Welcome Penelope (Penny) Suzanne

May 14, 2009, 3:03 am, room 333 of Scott and White Hospital.

Welcome Penelope (Penny) Suzanne.

Perfect in every way.

7 lbs 4 oz, 18 1/2 inches.







Mom (Kate) is ecstatic.

She's especially pleased that labor and delivery was short (only a few hours after arrival at the hospital).










Dad (John) is beaming.

Big sister Lily is excited that the big day has finally arrived.










Grandma ("Mommo") is on call as always to help out as needed.













Aunt Tricia, who bet that a week's visit in Texas overlapping the nominal due date (May 12) would pay off was rewarded with many opportunities to cuddle Penny.










Penny, with never a cry, put up with all the fuss and cuddling she received upon arrival.

(And yes, Penny really does have all that dark hair).











Now we agree that all babies are beautiful, but some are especially beautiful (don't you think?).

Grandpa ("Papa") found it natural to hold and cuddle Penny (she likes his deep voice . . . he admires her thick hair).

What a blessing it is to receive such a precious gift as a newborn.

The Santa Barbara Jesusita Fire and other news

It's fire season again in Santa Barbara, and although we are now half the country away in Texas, our thoughts go back to our previous home and Rebecca and Hannah as we read about the Jesusita Fire occurring there now.

We spoke with both of them this morning. Local schools are closed due to poor air quality conditions so Hannah will spend the day indoors at home, or at least keep out of the smoke-filled areas of town. She said that the wind is blowing most of the smoke south and conditions are not as bad as yesterday. She was at a theater when the power went out and got a refund when power was not restored, so the side effects of the fire within the community are multiple and widespread.

Rebecca was headed off to work but said that yesterday was particularly bad for smoke. She keeps an inhaler with her and two at the office if needed for clearer breathing as she can suffer asthma conditions in the smoke. She said that the temperatures have been unusually hot there (possibly in the 90s) and that she had to take a cold shower and use a cold pack on her neck just to get to sleep last night (no air conditioner in her apartment).

Conditions are better this morning so perhaps the firefighters can make some progress at containing the fire. There has been a lot of unconfirmed rumors about what started the fire, everything from suspected arson to power transformer explosion to a rare over-land rocket launch from Vandenberg AFB (usually goes north over the ocean for a polar orbit).

The reports we have read and maps we have viewed of where the fire started, and where the homes are being evacuated (and some burned) shows very familiar territory that Dick used to hike once or twice a week when we lived there. The Jesusita Trail runs along a mountain ridge from which the entire Santa Barbara area can be viewed as it is hiked, with one prominent viewing spot called Inspiration Point. Much of this area has not burned in recent history so there is plenty of tinder and brush to provide fuel for the fire. Unfortunately, it is also a beautiful area for homes and we personally know a number of families who live in this area whos homes may be at risk.

On the very much more positive side, Tricia will be flying to Texas this Saturday to spend a week with us. She hopes to be here when Katie delivers her baby, and by Katie's latest reports this morning that seems quite possible. Katie says she is now experiencing some occasional progress pains, even to the point of having to stop walking if on foot, but they have not reached the point where they imply she is ready, although she is encouraged by the progress. Although her "expected" delivery date is May 12, she will see her doctor again next Wednesday for an update. Her doctor does not want Katie to go more than a week past her due date so has set May 19 as the latest date for delivery before inducing her if necessary. From Katie's reports all is well and the baby is in position for normal delivery.

On another very positive note, Susie's dad's home in Florida is supposed to go to closing today and she will be thrilled when this long-overdue sale is finally completed. In addition to the housing market going sour in Florida which reduced the value of the home by more that 50% since her father died there have been other family legal and financial complications to contend with through this whole ordeal. Through it all she has been the steady executor for her dad's estate and has done remarkably well under extremely adverse conditions, but it has been stressful. She has made Dick promise that they will go out and celebrate over a nice dinner when in fact everything is finally settled.

So we will keep you posted. Many good things are about to happen and you will get the latest news as soon as it becomes available.

So Why Haven't We Written?

This is a very boring blog. It is not really meant to be read, so if you have something better to do, skip this and do it. However, if you are having trouble getting to sleep, read on.

Prior to our last message, we had been asked by many (or truthfully only a few, which is the majority who read this blog) why we were absent from blogging, which we assumed (or perhaps hoped) meant that some of you were eager to hear (or actually, read) how we were doing in making our transition to Texas. This blog is a very boring compilation of the things that kept us mostly away from the computer from late February until now. As promised in our last missive, we hope to be more diligent in the future but, apologies offered, this will be an abbreviated account of our activities.

