House beautiful

Today was an emotional day! Probably one of the most emotional days this year. You see today we found out that our house sold! Wow! Is that perfect timing. We move in two weeks and our house sells. God's timing is so awesome. Its a bittersweet feeling. On one hand I wanted it to sell and on the other I am going to miss it. I guess its time to move on to the next chapter. And then on top of that we found out we are having a grandson. Oh my gosh! We are so incredibly blessed I can hardly stand it. With friends and family gathered tonight at Britt and Nestors new home we cut into a specially made cake to find out if Britt and Nestor were having a boy or girl. Everyone came in already choosing what they thought they would have. They either ate of pink plates (if they thought it was a girl) or a blue plate (for a boy). At 8:20pm we cut into the cake to find it filled with chocolate filling. (Chocolate for boy, raspberry for a girl) As soon as Britt cut into it and saw chocolate she just burst out "It's a Boy" I started crying but not with a cute tear filled eye look. No I full on cried. I was so caught off guard. I really believed they were having a girl. Its not very often I am caught off guard but I have to admit this blew me away. We are having a grandson! How awesome is that. I can't wait to meet the next little man in my life. Now I have 4 men in my life. God is Good! I can just picture him running around "Mimi's Castle".

Backyard is started

Here we are in the Gazebo looking outward toward the Lanai Room. We currently are laying Travertine pavers that will surround the pool. This great product is provided to us by our friends at Pacifica Wholesale in Anaheim. We had the great honor of attending the 60th birthday party of Cyrus who brought together friends from Germany, Iran, Turkey and other parts of the world. We celebrated his 60 years of life, ate Persian food, watched a belly dancer, heard great speeches and danced. It was a great evening. So we have our hats and hearts out for Cyrus, Allen and Bardia who have made this part of our home so special.

The Grand Hallway

The Grand Hallway is almost done. You can see the length with the sectional ceiling. We will be placing all the fixtures this week.

Black Hawk

Today I had the privilege of riding in a Black Hawk helicopter. My builder, Jeremy who is in the Reserves, is being prepared to go to Afghanistan in about six months and is one of the main officers in his squad. He will be promoted to Major soon. This is a trying time for our country and having the opportunity to fly was an honor. We started off the day meeting at the training base in Los Alomitos. The base is old with the paint falling off most of the buildings. Yet, there is a sense of charm about the place because it has a purpose. That purpose is to ready our soldiers for the fight to protect us and our country from harms way. We had to listen to the Lieutenant tell us about what they did there and then got some safety instructions from the SO. That is the safety officer. I guess his job is to go around and tell everyone to be safe. That's kind of an oxymoron telling a soldier to be safe when in fact there is nothing safe about war. After our briefing we were assigned our squadron and loaded up on the Black Hawk. It taxed out and then like a feather lifted upward and floated away toward the ocean. In the distance to the right you could see Long Beach State University and to the left the ocean. We flew over downtown Long Beach and right over the Queen Mary. Up over the ridge we flew along Palos Verdes Peninsula. The ocean was to the left and homes built on cliffs were to the right. We circled around and headed back over San Pedro where the ships are unloaded. I was told we were going about 100 miles per hour and could reach around 200 if needed. The flight was rather smooth as we landed back at the base. The Black Hawk is a transport vehicle designed to get troops in and out quickly. It is a very powerful Helicopter with four rotor blades. It was an honor to have this opportunity to see how Jeremy's job is and to meet some of the soldiers.