Let the house hunting begin!

Most of you know our sad story about our house. If you don't, here are the basics: we were sold and unpermitted house, fradulently. After wasting $2200 a month for this worthless house and after mounting a lawsuit, we have decided to cut our losses and we are preparing for foreclosure. There is still a chance we will win the lawsuit, but there is a big difference between winning and collecting. As a result of this housing debacle we are left in financial ruin. We have been unable to refinance out of our bad mortgage and it has cost us dearly. This, coupled with the loss of our biggest job last October has put us in such a bad situation. We will not be able to buy a house ourselves... but there is a light amidst all this financial darkness: real estate prices are down and my dad and step-mom are going to help us secure something. However, the price of a "normal" house is still out of our reach. So, we are once again looking for the undesirable.... *sigh*

I thought I had found the perfect property for us. It was the best of both worlds - crappy place to live to make Adam happy (inside joke - just kidding, Adam :) and a great area for me. We made an offer on a piece of property that only we are crazy enough to consider. There is so much junk on the property and the dwelling (a single wide trailer) is in need of some serious TLC. Fortunately, Adam has learned a lot about remodeling and we have a dunp truck. The reason we like it is the awesome view, the great neighbors and the location. We could rehab the trailer before we are forced out of our house and then live in it for a number of years before we built the house we want. Then after the house is built, Adam's mom will have a real home to live in (she'll get the trailer). We made an offer and it was rejected. The crazy lady that owns it is out of her mind. We offered less than she wanted but this is a buyers market and there are about $15K in repairs needed for the trailer and about the same in dump fees to remove all the junk. It has been for sale for 3 years now and we are the first offer. I am bummed since I love the area and the neigbors and I liked knowing we would have somewere to go, for cheap. Guess not.... we will keep looking. I should go back up there and take pictures of the junk... it is kind of funny.

Good bye, my beloved sunglasses....

I never thought I'd be sad to lose a pair of sunglasses. Normally, I'd just go out and get a new pair. But alas, I cannot afford to replace my beloved Coach sunglasses. I was never a sunglasses snob until my 25th birthday, just over a year ago today, when my mother bought me my first pair of designer sunglasses. I was admiring their beauty inside the glass case and asked to try them on just to see what they felt like. They were perfect and my mother generously bought them for me for my birthday present. I loved them. They went everywhere with me. I wore them with pride and I loved showing them off. And now they are gone..... *sigh*
I lost them in the Cinemark movie theater. We were watching Tropic Thunder. Adam asked for the candy I snuck in inside my purse. And that is when it happened. My purse fell through the gap in the seat onto the floor. I thought I picked everything up off the floor but I was wrong. It wasn't until the next day I missed them. I went outside to look in the car just in case they were there. I was blinded by the sun as I walked back from the car, disappointed. I dug out an old cheap pair from my dresser. They just didn't feel the same. They felt cheap, uncomfortable and were scratched. I wear them in shame - shame because I am now a snob and feel self-conscious about wearing cheap sunglasses. I called the theater and they were not in their lost and found. Undoubtedly, someone else picked them up and realized their value and is now wearing them or selling them on ebay. Perhaps my sunglasses were picked up by someone who travels and they will get to see great beaches, mountains and other things they have missed out by having been forced to be worn by someone they would consider beneath them - a person who lives in the dirty desert, a person who doesn't wear designer clothes, a person who didn't put them away in a case, a person who wore them casually on top of her head but loved them nonetheless... Good bye dear sunglasses, good bye.

Erin's Birthday Party

Erin's birthday party started Friday night with a sleepover. Amber, Makayla and Acacia came over to stay with Cassandra and Cadia and Jordan came over to stay with Erin. We ended up putting Sharon's girls and Cassandra out in our trailer because we knew they would stay up all night and be really loud. That worked out really well. That night, I made Erin's Barbie cake and Amber decorated the ''back-up"cake should we need it (and we did - we had a lot of people).
We BBQ'd hamburgers, had a pinata (I made it - saved $15 on something that was just going to get destroyed), we swam, jumped on the trampoline and generally had a good time. Thanks to everyone who came to celebrate Erin turning 4 with us!

Food Frustrations!!!

Aaaaaah! I am really frustrated with food right now - all food!! As some of you may know, I have an intolerance for MSG (monsodium glutamate). It does awful things to me, and has even landed me in the emergency room, twice! Some of the things that happen to me are: headaches, severe neck and upper back pain and stiffness, difficulty breathing, heart palpitations, weakness. It took me years to finally figure out what was causing it. So, I look for it on all products. Pretty much, anything that comes in a package or box is bad news - even canned and frozen food. I have seen an elmination of MSG in lots of products. Yet, I still get symptoms occassionally from these "MSG" free foods. So, I did more research and have found some pseudonyms for MSG. Pretty much, if a product has an ingredient in it I can't pronounce or don't know what it is, I don't eat it. I also don't eat at most restaurants either since I know it is in their food - including all fast food except In-N-Out. I've been happy that MSG is being elminated from foods, but now I am very distressed by this. Come to find out, they are just using different names or putting MSG in the other igredients in the product to hide the fact that MSG is in it. One of these is hydrolized vegetable protein. Yuck! But this is NOTHING compared to what else I've discovered. I am OUTRAGED that this is happening: Farmers are using a fertilizer with MSG in it!!!! It is inside and outside of our vegetables! Even organic produce can have it since there are no standards for its use in Organic farming. Now I know why I get an MSG reaction to supposedly healthy food sometimes. And now I know why some wines bother me while others don't (yes, they even spray it on grape vines used for making wine - ridiculous!). I have always wanted to grow my own produce and now I am ready to become Farmer Kim! I swear this is ridiculous. MSG can cause learning disabilities and whole host of other problems. It is not natural to eat modified food yet it is in everything everyone eats. I am going to look like a crazy hippy now - growing my own organic food, making bio-diesel, looking to start using alternative energy to power the house, reclaiming our water, etc. Just for everyone's reassurance, I am definitely a Republican - I just want healthy, natural food for my family's body. Is that too much to ask!!