Moving In

We unpacked, inspected for damage, and inventoried 508 separate items and boxes of all sizes that were transported from Santa Barbara CA to Georgetown TX, by the aptly named Mammoth Moving Company. This was truly a mammoth undertaking and took us most of the first month we were here. We swear we will not move again! (We swore this upon arrival in Santa Barbara 20 years ago, so obviously our swearing is not very compelling).

Upon arrival we had to arrange for: the mailbox key from the Post Office (here they deliver to a group of mail boxes up the road from our home), electricity from the Pedernales Electric Cooperative (where we had to join as members of the Cooperative and pay a membership fee), water service from Chisholm Trail Water ($225 transfer fee), garbage and recycling (once a week, using their containers . . . they recycle newspapers, clear and [only] brown glass -Texas beer comes in brown bottles-, and plastics #1 and #2, and cable/internet/telephone service from a local outfit called Suddenlink. We didn't have to arrange for sewer as we actually own our own treatment plant (on our property, no less), complete with an official County license to operate a sewage treatment plant. Don't think of this as merely a septic tank, think of an entire processing plant using an aerobic septic system that processes household wastewater through a multi-tank underground arrangement involving separation, aeration, chlorination, and subsequent distribution by pumping the treated effluent under our rear lawn through a series of headers and perforated PVC pipes that are not visible from the surface. They tell us this is the latest greatest green technology for waste treatment and achieves purification to standards higher than required of municipal wastewater treatment plants. We had to Google "aerobic wastewater treatment" even to get an inkling of what was involved.

Of course there were other surprises awaiting us upon arrival. We had to arrange for all our trees (of which we must have more than 50) to be trimmed of old dead branches so that Lily (or for that matter, any of us) wouldn't be at risk of a dead branch falling on our heads. And we were told we also needed to spray them for "tent worms" that nest there and produce untold numbers of offspring in the summer (several were easily visible upon inspection of any tree) so we did that. Also, while we were at it, the trees needed to be root-fed for a more healthy condition next year. Tent worms, we were told, weren't particularly harmful, but in numbers in the tens of thousands (which we could expect) they made a particularly obnoxious mess on the walkways and patio, which they would cover like a blanket . . . yuk!

Other minor activities taking considerable time included changing both car registrations and titles to Texas and exchanging drivers' licenses for Texas ones. Sounds simple enough. We thought AAA might be of help here (as they used to be in California) but upon arrival at the AAA office in Austin they said no, they could only give us a guidance sheet to help us. Step 1. Get each car inspected for safety and emissions at one of the very few inspection stations in the area (Dick's car needed two new rear tires and a revisit to pass so he also got to know the local tire dealer as well). Step 2 (take a number time). Fill out a form. Pay the transfer of title and license tag tax in person at the Williamson County Office downtown but be prepared to show each inspection certificate, California title of ownership, proof of County residence, proof of Texas car insurance and two forms of official photo identification. Step 3. Go to the Texas Office of Public Safety (this is the same as other states' departments of motor vehicles), show that we have successfully completed steps 1 & 2, fill out a form to apply for Texas driver's license (this takes some time, as it asks a lot of questions about health, driving record, etc. Upon completion of form, stand in line for an hour or two, and be prepared to show a) previous drivers license, b) proof of auto insurance, c) birth certificate or passport, d) social security card, and e) proof of present residence in Texas. Absent any of this information, go directly to jail and do not pass go.

Another local pest in need of spraying is the fire ant which we were told we definitely didn't want to get stung by (Katie and several others verified this from personal experience). They spray all the irrigated landscape areas using high pressure hoses that pump the chemical from a tank in the bed of a truck. We scheduled, then rescheduled due to rain, then rescheduled again due to conflict with another customer, and are in line for treatment May 1.

Speaking of rain, it comes down in torrents Noah-style here at times, and the local San Gabriel River has received flood control attention from the Army Corps of Engineers, that created several dammed lakes including Lake Georgetown a mile or less from our home. The lakes and surrounding areas are widely used for fishing, boating, camping, picnicking, and day hikes, but several years ago it rained so hard they had to close the roads to all the recreation areas because they were under-water.

