I know this looks weird but it’s the least messy way of soaking up the water from the slider track. When it’s pouring, the track fills up about every hour. If we don’t drain it, it pours out onto the hardwood floor:

Our kitchen window also started dripping - and this window has an awning over it so I’m not sure how it’s leaking:

In other news, Peter is still constantly trying to spell. I need to find him some cheap paper because he is using up all our printer paper.

This should say Xray for Gheer-bear (aka Bagheera):

I noticed this one day on my frig - he copied my store list and posted it under mine:

The only Christmas decorations we put up this year is our tree:

I just didn’t feel like hanging outside lights this year. It seems almost pointless anyway because we live in a court. So nobody sees them except our neighbors. And our neighbors across from us put up a ton of lights so I think they more than compensate for our non-existent ones.

I did find time to do an ornament project with Peter. I bought some hollow glass balls from Michaels, then had Peter stuff them with Christmas-looking cotton balls:

I had visions of sewing a bunch of new ornaments but my sewing machine is still broken. I keep hoping it will magically fix itself. I guess I just need to drag it to the shop for fixing.

Other pictures… when our tree loses all it’s leaves it reminds me of the Whomping Willow tree from Harry Potter:

The cats - watch out Bagheera:

Our own home project this weekend was taking down the pool. The weather is starting to cool so I didn’t think we would be using it much anymore. Toward the end of summer Peter didn’t even want to go in or he wouldn’t stay long if he did. He always said the water was too cold. I guess he got spoiled with the heated pool at swim class.

Speaking of swimming, Peter started his next class, Level 3. He’ll just go a couple times a week for 4 weeks. I really liked our experience in the last class but so far I’m not happy about this class. For one, they are teaching them in 3ft water so Peter can touch the bottom. Because of that I notice he puts his feet down way too often instead of trying harder to swim. I’m already thinking he won’t improve his forward stroke just because of that. Another thing I don’t like is he was moved to a class with Level 2 kids so they are learning at a slower pace. He started in the Level 3 class but 2 other kids were way more advanced (already swimming) so they moved Peter and another boy back to Level 2. I argued with the instructor but she said it wasn’t fair to the boys that could already swim. My argument… the other boys can swim, why are they even in swim class. At least the class is cheap and Peter says he has fun so I guess that is all that should matter. I won’t be signing him up again though.

Before Peter got moved, when he was actually learning something new - to float unassisted - although the got this picture right before the instructor let go:

Other non-swimming news… Peter got a haircut and a new pair of shoes.

What a difference a year makes. I thought I would be holding him down for his haircuts until he was a teenager:

Big boy shoes with laces. Now we just need to teach him how to tie them:

And if you can picture Mike, Peter looks like his mini-me - black shoes, white socks, and khaki cargo shorts. I noticed the resemblance while walking behind them at the mall. I couldn’t stop giggling.

Although we’ll wait until our loan modification has gone through to do any work on the house. Speaking of which, I talked to our bank a few weeks ago and they told me they are on a 90 day freeze for all modifications. So we’ll have to wait until June or July to hear anything more. They did tell us that we were approved for a modification…but that doesn’t mean much until I know the terms of the loan.

Mike started his new job today. I can finally breath a sigh of relief. We now have steady income and benefits. Yay! After hearing that California’s unemployment rate is now at 10%, I feel SO lucky that Mike was able to find another job. Even with his specialized skills and talent, it could’ve easily gone the other way.

Mike said he really enjoyed his first day on the job. Although he’s still getting used to a work schedule again. He had about six weeks off work. He’s really liking the company he works for and said everyone seems so happy there…maybe it’s the caffeine from all the free sodas they provide. One big difference from other game companies is that they aren’t headquartered in Japan. So instead of a ton of Japanese speaking workers, there are French speaking ones. Hopefully he’ll get to go on a business trip to their headquarters in Paris. I would so tag along for that!

Work freebies - leftovers from their 1980’s prom themed Christmas party:

I do miss Mike being gone during the day but in a way it’s easier to stick to my own schedule now. Peter and I made him a cake today for when he got home. Of course now Peter wants a new job too so I’ll make him a cake. I don’t think he really understands what a job is. I wonder what he thinks daddy does all day…

Meanwhile, we’re still working with our bank trying to get a loan modification on our house. When we talked to them last week, they said that they were (most likely) holding off on all foreclosures thru the summer. Good news for us. I wonder though if other banks do the same, that will give a false impression that the housing crisis is ending. Then once Summer ends, a ton of foreclosures will hit the market.

