myself because it's so important.

Wrong Number

2006-05-04T12:28:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned in our House Story below, our number apparently used to belong to "Cindy's Centerfold" (an escort service) which gives us the privilege of receiving lots of fun calls starting with "Hi, I, uh, was, uh, calling about, uh, about your ad in the Yellow Pages?" And then there are the people who must think that we think they are cops: Them: "I'm calling about the escort service" Me: "This is not an escort service, this is a house, you have an old ad" Them: "C'mon, man. I'm calling about the escort service" Today we got another call from a yellow pages ad for some kind of garage door service called "First Choice". Hmm, I wonder if Cindy's had a lot of people calling First Choice and asking for "prompt service". (You could go on, but I won't.) On my cell phone a common wrong number is for K&K Vintage Motorcars - the area code is 713 and mine is 281. At least it's straightforward - I know what to tell them when someone asks if I want to buy a car. I also get a bunch of calls (dying down over time) for Phillip. He apparently had the number before me. Common dialog: Them: "Heeeeey what's UP!!??" Me: "Who is this?" Them: "Phillip?" The best one though was this conversation that I had last year (a good 2-3 years after getting this number): unknown female voice: "Hey there!" me: "Who is this?" her: "C'mon you know" me: "hmm...nope, who is this?" her: "c'mon your favorite cousin!" (she seemed very amused that Phillip couldn't figure this out) me: (lying) "I don't have any cousins" her: "SHUT UP Phillip, you know who it is" (getting slightly edgy) me: "really I don't and this hasn't been Phillip's number for at least two years so maybe you should call him more often"

Coughing in the Dust

2006-05-04T11:19:00.000-07:00

For those who have a program to notify of new posts (you know who you are :) ), please forgive me. For someone who programs for a part-time living (admittedly in an archaic format that is going away soon), I am suddenly technically inept. The web marches on and have been left in the dust. Here's hoping I catch up soon!

Grilled Cheese

2006-05-04T11:13:00.000-07:00

At Sam's Deli Diner on Saturday, Jillian (our 4 year old neighbor) asked Joelle why she had grilled cheese. I knew that Jillian really meant, "why did you order grill cheese," but that 4 year old conversationalists can't always express themselves that eloquently. Joelle retorted back, "that's what I ordered," with a quizzical look on her face. Jillian also looked confused. I held back laughter and gently told Joelle that maybe she was asking why she ordered it. She just said, "oh, I like it." 4 year old conversations.... they are very literal Oh, Joelle's new word this week: Brilliant. When I asked her where she learned it, she said, "Madonna."

At some point....

2006-05-04T08:56:00.000-07:00

Chris wanders in the den and says, "At some point, we all become afraid of thunder and girls become indecisive about what to wear." I would add to that, all kids learn to whine. Sigh. Luckily, we are moving a little away from the whining phase. Erin, her friend at school and out of school, helped with that. Her teacher told me that she was whining at school and Erin walked up and imitated her! Ah, the good parts of peer pressure. I'm relishing it while I can. Joelle, for the first time, came running into our room when there was a thunder storm last week. How strange at 3 1/2 to suddenly have this fear. Either that, or she's figured out another excuse for coming out of her room. (Currently, having to go potty is the ONLY other one allowed.) When Chris was helping her get dressed the other day, she wandered in the closet. With her finger tapping her lips, she said, "hm, what to wear today." Petie

Joelleisms

2006-05-04T08:49:00.000-07:00

Joelle is very into skin this days. For a woman just turning 30, this is an interesting thing. So, we come in after 3 hours in the sun yesterday and she mentions.... "Mommie you have cracks on your eyes." After the initial shock of thinking about my eyes cracking, I realize she means the wrinkles around my eyes. My reply, "oh yes, I do have wrinkles around my eyes...." Joelle says, "oh, I don't have those." (in a very "I'm pleased with myself" tone). She also has many soft skin conversations with Nana. I'm sure Nana loves to hear how soft Joelle's skin is..... I think this may have all started with my utter amazement at how soft her skin really is. So, I guess I mention it too often and have created her first beauty obsession. Petie

The House Story

2005-12-12T11:53:00.000-08:00

Hope you enjoy our 100% true "house story" that we lived through this past summer. For those of you who don't know the story, I hope you enjoy. For those who know some of the story, you'll probably hear a couple of twists you didn't know about. I have posted them in order so that you can read down the page instead of the usual reverse order of most blog posts. Feel free to pass this on to others, especially those who are buying/selling a house. You can honestly say to them "it could be worse". Also please post any comments or questions you have, but I will not publish any comments if I feel they are there primarily to advertise a product, website or blog. Chris

Chris Moves - Part 1

2005-12-12T11:52:00.000-08:00

To set the stage somewhat for those unfamiliar with the story, my wife (Petie) and I lived with our daughter (Joelle, age 2) in a 3 bedroom house in Spring, TX (North of Houston). We moved into it after it was built in May 1999.