We had wondered about the curving hand-laid stone wall at the far edge of our garden area out behind our home and now believe it may serve the purpose of diverting any heavy runoff of major rainstorms down to our driveway instead of into the back of our house. Something to watch for in the future. In the meantime we discovered that as beautiful as our house is, the builder decided it was unnecessary to install gutters and downspouts. The previous owners placed stones in the ground where roof runoff from heavy rains was eroding a trench around the house so as to minimize erosion. We have decided to get gutters installed and will witness the installation next Tuesday and Wednesday. This of course involved selection and interviews with guttermen (if we don't insult them by this term) and decisions about screen baffles to eliminate the collection of leaves in the fall.

Necessary Purchases

So we arrived with everything we needed, eh?

Not quite. The previous owner took her refrigerator with her to her new place so we needed one stat, as they say in the medical business. Oh, and we had left our old Sears dryer in Santa Barbara at the request of the buyer so we also needed a dryer stat. We had previously mentioned that we discovered the need for a yard tractor/mower to make the yard maintenance a more reasonable task, and Sears had one in stock that we had delivered.

Here is Dick with his new big-boy toy. He always said his ambition was to be a truck driver but this is about as close as he is going to get, apparently.

In addition to outside maintenance, we also needed additional inside maintenance in the way of better storage of all those things we had shipped halfway across the country.

The local Costco warehouse supplied the garage racks and the Container Store provided the various storage containers shown here.

The real treasure, though, was the workbench and tool pegboard that the previous owner had left us that immediately became Dick's work and tool storage area.

Along with these items there was need for those odds and ends that we bought to make the house a home for us. More towels for the bathrooms, a step-stool for the kitchen, a chair for Susie's desk, a chair and mat for the computer desk, a display case for the dining room, two rattan chairs for the patio, two hanging plants for the patio, 6 landscape lanterns (solar-rechargeable) for the front walkway, a toy chest for Lily, a couple of gasoline cans for the yard tractor and other gas-powered tools, an updated automobile navigation DVD that, hopefully, will have some of the recently built local streets in the neighborhood, and we are still looking for a "glider" rocking chair for Katie. (Did we mention how boring this blog was going to be?)

Other Time Consuming Activities

Other than constantly rearranging furniture to see what works best, we have busied ourselves with a few other activities, like reading all the user manuals for the new equipment and appliances, repairing as we are able those that fail (e.g., dishwasher gasket and heating element), resetting/repairing home security system malfunctions, consulting with the aerobic septic system service contractor after an electrical power outage tripped out the aerator, tried understanding the motion-activated outdoor light systems (that seem to stay on all night), and generally orienting ourselves to the community.

We have dined at ten or more eating establishments (everything from the truly downscale Rattlesnake Inn to the veddy upscale Silver and Stone Restaurant), discovered and enjoyed the many amazing children's play parks and the incredibly well-planned dog park with its separately-fenced small-dog and big-dog areas, both with intentionally distributed, non-working fire hydrants (smaller ones in the small dog park), attended church services, found a new hair stylist and manicurist, wandered through the downtown square during the Red Poppy Festival to view the arts and crafts booths, and [Susie] attended several PEO women's group meetings (a great source of insider information).

Dick has begun clearing the debris and leaves from under the trees in the side yard in preparation for a play area in the shade for Lily. Plans include a tree swing and some climbing and playing structures, yet to be determined.

And Speaking of Lily

Lily and her parents are the real reason our blogging has been deferred these past days. They have been with us every weekend and many weekdays since we moved here. Let's face it, when the choice is between spending time with family and grandchildren or sitting at the computer blogging, well . . . . . . . ! Need we say more? Here she is at the piano, composing and singing as happily as can be!

We are Texans now

Here we are, finally settled into our new home in Georgetown, Texas. For those of you who wondered, yes, everything about our move went remarkably smoothly after the rather unsettling events previously described in February, but even so, it is amazing how much there is to do to move to a new home and a new state after 20 years in California and more than 40 years of marriage.

Fortunately our new home is larger than what we had in Santa Barbara, with plenty of windows with wonderful views, and ample accommodations for family, guests and visitors.

The first week here Dick decided to mow the front lawn with his Sears power push mower and by doing so he got to meet most of the neighbors. One by one they stopped by to introduce themselves and point out that they too had tried to do that with a push mower when they first arrived and then promptly went out and purchased a lawn or yard tractor mower. All the properties here have at least an acre of land which, to say the least, requires some time and effort to keep mowed.

Our back yard is grassy and bordered by trees and extends as far back as other trees marking the extent of the property in the distance. Dick, in mowing the lawn, has found more than a dozen golf balls in among the trees out there, presumably the result of past driving practice from the front of the back yard, it is so big.

