Good Morning :)

Good Morning family and friends :) Just thought we'd update real quick to say hello. Rob and I are both sitting in bed, on our laptops, drinking coffee. Also, we slept in/didn't set alarm clocks, which after a week of waking up at 5:30 am, is the most spectacular thing ever. Rob is searching online for a new truck. The lease on his current truck is up in a few weeks, and we've decided not to buy it out. I kind of really want him to drive Carlos the Corolla and purchase a nice lil SUV because if the house ever becomes ours, I will live closer to work and he will need the car with fantastic gas mileage. We will see what happens. We still have not heard anything on the house, but everything we know about short sales stresses patience, so that is what we are going for. (As a not so patient person, however, this is increasingly difficult.)

Last night we went out on a date to Olive Garden. I highly suggest you go there soon; there is the most delicious seasonal dessert ever: pumpkin cheesecake. It reminded me of our rehearsal dinner :) At any rate, I am fairly certain my fall obsession with pumpkin has begun. The crazy heat hasn't even delayed it. I bought pumpkin spice granola from Sprouts last week and am counting down to pumpkin spice lattes at Starbucks next week. (There is a super convenient drive-thru about half a mile from school...so good!)

Rob has been working lots of busy days here lately. He seems to have more grounds than flights, which is typical with the CFI students. He is frustrated about it occasionally, but it is paying pretty well. He is just about at his 200 flight hours, which will take him off probation and give him a raise! School has been going well also. I am learning a lot as I go and making a lot of changes, but really liking it. Last week I had my sophomores writing in-class essays on an old AIMS (the Arizona standardized test they have to pass to graduate) prompt and next week they are going to self-assess their writing by comparing it to sample writings at each grading scale. We spent Thursday writing and Friday editing. I asked the kids to circle five powerful words in their writing. It caused a bit of chaos, as they realized they didn't have any powerful words. I hope they're learning something from it and will include better vocabulary in their writing next time!

Last weekend, Rob and I went to the football scrimmage. It is a few weeks before the first home game, but I am sure we will go to it as well. I have a lot of kids on the football team and they seem excited that I'm there to see them play. (The kids in the stands also shouted hi to me. I felt popular! Rob thought I was a dork I'm pretty sure.)

Not much else is new out here. We are in the middle of another excessive heat warning (nothing new) and I am itching for a road trip to somewhere cool. Unfortunately, Rob's work schedule sort of prevents it. Hopefully this will be the last big heat wave before it is back to the low-100's and fall break/our Vegas trip will come quickly! Hope all is well with you...send some cool weather our way! Love, Sarah and Rob

House Pictures

Hello! As promised, here are pictures of our hopefully/maybe house :) Our realtor said this afternoon when we met up that this was the most promising short sale he has worked with yet. Apparently things are at the bank and they are looking into all the background information on their end...like making sure the house appraises for what the seller says it does and that they are really losing money on it...things of that sort. More or less, it makes us feel good that we have the bank's attention! We will keep you all posted. For now enjoy a few pictures. (PS, keep in mind that my purpose for taking pictures was to have a record of how the how was when we saw it because we signed an as is addendum. They are probably not the best for the blog, but I tried!) Also, sometimes when I post pictures from my computer they don't enlarge when you click on them, but I'm on Rob's computer now so they should open big for you!) Love, Sarah and Rob

super dead grass in the backyard!

kitchen! not sure why this wants to hyperlink but i'm sleepy so i'm going to let it happen.master bedroommaster bathroomspare bedroomanother spare bedroomextra upstairs bathroomthe loft (you can also see a baby bit of railing in the bottom left that is part of the stairs)

laundry roomfantastic plantation shutters in the living room (these are all over the house!)
family room/weirdly painted green shutters.standing in the family room, looking into the living room. also that's the front door to the left.

Okay, I am heading to bed. It has been a long day. I'm not even proofreading! Hope you enjoy the pictures :) Sweet dreams and crossed fingers for the house!

