A few pictures before we filled it up...

The day after we had our offer accepted we took the kids over to the house.  Wyatt and Colter had actually walked through it with me and Will back in the summer.  Colter didn't remember a thing but Wyatt did.  

We took a million pictures and measurements.  We wanted to draw up plans to place furniture and figure out where stuff would go before moving day.  

The kids ran all over the place, claiming rooms and being generally awed over the awesomeness of the house.  

Lorien's friends from down the street walked over to check the place out and say hello to their new neighbors.

Colter and Adell commented on the depth of the tub..."Hey, I could drown in this thing!"  A reassuring thought if ever I've heard one.

We scoped out the yard and made plans for the trampoline and garden.

This is our lovely Realtor, Bonnie.  She is also our across the street neighbor.  She has been like a Grandmother to our kids and we have loved being her neighbor for the last five years.  Actually, we love all of our neighbors.  Our neighbors is the first thing we know we will miss when we move.  

Welcome to our house...

It really happened!  We actually bought a house!  I still cannot believe it...I don't know if I will ever believe it.

The story is long and I want to tell it.  So buckle up.  Or just skip this post all together.

Last July (2015).  I started working at Complete Solar for Will.  My job was to compile a series of reports for the executive team every day.  It was fairly straight forward and I was able to take a few hours every day to put together the reports and answer questions for the executive team about how different parts of the company were preforming.  I took the job in hopes of using whatever income I did to pay off our credit cards.  There were several times in our marriage where we needed to live off credit cards or use them to supplement our income.  When Will was in business school, when Will was starting one company or another...or that whole year he had no job and was trying to start Complete Solar.  Times like those...  While we didn't have an unmanageable amount of debt we were slow to pay it off.  We knew it would take a concentrated effort to get the cards payed off and just have student load debt to deal with.  We were also confident that by paying off our credit cards we would be able to buy a house.

FOR REAL!

We had saved some money and Will's income was sufficient.  So I started working and we started paying off credit cards.  Some months we used my extra income for fun things...like Christmas.  But for the most part, we paid off debt.  For a year, we watched our credit debt shrink and got hopeful.  In April, we heard one of our "normal" friends bought a house.  By "normal" I mean, a one income family where they didn't have a large gift of money or an employer who offered home buying support.  They just worked hard, saved money and bought a house.  We were floored!  As far as we knew, the only way to buy a house around here was to get an incredibly generous gift from family or work with your employer to secure permanent housing.  (Or hit the workplace lottery and cash out when your company went public...but we don't personally know many people who did that).  After talking with these friends we were even more encouraged.

WE COULD REALLY BUY A HOUSE!

We continued to save and pay off debt over the summer and by the end of the summer we started looking at houses to buy.  We contacted our neighbor across the street and asked her to be our realtor.  She was pretty great.  She showed us a few houses and we tried our best to continue to be hopeful.  The closest we came was just as school was starting (back in the middle of August).  We walked through a house that was in the best location and big enough for our family...it just needed a lot of work.  We put an offer in but lost out.  So the search continued.  We worked with our lender to finalize loan details and kept looking.

All this time I kept a secret flame for a house that had come on the market way back in April.  The house had been bought by a flipper from an origional owner.  The flipper had gutted the whole house and put it on the market.  The house went pending pretty quickly in May.  Over the summer, I think it was in July, the house came back on the market.  Apparently, the first buyers were from out of state and got cold feet about buying a house that didn't have the most cutting edge earthquake technology.  I walked through the house in July and asked the agent to keep me posted on what happened with the house.  We still hadn't even started the lending process so I knew we weren't really in the running.  Sure enough, the house went pending again.  I was bummed but knew there wasn't much I could do.

Two weeks later, the house fell out of escrow and was back on the market.  It sat on the market all summer long.  I think it went pending one more time but fell out quickly.  Finally, in September, we had all of our financing in place and were ready to put an offer in.  As our agent was working on the offer she found out the seller had just accepted another offer and the house wasn't available any more.  I was super bummed this time!  I thought for sure the house was meant for us.

