A Hike and A Day at the Beach

Tuesday we went out exploring and found a small state park to take a hike at. It was fun to see what "wild" Florida looks like, and we even saw some Gopher Tortoise Burrows, but no tortoises

Then, yesterday we headed to the beach for the afternoon. It was a beautiful day, about 70-75 degrees and sunny, and we just walked along the water, picked up shells, took pictures, and watched the sunset.

We also made a stop at a maternity clothing outlet store, and found the latest fashions!
Now it is off to home, we have a night in a hotel in Tampa, fly out New Year's Day at 6 a.m. Uggh! Back to the real world, I guess!

Warm (???) Florida

Well, yesterday was very cool and cloudy, but today came through. Not really that warm, but at least sunny. We headed north to the Crystal River to swim with the Florida Manatees. It was a pretty incredible experience. They come in to the river because it is spring fed and stays 72 degrees year round. They like the warm water, and we saw probably a couple hundred of them in the couple hours we spent in the water. 72 degrees sounds pretty warm, but by the end we were pretty chilly, actually we didn't feel that cold until we got out, but it was worth it! You are not allowed to approach the manatee or pursue them, but if they come up to you you can pet them and hang out with them. They are pretty curious and very trusting of humans. We also got to see a lot of fish, and some beautiful scenery.

Merry Christmas from Florida!

Greetings from warm (if not so sunny) Florida! We arrived at 6:00 this morning eastern time (yes, that is 3 a.m. our time!) to pouring rain and 70 degrees. The rain dried up and we even got a spot or two of sun throughout the day, but not really clear. It stayed right around 70 the whole day, though and was very enjoyable.After a short nap...well, it was short for some of us, others required a little "convincing" to get up and make the time change adjustment, we had Christmas breakfast and then Karen and Carole enjoyed a walk around the neighborhood.Although we didn't do any Christmas gifts because getting/being here was our "present" there still seemed to be a lot of non-Christmas gifts to unwrap, hmmmm. Several cute maternity outfits and lots of adorable baby goodies were a lot of fun to open and ooo and ahh over. We also got numerous gift cards for Lowes and Home Depot, so I guess when we get home it is back to work!

The house we've rented with Brandon's extended family is very nice, 5 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, a nice big living area with a huge TV that is currently being used for some Wii MarioKart action. Brandon also got Mario Brothers from Melissa for Christmas, so that has already been getting a bit of a workout, too. Carole has found she is at a distinct disadvantage since she was not allowed to play videogames as a child!
We did get in the pool for probably an hour this afternoon, just floated and talked and enjoyed eachother's company. It was very nice, and how often do you get a family Christmas photo in the pool? We rounded out the day with a fantastic Christmas dinner with all the delicious trimmings, and Carole ate way too much. Now about 1/2 of us are headed to bed and the other 1/2 are still Wii-ing...hmmm, that sounds like they are all in the bathroom....

The last 2 months....

The Seli-Scheer clan, or at least part of it, at Thanksgiving!


The weekend after Thanksgiving we took a trip up to see Mt. St. Helen's, and it was a beautiful drive despite some clouds moving in and out and only getting occasional views of the mountain.


Out with the old...and in with the new. Brandon's new skill of installing a toilet was forged as we replaced a bad toilet in the main bathroom. We thought the classy decision was to put it on the front lawn, and I am sad to say that not only is it still on the front lawn, but now the toilet from the master bath is sitting right next to this one. His and hers, I guess!

A mostly new bathroom, new paint, new floor, new toilet. The new sink has yet to be installed, though.

A Bit of an Update

It has been a while, sorry! We have had quite the few weeks as we moved into our new house, got an ultrasound of the baby, and try to get ready for our Christmas trip to Florida with the Scheers. We also have had lots of guests, Dad Scheer until the 10th, then Selis starting on the 13th, then Jess from Captive Free arrived on the 17th, tonight will be the first night in a long time with no guests!

Things are going well, but slowly with the house. Brandon installed his first toilet, and we've gotten flooring in two bedrooms and one bathroom done. Some unpacking has happened, but honestly not as much as we'd like at this point! There is still a garage full of boxes, and a lot of empty space in the house! Right now we are just focusing on finding suitcases and mild weather clothing and shoes for the vacation.

Baby life is good, we got an ultrasound a week and a half ago and all is well. Carole is showing, she thinks, but maybe it is just fat. Not much weight gain yet, but 2 inches bigger in the waist. Today marked the first day of maternity jeans and boy, were they comfortable! We've been doing a lot of reading and enjoying seeing what the baby is looking like and how she is developing each week.

We leave Thursday for sunny Orlando and can't wait to have a week to ourselves, no work, no house, no commitments, just relaxation (and sleep!) We'll be there for just over a week, and one of my goals is to get some pictures uploaded to the blog, so hopefully I do some catching up! We hope you all have a happy Christmas and New Year, 2010 will be bringing lots of blessings, for sure. You will most likely be getting, well, maybe Easter cards from us this year, our apologies!!! Love you all!