For the following reasons we wanted to move to the Memorial/Spring Branch area of Houston(a.k.a. “in town”).

Closer to parents (e.g. from 40 to 5 min and from 50 to 15 min one-way trips)
Better schools
Closer to town/work
Our neighborhood was going down the tubes
Wanted another bedroom/room

[OK, for those of you who live in Houston I know that the specific area where we end up (outside of Beltway 8) is not downtown by any means, but it’s within the city limits]

Some of the names have been changed...

February 1, 2005 We decide on a listing agent, but want to wait a couple of weeks so we can do some landscaping work, clean out extra furniture and other items that will make the house look bigger.

February 15, 2005 We list the house at $138,900. This is on the high end of what we expect based on what we paid and what other houses are listed at. One potential listing agent suggests $130,000 but that’s about the minimum we would take.

February 16, 2005 No showings. (A showing is when someone interested in buying comes to tour the house)

February 17, 2005 No showings.

February 18, 2005 No showings.

February 19, 2005 Still no showings. OK, this is the first weekend day and we are starting to wonder. We remind ourself that it could take six months due to all the new construction competing with us. We start viewing available houses in the Memorial area (for those of you who know when we actually end up moving, you can laugh.)

March 15, 2005 No showings in the first month. Is there anything more comforting that Fiona could say besides “wow, I’ve never seen anything like this.”? She says that only one house has sold in our area in the last 60 days. We explain to her that if there is ONE house that sells in the neighborhood in the next year, we want it to be ours. It wasn’t meant as a humorous comment.

At this point Petie and I exchange the phrase “still no showings” whenever the other one comes home to make fun of how we were anxious to hear if someone saw the house when we first put it up for sale.

March 18, 2005 Our first showing. Their comments: “Shows like a model home.” But…they’re just looking. I guess those two weeks “cleaning up” were kind of silly, huh?

April 15, 2005 In the last month we had a couple of open houses – a combined two days of having signs posted and ads in the paper generated two people. We need to generate traffic so we drop the price and offer an agent incentive. Now it’s $136,900 and $1,000 to the selling agent as a bonus.

April 17,2005 – April 26, 2005 The move generates traffic (two showings) but apparently the target market for agent bonuses are dumb agents. One comments “wanted a bedroom downstairs” (even though all the posted information clearly indicates all bedrooms are up). Another “master won‘t work with a king-sized bed” (I want to know how big this bed is).

A rather quiet 2+ months. Hopefully the summer will bring more "action".

Chris Moves - Part 2

2005-12-12T11:51:00.000-08:00

A few definitions that will come in handy if you are not familiar with the home buying/selling process:

1. Centralized Showing – a service that handles the showing of your house (realtors subscribe to this service). A realtor calls Centralized Showing and they call us saying “X agent wants to see your house between 3:00-3:30 as a courtesy.

2. Earnest money – this is an amount (usually about 1% in Texas) that you give to the title company when you sign a contract. If you want out of the contract after the option period (see below), you lose this money.

3. Option period – when you enter into a contract you pay an option fee (say, $100) to have an option period. This is a period of time where you can have inspectors come and look at the house more carefully.

Wednesday, April 27, 2005 Late morning - Petie and Joelle are at home. Petie gets a call from Centralized Showing saying that a man is outside our house and wants to see it – he does not have a realtor. We say “no” (although tempting since we have had so few showings) – we’re not going to let some guy in our house off the street.

Early afternoon - the man calls our realtor and does come to take a look at the house. He seems interested. He is an older man (approx. 60)

Late afternoon - he and his wife knock on our door to see the house again. Turns out they live elsewhere in the neighborhood. Petie gives him our phone number if they have any other questions. Early evening – the guy calls and wants to show it to a family member. He brings his wife and her sister and proceeds to measure every room in the house and even discusses the drainage grade for about 10 minutes. All three of them rave about how wonderful the house is. We never hear from them again.

Thursday, May 5, 2005 We’re coming up on three months and the start of the summer season when all the activity is supposed to spike upwards. We see a bunch of houses we like (to buy) but who knows how long we’ll have to wait? We decide to step it up. Our contract with Fiona ends May 6^th and we switch to Michael. He’s more aggressive and we like him from our initial meeting. Confident and replete in his customized Black Hummer, he’s the guy we want to get it done.

We are now listed with Michael at $129,900 - $9,000 less than the original. If that doesn’t get people to look at the house, I don’t know what will. Fiona calls back saying “Oh, would you reconsider switching – I have some people who are interested.” If she was listing and gets someone to buy the house she would get 6% instead of 3% if we switch to Michael and she finds the buyer. Maybe she should have thought of that before not even calling us in the last three weeks of our contract.

