Catching Up

Whew... it's been a crazy few weeks. We were blessed to have Brian and Maggie and their 3 girls come to visit us a couple of weeks ago. We had a great time playing tourist and playing with Cassandra and Mena at the beach. The day after they left, we headed to Chicago for three days to try to find a house. Last Wednesday, we headed back to Honolulu by way of Dallas, where we surprised my parents in the airport on their way to see us. On Saturday, we had Ava's first birthday party.

Rather than giving you all the particulars, I'll just give you the pictoral history of the past few weeks:

Pretty girl in her Easter dress

Mena and Maggie at the beach

Cassandra having fun in the sun

Face full of sand

Getting cleaned up

Sleeping through her birthday party

Well I try...

It's good to be one. The food is better.

Northern Exposure

Well, we had a lot of fun Monday and Tuesday looking at houses in “Chicagoland”, as they call the never-ending suburbs around Chicago proper (where it was still cold at the end of April). And now it’s your turn. We’ve winnowed the field to three contenders, and now we want – we need – your input. Here they are:

4521 Bicek Court, Hoffman Estates (map) (commute) (flyer) (disclosure)
3 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms, 1587 square feet on two upper levels plus basement
On a cul de sac
Small yard, but backs up to large park
Vegetable garden, compost pile, and playfort in backyard
Nicely finished basement
Small workshop area in basement plus deep garage with workbench
Split bathroom on upper level (shower and toilet separate from sinks and mirror)
Jacuzzi tub in master bath
Walk in closet in master bedroom
8-10 minutes to office through wooded area

Vacant foreclosed home two houses down listed for 100k less
Honeylocust tree (with no thorns, though) in front yard
Green carpet in master bath
Funny smell believed to be from furnace
Kitchen and bedrooms need updates
Stacked washer and dryer upstairs near bedrooms
Needs new roof in near future
Uninsulated garage (nonsensically the standard in Chicago)
Carpeting throughout with no hardwood below

627 Balboa Court, Schaumburg (map) (commute) (flyer) (disclosure)
3 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms, 1186 square feet on upper level plus basement
On a cul-de-sac
Large yard with mature trees and a deck
Recently updated kitchen with nice cabinetry and appliances
Recently refinished hardwood floors on main floor;
Nice carpet downstairs in family room
Real fireplace and custom built-in bookshelves downstairs in family room.
Beautifully decorated in neutral colors
Much of the furniture will stay if we want it
Close to large, nice parks
Lower property taxes

Entry will require some baby proofing
Hardwood floors for kids—bad idea?
No basement
Small closet in master bedroom
Shower only in master bath
25 minute drive from the office going highway and city streets

1331 E. Sanborn Drive, Palatine (map) (commute) (flyer) (disclosure)
3 bedrooms, 2 baths in 1248 square feet plus partial basement
Very similar floor plan to Schaumburg house (see above)
Wonderful large backyard with playfort
Nice family room/play area on lower level
5 minutes to office on residential streets

Yard backs up to stream and would need fence
Older house (built in 1963)
Lots of painting/redecorating to do

So, what do you think? Put all your thoughts, observations, and heartbreak-saving musings in the comments.

Milestone of Milestones

Ava has been stuck in a rut as far as physical milestones are concerned, it seems. She has been pulling up and cruising around coffee tables and stuff since after Christmas, but she is still having trouble standing on her own. My theory is that her little feet make it more difficult to balance.

Our youth group at church hosted the Good Friday service on Friday night. My dear friend Annie's parents were in town for the week, so they watched the babies for a little while before the service started. When Daniel and I came in from setting up, her dad said, "I didn't know that Ava was walking..."

Neither did we. Neither did we.

Apparently, she got really interested in a toy he was showing her and took three or four steps toward him. Three or four. Out of nowhwere. I was gone for approximately 15 minutes and I missed her first steps. I was very much in disbelief.

Daniel and I did get her to repeat the performance yesterday, however. Three steps completely unassisted towards, you guessed it, a toy. She seems to only be able to do it when she doesn't think about it too much. Or when she really wants something. My guess is with Mena roaming all over our place this week, she'll be cruising by the end of the week. Baby see, baby do.

Fantastic

For some fantastic photos of my fantastically good looking parents taken by my fantastically talented brother, look here.

I'm sure my brother wouldn't mind you perusing his site. He's trying to get a photo business started up in the Dallas area.

Did I mention that these are fantastic?

Sometimes It's Cold Playing Puppets

There are two types of readers of this blog: those who will enjoy this video, and those who will not. This is for those who will.

The Price is Not Right

We've been excited about moving back to the mainland, where houses are actually cheaper than Leerjets. However, it seems that we've stumbled across the one market that thinks it's Florida in 2005. Here's a little quiz: how much are they asking for this house?Put your guesses in the comments. The closest gets a free credit report or something of equally negligible value.

**UPDATE** We have a winner! We've had to disqualify a couple of contestants for trading in insider information, but an honest front-runner has emerged: Amy Popp. She wins a fabulous free credit report from an agency of her choosing. Thanks to all who played!

P.S. One intrepid competitor actually found the listing here.

P.P.S. I don't think we'll be living near a lake in Arlington Heights. I could buy a house in Kailua for that money!

Ava's Days...

...are filled with all kinds of exciting activities. Such as:

crawling through tight spots

climbing on top of the furniture for a quick reading break

lovin' on the kitty

and escaping.

**Sorry these pics aren't great quality. She moves so fast these days!**

A New Attitude

We took Ava to the Ala Moana Beach on Saturday afternoon. She has decided that she approves of the beach. We had tried several times to get her in the water, and each time she let us know just how she felt about it. But this time, she was excited to splash and swim. Even I was more of a wuss about getting in than she was. Here are the pics:

Vote for Nick

The college admissions website Zinch.com is having a sort of March Madness bracket in which they are allowing people to cast votes for students to win a $20K scholarship. They started with over 1700 students, and are down the final 64. One of my students from last year, Nicholas Takebayashi, made it to the final 64! He is an excellent student. Very intelligent and the hardest working kid I've ever had. He very much deserves the scholarship. He's down by several hundred points right now, though. If you would be so inclined, you can go to Zinch.com, register, and vote for him. He's in the West Division, and is in the first matchup on the list. Thanks!

Jamba Baby

Last Saturday, we all went to Jamba Juice. I saw little straws there for kids, so I grabbed one, thinking I would let Ava take a drink of my (all fruit) smoothie. The clerk offered me a small cup for her, and emptied the leftovers of my smoothie from the blender cup into it. Ava took the straw, and sucked pretty constantly until the smoothie was gone. I had to make her take breaks so she didn't get a brain freeze. Pretty cute.