FINALLY!!!

We are out of money and the keys are on our rings! Must have bought a house. It is finally official and we are home-owners, now the real fun begins!!!

Big News!

Well, there will soon be a new addition to our family, we are pregnant! Just barely, due the end of July, but definitely feeling the morning sickness (which everyone keeps saying is good.) We had fun telling all our parents in person as they were in town for Thanksgiving. They were very surprised and very excited as this will be the first grandchild on either side.

We are very glad that we will be in our new house by the time we have 3 bodies living together...well, maybe we shouldn't count our chickens before they hatch! We have signed our papers, but some glitches are still being ironed out, we hope to close the middle of this week. We'll keep you posted on both of our big changes!

No Place Like Home...For the Holidays...

Or, living on the street? We heard yesterday that things are moving S...L...O...W on the selling bank's end of our home purchase. We are supposed to close on Wednesday but there is now very little hope of that happening. At this point we are just praying we have somewhere to move to when we have to be out of the apartment on November 30th! Forget about how cozy arrangements are going to get with Carole's parents and Brandon's parents arriving for the Thanksgiving holidays to a 2 bedroom, 2 bed, lots of boxes everywhere apartment!

Keep your fingers crossed and your prayers going for us, needless to say every time we think the stress is nearly over something else comes up! We are having Smokey practice his pathetic face in case we need to do any panhandling, though :)

One Step Closer!

Yeah! We found out today that our appraisal went great on the house. Not only did it appraise for more than we are paying (always a good sign) but they are not requiring any repairs before we get our loan. So, now we just have to get the bank to move their patooties so we can close on time!

Seli Family Updates

Carole's extended family has started a blog to keep up with one another. If you'd like to check it out the link is: www.selifamilynews.blogspot.com

It Has Begun...

Smokey is depressed and we have a room full of boxes...must be moving time!

It Is Official!

Well, someone finally took some of our money for a house! After 8 offers we finally are under contract! Woo Hoo! Now keep your fingers crossed and your prayers going for a good appraisal!

Our (Well, Mostly Brandon's) Day

It was a dark and rainy and VERY early morning...
when the guy in front of him on the highway hit a deer, and while Brandon watched the deer carcass fly across the highway the said guy stopped, causing Brandon to rear-end him, wrecking the truck that he got back on Monday from the repairs from the last wreck he had in it in February. This is literally prior to 5 a.m.! A buddy from work was able to detour and pick him up, taking him to work for the day where he found out he was now required to go get a drug test. So, after another buddy drove him home after work he rode the scooter (on the coldest day of the year so far) to Carole's work, traded cars with her, and headed out to get his drug test.

Part 2:
It was a cloudy, windy, cold afternoon...
when Brandon got pulled over (think back, yes, 2 days ago we were saying, hmmmm, seems like we should have gotten new tags for the car recently, but we didn't get anything in the mail, must not be time yet.) for having expired tags (turns out they only send something to you if you let them know your address changed.) While discussing this with the officer Brandon reached into his wallet to get out that new insurance card that recently came...only to find it had not gotten into his wallet. Bummer. That is a $595 ticket on the spot, we don't care if you can prove later that you are actually insured. At this point Brandon reports the officer probably saw the tears welling up, and kindly let him off.

Part 3:
Now it gets really good. While waiting for Brandon to finish trying to get the tags for the car we heard that the paperwork we've been waiting a week for on the new house finally came through!!! Yeah!!! We had almost written yet another house off, but apparently God knew we couldn't take another hit today! So, while it looks like after getting a mortgage we'll be trying to buy some clunker so we can both get to and from work, the good news is we're getting a mortgage (as long as the appraisal goes ok....cue ominous music)

"Our" New House

We finally got one, it only took 8 offers and someone actually accepted it. We are pretty excited, as you can imagine! We still have to get through inspections, appraisals, and paperwork, but otherwise we have a home of our own. Here are a few pictures, there is some work to do, but all in all we think it is a nice place (we'll let you know for sure after the inspection!)

Labor Day Hike

Today the weather improved a little, so we went for a hike with Jon, Briana, Kadyn, and Coreen (in town for the day.) It was a beautiful hike and the weather held through the whole day. Then we hit a drive-through for some good old fashioned burgers and shakes. All in all a good day!