Leo Carrillo 2008

Chase boggie boarding

Erin on the swing at camp

Just hangin' out - Chase, Lydia, Cadia, Erin, Avery

Celia, Nathan, Amber

Craig, Denise, Lucy, Adam

Cove 2



Kim (me) and Erin



Adam and Erin



Our little camp area (trailer is behind the bush)

Enoch, or "Jungle Jim" as Adam calls him



Avery, Erin and Lydia playing dominoes



Erin put herself in that pose - what a ham!!! :)



Avery and Erin in a big hole



Trey, Makayla, Cassandra, Acacia



Acacia as a crab person




Almost the entire group of campers

Erin and Jordan with a baby star fish

Erin and Jordan in the cave

Erin and Jordan in the bike trailer

Craft time - making boats and jewelery boxes

We went camping for a week at Leo Carrillo State Beach in Malibu, CA. It was so much fun this year and we had great weather. Erin loved having all day to play with her many cousins and having free range in the camp ground. It was fun watching all the kids play. Adam's Uncle Craig and his wife, Denise, and their 8 kids came out from South Carolina. We enjoyed meeting all of them. I think there were 8 families total there this year. It was a lot of people (as you can see in the photos). I didn't want to come home and neither did Erin. Some of the highlights of the trip were the little kids boogie boarding at the "kid's beach" (didn't have my camera for Erin's attempt), the talent show where we got to watch Cassandra, Makayla, Acacia, Makayla and Trey doing a dance they made up to a Jonas Brothers song, Erin singing and playing her guitar, Heidi and her kids singing, Chantel and Robert singing, and a Jedi sword fight by Levi and Joe, a couple of skits by the Tuwalla's, and roping done by Chad. The talent show was a really fun night! We also had a night where all the families competed against each other for fabulous prizes. Our team won a laundry basket for our 3rd place finish, the Tuwalla's won sleeping mats for their 2nd place win and 1st place went to Sara's team for her fabulous ice cream eating skills - she got to take home a crock pot. There were also great crafts this year for the kids. Oh, and we can't forget Robert proposing to Chantel on the beach at sunset. This is going to be a hard year to top. I think pretty much everyone had a great time.

Photos From Alicia's June Visit

Adam, Nathan, Christine, Cassandra, Mom, Alicia, Shannon, Paul

The Original 5

All of Grandma's Grandkids (except for Kohl)
Top: Scott, Eric, Ryan, Tyler, Renee
Bottom Row: Erin, Jessica, Michelle, Caitlin, Ashley (front)

7/10 Siblings (in birth order)

What State Do I Live In?

Wacky, crazy weather every afternoon has left me confused. Exactly what state do I live in? (and I'm not talking about my state of mind). Yesterday, it was like a monsoon and made me feel like I was back in Minnesota - really hot in the morning, getting cloudy early in the afternoon followed by thunderstorms, not to mention, humid! Poor Christine had to load her kids into the car in the worst of it (all 4 of them). She said it was clear when she got about 10 minutes away. I guess Pinon Hills is the only lucky recipient of this delightful weather.

If you read my blog you know that Adam recently finished the central swamp cooler installation. Let's just say, it wasn't completely done, but close enough. We figured, we had all summer before we had to worry about the holes in the roof it created and we also figured we had lots of time to replace the shingles we lost during the last winds we had. Well, guess not! I had a flood in my kitchen and the water followed the ducting into Erin's room. It is getting ready to rain again. Time to get out the buckets and towels and hope that toxic mold isn't forming anywhere (except the for the bathroom ceiling that I already know about). Tell me again, why did I "agree" to a fixer-upper?! Oh, another thing. Swamp coolers don't cool in the humidity. I am sooooooo looking forward to our week at the beach. I just hope we don't come home to a flooded house. Maybe a nice wildfire will come through while we are gone and destroy the place. The cats wouldn't survive but oh well, I'd get a new house! Yes, I am evil. I forgot to get a picture of the lake in the kitchen, but perhaps I will get the opportunity to take one today. On a humorous, related note, Adam's mom was able to remind me of our lovely floors, "Quick, Kim! Get a towel! The water's running into the other wall because the floors are crooked!" Nice, right? *SIGH*

Erin's Room (above) Kitchen (below)

This looks safe, right? Should I be standing in a puddle?

Ceiling in kitchen