A Big Day

We were just getting settled in last night  for another exciting evening of TV watching about 9:30pm and the phone rings.  It's Brynn telling us  Josh is on his way to her workplace to pick her up to take her to Overlake Hospital in Bellevue.  Seems as tho baby will make his appearance earlier than expected.  So along with Brynn's parents we settled in for a long night of waiting.  After over 10 hours of labor, Colt Elijah Fowler arrived  on July  27, 2012 at 8:40 a.m. weighing exactly 7#0oz and 19" long. 

He is beautiful from head to toe with lots of hair of a golden hue with a tinge of red.  Nurses said if he had waited for his due date he would have been an 8 or 9# baby and longer, so Brynn was happy he arrived early.  Brynn did really well thruout the process along with encouragement from Josh.  Both of them are overjoyed at their new addition.  Now granddog Jake will have a brother.

I'll also include a picture of Ernie and I with the 'sold' sign outside our house.   We took this same picture 20 years ago when we bought it (I just have to find it!).

Moving On

Our house sold in 7 days, and the short sale we've been working on since September came through a couple of days later. We've gotten past the inspection, and had the appraisal on the sale. We had an unexpected oil tank discovered on our property that was decommissioned last week. The furnace was tuned up today, and now we're just waiting to close on the 10th of August. We will be renting the house back until the end of the month. We did our inspection on the short sale house last Friday, and the appraisal will be this Wednesday. It should close on the 13th of August.  We decided to have the house renovated over the fall and winter rather than to go with our original plan of renting it out for a year or so, then renovating. Our friend Randy will be doing the remodel. He is working on plans so we can get started as soon as we take possession.
The 1st of September we will be heading out on an adventure that will take us to New England around mid September. We'll be traveling with our Moses Lake friends Mike & Joyce, and meeting up with Jim & Marcella (Boise Idaho) in Ohio. The plan is to head south from Maine to Florida, then west to Arizona, and arrive in Apache Junction around  mid November. Along the way we will be visiting people we know in Minnesota & Wisconsin, visiting the Rock N Roll hall of fame in Cleveland, the Henry Ford Museum in Detroit, Gettysburg, and other histric sites. Since everybody in our caravan plays golf, we may try to golf in every state along the way. We should have good weather along the way, and we don't need to be anywhere at any particular time, so it should be a great trip.
We will be back in Seattle for 8 nights from the 19th to the 27th of December. We'll fly in, rent a car, and stay downtown at the Camlin Hotel. Then we can catch up with friends and family for a few days before returning to the sunshine of Arizona.
So for now it's pretty busy here trying to get everything wrapped up, and we hope that we don't forget something important. Once it's all done, and we're on the road, it will be nice to not have to worry about the house while we're away. I can't wait, Ernie

The day before the 4th of July (or the begining of summer)

The house is officially "on the market", and there's been quite a bit of activity. We left last Wednesday for a few days of sun in the Moses Lake area. We met up with Mike & Joyce, Bill & MaryAnn, and Jim & Marcella. Played some cards, board games, and golf for 5 days. Had an all around good time.
While we were gone there was a agents open house on Thursday, and a buyers open house on Sunday. When we got home Monday evening around 5:00, we had to vacate almost immediately, as there was an agent showing the house at 6:00. We also have one coming this morning (July 3rd) at 10:00, so we need to make ourselves scarce again. We're hoping that this process Doesn't take too long.
The trip back from central Washington saw the new windshield ($2400) in the motorhome get a nice rock ding at approximately the 300 mile mark! We can't believe how many of these (dings) we have had in 4 years. This is either #5 or #6. That is in about 30,000 total travel miles.
The Chevy Cobalt should be getting an engine transplant later this month. Hopefully that goes smooth so it can go to live with Kristin in Austin this fall. The Mazda is still reposing in the garage, waiting for a new owner. We will soon be a one car family.
The short sale house that we have been waiting on for the past 10 months could be wrapping up soon. That will give us something to do ( ha ha ) before heading out in the fall. So, with a little bit of luck, the next post will be about the SOLD sign on the house, the successful engine transplant in the Cobalt, The new home for the Mazda, and our "new" house.   Ernie