I was watching ABC news tonight covering the economic crisis in California and it just worries me more about the stability of our state. I’m not sure I want to continue to own a house if the value is just going to continue to fall. We are living in what I would consider a starter home (1400 sq ft). I didn’t think we’d live here longer than 5 years or so (especially if we have more kids). So I’m worried we’ll either be stuck here for 20+ years or we’ll have to foreclose in 5+ years anyway because the value still won’t be back up to what we owe. I guess we’ll at least wait it out to see what kind of deal the bank gives us.

We recently received our 401K cash out so our credit cards will be paid off shortly. We’re so happy about that. We’ve already closed all our credit cards so there is no going back. My next goal for us is to save 3-6 months of living expenses. After Mike’s job loss, I realized how important this money can be. I was used to the norm of laid off employees getting 3 months severance minimum so I never thought we would have to worry. That apparently is not the norm anymore. With the market drop today, it is looking even more grim. I don’t see how they think we’ll be out of the recession by the end of this year. I’m thinking more like 5+ years.

Our house had become very quiet since Nala’s passing. You would constantly hear either her toes clicking around on the hardwood floors or her barking at everything and anything. It was especially quiet when Peter was at school and I was home alone. So I gave Mike the green light to go up to the cable store and see what deals they had. Boy, was he ecstatic. I told him I didn’t want to spend over $100/mo. We were currently paying $60 for internet only (They upped it $10 when we got rid of cable). So they gave us a plan with Digital, HD, DVR and free HBO for 2 years for only $20 more a month. So I guess it’s worth it. The price only lasts for 6 months and then supposedly we can renew it if we go in again. Otherwise, if the price goes up, we’ll probably get rid of it after the initial 6 month period.

It is nice having my HGTV shows back. I’m really enjoying having HBO too. It’s probably been 10 years since we had that. Peter also gets to see all his favorite shows again like Mickey Mouse, Curious George, Kipper and Caillou. Mike just likes that he can watch his primetime shows the same night they come out. (We usually had to wait a day to be able to download them on the computer.) Our electric bill will probably be increasing some but oh well. The distraction from the TV (or at least the sound) definitely has helped in keeping my mind off Nala.

I don’t know why we bother buying toys. Peter can have just as much fun (if not more) with a simple box:

We finished our remaining fence project a few weekends back. Glad I can finally mark something off the ever growing home repair list:

The Everest of dirt piles is finally gone. It had been piling up since the start of our backyard project in January. It was such an eye sore. It feels so good to have it gone! Of course now Peter wants a Bobcat for Christmas.

He’s also been riding his bike to the nearby park:

Mike and I accomplished at least one project this weekend. We finished leveling the dirt under Peter’s playground area and planted grass seed. Can’t wait for this to grow!

The Playroom - is now only the playroom with no guest bed. I moved the couch from Peter’s room in here for us to sit on. It also opens to a bed if we ever need it. I like that this room looks more like a den and Peter has much more room to move around now.

The Office - is now the office/guest room. Over the last few months, I’ve literally moved my entire desk (desk, computer, printer, file cabinet) out to the kitchen so only Mike’s computer is in the office. And he rarely uses his. So besides all our storage cabinets in there, it was becoming wasted space. So I moved the daybed in there. That was the biggest pain to disassemble and reassemble. Guests will have their own computer to use so they should be happy.

Peter’s Room - I moved the queen bed that has been in our garage for the last 2 years into his room. His old twin bed went back under the daybed in the office. We were going to give away the queen mattress because I was sick of it taking up space in the garage. But after thinking about it, I realized it’s not that old and in really good condition so it would be a shame to just give it away. I originally wanted to buy Peter bunk beds or something but we don’t have any money for that so this sounded like a better idea. He LOVES having a big bed because it looks just like ours.

So the issue that will come up is if we ever have baby #2 - where would it go. Well that’s not happening anytime soon so I figure if it ever does, I’ll be ready for another redesign by then anyway.