Monday, May 9, 2005 Fiona’s prospective buyer comes for a showing in the evening. As usual we made plans to be elsewhere during the showing (Chuck E. Cheese this time) and come home to her purse sitting on our porch. After she figures out her purse is at our house she comes back to pick it up saying “They are extremely interested – I am pretty sure they are going to write an offer.”

Boy, this is going to be the easiest commission Michael has ever gotten.

Tuesday, May 10, 2005 9:30 am – A woman who is relocating from Arkansas and living with family comes to look at the house. She loves it and wants to show her husband that evening.

5:15 pm – The couple (the McKays) love the house and plan on making an offer the next day

Wednesday, May 11, 2005 Michael Zin calls – “Chris, lightning has struck.” We have two offers. We successfully bid them against each other until we get to both offering $132,900. $3,000 above the current list price. Now we have to make a decision:

Fiona’s buyers: - 0% down, working with Fiona (who both we and Michael had worked with) and wanting to close on June 30^th.

Arkansas buyers: 5-10% down (so maybe better finances?), don’t know their realtor, wants to close quickly – June 1^st.

Since we felt kind of bad for Fiona not getting any of the commission after having us listed for three months and her buyer giving us more time to actually find a house to move to, we go with Fiona’s buyer.

Thursday, May 12, 2005 We sign the contract with Fiona’s buyer and the option period begins on the next day.

May 13-May 22, 2005 Petie and I go to look at houses a number of times. We find one that we really like (on Woodthorpe) and think we will make an offer but want to wait until the option period is up for our buyers.

Monday, May 23, 2005 Option period is up for our buyers, so if they don’t buy the house they owe us $1000. Considering that and the costs of inspections and applying for a loan they will have spent about $2000 if they don’t buy the house.

Tuesday, May 24, 2005 We make an offer on Woodthorpe and it is accepted

Tuesday, May 31, 2005 We have mechanical, structural and termite inspections on Woodthorpe. No big problems but the inspectors recommend a hydrostatic (leak) test because of some house settling on one side.

Wednesday, June 1, 2005 12:15 p.m. Michael’s assistant, Chad, calls me at work. “Michael wanted me to pass on a note to you that something happened on Fiona’s deal and that he’ll be calling.”

Their option period is over and our option period is almost up on our new house. I ask Chad if he knows what's going on and he says "I'm not sure, I know Michael will be calling you shortly."

Chris Moves - Part 3

2005-12-12T11:50:00.000-08:00

Wednesday, June 1, 2005 3:15 p.m. After not getting calls back, I call Fiona’s office and her assistant says “well, how much have you heard?” “Nothing.” “Well, we don’t know how much brain damage she has, but she’s had a seizure.” 4:15 p.m. Michael calls to say that the principal buyer (Sara) is in a comatose state. Apparently she had a seizure and is in the hospital. 4:40 p.m. Michael already has a NEW potential buyer – a couple that lives in The Woodlands - just in case Sara backs out of the deal. 6:15 p.m. The Woodlands couple loves the house and it is their favorite –they want to see it again Saturday morning. Friday, June 3, 2005 We get the leak detection results from our future house on Woodthorpe – they estimate between $10-11,000 in repairs. Quote: “the bottom of the pipes on one side of the house is gone.” Saturday, June 4, 2005 The wife of the Woodlands couple brings her mother – she thinks the house should be bigger (she lives in a huge house in Memorial) so it’s suddenly not their favorite. Michael is “flabbergasted” because they liked it so much. Michael also confirms that Sara is terminating our contract – we should still get the earnest money from her now since it was after her option period. If she were to give the reason of financing the contract states that it has to be within a certain number of days as well. We give up on Woodthorpe and back out before our option period was up. The sellers had agreed to pay for the plumbing, but we don’t want two houses at once. Monday, June 6, 2005 We call the title company to check on Sara’s earnest money. Turns out she has a “stop payment” on the check. Behind the scenes, our realtor's office had lost the check (5/19) and told Fiona to give the title company a new one. Michael found the old check (5/26) and gave it to the title company. It didn’t process until 6/6 that it had a stop payment on it.