We love it here. Although we have been here only a month it feels so special and especially right for us. The people here are so friendly and helpful and willing to share a neighborly hand whenever needed. One even offered his truck to transport Dick's new yard tractor home from Sears after he bought it after that first week.


But the real reason we moved here is really family. Katie and John, with Lily, are living only a short drive north in Temple, Texas, where John is working at the Veteran's Hospital doing the caring work of the rehabilitation of sight-impaired veterans.

They are one of the main reasons for our lapse in keeping current with this blog. We have either been in Temple visiting them, or they have been down to Georgetown staying with us since we arrived. It has be so special to be with them and share their lives that blogging just had to be postponed. We promise that we will be more diligent about our blog in the future.



Lily is an absolute joy to us. She is so quick and eager to participate in everything we do that she constantly reminds us of the Energizer Bunny. We have been down to Austin to the Children's Museum (a wonderful hands-on place) and to the incredible children's park and playground here in Georgetown. Even a walk along the Austin Colorado river, with its turtles, swans and ducks, provides endless excitement for Lily.

Here she is playing with her Space Port that Aunt Tricia and Uncle Dan sent her. She loves to try new things and is undaunted even by the most complicated toys.

She is also eager and ready to welcome her new baby sister in May. Officially the due date is May 12 but as we all know, baby sisters don't always pay attention to due dates.



Katie also seems ready, perhaps even more than ready, to welcome the newest member of the Wood family into the world.

Her latest visit to the doctor this past week to check on progress was, in NASA terminology, A-OK in every respect.


We are continuing with plans to have Katie, John, Lily and Penny ( the newest Wood) move to our home when they are ready to do so. This will help them save up for a down payment on a house of their own, and give us, "Mommo and Papa" an opportunity to share in the activities of their family.






Meanwhile, John and Susie seem to be comfortable keeping up the routine work that needs to be done either in Temple or here in Georgetown, and Dick continues to take care of the exterior of the property (fire ant extermination next week, along with estimates for adding gutters and downspouts to the roof line).








Considering all that has occurred this past 30 days, it has been remarkably "normal" in the best sense around the house with the Wood family welcomed here almost every weekend.

Just prior to Easter, Angela, John's mother, arrived from Jackson, Michigan along with John's brother Dave, from Enid, Oklahoma. They spent Easter weekend with us along with John, Katie and Lily. We all managed quite comfortably, with our added space, including the four bedrooms and three full baths that we now have. Any of you who would like to come by at any time will be welcome and you will find yourself fitting right in.

Angela attended Mass Georgetown Catholic Church was surprised that about a thousand church-goers were there (and that was just one of the three Easter Masses that morning). Katie and John and Lily also enjoyed the service with her. Susie and Dick visited a Methodist church for Easter. Susie said that a few years ago this church had conducted its service in Swedish but had changed to English to widen its appeal. In addition to its Swedish population this area is famous for its many immigrant Germans and Czechs. Dick has discovered the joys of a Texas beer called Shiner, brewed in a small town of the same name not far from Austin, the product of the German/Czech European heritage of its small population of 2070.




This time of year in the Hill Country of Texas has been remarkably enjoyable, typically with high temperatures in the 70s, lows in the 50s, and patio living possible and a positive pleasure.

We know it will be much hotter during the summer, but we are taking full advantage of the fine spring weather while it's here.

We hope you too are enjoying this spring.








One of our unexpected pleasures here has been seeing the deer. Every morning and evening we see small herds (half a dozen does or more) wandering among the neighborhood, enjoying the new grass. They don't seem to care that their territory is now shared by the likes of us, and there attitude is typically Texan . . . live and let live. (This neighborhood is essentially a nature preserve with no firing of arms permitted).

Our attitude is . . . they were here before we were so they have every right to enjoy the wilderness in this area.

We will be back shortly with more tales of our transition to this beautiful place.

Friday the 13th

We knew we shouldn't have been so quick to go public about everything going so smoothly concerning the sale of our home. As soon as we posted our last blog telling how well everything was progressing things began to get dicey.

Our independent home inspection on Wednesday, February 4, had gone smoothly, we thought, with 21 minor items listed in a one-page summary in front of 24 pages of inspection reports, only two of which required our attention, and these two were easy to remedy. The others were routine maintenance items or recommended upgrades and improvements.