So we kept looking.  There weren't a lot of houses on the market and even fewer that would fit our family and were in our price range.  I'm not going to mention what our price range was because it is ludicrous to think about spending that much money on a house that doesn't come with a butler.  We considered a house that was too small but in our price range but it sold quickly.  We got really serious about the two houses: a big house that needed a ton of work and a tiny house that didn't need much work with a great yard but backed onto the freeway.  During this period of time our lender tried to change the terms of our loan that would have effectively made it impossible to buy a house.  My husband, the super negotiator, got them to change the terms back.  At one point when I was freaking out he said: "Don't worry this is only the fourth of fifth most stressful deal I've ever had to put together."  He is a pro.

So October rolled around and I noticed that the for sale sign was still out at the flipped house.  I kept looking on Zillow and Redfin a houses that we missed out on to find out how much we were out bid by.  This flipped house was not showing up as sold.  So I finally called the listing agent.  I also called the listing agent on the really big house that needed a ton of work because it wasn't showing up as sold on Zillow either.  That house was sold...

The agent for the flipped house said: "Funny you should call today.  The house has fallen out of escrow again and the seller is really frustrated.  He isn't sure if he is going to put it back up for sale, rent it or trade it to another seller."  We talked for a few minutes about what it would take for Will and I to buy the home and I said I would have our agent call him later.

I had loved this house from the very beginning.  It was beautifully renovated inside and with it sitting unsold for so long the price had come down quite a bit.  The biggest selling feature for me was a gigantic soaking tub in the master bathroom.  It looked quite luxurious.  The location, while on a busier street, would be an easy walk for middle school kids.  We also would be right down the street from some of Lorien's friends from her home school year.  The price, while lower, was still a little out of our reach.  We walked through the house one more time and then looked at two other houses in the same price range.  One was big, close to the freeway and had a big back yard...but it needed a lot of work.  It had been an ill-used rental and showed it.  Kitchen cupboards were ripped off, one toilet had an out of order sign on it.  The back yard was a wreck.  The other house was old but charming.  It had been cared for by original owners.  It needed work but was in livable condition.  It was at the end of a cul de sac and had a gigantic yard.  The biggest draw back...it only had three small bedrooms.  Really, too small for our family of seven.  The flipped house really was the very best choice and I LOVED that house.  So we put in an offer Thursday night.

Friday, no word.  Saturday, no word.  Sunday...nothing!  We were kind of going crazy.  This house had been on the market for six months.  Why weren't they jumping at the offer?  We did hear from the seller's agent on Sunday, apologizing that the seller was hard to get a hold of on the weekend.  We weren't really buying it.  It felt like maybe the seller's agent was shopping our offer around.  Contacting other people who had showed an interest and seeing if he could get another offer.  Sure enough, Monday we heard: Sorry, we have another offer for full price (our offer was 20 grand lower).  If you can come up above asking price it's yours.

I was so mad!  No, we couldn't come up above asking!  We were paying the maximum we could!  We were out.  After crying really hard for the umteenth time during this whole price I shook it off.  I had always felt confident that when we were ready to buy a house, there would be a house for us to buy.  It just wasn't this one...or any of the other houses we had tried to get and lost out on.

Two days later, I think it was a Wednesday, I got a call from our realtor.  "You are not going to believe this...the other buyer backed out again."  I was floored!  This house really was meant for us?!  I talked to Will and our agent.  The seller wanted us to come up by a 10 thousand dollars.  Will negotiated with our lender (again) and was able to come up to the price the seller would take.  We resubmitted our offer and waited.

Meanwhile, life was in full swing for our family.  It was homecoming week for Lorien at the high school.  Wyatt had cross country practice and meets.  Clare and Adell started ShowBiz.  Life was crazy.  On Saturday the 15th I took Lorien out dress shopping for her homecoming dress.  Then I took Adell out shopping for halloween costume stuff.  While Adell and I were driving down to the thrift store, I got the text from our realtor: our offer was officially accepted!  IT WAS HAPPENING!

Naturally, I burst into tears again.  It was unbelievable.  The next few weeks were also crazy.  Not only did life continue at a frenzied pace but we were doing all of the crud we needed to close on our house.  I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop.  The "never mind, you cannot buy this house" shoe.  It never happened.  We signed all of the closing documents on Tuesday and the loan and title posted on November 10th.

WE ARE HOMEOWNERS!

With the help of friends and family we moved on Saturday.  We are in our new, lovely, fantastic house.  It is a mess of boxes and stuff but it is ours and we love it!

This is Halloween!