Chris Moves - Part 4

2005-12-12T11:46:00.002-08:00

6/8/05 When getting information together to send a letter to Sara, I notice that she lists a phone number on one of the documents. I call and a woman answers. I say I have a wrong number. So now we can reach her if we need to. 6/10/05 We send Sara a letter explaining that she owes us $1000 and if we don't hear from her within 10 days we will file a claim in small claims court. 6/15/05 We call Fiona and she denies that she did anything wrong and says that she is "unable to get a hold of Sara". Boy, she must not be trying very hard. 6/22/05 We receive a certified letter from Sara. She says that she doesn't owe us the money because her fiancee was transferred and she was going to be unemployed so she was denied a loan. She cites that the contract says if she can't obtain financing that the contract is void. 6/23/05 I call Sara's number (with the intention of actually talking to her this time) and it says that her number has changed to a 903 area code. I look it up and it is Longview, TX (where she said her fiancee was being transferred). I leave a message on the 903 number. 6/24/05 I call three times throughout the day - on the third try Sara picks up. She said it was all a misunderstanding and that she would be able to send some of it after the second Friday in July when she has some money. She gives me her address in Longview, TX. 7/8/05 (the second Friday in July) I call Sara to see if she is going to mail us a check. She said she would send part of it that day, but couldn't send it all because she has $4000 in medical bills. 7/11/05 We get a letter from Sara with a $100 check that states by depositing the check we agree that she can pay off her $1000 (now $900) of debt over the next few months. We deposit the check. It clears. 8/19/05 As you'll see (when I get back to the house part of the story) we were busy during the last month so we hadn't followed up with Sara regularly. I call her and she happens to be driving to Houston that weekend and says she will mail a check from Houston that weekend. 8/29/05 Still no check - I call Sara and she said she'd call me back to verify the address. She said she had sent it that weekend. 9/12/05 Busy again for the next two weeks so I get around to calling Sara again. She said she had gotten the new address (my work address) and hadn't had a chance to send the check yet. Her fiancee had just left her and was no longer supporting her as she goes through school. She thought she would probably be moving back to Las Vegas (where she's from apparently) within a week and would be calling me back. I offered her to send a reduced amount instead of doing it over several months. She said she'd talk to her mom about perhaps borrowing the money from her and doing that. 9/27/05 Call Sara and she said she was now in Vegas and was starting work in a couple of days - asked us to bear with her until she gets the money together. 10/13/05 Called Sara - the 903 number is disconnected. 11/21/05 I post this story on a friend's blog (without changing names) 12/5/05 Sara posts a comment requesting me to take her name off. She states that because of the move she no longer has my contact information. She found the blog by doing an internet search on her real name. 12/7/05 Via e-mail Sara obtains my contact information and agrees to continue paying the money when she is able. In Part 5, we'll get back to the "house" part of the "house story".