Item one pointed out that when we had our kitchen redone they installed an all new main electrical circuit breaker panel, but the electrician had failed to label all of the circuit breakers for what they individually controlled. So we spent a day shutting off one breaker at a time, tracking down every appliance, outlet, light and circuit that it controlled and correctly labeling it.

Item two pointed out that our chimney was last cleaned 5 years ago and should be professionally cleaned again. Our chimney sweep completed this job just two hours ago, after postponing for rain during this past week.

But in between these two events our Buyer separately ordered professional inspections on each of the other items in the home inspection (and many that were not) and asked each inspector/contractor to evaluate and recommend specific actions and provide cost estimates to perform. We had a solar panel inspection, a roofing inspection, a ceiling treatment inspection, a second termite and structure inspection (we previously tented and fumigated the home just 6 months ago), a pool equipment inspection, a home appraiser, a general contractor, and an architect who talked about home additions.

We still weren't too concerned though, as each of the inspectors complimented our home's excellent condition and said that they expected there would be no problem. Our Buyer, however, decided otherwise and refused to sign the release of contingencies as scheduled on Friday, the thirteenth of February. We had already voluntarily extended this time period to 30 days from the normal 17 after the signing of the contract to cooperate with the Buyer and allow all the inspections to proceed. But we should have had early warning that something might be amiss when, a few days before the deadline, the Buyer requested extending the contingency period up to the date of settlement, March 12th. We declined this request. If we had granted it the Buyer could withdraw from the purchase at no loss of deposit or contractual risk up to the very day of closing.

So, not to worry, anyway, eh? Having not extended the contingency period meant that it would lapse after the 30 days as it was stated in the contract, right? Wrong. It turns out that in California, contingencies don't lapse unless the Buyer says they do, in writing, and in order for that to happen they have to be willing to sign a contingency removal form. And obviously our Buyer wasn't willing to do that. Is that convoluted or what! The only way the Seller can force the issue is to execute a "Notice to Buyer to Perform," a sort of legal paper that gives the Buyer 24 hours to remove the contingencies or nullify the contract.

So we executed this legal action on the morning of February 14 expecting that everything would be resolved by the following day. Wrong again. The Buyer is out of town, we were told, away for the weekend, and couldn't be reached to receive and confirm receipt of our legal demand.

By this time we suspected that there was more to this than meets the eye. We conferred with our agent who warned us that when she had seen this kind of behavior before it usually resulted in the Buyer coming back with a collection of cost estimates from the Buyer's inspector/contractor/architects totaling tens of thousands of dollars of improvements and modifications expecting to force us at the last minute to lower our price if we wanted a deal on the day of settlement.

To put it mildly, this put us in a bind. We had already obligated ourselved to buy a home in Georgetown, Texas and the settlement date for that purchase was to be two days after the settlement on our California home. We also had already made arrangements to ship our piano to Tricia and Dan in Maryland, and separately to begin to move our entire household goods to our new home in Texas just a few days before settlement on the California home. And we had planned to be on the road to Texas on Monday, March 16.

After considerable discussion between us, much loss of sleep, some maximum strength antacid tablets, long walks along the ocean, a few glasses of wine, and answering many "what ifs," we decided to make it unequivocally clear to the Buyer's agent that if the Buyer, by close of business on Tuesday the 17th, didn't remove all contingencies and agree fully to the terms of the contract we would cancel the contract ourselves and relist the home on the market. We told our agent to proceed with the relisting and plan an open house this Sunday to seek other buyers. We were prepared to go back to square one and begin anew.

At the very end of the business day on Tuesday the 17th at 5:30 p.m. we received a call from our agent saying that the Buyer had finally signed the removal of any and all contingencies from the contract and we had a firm commitment to buy.

Now if this experience has taught us one thing it is this. Don't blog your successes before they are completed.

Be of good faith. We will report on our progress shortly.

Dick and Susie's Big Adventure

Tuesday, January 27

Having acquired a buyer and signed a contract to sell our Santa Barbara home, Susie and Dick set out on Tuesday, January 27, by car for Texas to find a new home to move to.

The drive took 3 days. We made it to Chandler, Arizona (just East of Phoenix) the first night and El Paso, Texas the second before arriving at Katie and John's home in Temple, Texas on Thursday the 29th.

We then made contact with our agent Sherri Revier of ERA Colonial Real Estate in Georgetown, TX. She came recommended to us by the USAA MoversAdvantage program and we learned she has lived in the area most of her life and was thoroughly knowledgeable about the real estate in the area.

