Escrow Progess

Even though we have already left on our "summer of love" trip and move to Colorado, escrow on our house still has not closed. We are hoping it will close by Friday and if so it will be 2 weeks late. There is even a chance it will be another week! The kids that are buying it have been really slow at getting their documents in order and it has been super frustrating. In fact, we were going to leave our shed for them but I got so pissed off that I sold it on Craig's list. Ha-ha, that showed them, didn't it?? Dennis thought it was pretty funny but was happy when we sold it for $200.00 snapping cash...

Anyway, we couldn't take being in the empty house any longer and our realtor said we don't need to stick around so off we went. We are also anxious to get to Portland in time for little Elsie to be born.

It has been a very stressful time but exciting too. Thank you to all of our freinds and family for being so supportative and we can't wait for you tp come visit us in Colorado.

Love, Dana

Last Night

Here is our sleeping quarters for our last night at 1423 Brentwood Drive. Yes, we had twin air mattresses but Dennis' was flat by morning so I went and bought us a new queen mattress. Yippee, now we will sleep nice and close to each other during the summer of love. Hee-hee!

Monday, June 27th was the last day in our house of 31 years. We went to the gym in the morning and said good-bye to all our gym friends then came home and packed up the van and took off for Hanford where our daughter Candace and family live. Before we left we went next door to say good-bye to Stan and Miriam Marlow and we all get teary eyed. It was definitely harder leaving our friends and neighbors than it was the house itself. We then stopped by Tarbell Realtors to turn in our keys and I saw a few people I used to work with when I was the Career Coordinator for Tarbell. It was a job I loved and it was great seeing some of the friends I had there. Next we turned in our cable boxes and then headed to Orange. We had to stop by the Pub to pick up a couple of things we forgot and we had a very nice visit with Christine.

We arrived in Hanford at 4:30pm and are having nice visit with Candace, Scott, Charla and Alaina. Unfortunately, they are fighting a virus so we are keeping our distance and washing hands a ton. Tomorrow we are heading to San Jose to see Chris and Pam and Dan and Jane. (Dennis' sister and brother and families.) Next we will see cousins Dan and Jim and families in Medford, Oregon. Then on to Brenda's in Portland!

Packing Day

Our dear friends Debbie & Gary Warner and Colleen & Pat Holland helped us load all of our belongings into 2 storage containers on Sunday. We also had a surprise visit and more help by Donna & Ed Farnum. We were amazed how much we were able to fit in the "Pods". We were worried we would not fit everything but we ended up having extra room.

The containers were picked up on Monday and are now being stored in a "temperature controlled" warehouse in Anaheim until we are ready for them to be sent to Colorado. When we are ready they will be transferred to Thorton Colorado where they will be stored in another warehouse until we are ready for them to be delivered to our new home. (when we find one) We will being staying with Rena and Nathan and the boys while we look for a place to live. If we need any of our belongings in the mean time we can go to the warehouse in Thorton where they will bring our containers to the dock and we can open them and get our what we want. So far it has gone without a hitch.

Pub Party

Christine and the guys at O'Hara's Pub had a great going away party for Dennis and I on Saturday. Christine closed the bar from 1pm to 5pm for a "private party" for us. The only other time she has done that was for a wake for Freda the long time bar tender that passed away.

One of the bar tenders put together an awesome video show with pictures of Dennis and I and funny "Jib-Jab" videos and pictures of the bar and videos of all the employees. It was a huge "cry fest"(especially when Dennis played Danny boy on the juke box) but also very fun. A lot of the regular patrons were there along with employees and friends. Christine donated all the proceeds during the party to us for gas money. We are both so thankful for the opportunity to work for Christine and learn a whole new business. It has been a great 7 years and we will treasure all the memories.

Thank you to everyone at O'Hara's and we will miss you.

Love, Dana

Road Trip

Here I am with my wonderful friends Nina Pirritano and Debbie Warner on our way to take our Camry to Colorado. We did a side trip to Arches National Park in Utah....beautiful country!

Progress

I got back from driving the car to Colorado this morning. I had a great trip with my wonderful friends Debbie and Nina. We will always remember the days we spent together and all the beautiful country we saw.

This afternoon there was an awesome going away party for Dennis and I at the Pub. It was very, very emotional.

Tomorrow we will be loading the Pods and we expect escrow to close on Wednesday---

I'm too tired to write more.