Chris Moves - Part 5

2005-12-12T11:45:00.001-08:00

Part 3 left off with us backing out of our new house the first week of June because Sara backed out on us. So, let's find a new buyer and (eventually) a NEW new house for us, shall we? We expect there to be more traffic because, after all, the day after we lowered the price we "sold" it in May. 6/8/05, 3:27 pm Gary (realtor) schedules a showing for between 5-7 pm. We go out to dinner to get out of the way. 6/8/05 7:00-8:20 pm We return at 7:30 and it doesn't look like anyone has come to see the house. We get a call at 7:51 asking if they can still come. Joelle's bedtime is 8 pm so I almost say "no, this is ridiculous to be over an hour late" but since we're desperate I say "no problem, sure!". At 8:05 Gary brings a young couple to see the house. They seem to like it a lot (just as everyone else has, no surprise there). 6/9/05 1:15 pm I call Michael's office to get information about flyers since our house is back on the market - he tells me that the young couple that saw the house last night was putting together an offer. Turns out it is just the woman, not a couple (oh boy, this sounds familiar). 6/13/05 9:45 am We get the offer from Gary and it is too low - we decide to counter with something that would be similar to what we got the FIRST time we sold the house. 6/13/05 3:20 pm Curious about which realty company Gary works for, I look him up and he's not listed in the Houston Area Realtors database. I google Gary. His name shows up on Texas Department of Insurance on a court docket. I call the State and received documents showing that his insurance license was suspended in 1999 for fraud and that he had recently scored poorly on a mortgage broker exam. 6/14/05 Michael calls and says that he has some concerns about Gary after speaking to him a couple of times. I told him "I can do you one better" and forward him the documents. Michael says Gary is a smartass and has been unable to answer some basic questions about the mortgage side of the buyer. I tell him to go ahead and try to work out a deal. In the last week we have had a number of showings and a number of "almost offers" but nothing concrete enough to ignore Gary. Michael calls me to tell me that Gary left him a message saying "I want to assure you that I have been a loan officer for over 10 years and that there is no reason to worry about the deal falling through. " We think that's kind of ironic based on what we found out about him. 6/17/05 Michael's office calls to say Gary's offer is going to end up being about 4,000 less than when we had two bidders in May. We say, "go for it". 6/18/05 Not really related to the house, but demonstrates how our summer was going: 10:30 am - Petie comes in from taking out the trash and says that our neighbor's dog is loose. Our neighbor (Bill) has had a number of large dogs (mostly pit bulls) that either escape from their backyard or are allowed to roam around from time to time. They are probably not vicious, but are very large and intimidating. 10:35 am - she notices that our other neighbor (Nancy) is trying to lead the dog back into their backyard because her kids are scared of large dogs. I go out to help. He's really growling and actually EATING the fence. I calmly try to get him to go in and lead him by the collar but he's not at all interested. 10:40 am - Nancy suggests I go in her house to get a hot dog or something to distract the dog. I go in and her daughter offers me some salami - I take it out and use it to lead the dog into the backyard. We slam the fence shut and block it with bricks and sandbags - the dog is absolutely charging the fence and the bolts are shaking as if they could pop out. 10:45 am - Another neighbor (Shawn) calls Animal Control - they say they'll be there in 60-90 minutes. We don't look forward to leaning against the fence for that long. We alternate turns to bang on Bill's door because sometimes he'll pretend he's not there or will sleep through things like this. No answer. 11:00 am - We realize that the dog calms down when we step away from the fence so we go across the yard. Animal Control arrives. He doesn't have a tranquilizer gun and is by himself so he calls backup. 11:45 am - he gets an urgent call and says he'll be back later with backup. We all go back to our houses since the dog has calmed down now. 12:20 pm - Nancy calls. "They were there the whole time!" "What do you mean?" I asked. "The dog isn't in the backyard anymore, they were there the whole time and just now let the dog in!" We are both frustrated. We never liked that neighbor. It has nothing to do with the fact that his kid careened out of control on a motorcycle through our front yard killing a tree and running into our neighbor's garage (luckily he hit our tree first, actually) or that they set the nearby forest on fire one 4th of July, really. 2:00 pm - I see Animal Control go into Bill's house - since we had left there is now a car in the driveway so someone else is home now. The Animal Control team comes out empty-handed. I approach them. "I guess you can't take the dog now that he's inside, huh?" "Uh sir, the dog is dead." I'm shocked. "Oh....oh my gosh." "Do you know who threw that salami back there? Because we think the dog was either poisoned or had a snakebite." FYI, the salami was fine - Nancy's kids were eating it. I don't know exactly what happened to the dog but looking back it makes sense that something was wrong with it - trying to bust out, eating the fence, growling when usually the dog is quiet (huge, but usually quiet). Just another day in our Summer 2005. 6/18/05-6/27/05 Over this period of time we have a number of showings and constantly wait on Gary to send an update to the contract, get the buyer's initals, etc. Each day we figure we'll go with Gary's offer if someone else who just saw the house doesn't come through. Normally this process would take a day but with Gary it stretches into almost two weeks. So, it's nearing the end of June and we have Gary's offer which has been out there for a while but isn't finalized and a lot of activity but nothing solid.

Chris Moves - Part 6

2005-12-12T11:45:00.000-08:00

Mon, 6/27/05 Petie says "I'm surprised Ruthann (the realtor helping us buy a house) hasn't called to see how we are doing." It has been about three weeks since we are now waiting for an offer to even begin looking again. Literally two minutes later the phone rings - it's Ruthann. We tell her that we have hope for a contract but it looks shaky. After she hangs up we wonder if she called because Michael changed the status on our house to "Option Pending". Turns out he did. Tues, 6/28/05 Michael confirms that Gary has finally filled in all the blanks and has all the paperwork to him. Option period ends 7/7/05. We close on 7/20/05. Maybe THIS one will work better than the last one? Thurs, 6/30/05 Phone is dead. Whoops - forgot to "cancel the cancel" from before when we were planning on moving out. Later that day DSL goes out because our phone account was cancelled. Without going into detail, it literally takes about a week to get service again. Next time we're not cancelling things until after we have cash in hand for the house! Fri 7/1/05 - Tues 7/5/05 Yolanda (person who has submitted the contract through Gary) has inspectors come and inspect our house. Our house is appraised by the bank. Thurs 7/7/05 They fax us a copy of the inspection report with minor things (that don't even need to be done, really) and I say we just offer them $250 since it's the last day of the option period for them. Fri 7/8/05 I see a house online (the Barryknoll House) that looks like it could be perfect for us. We had gone the previous weekend and had pretty much been left with no great prospects, so this was exciting that a new one might be on the market. That night it's no longer online. (Sold already??) Sat 7/9/05 I call the realtor of the house that was online (luckily I had written it down). He said it was a computer glitch and it's online now. He had 13 calls and 6 showings the first day so he suggests we see it at the Open House on Sunday. We decide to see it that day. We go once by ourselves and once with our realtor. After discussing it for about 30 seconds we decide to write up an offer on the spot - it's perfect. Sun 7/10/05 After the open house they call and we agree to an amount slightly below list price. We close on 7/28 and they will lease it back until 8/12. Since we are closing on 7/20/05 we will have to move in with Petie's parents for almost a month, but that's not the end of the world. Michael calls back and says that Gary wants us to make the repairs. They have no say since the option period is over but we don't want to screw anything up so we agree to have people come look at it. Over the next few days we spend about $425 on them to make them happy. Mon 7/11/05 - Mon 7/18/05 We have inspections on Barryknoll and do a lot of moving. We completely move out of our house on 7/18 since Yolanda is closing on Wednesday. Tues 7/19/05 The title company calls and says "We just received a call from your buyer and they wanted to let you know that the closing that was supposed to be tomorrow is postponed. The earliest they can close now is 8/1."

