JAKE TURNS EIGHT - September 4, 2009

Happy 8th Birthday, Jake. It's so hard for us to believe that Jake has turned 8 years old. His special birthday present from mom and dad was to see the Jonas Brothers in Concert! He loved it. So it seemed appropriate to give him a Jonas Brother's backpack for this school year. He's also into Star War's lego sets and was excited to get another to add to his collection.

Moving to Dalton Gardens Update

Every day I try to pack one, two or three boxes. So far I have packed 60 boxes of varied sizes. Unfortunately, I still have a lot to go. On the other hand, Jerry has ONLY packed one small box. However, he has been working hard in the yard cutting out some of the maintenance.

Camie explores all the boxes empty and not ... she's taken up sleeping on the pile of stacked boxes. Right now I have boxes stacked all over the house.

I am advertising some furniture on craigslist, but to date have not sold any of the pieces. I have a sofa bed, oak entertainment center, as well as, a sectional couch advertised for sale. As soon as one or all of these pieces sell, I will have a lot more room to store the boxes that have been packed.

Medical Appointments

Last week, Jerry and I went for his monthly oncology appointment. Jerry is still feeling well and his lab work (blood work) is still showing numbers that are not too out of line. Jerry's PSA has risen from .02 up to .05. But, is still on the low side. Please continue to keep Jerry in your prayers so that he can enjoy continue feeling better than he has ... in a long time. Thank you all for your love, support, thoughts and prayers.

OUR NEW HOME IN NORTHERN IDAHO

Most of you know that since around February, Jerry and I have been seriously looking for property to purchase in Coeur d' Alene, Idaho. I have been spending countless hours on the computer looking at houses on the MLS (multiple listings), for sale by owner, as well as, short sales and foreclosures. We had some homes in mind when we took off for Idaho on July 1st. We made arrangements with our realtor to physically view some properties on July 6th, after the 4th of July holiday. Jerry and I were anxious, but because of the holiday we did some boating and jet skiing and also drove around to see the area's where the houses we were interested were. Because we fell in love with the Dalton Garden's area when we put an offer on a house on Davenport we drove around the Dalton Garden's neighborhood. Up and Down all the streets we were so familiar with from Google Earth. One of Jerry's main criteria was a shop, but most of the houses we were looking at didn't have a shop and we would need to build it. Jerry's brother-in-law was driving around Dalton Gardens and saw a shop that he thought was AWESOME! Someone was roaming around near the shop and being curious and friendly August (Jerry's brother-in-law) stopped and asked the man how big the shop was. The men's conversation went on and the man told August the house was for sale. We turned around a grabbed a real estate flyer. Once I saw the flyer I realized it was a house I had seen many times on the Internet but, didn't consider the house because it was built in 1961 and we were looking for a house in 2000 or later. I never really read the description too carefully because their was ONLY 1 picture on the Internet and I figured there were no pictures because the house was do out dated that they didn't want us to see the inside. Well I called the realtor and added the house to the list of houses we'd already planned to preview. When we got to this house I told the realtor "This won't take Long" Well the minute we entered the front door WOW! None of us could believe it. We learned that even though the house was built in 1961, it was practically tore down in 2003 leaving ONLY 1 wall standing and was beautifully removed. It seemed PERFECT for us! Well the next day, we made an offer. Well they countered our offer with minimal changes and we accepted. As it turns out the owners Larry and Sharon are wonderful people and were gracious and welcomed us into their home another couple of times. Each time we went back into the home it seems more and more perfect for both Jerry and I. Jerry and I are so excited about our new home and are anxious to move up to beautiful Dalton Gardens, Idaho. Jerry's still nervous about the winter's but, with a heated shop... he thinks he'll try it!
You can visit the Picasa link to see all the pictures we took of the house by using the link attached.

http://picasaweb.google.com/klschomer/OurNewHome#