Love, Dana

Our Favorite Lawn Boy

My youngest brother Paul has taken care of our yard for at least 15 years...we will never find anyone like him again. Dennis and I have always looked forward to Monday mornings when we get to see Paul. Him and Dennis go on and on about sports, politics or whatever they need to talk about while Paul mows, edges, clips, trims, blows, fixes sprinklers and leaves our yard looking beautiful every week. Thank you Paul for all your work!!! Your severance pay is in the mail.....(if you don't get it, it must be lost in the mail, ha!)

Love, your favorite sister, Dana

Happy Fathers Day (a little late)

Here is a picture of my dad parked to the newly opened portion of I-5 in San Clemente. That is my brother Mark on his shoulders and yes, he is smoking a pipe. I'm bummed that the picture is so small. He was quite the dude and a great father. We all miss him so much.

Love, Dana

Our New Decor

Our house looks a little different now....we can't wait to get out!!!

Nathan's 50 Mile Run

We are thinking good thoughts for our son-in-law Nathan Kirkland today as he doing a 50 mile trail race. He expects it will take him 13 hours to complete! Yikes, that's a long time to be running and to make it worse he is running at altitudes of 8000 feet and higher. Here is a picture of Nathan and his late father Aldren Kirkland with little newborn Carsten. Go Nate--my God's speed be with you!

Frustrations of Selling a House

A lot of you know what I'm talking about when I say selling a house is frustrating and stressful! It seems that the buyers STILL have not signed the "release of contingencies" form. We think they are delaying it until they know their loan is approved. If they go ahead and sign the release and their loan does not go through then they can get their deposit back. It makes me really mad that they are doing this because it is very unfair to us. The loan officer is still waiting for one more document. In the mean time, we are still packing and planning on everything closing by next Friday but not knowing is very stressful. If the loan falls through then we will have to put the house back on the market. Oh, I hope that does not happen! But it does, we think we will go ahead and pack up our stuff and try and sell the house empty while we are on our tour.... I will keep you updated....

Love, Dana

More Favorite Pictures

Dennis and I with Miss Reagan and Miss Katya (Brenda and Craig's girls) in Olympia, Washington. May 2011

Summer of Love Party Send-Off Party

We had a great "last bash at Brentwood Drive" last night with over 40 friends and relatives. It was great seeing so many people who mean so much to us. Donna and Ed Farnum surprised us with a "Summer of Love/D&D Adventures" poster for everyone to sign. We are so VERY blessed. We love you all and thank you for your love and support!!!

Best Laid Plans Do Change

We found out today that the close of escrow date has been moved to June 24th which is okay with us since Dennis is working until the 25th anyway. But after thinking things over today we have decided to wait and load the Pods on the 26th and leave on the 27th. This way we will have a little bit more time for packing and we won't have to "camp out" in our house the last week.

Dennis packed up lots more stuff in the garage today and Debbie came over and helped me pack all my nick-nacks and take pictures down. The place sure looks bare with no pictures up!

Love, Dana

More Plans

The next 2 weeks are going to be crazy busy. Here is what is going on:

Today: Summer of Love Send Off Party!

Sunday, June 12th: Recovery from Summer of Love Party. Church in the morning, afternoon packing. Evening, dessert with our neighbor Bill who used to live across the street.

Monday, June 13th, Mountain bike ride with friends from Corona in the morning, packing, packing, packing.

Tuesday, June 14th: Do mail forward and start notifying companies about our new address, pack plants and other stuff in the van to give to Candace, drive to Hanford to babysit Charlie and Laney.

Wednesday, June 15th: Babysit Charlie and Laney--fun!!

Thursday, June 16th: Drive back from Hanford, more packing.

Friday, June 17th: Garage Sale and packing

Saturday, June 18th: Pods arrive

Sunday June 19th: Pack Pods

Monday, June 20th: Finish packing Pods

Tuesday, June 21st: Patch nail holes in walls and touch up paint, plus last minute details and clean house

Wednesday, June 22nd: Debbie Warner and I leave on road trip to take the Camry to Colorado.

Thursday, June 23rd: Debbie and I arrive in Lyons, Colorado at Rena and Nathan's house.

Friday, June 24th: Hang out and explore Lyons, Colorado, look for place to rent.

Saturday, June 25th: Fly back from Colorado in morning, last day in Corona. Informal gathering at O'Hara's Pub.

Sunday, June 26th: Head to Hanford and the Summer of Love Tour
begins!!! After leaving Hanford we will visit relatives in the Bay area and Oregon before arriving at Brenda and Craig's in Portland. After baby Elsie is born we will tour the Pacific Northwest for some camping and mountain biking adventures.