Chris Moves - Part 7

2005-12-12T11:44:00.001-08:00

Tues, 7/19/05, afternoon I immediately call Gary's cell phone and have the following conversation: Gary: (whispering) hello? Me: Hi, is this Gary? Gary: (whispering) hello? Me: Hi Gary, my name is Chris DiPaolo and I... (Gary hangs up) Great. After calling him back he hangs on long enough to find out who I am and he calls me back. Apparently he's in some sort of class for mortgage brokers (probably part of some probation, is my guess). Oh, did I not mention that he's the broker AND the real estate agent for Yolanda? He not only is selling her the house but also brokering her loan. When he's on a break from class he tells me "Oh, 7/20 wasn't the actual date, it was just the original agreement. It should be ready soon, but not by 7/20!". I say, "well, I have a contract here signed by both of us that says 7/20." He says "oh, well that was the original date but everything took so long like the repairs and the paperwork, etc." I hang up on him instead of saying something not-so-nice. Michael calls Gary's manager at ERA (Kim) and finds out that basically she is "scared of him". Her exact quote is "I wouldn't want to run into him in a dark alley if you know what I mean." Did I mention ERA is a real estate sweatshop? They get a per month fee from their agents (not a commission on houses sold) so they don't care who uses their name...they just want a lot of agents. Tues, 7/19/05, evening I call Michael and he had just talked to Gary. Supposedly the buyer was paranoid about getting the house and wouldn't allow him to process the loan until she knew everything was in place - including getting a receipt for the repairs that were done. So the loan was sent to the bank first thing Monday (according to him) and should be in the next stage by Wednesday. Should be able to close by Friday but he would only commit to Monday (NOW he has an issue with comitting to a date...) In the same conversation he says he's submitted the loan to 1, 3 and 5 different banks. Officially we have no reason to believe a word that he says about anything. Wed, 7/20/05 Meanwhile, our option period ends on Sunday (we made it for after we were supposed to close...just in case) so we hope against hope that Yolanda can close by Friday so we will have cash in hand before our option runs out. Just in case we see if we can extend the option period - pretending that it's because we have some questions about repairs and want to get more estimates (The plumbers estimated $4,000 of work at Barryknoll) and not giving information about how our other deal is potentially falling apart. Kim (Gary's manager) talks to Michael. She had called Yolanda and it turns out that Yolanda had no idea that the closing date really was supposed to be on 7/20 and didn't know that as of 7/21 she would technically be out of contract and would owe us the earnest money (which we did confirm was actually deposited this time). Thurs, 7/21/05 Supposedly Yolanda's loan is in process, she has to deposit a paycheck on Friday to have enough "reserves" for the loan to be approved. Fri, 7/22/05 Michael says he has another couple coming to look at the house and the status online will be change to "Active" from "Option Pending". Technically we don't have a contract with Gary so we can keep showing it. (He never sent us an amendment requesting us to move the closing date out). On the Barryknoll house we request an extension to 7/29 with closing on 8/1 and request that the necessary repairs be done (some sheetrock work and plumbing). Sat, 7/23/05 The Barryknoll owners agree to extend the option period if they can lease the house back for 2 more weeks and only give us $500 for repairs. We want to make sure everything is covered so if they want to give us a flat dollar amount, we say $4000 (the exact amount is in doubt due to the nature of the repairs, I'll spare you the details) to make sure we don't lose money on repairs. They say $2000 and Ruthann (our realtor) suggests we just get better estimates instead of a flat amount. We agree and I make absolutely clear that our option period is now extended (since it ends Sunday). She says that is the case. We have little confidence in Gary and his buyer so the extra time would be helpful. We need the funds from the Kobi Park house to be able to buy the new house, otherwise we'll have to take out a separate loan and deal with that hassle and those costs. The Barryknoll realtor asks our realtor why our old house is now "Active". Ruthann pretends she doesn't know anything about it. I suggest to her that she probably doesn't want to know the details of our old house. She agrees. Michael says the couple that looked at the house yesterday drove from the showing to their loan officer's house becuase they liked it so much. He expects an offer on Monday and they want to close within three weeks. Mon, 7/25/05, 5:30 p.m. Petie and I sign the amendment to extend the option period. It still shows the $500 but Ruthann crosses that out to say "pending bids". ================= So,Gary's still "in progress", a new couple with an offer and our option period extended to give us an extra week to sort this mess out. Maybe this week will be less stressful than the last one.

