xmas 2008

Christmas eve was a little different this year. We normally have it with Jeff's sister, but she was sick this year. So it was just us. She had sent to presents home when Jeff and her had gone to see their brother, earlier in the day. We did do the traditional morning breakfast at Denny's and then didn't eat till dinner, which was KFC like usual. After dinner, we made cookies for Santa and opened Cici's presents.

Xmas morning started with Ally climbing into our bed at 3:15. At 3:30am it started to pour outside. At 3:40am I realized that the car might start flooding, because we have a neighbor with a tree that has very large leave that get stuck behind the tires. So out of bed to the freezing cold. lucky I did!
Ally and I finally fell asleep around 5am. And got up around 6:45. We had to drag Jeff out of bed.
Ally got her Easy bake oven. Katie I played a little joke on. Her last present was supposed to be the game guitar hero world tour. So when it was time to open the gift, I even told her now remember you have to share! Then she opens it to find the movie Dirty Rotten Scoundrals, HUH????, in her hurray she didn't notice the note, which read "oh no Santa goofed and on the other side, try Con's crib." When Con's not here I normally cover it with a blanket. She ran over and found an empty box (I forgot I'd stuck that one in there), and then found Guitar Hero World Tour the complete band set. I had to do something, if I had put it under the trees she would have known I'd gotten her the complete set by the size.
Katie got some gift cards (for wii accessories and her ipod), a book, pjs etc. Ally got a couple of bears, gloves, scarf, baby alive let's go potty, a spongebob plug and play game, and a mp3 player.
Me, jammies, thermals, shoes, hairdryer etc. And Jeff got a paper shredder, grooming kit, Dallas cowboy pj's, tshirt and dvd or the greastest games.
Already starting to take down the xmas stuff. The tree is still up, but the lights, ornaments, stockings and angel are all boxed up ready for the move. Some might find this strange, but as a kid once the last present was done down came the tree.
Currently Jeff and Katie are playing Guitar Hero, Ally has already feed, changed and played with "Ann" her baby alive, and made cookies for her dessert in the easy bake oven. Now she is into playing with her Spongebob game.

xmas email

Sorry, if you have already seen this,
Seasons Greetings! Yes, we have gotten lazy and our annual Christmas letter is now the annual Christmas email,
We hope everyone has had a good year. Ours has been full of drama, so we think this year we will not do the traditional letter but highlights instead.
~Jeff’s company got bought out by Akzo Nobel
~Ally turned 9
~Our Disney trip became a real adventure when mudslides cancelled our train home (we had flown down). And we didn’t know about it till we got to the train station. We managed to get back home on Jetblue.
~Easter Sunday, Mary’s 40 year old cousin, Emily, unexpectedly passed away.
~we got a teddy bear hamster, Humu-Humu.
~Katie got braces.
~Katie passed geometry with a B, means she doesn’t have to repeat in 9th AND she got 10 high school credits.
~we spent 4th of July at the Milpitas Embassy Suites on a staycation.
~we saw High School Musical live on stage.
~Mary’s Step Mom, Pat, passed away, after a long illness.
~ 3 days later, Humu passed away. Ally came up with Grandma Pat needed a pet.
~our frig went out, took 5 weeks and 4 repair guys to fix it.
~we got a new teddy bear hamster. He tried to escape on the car ride home and he likes to crawl in shoes, so we named him, Sneakers.
~Katie turned 14 and started high school, her favorite class is orchestra.
~Ally started 4th grade.
~Katie’s favorite game is Guitar Hero.
~Ally likes to type stories on the computer. Along with questions about her story, including an answer key.
~Mary watches Connor 2 days a week and added best friend, Lisa’s daughter, Stephanie, 3-4 days a week. She still work at OSH on Sunday’s.
~thanks to Milpitas High’s instrument rental program, Katie has been able to play the oboe this year, instead of the clarinet.
~Went to Jeff’s Uncle Lee’s retirement party.
~Katie got Mary to read the Twilight series. Jeff has made it to the 3rd book.
~Katie went as a “cereal” killer for Halloween and Ally went as Mary, Mary as Ally.
~Mary finally had to do traffic school thanks to a "California stop".
~Found out Mary’s step siblings wanted to raise our rent by 60% as of January 1st 2009.
~Mary’s Dad was able to get them to agree to the same rent till July 31st 2009. Then we have a choice, August 1st we will have to either pay the higher rent or move.
~we decided it will best to move when the lease is up.
~since Jeff’s current territory is Salinas to Napa, we have been dragging the kids to different cities, to try and come up with at least 2 or 3 that might work for us. Although the rents have come down. We would prefer to stay in a 3 bedroom, especially since Jeff is home based. Which means we need to move out of Milpitas/San Jose area.
~Mary is starting to go thru things, want the move to go as easy as possible so anything that can be packed early will be. If anyone local has boxes, please let us know!
~All 3 of the cats are now considered fat J . Bailey is 2(the white and brown one), Phantom is 4(silver striped), and Isabelle is 6(multi colored). Sneakers is not fat, just very fluffy.
WOW! Think that is most of it! Our current email is virgojmk@comcast.net. However, we do have a back up email of virgojmk@yahoo.com, in case when we move we have to change carriers.
Hope everyone has a safe, healthy and employed 2009!!!
Mary, Jeff, Katie, Ally, Bailey, Phantom, Isabelle and Sneakers