Captive Free, Together Again, Kind of

Our old teammate, Jess, came to visit us this weekend, and we had a great time showing her around Portland a little bit. The weather was kind of yucky, but we still had some fun catching up. On Friday we celebrated our 5th anniversary with her and Connor, mmmm....Cuban food. Then Saturday we slept in and went in to downtown Portland. We explored the Saturday Arts Market, hiked a long way for some cupcakes (it was worth it) and of course, took in REI. Then we headed home and made pizza and had a relaxed evening at home.
Sunday we decided to ignore the weather and head into the Columbia River Gorge to see some sights. We started at Vista House, a great place to see the valley, then headed out to Multnomah Falls. We did a nice hike there, and finished just in time for the rains to start coming down. We had planned to also hike at another falls in the area, and see Beacon Rock, but it was torrential downpours, so instead we drove home and spent some time on the couch for the afternoon. Then things cleared up so we tried out a local putt putt course. It was a great day other than the weather.
Monday she was back off to Minnesota, so it was a short trip, but definitely relaxing and fun! It seems that the blog sight is having issues with uploading pics, so we'll try again later!

Ahhh...another day at the beach

Not great weather, but still a very nice day. It didn't actually rain on us and it wasn't cold or windy, so it definitely could have been worse. We headed out with the Brines clan, the boys did a little kayaking (both took a bit of a beating) and drew some onlookers. Briana, Kadyn and Carole walked along the beach, checked out the waves and seashells, and played in the sand. Then, after a picnic lunch we drove out to Cape Meares lighthouse and then back into Tillamook to get some ice cream at the cheese factory. All in all the day was relaxing and successful!

Brandon heading out to the waves.

Kadyn REALLY wanted to get in the water, but it was quite chilly so she didn't get to. She did think it was pretty funny running away from them and having them freeze Mom's feet!

At the top of the lighthouse.

Local Wildlife

Hi everyone! When I came in from walking the dog this evening this is what I found on the front porch! It was about 4 inches long and had a creepy alien head that kept looking at me :) I've never seen a Praying Mantis in the wild, so it was pretty cool.

A trip extended...

So we got one more day in London! When we checked in for our flight they told us it was delayed 2 hours, which probably meant we were missing our connecting flight, bummer. So we sat around for 2 hours, then another hour, then another hour, then they told us "Well, there seems to be a mechanical problem we can't fix so we are cancelling your flight." Big bummer. They put us up in a 5 star hotel with food vouchers and gave us the number to call to get another flight. The next flight they could get us on was the next evening to Frankfurt, spending the night in Germany, then on to Portland Tuesday morning. We took it, then called back later and they got us on a flight to Frankfurt early Tuesday that would connect with the Frankfurt to Portland flight we were originally on. Not knowing how to speak German we felt better staying in London another night! So we had all day Monday to waste, went back into the city and saw Tower Bridge, had lunch in the park, and walked by Kensington Palace. It was a nice day, but we were both feeling that we needed to get back to work!
Tower Bridge...what I always thought was London Bridge, but it turns out London Bridge is pretty unspectacular and boring. We climbed up one of the towers and walked the walkways across the top, then back down the other side.Swans in Hyde Park
Kensington Palace

When we checked in the next morning they told us they didn't have assigned seats yet for the Frankfurt to Portland leg, so we were thinking, do you have seats for us? No way we'll be sitting together, right? When we checked in at the gate in Frankfurt they told us, you've been invited to sit in first class with us today!!! La-de-da! It was awesome! For a 10 1/2 hour flight that is the way to go, we had big reclining chairs, our own tvs where we could pick what we wanted to watch, constant beverage service, 4 course meals, it was great. Brandon says he isn't flying any other way....which probably means he is no longer flying anywhere :) A good end considering what it took to get home!

London

When we got back to England we had planned on a couple days in London, unfortunately Pam got a sinus infection so the Havecker clan didn't come in the first day. We went to London Tower and saw the crown jewels and where Henry VIII beheaded his wives, plus an exhibit of knights' armor and weapons. We only had about an hour and a half there and could have easily spent twice that there, but they closed :(
A guard outside the crown jewels

We also climbed "The Monument" which commemorates a big fire that destroyed part of London in 1666, it was 311 steps up the tower to a VERY narrow viewing platform that was probably cool 200 years ago, but now there is not much to see but skyscrapers. It is the tallest freestanding stone tower in the world, though.

Climbing up "The Monument"Brandon paying 20 pence to pee

Day 2 in London the Haveckers were all feeling well enough to join us. We saw Windsor Castle, caught the tail end of the changing of the guard there, then walked through Hyde Park to see Big Ben, Parliament, and Westminster Abby. Then we rode up in the Eye of London, a gigantic ferris wheel that gave some fantastic views of the city.Mounted PoliceWindsor Castle...we all agreed that it was odd that the churches are so elaborate and the palace was pretty sedate.
Brandon making a call on the Queen's phone (anything with a crown on it is owned by the Queen)Westminster AbbyThe whole crowd in front of Big Ben and the Parliament Building
The London Eye
The view from up top

For all you Harry Potter fans, we found Platform 9 3/4 at London's King's Cross train station.