Chris Moves - Part 8

2005-12-12T11:44:00.000-08:00

Mon, 7/25/05, 7:45 pm Ruthann calls and says "The realtor for the Barryknoll owners is asking a lot of questions about the Kobi Park house so it might be best if we get on a conference call". The three of us get on a call. He complains about not getting the repair information on time and complains that our house is active. He says they want to move on so we either need to give them $2000 as option money to extend the option period to Friday or just plan on closing on Friday and say the option period is over. Long silence. I don't understand - "we had a signed agreement to extend the option period," I say. The other realtor points out that since Ruthann crossed out the $500 repair amount that is on the contract we signed we are technically out of the option period. We're screwed. We now have no choice but to go forward. The two options are pay $2000 for the right to back out after a week, which is ludicrous. We negotiate and we agree to $4,000 if we close on 8/11 and they lease back through the end of August. So we have a month to close on our house before we would have two mortgage payments. They even say they'll give us $4,900 in repairs if we close on 8/4. On the bright side we are now committed to a wonderful house, but it's really hard to get the bad taste out of my mouth for how we constantly are blindsided with these things. Tues, 7/26/05 - 8:00 am Since we were going to need the proceeds of Kobi Park to be able to buy Barryknoll, Chris starts looking for a loan that can close in, oh, 9 days. Tues, 7/26/05 - 7:00 pm Michael calls. He spoke with Gary and says we can close at 3 p.m. on Friday. Sign us up!! In addition, he's received the offer from the new couple. It's a little low so we go back and try to get them to match Gary's offer (which is low enough already). Thurs, 7/28/05 - 12:15 pm I talk to Michael's assistant and she says Michael got a voice mail from Gary saying everything is "OK" Thurs, 7/28/05 - 2:30 pm Michael calls and says the title company has been in contact with the lender and everything is a go for 3 pm tomorrow (24.5 hours to go!) Thurs, 7/28/05 - 4:10 pm The title company calls and says that Gary called and said the closing couldn't happen tomorrow. Apparently when they said they had talked to the LENDER they meant the MORTGAGE BROKER which is the INCOMPETENT FOOL named GARY. Michael thinks we should go full bore with the new offer because they are matching what Gary's offer was. We wholeheartedly agree. Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me. Fri, 7/29/05 Vault Mortgage said our loan is approved. I HIGHLY recommend Vault Mortgage (vaultmortgage.com) - they were willing to write up and process the loan in less than a week. They were extremely helpful even though we weren't SURE we needed the loan. After all, Gary could have closed by 8/4 when we were planning on closing on Barryknoll. (insert long bout of laughter here) (ok, stop laughing) (please) ================= OK, about a week until we close on our new house and we have a solid prospect to replace Gary. Hopefully we can minimize the amount of time we have two houses. At least we know we can move into our new house on 9/1.

Chris Moves - Part 9

2005-12-12T11:43:00.000-08:00

Sat, 7/30/05 - 1:30 pm Michael calls - the new couple is just about ready to sign the revised offer to match Gary's they just want to see the house one more time. Sat, 7/30/05 - 5:45 pm They are ready - the deal should be in hand by Monday. Mon, 8/1/05 - 12:45 pm Old Republic Title calls with an update and says that Gary can't close Tuesday, but maybe Wednesday. RIGHT!!!!!! I'll just be sittin' by the phone! Having said that, if he miraculously comes through first, it's fine with me - we just don't want two houses. Wed, 8/3/05 Michael says the new couple is ready and could close within 14 days. He told this to Gary and Gary said he could close by the end of the week (ha). Since we don't technically have a contract with anyone at this point, whoever closes first wins in our book. Thurs, 8/4/05 - 2:00 pm We close on Barryknoll. Yay!! . Feels very strange to buy a house and still go home to live with the in-laws. (They will be leasing it back from us until 9/1). Jennifer at work calls us "land barons" now that we own two properties. Thurs, 8/4/05 - 5:00 pm The new couple has just a few contract changes to make. Gary claims he can close tomorrow even though the title company doesn't have closing instructions (translation: he's lying). Fri, 8/5/05 - 10:00 am Michael gives Gary an ultimatum: it's either today or nothing. Gary says he can give us phone numbers of bankers who will vouch for the loan being processed. Michael says if Yolanda gives up another $1,000 of non-refundable earnest money then we'll sign an extension with them. Fri, 8/5/05 - 1:00 pm We see a fax from Gary to Michael that says they are clear to close on 8/9. The fax was sent 8/3. So he knew a couple of days ago that it wouldn't happen this week. While we've said it before, now is really the time to give up on Gary. Until now we didn't have any better options. We sign the contract for the new people and fill out a request to try to get the earnest money from Yolanda since they never requested an extension and are out of contract. But, since we haven't seen earnest money from the new people, we wait to give the contract to Michael.