An Egyptian Princess, a Tootsie Roll, a Vampire, a Ninja, a Cow Girl, a Veterinarian and a Cat hit the streets.  

We walked all the way over to the most decked out Halloween house in town.  It has all of these spooky decorations and a spider jumped out and scared Colter out of his skin.  He will be traumatized by that for years.

Candy hauls were examined while we watched the The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

Lorien has been hitting the streets with her friends (and no parental chaperone) for a few years now.  She was Jack Frost.  We made her costume.  While looking for brown pants she had the audacity to complain when I picked out some stretchy workout pants.  "Mom, he lived in the 1700's!  His pants were leather!"  I questioned her desire to have an historically accurate imaginary character.  Eventually we settled on corduroy pants.  I didn't have the heart to inform her how historically inaccurate a hoodie would have been.  Pick your battles.  

Homecoming!

Well we did it. We got this girl off to the Homecoming dance.  Last year she didn't want to go.  She didn't think it was something Freshman did.  Then her friends invited her to the pre-party.  I made her go.  She hung out for a bit and was sad that she didn't try to go (you had to buy tickets weeks in advance).  She didn't realize all of her friends were going and she missed out on getting all dressed up for fun.  

We shopped around and had a heck of a time finding a good dress.  And by "good" I mean "kept her bits and pieces covered while she danced".  

She heard about a little store downtown from some friends and hours before she was due at the dance we checked it out.  They had plenty of dresses to choose from and she quickly found a winner.  The sales staff were excellent, as proof of their superiority I submit the fact that I bought her two dresses, a pair of shoes, accessories for her hair and neck, a necklace for me and a bracelet for Adell.  Expert Sales Staff...

Lorien had her makeup done by her dear friend, Melanie.  Melanie is going to cosmetology school in January and already has makeup skills I will never posses.  

She looked so beautiful!  Did I mention how much I bawled after we finished dress shopping and I dropped her off to get her make up done ?  I cried like a baby.  I mean, it's not fair!  We have these babies and they grow up and do things like go to dances looking lovely!  I cannot stand it.  I don't know how I am going to do this with four more kids...forget about the fact that I have to do it two more times with Lorien alone!  It is not cool.  

I took Lorien up to a friend's house for a pre-party.  Earlier in the week Lorien told me that we might have to host the pre-party.  No big deal (really it was a huge deal).  Thankfully, that fell through when another friend volunteered her grandparent's house.  

Sydney, Lorien and Anna

Lorien and Grace

Lorien, Sydney, I don't know...Lorien help me out, and Grace

Ava and Lorien (Ava is another friend who homeschooled with Lorien that one year)

We had been getting some light rain when Lorien was out getting her make up on and I was taking Adell Halloween Costume shopping.  By the time the party was over it was raining CATS AND DOGS!  Thankfully, it was quite warm so it didn't stink too bad.  If it weren't for the fanciness of the party I think Lorien would have been out running around in the rain.  I helped shuttle kids from the party to the dance and then helped my friend, Rachel, set up for her post-dance-party.  It was a great night.  Lorien had a good time and I am so thankful that she had so many good friends.  I am also endlessly thankful for her friend's parents and grandparents who will host parties for these awesome kids.  Oh what a night!

**edit in December 2016**This day will always be memorable for me.  Not only did we send out first kid to Homecoming (including dress shopping which was fun and emotional) but we found out that the offer we put in on our house was accepted.  We are going to buy a house!

The Last Day (day 3)

Sunday was our last day at camp.  We went up to the main cabin to watch the morning session of General Conference.  It was comfortable and great to get a little conference in.

After conference it was time to clean up and head out.  The kids ran around a bit while the adults sorted and packed.

Then it was all hands on deck for clean up.  When you rent cabins here you take on janitorial duties.  We cleaned our cabins, the out door kitchen and the bathrooms.  

The care takers of the camp (the Siselacks) came and gave the kids rides around in the four wheeler.  The kids were in heaven!

With camp clean and our stuff packed, we made our trips across the suspension bridge with our gear.  We rounded up the troops for some pictures.  We made a deal with the kids to keep them interested in cleaning up camp.  For every piece of trash the adults found they would have to do a push up.  I think we ended up finding 10 little scraps of stuff.  Will still made the kids follow through...but he did the push ups with them.  Then it was time for pictures in front of the gigantic tree.