Shelly and Adam's Trip to Arizona

As promised, a somewhat timely blog post :) Shelly and Adam came out to visit and celebrate my birthday last week! It was a lil crazy, as Rob and I were both working during the week, but we went a ton of places and had a great time! I picked them up from the airport on Friday after school and we grilled pizza. Saturday was a full day of house hunting. We went through about 7 houses. Luckily, our realtor, Ed, was quite the eccentric lil charmer. He struggles a bit with names, but kept Shelly and "Eric" entertained and involved in the process of determining our favorite house. We wound up meeting with Ed briefly again on Sunday morning to sign papers to put an offer on a house. The house we put an offer on isn't exactly what we were looking at when we started looking...no worries though...it's better! It is just over 2,000 square feet, 2 stories and 3 bedroom/2.5 baths. Not exactly a lil starter house, but we love it and it is in our price range. There are plantation shutters which keep things very cool, a loft, an island in the kitchen, grass in the backyard that needs a lil bit of love/water, even a formal living room! Ridiculously wonderful. And one step closer to being ours! We found out on Wednesday that the listing agent accepted our offer and now we are just waiting on the bank to accept! It is a short sale, so we aren't certain how long it will take for the bank to accept, but we are the only offer that they are considering. Hooray for beating people with cash! (Prior to this offer, we had found and lost a lot of houses to investors with cash...most of the time we didn't even have time to put a bid on the house before the sale was pending to a cash bidder. It was very frustrating.) I am going to meet up with Ed at the house on Tuesday this week to take more pictures...we signed an "as is" addendum, so we want to make sure we have solid proof of how things are now. I am planning on posting pictures sometime Tuesday/Wednesday next week, so be sure to check back! Also, we will keep you all posted as we (hopefully) continue to hear news!

Okay, back to Sunday. After the paper signing process, we all headed to the Grand Canyon. We hiked a bit down into the Canyon and then along a trail that runs along the rim. Shelly was very worried about falling in (as you can see from her facial expressions in the pictures below!)

not getting too close!

I like this picture of the four of us a lot.

We headed up to Glendale for dinner at Margaritaville on my birthday and the crazy balloon man on stilts made me a giraffe balloon hat and made everyone in the restaurant shout happy birthday. So embarrassing, but a delicious strawberry dessert was also involved, which made up for it probably. Annnnd speaking of desserts....I think the highlight of Shelly and Adam's trip was Sprinkles (the cupcake bakery that originated in Beverly Hills and has a location in Scottsdale). They really are the most delicious (though expensive) cupcakes in the world. After heading to Sprinkles, we grilled chicken sausages for dinner, which were, in the words of our grill chef (Adam), an "epic failure." Rob was working a 12 hour shift that night and I had no real idea how to grill, so Adam took responsibility. Really there were some technical issues with the burners not working, and the sausages were pretty charred. Luckily, cupcakes saved the dinner :)

at dinner in Glendale. note the large balloon giraffe. :)

Shelly and Adam headed back to Strongsville on Thursday morning. It was great to have them out here and do some more exploring of Arizona! Rob and I are getting back into a regular routine now. We are heading over to a cookout party at another flight instructor's house tonight...I baked brownie chip cookies to bring this morning! I think we are also planning on shopping this afternoon...my birthday present from Rob :) Otherwise, it is a lot of working and crossing our fingers for an approval from the bank soon and also I really like to look through the Ikea catalogue and imagine where we should put our furniture in our hopefully new home! Stay tuned for pictures :) Miss and love you all, Sarah and Rob

Oh man, I need to update.

1. We are still alive.
2. Last week was my first week of teaching. I was exhausted by 8:30 every night, but it was wonderful. I can't wait for the second :)
3. Shelly and Adam are here to celebrate my birthday for a ridiculous number of days. Fantastic birthday present and almost surprise but Adam isn't so good at those :)
4. Today we are going to the Grand Canyon. Expect pictures within a week ideally.
5. Today we are also putting a bid on a fantastic house. Shelly and Adam came with to look at homes and meet our crazy realtor man, Ed. We had a great day yesterday and are super pleased with this house.
6. We have found a few houses that we have attempted to bid on and been beat out by cash and another that we did bid on, but had to withdraw it because of a fraudulent third party. Fingers crossed on this house. We will update with pictures as things move forward and become more promising. (Otherwise, we could have pictures of 5028758 houses here and trust me, at some point they do run together a bit.)
7. Sorry for the lack of updates and weird numbered list update now (Shelly doesn't approve.) We will get pictures of the Grand Canyon, their visit and hopefully this wonderful house up soon. And also be more attentive to the blog :)

Hope all is well. Love to all and wish you were here! Sarah and Rob (and Shelly and Adam...Eric, according to Ed!)