Chris Moves - Part 10 (Conclusion)

2005-12-07T09:15:00.000-08:00

Fri, 8/5/05 4:15 pm Michael calls - he spoke with Gary's manager again. She had spoken to Yolanda and found out that Yolanda is freaking out about not being able to get the house anymore. She doesn't want to put up an additional $1,000 in earnest money because she is afraid Gary will blow it again. Kim said she would order Gary to bring her the file and take him off the account. Sun, 8/6/05 afternoon We still don't have the earnest money from the new people and now we get a COPY of a check from Yolanda for $1,000. Too little, too late. Mon, 8/8/05 morning Michael's assistant says that some additional paperwork came in from the new couple - it was held up because they didn't have easy access to a fax. I ask her to ask about the earnest money. Mon, 8/8/05 afternoon The title company expects to get paperwork on Wednesday (8/9) to close on Thursday (8/10) for Gary's buyer (Yolanda). Tues, 8/9/05 9:50 am The title company says they are ready to close tomorrow with Yolanda. They would call me back shortly to firm up an exact time. Wed, 8/10/05 10:50 am The title company calls to say that they can't close until tomorrow. Meanwhile, the realtor for the new couple decided to MAIL the earnest money check and we should be receiving it "today". We're glad that she has been slow to respond to paperwork just in case Gary/Yolanda really do close. (I know, what are the odds?) Wed, 8/10/05 The title company sends me our settlement statement for a closing the next day. Unfortunately it is for a property being purchased by Fiona (our old realtor and Sara's realtor). Nice. I e-mail them back and they send me the correct settlement statement (this is a statement that details all the inflows and outflows of cash to/from realtors, buyer/seller, taxes, etc. on the transaction). Thurs, 8/11/05 8:15 am Our appointment to close is at 11:00 am. I get a call from the title company they tell me that the electricity is out in their building and they expect it to be out until noon. Thurs, 8/11/05 9:15 am Electricity is back on, we're still on for 11:00 am. Thurs, 8/11/05 11:00 am We close, about 6 months after listing our house, at the fourth? (we lose track since after the first two we stopped believing) scheduled closing. Gary's manager says that if we write them a letter they will be able to take a portion of Gary's commission and give it to us to offset the costs we had of moving out even though there was no hope of closing. Long story short after going through the process of writing letters and requesting payment they pretend that they never said that. (We've ceased to be surprised) Thurs, 9/1/05-9/7/05 Moving in. The first couple of days we receive a couple of "wrong number" calls and then we get one asking if this is the "escort service". Apparently our new number used to be for "Cindy's Centerfold" and still shows up in some older phone books. Fri, 9/8/05 Petie receives a call at home. "I know this is kind of weird" the person says. "My name is Mary and my husband and I are closing on a house on Woodthorpe next week." (the one we had a contract on) She wanted to know why we really backed out of Woodthorpe. They wanted to make sure there was nothing wrong with the house. Apparently they heard a story from their realtor that they just couldn't believe and wanted to see if it was true. Mary, you don't know the half of it. The End (for now) Update 12/1/05: we filed a TREC (Texas Real Estate Commission) complaint against Fiona (for not delivering the earnest money replacement in a timely manner, for advising her client that she did not owe us the earnest money, etc.) which is currently pending. We will be filing a complaint against Gary shortly. Update 12/15/05: last night we get a phone call from a neighbor down the street. "I just got a letter that says you own our house" he says. I forget his exact address so I look up my name online on the Harris County Appraisal District (HCAD) site. Our name brings up 16 houses on our street - all on the other side of the street. Looking at the account numbers for our "new" houses they all are in sequence (e.g. 97001, 97002, etc.) There are a couple of breaks in the sequence so I look to see who they list as the owners of those houses. It's us - just with our last name misspelled. So now we own 18 houses (that we know of). I called HCAD and they said they would fix it. I asked for a call back to explain how that happened, but I'm not holding my breath. Update 12/27/05: Apparently our title says something about our lot being replatted from a group of 17 lots in the 1950s, so the data entry people naturally thought we were purchasing ALL 17 lots. Sigh, back to one house again. Not complaining! Update 5/15/06: The TREC investigator called to follow-up with a couple of questions about our complaint against Fiona. She found violations for both her and Michael and will be sending a report to the attorneys in Austin around June 1. After that it will be another few months before we hear what will happen - ranging from "nothing" to a hearing in Houston.