Arrive in Colorado: Date unknown

Here is a picture of the beautiful rose bush Pat Johnson and Colleen and Pat Holland gave us when Dennis' mom passed away. I hate to leave it behind and it is blooming like crazy right now. I think it is a sign from Eileen giving us her blessing. Every time I look at it I get teared up but it is good tears.

Love, Dana

Questions, Questions, Questions

We have been getting a lot of questions lately so I will do a question and answer session:

Question: Where in Colorado are you moving?
Answer: Somewhere near Denver, Ft. Collins or in-between.

Question: Do you have a place to live yet?

Answer: No, we will live with Rena and Nathan and the boys for a few days and then rent until we decide where to settle.

Question: Do you have jobs?

Answer: No

Question: Why Colorado?

Answer: We want out of California, we like Colorado and we want to live near one of our kids.

Question: How soon are you leaving?

Answer: Dennis' last day of work is Saturday, June 25th. We will leave on Sunday, June 26th.

Question: What are you doing with all your "stuff"?

Answer: Storing it in Pods until we are ready for it.

Question: Have you ever lived where is snows?

Answer: No!

That should cover most of the questions. Let me know if you have others.

Love, Dana

Appraisal done

Yeah! The appraisal came in just a little above our asking price. That is really good news since the buyers are going FHA and they are very picky. So there is a chance the closing date might be June 17th which is what the original plan was. But our realtor thinks there is a good chance it will be a couple of days late which would be fine with us since Dennis' last day of work is June 25th. If everything works out we will stay in the house until the 25th and leave on Sunday June 26th. We will be storing our household goods while we hit the open road for a few weeks! The plan is for our first stop to be in Hanford, CA to celebrate our granddaughter Alaina's 1st birthday. Then we will make our way up to Portland to await the birth of Elsie Ryan, Brenda's third baby and our 7th grandchild. And these grandchildren are grand, indeed!

Moving forward!

Here is a picture of Dennis taking down the shelves in our garage. As you can imagine he is finding all kinds of things that have been hiding in our garage for many years!

This is one of my favorite pictures ever, 3 generations of bike riders with Carsten and his dad and grandpa--Lyons, CO---summer 2010.

In Escrow!

I know my blog has been confusing so I just want everyone to know, YES, we are in escrow! We were offered our full asking price (minus some help with the buyers closing costs). This offer came after only 2 weeks on the market so we are very happy. It has been a whirlwind of inspections and packing and wondering if this is really going to happen. We will find out tomorrow or the next day if the appraisal came in at the asking price and if the buyers were approved for their FHA loan. If all is well, the termite work will begin on Friday and we will be out of here in 2 weeks! Wow! We are very excited but a bit overwhelmed too. Keep us in your prayers please.
Love, Dana

Leap of Faith

This move is one of the hardest things we have ever done. We are not ones that like change or moving out of our comfort zone. One Easter Sunday in Hanford, CA at St. Bridget's church the priest gave a sermon about the little caterpillar and how frightened he was when the cocoon started forming around him. The poor caterpillar had no idea what was going to happen to him. He was in this dark scary place no knowing what would happen to him next. Believe me, I can relate!
Then last Sunday the priest in Olympia, Washington talked about how the disciples must have felt after Jesus ascended in to heaven. He thinks the title for that Sunday should have been, "What now, Lord?" because that is what the disciples must have been thinking--what now??? Dennis really related to this sermon and we both looked at each other and just smiled.

Here are some pictures of our house all staged for selling. Can you believe we got 2 offers on the same day only 2 weeks after we had it on the market? The young couple that are buying it have a darling little 15 month old girl and plan to have more kids. The young woman grew up in Corona attending the same grade school, middle school and high school that our girls went to. The young man lived in Corona until he was 12. They are both very excited about the house and raising their family in Corona. May God bless them!

Love, Dana

We are moving to Colorado!!! I am posting this because some of you don't know yet and my blog might be confusing at first.

Love, Dana

Lots to do!

Wow, I thought I would write more often but I have been pre-occupied to say the least. Let's see, the last time I wrote we were getting the house ready to put on the market.

The next thing we did was have a garage sale. For some reason this was a huge step for me. I guess getting rid of things made me realize that we are really going to do this. Plus, I have only had one other garage sale and it was years ago at our house on "E" street. The sale went very well and we sold almost everything on Friday so made it a one day sale instead of two. Here is a picture of some of our junk gathered in the garage.

Love, Dana