TERRIOR IN MURRAY VILLAGE...

HELP ME! HELP ME! I'M STUCK IN PRISON!
FREEDOM!
IZ TRERRIZ THE VILLAGE! SHAME ON YOU FOR HOLDING ME CAPTIVE!
OH LOOK A SNACK!

Shocking I know, I did not get up at 2am to go do Black Friday. This is the first time I can remember not going. How did I do this? I didn't read the ads.
Kaitlin and I went yesterday to play with Les' dog, as they are at Disneyland. Dad is taking care of all her pets, but figured he didn't have time to play fetch with Smuckers, so we ventured over.
On our way we went by Big Lots and grabbed the dvd/vcp for $35. We are having digital cable installed on Tues. The guy said our tivo would still work, I don't believe him, it's analog. So might need to move the tivo to our bedroom, but want to still be able to record in the livingroom.

Thanksgiving

The finally holiday's countdown till we move has begun...
Thanksgiving went well...

the table, darn Lisa's mom, as a result, Ally insisted we do china, and dress up the table

we had a small turkey breast, it was jenny-0. Said it takes 2 hours from frozen. Wrong! Took it out after 2 hours, the box said was supposed to be 165 degrees, it was over 200 degrees, lol. I don't know how it tasted I had the rotissori chicken, it did have tons of gravy, so it didn't look dry at all.

We represented the grandma's who have passed. The china was Grandma Lois'(Jeff's), the girls glasses were Grandma Bahnsen(mine), the music box was Grandma Pat's(my step mom) and the bear was Grandma Connie's(Jeff's mom). Pappaw(Jeff's dad) was represented in the mashed potatoes, we put his signature sour cream in it. Tasted great!

more current condition

the wood edging, is like this all around the outside of the house

our porch, upstairs balcony is the same way

moisture damage in master bath. looks like it is standard dry wall in there, not the kind that has a moisture barrier

stucco splatter on screen door

lawn, pat had said she would resprinkler and re sowed, 7 years ago, never happened.

the famous crack in the sink, the reason you can't use this side, the water damage on the floor and the reason you can not use the dishwasher

for safety reasons

we are going to have to sign a lease with Jess in Jan. This makes me nervous since we have already lived here 7.5+ years, We don't want to get charged for things like paint, floors since normally after 2 years they would be done. And especially since it will only be a 6 or 7 month lease (will have to move by Aug first or have a rent increase of $750 per month), don't want her to come back and say we did the damage in that short of time. So I am using this to help document some of the conditions before we sign the lease...
the cabinet that we put in that was left in the garage (never fit right)

the vanity drawers that don't shut because of a pipe behind them
and example of lack of base boards, this is in the hall bath, Ally's room is also missing base board, the kitchen is missing molding
stain in Ally's room
outside deck
the back side of the fence



Richard's side
damage from the crack in the sink

more sink/dishwasher damage, dishwasher drained into the side with the huge crack, we couldn't use the other side, because a broken garbage disposal was on the other side, and so it didn't drain (a worker dropped glass in it and tried to grind it up, breaking the disposal before we moved in). As soon as Pat was better dad repiped the disposal side so we could use it. Since we had area rugs in the kitchen and dining area and a video cabinet we didn't notice the floor for a while. You can't use the dishwasher still, until the crack is fixed.

this pix also shows the compactor that doesn't latch shut, but it does work
in the dining room, the video cabinet and large area rug used to cover this, and yes the cabinet was water damaged as well