We decided to make the short trip west to Highway 1 so we could take the coastal view for part of the drive home.  We stopped and made a little hike down to the beach to check out the ocean.  We weren't far from Glass Beach.  There was a fair amount of sea glass at this little beach from the glass beaches up north.  We saw otters and seals just off the beach where we were relaxing.  

We hit the road for home with most of us looking forward to the views we would enjoy on the drive down Highway 1.  Little did we know how windy Highway 1 was going to be and how carsick the kids were going to get.  It was MISERABLE!  At one lovely point, Adell started barfing in the back seat.  I scrambled to throw her some air sick bags that I keep in the car.  At the smell/sight/sound of Adell loosing it Colter started loosing it.  Barf everywhere.  It was not cool.  Will pulled over as soon as it was safe and we started cleaning up the kids and the barf and the van.  Not cool.  We made it to a little fish restaurant in Bodega Bay where we broke the Sabbath to eat.  The kids who had barfed needed a refill and the kids who had not needed some salty food to settle their own tummies.  From that point we gave up on Highway 1 and cut across to the 101.  Safe, wide, straight highway driving for us.  

It was one of the best camping trips I've ever been on.  I never want to sleep in a tent or cook on a camp stove again.  I am pretty sure this is the only way I want to camp...for the rest of my life.  

The Kid's Talent Show Act...

So here are five video clips from the Anderson Kid's talent show offering.  I cannot remember if it was called the "low budget super hero" or something else but it is so funny.  Seriously, I laugh every time I  watch the clips and am so proud of my creative kids!  They came up with the idea all on their own, practiced it and put the show on.  Really, it is totally worth your time to watch the clips.  I wish I had recorded the whole thing but you get a really good idea of the story.  The missing beginning is Lorien explaining that the kids love to put on movies and plays together.  Out in the woods there are not a lot of props or materials for putting on a great show so, they were going to do their best with what they had.  Enjoy.  (I know you will)

The Best Day (day 2)

The next day, our one full day at camp, was for sure the very best day.  Every activity and event seemed to out do the previous one.  We had a yummy breakfast and decided to head out on a hike around camp.  Will used a map from the camp caretakers and plotted a route for us all to take.  It started with a serious climb.  We had to break at the top for some rest...and family photos.

We hiked along a ridge line for a little while and tried to see the ocean but there were too many trees.  We identified madrone trees and some of the kids collected hiking sticks.  As we came out of the woods and to a fork in the trail we weren't sure which way to go.  Will spent some time thinking through our routes and proposed a couple of options.  We all agreed and headed off.  It was a pretty typical "hiking with Will" situation.  We get a little lost and he uses his sense of direction and whatever map is at hand (sometimes on his phone) to route us back home.  Sometimes we end up taking the very longest way home...sometimes we end up at an ending point far away from home.  I sat back, hoping this would be a shorter hike home than ones we had been on before.

We ended up loosing our trail markers and bushwhacking through a good portion of the hike.  Everyone kept their spirits up and hoped the trail would show up around the next tree or hedge.  

At last...we came to this steep hill and the trail markers pointed DOWN the hill.  With no path we all started slipping and stumbling our way down.  Half way down the hill some of the dads found a rope...which was handy because for the last part of the nearly vertical decent we needed a rope to balance with as we practically fell down the slope.  A dad or two stationed themselves along mid-points on the rope to help catch kids and moms as we tried to navigate the rope-slope. Some of the other dads carried the littlest hikers on their backs to get them down the slope.  

IT WAS CRAZY.

I stood at the top (terrified for my turn) alternating between my jobs of cheerleader and professional worrier.  All of the kids and adults were great cheerleaders.  Calling out encouragement and congratulations as we each descended the rope-slope.  At my turn, I nearly threw up.  I do not like heights and I am not confident in my ability to preform most difficult, physical tasks (in other words, I am a total wimp).  But, I made it...only to discover that the next harrowing task awaited me...balancing on a single rope bridge to cross a stream.  I don't know how the other hikers managed this task.  I couldn't see it from my perch high above.  Somehow, we all made it safely down the rope-slope and across the rope-bridge.  We found the river that runs next to our camp after that and all cheered with joy and relief!  We made it!  Everyone was impressed with the kids and adults for making that crazy, fun hike.