We had previously narrowed down to Georgetown as our chosen new hometown after considerable research on areas around Austin within a short drive to John and Katie's. It is conveniently located 25 miles or so north of Austin and 45 miles south of Temple where John works at the VA hospital clinic. We were later pleased to learn that Georgetown is at or near the top of many lists as a great place to live and a highly recommended place to retire to.

Sherri made arrangements for us to view the one remaining house on our list after starting with well over 100 possible homes in the area. This filtering and elimination process, which occured over the weeks prior to our trip, had been a challenge; there were so many fine houses available that unless we had very restrictive requirements we could spend days or weeks just looking at the possibilities.

Our first priority was to find a home in a desirable stable neighborhood. Here we based our selection on the school test records for the Georgetown Independent School District. The Ford Elementary/Benold Middle School district showed the superior scores of what appeared to be an area of excellent education with high standards and it became our choice. Even though we are well beyond the school parenting phase in our life we knew we could find common interests in areas where parents are involved in their childrens' education.

Next we wanted a one-story home because we have gotten to the point where climbing stairs was becoming more challenging, especially with hands full, so we eliminated consideration of multi-level homes.

Third, we set our price and home size boundaries to see what remained that matched our requirements.

Six homes made it into our finals. Katie, in an earlier trip, viewed all six from the outside and gave us first hand impressions (as well as photos). By email and internet our agent Sherri gave us further insight into possible adjacent commercial zoning, on-going and planned road construction, builders development plans, and seller's price flexibility. When Katie returned with Sherri to look into each of the six she gave us her recommended priorities and subsequently we were able to eliminate 5 of the 6 for various reasons by the time we traveled to Georgetown.


What we found when we visited our remaining final selection delighted us. Built in 2002, this immaculate home has had an owner who clearly showed pride of ownership.

It is a 2750 square foot Craftsman style custom built home that sits among a small grove of oak trees.

It has 4 bedrooms, 3 full baths, a formal dining room, and a high-ceiling living room with fireplace.







The view toward the road from the front porch shows so many trees you wonder if you are still in Texas.

This area of Texas, known as the Texas Hill Country, is famous for its lakes, hills and woodlands. It has towns predominately settled by early Dutch and German immigrants as well as ranchers and farmers.

Deer are so plentiful they are a problem and there are garden nurseries that specialize in landscape shrubs that the deer won't eat.

Susie fell in love with the kitchen, with its cook-top island, built-in appliances and red oak Shaker style custom cabinets with under cabinet lighting.














The view toward the back of the house shows its large covered patio. The house sits among so many oak trees that just about every room is shaded. The house sits on one acre of land so there remains plenty of open space for creating play areas or planting kitchen gardens.

So without much hesitation we made an offer to buy the house. The offer has been accepted and the closing date is set for March 19, just two days after we close on the sale of our Santa Barbara home.

It seems impossible that the process of making our move from Santa Barbara to Georgetown has gone so smoothly. We feel almost as if it were meant to happen just this way and at just this time, given all the things that had to fall into their proper place to make it so.

Change - Yes We Can

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Our Santa Barbara home.

Sharing a theme of "change" and "yes we can" with the new administration, Susie and Dick will be embarking on a change of a lifetime, a permanent relocation to Georgetown, a suburb of Austin, Texas.

This has been in our thinking and planning for some time, but the severe housing and economy slump left us doubting it would actually happen anytime soon. Although we had listed our house for sale last July, we daily saw the housing market sink as we got closer to winter. We had even taken our house off the market for the holidays to celebrate Christmas as a family, to put up the usual decorations, tree, lights and trimmings (and deal with the usual post-Christmas mess) and were not planning to re-list it until Spring. Out of the blue came a qualified buyer who was so eager to pay our asking price and move in in 60 days that we negotiated and signed a contract in a few days. Miracle of miracles.

Our agent, Karen Musser, a close friend of ours from church and Susie's PEO women's group, ironically observed "I must be one of the few agents to take a home off the market in order to sell it."

Our escrow settlement date is March 18 so we have less than 60 days to arrange for movers, pack everything, find a place to live, negotiate a purchase (or lease if we can't find what we want), and complete the move. This is our time for "yes we can" so we are confident that all can be done and with a minimum of fuss and bother.

It's been more than 20 years since we moved into this home and gathered among friends who we will now be leaving and that will be the hardest part. But with Rebecca and Hannah staying in Santa Barbara (Rebecca continues her job at the clothing source Territory Ahead) we expect to be back here regularly for extended visits.

So the adventure begins!