Can you tell from this picture how steep the incline was?  Can you understand how nervous we all (or at least me) were?

Here is the crazy rope-slope.  The dad on the very right had to catch kids and moms as we stumbled down the rope and around a sharp turn.  Will is in the center of the picture helping to guide Clare down at the bottom left.  I still am so amazed that we made it.  The hike was longer than we all bargained for, we got lost, AND we had to basically repel down a hill to get to safety.  This hike will go down in the record books, for sure.

After the hike and some lunch we all decided it was time to check out the river.  Normally, when California gets the proper amount of rain, the river is full and deep.  Our winter this year did bring some rain but not enough to ease the drought or fill the river.  We played in the shallow water.  There were canoes and kayaks to use.  Kids found frogs and skipped rocks.   

The water was cold and it is October so the weather is nice but not really warm enough to swim.  But the oldest kids got super brave and decided to jump off the rock cliff into the water.  Wyatt and his friends started the charge and then called for the big girls to come and try it out.  

One of the dads volunteered to canoe kids over to the rock so they could jump.  Then my scaredy-pants Clare decided to give it a try.  I didn't think she would do it.  She is my most timid child!  She doesn't like roller coasters and screamed in terror when she learned how to ride a bike.  But up she scampered and out to the edge of the rock.  I leaned over to Will and said, "You better get ready to swim over there and help her off the rock because there is no way she is jumping."  As soon as I uttered the last word in my counsel Clare shouted out "One, two, three!" and jumped off the cliff!!!  I was stunned...almost as stunned as she was upon hitting the cold water.  I was so proud and impressed.  I hate jumping off things!  I would never have done it.  She was awesome.   

Wyatt was awesome too!  He was one of the first to jump off the cliff and he ended up jumping several times.  The water and air were cold so this really took guts.  I was proud of him too...shivering and blue lipped he jumped!

We all remarked to each other how fantastic the day had been.  How could it get any better.  Well, Will found a way to top it.  He convinced the camp caretakers to let him have a chain saw and an ax to clear some fallen trees.  Will got the big boys using the ax and chainsaw splitting and piling wood.  As we watched them work one of the dads said "I am trying to figure out how many visits to camp it would have taken me to get the idea to ask for the chain saw to chop wood.  And then, how many more visits after that before the caretaker would have trusted me enough to give me a chainsaw!"  We all agreed, Will has some master negotiating skills.   

The best and brightest part of our evening was the family talent show.  Did I mention that the camp has a stage and seating for such an activity?  It is such a cool place!  All of the kids put on acts and most of the grown ups.  My favorite act by far was my kids play.  They called it the "low budget super hero story" or something like that.  It was so funny and so well done.  I couldn't believe they put it all together that afternoon.  All of the kids were funny and confident.  It was a great show.  I managed to get three short clips.  They are well worth the watch!

Dream Camping Day One

We love camping.  It is hard to do out here in California.  Campsites fill up fast, you have to make plans months in advance.  Usually we go camping once a year in May down at Big Sur.  We have to make the reservations in November the year before.  If we forget, we are out of luck.  

One of our friend's suggested we try camping through the LDS church camp grounds.  We were able to make a reservation just about a week before we wanted to go camping and head out.  It was pretty easy...and so much cheaper than California campgrounds.  

The kids were off school on Friday so we headed out to camp.  We had to drive for a few hours and true to getting anywhere good around here we had to take some wicked windy roads.  We all got car sick. 

At one point we had to pull over to try and prevent everyone from barfing.  While we were stopped, Wyatt found a letterbox!  We need to do more of those.  We haven't found one in ages.  

We made it to the camp ground deep in the redwoods.  We met the couple who ran the camp site and checked into our little cabin.  We had to park on one side of the river and make trips over this cool suspension bridge to get everything over to the camp site.  It was totally worth it.  The kids all helped make trip after trip and we all had fun exploring the area.  There was so much to do!

My favorite part, this amazing rope swing!  Everyone took turns on the swing and loved it.

Over the next few hours our friends started showing up.  We all oohed and awed over the little cabins, the out door kitchen, the functioning bathrooms (with showers!) the sport area, river, hiking trails, fire pit, and ropes course.  We spent the afternoon playing with friends and preparing a delicious dinner.  We did discover that we all brought a ton of food.  We were going to be well fed over the weekend.