May Highlights:
- Luke wraps up spring baseball and receives the game ball from coach
- Lilah and Tory perform at the school talent show
- We become owners of a 4-plex
- We enjoy Memorial Day weekend bbq and pool party with family and friends
- Awesome day at the beach on Memorial Day
- Cathy passes her Les Mills Body Pump training class — she’ll be teaching classes in July
The School Year is Winding Down and the Kids Can’t Wait
We’ve been hearing about how boring school is for well over a month now. Lilah let me know that she will probably get straight As again and just in case I didn’t believe her she logged onto Zangle, a website the school has that tracks grades, homework and how the kids are progressing, and showed me for herself. She showed me all her As and then asked if I wanted to see how Luke was doing. She said it loud enough so that Luke could hear and he could voice his protest that she should not be looking or showing his stuff. She loves zinging him like that. I told her it was okay and that I would check out Luke’s grades later.
There is a lot of anticipation for things that will be coming in the summer or soon after the school year is over — dining out at the Benihana-style Japanese restaurant (a once a year dining tradition we established last year and a reward for all their hard work during the year), volleyball camp for Lilah, a video game creation camp for Luke, end of year field trip to Zuma beach for Lilah, a used Xbox for Luke (assuming he gets good grades and improved his writing), an outing or shopping spree of some sort for Lilah’s birthday, and a summer vacation that involves a trip on a plane to Kauai (the first plane trip ever for the kids). We deliberated a lot over the vacation decision, but at last we decided we will forego Lake Tahoe this summer and go somewhere new. It should be a great adventure and also a chance to connect with some old friends, Holly and Don, who moved to Kauai with their kids many years ago and have been happy there ever since.
In the course of wrapping up the baseball season, the coach singled Luke out after one of his games for his great defensive efforts, especially the play in which he ran from center field to left field to chase down a ball that had gotten by his teammate. Luke not only ran the ball down but also threw the ball to the cut off man to prevent the base runner from advancing and taking another base. For his hustle, the coach awarded Luke the game ball, an honor he gives out to one member of the team after each game. Luke was thrilled to get the ball and ended the season as the team’s primary center fielder. He never quite got his base hit, but he struck out less as the season went on, got on base by walking, and had several near hits in the later games of the season. All those things led him to conclude that he still wants to continue playing baseball so we should have some more baseball stories in the fall.
Lilah and Tory performed in the annual school talent show again. I really couldn’t hear what they were singing because it seemed like their microphones were set too low and the music was too high. However, they didn’t seem to notice the technical difficulties. All they cared about was getting a chance to get up on the stage to do a little singing and dancing. As always, I enjoyed watching their camaraderie and seeing their smiles after they finished their performance.
We Are One Step Closer to Becoming Landlords
Our original closing date on our 4-plex was March 16, but we didn’t end up closing the deal until two months later. The good news is that the delays were largely the result of the lender requiring the seller to make additional repairs. What I learned in going through this process is that even if you agree to buy a property “as is” lenders have put certain policies in place that require sellers to make some repairs to “as is” properties, especially when you are buying a bank owned property like we did. My real estate agent told me the banks do this to minimize the risk of deals falling through and properties coming back on their books. It turns out this was happening a lot as buyers would pick up “as is” REO properties from the bank only to discover later that they did not have the money they needed to make all the necessary repairs. In any case, our transaction took longer than expected but we benefited from many free repairs so we’re cool with the delay. The place is officially ours now and our next goal is to get all the units rented before our first mortgage payment is due in July. So far we are on track to hit this goal. It’s been a great ride and learning experience so far and we’re only just getting started.
Cathy Passes Her Body Pump Training Course
As I’ve mentioned before, the Les Mills Body Pump course is a great way to get in shape and build muscular endurance. In the off season I usually take this one hour class that is set to music and consists of 4-6 minutes sets of continuous squatting, bench pressing, dead lifts, arm curls, tricep dips, crunches and more. These classes are pretty grueling when you’re first starting out, but if you stick with them you will feel and see some nice transformation in your body. Cathy loves Body Pump and has been doing it for a couple of years now, but making the leap to becoming a body pump instructor is a pretty big commitment and test. The training consists of two 9.5-hour days of training where you’re performing the body pump routine in front of your peers and being evaluated by a certified instructor. Not everybody who takes the class passes it and even after you pass the course you are required to send a video of yourself teaching the course to the Les Mills center where judges evaluate you and tell you if you’ve passed, failed, need more work, etc.. Cathy has passed the first part (the class) and still needs to film her video, however her boss is so confident she’ll pass that she has already scheduled her to teach Body Pump in July. Nice!
Memorial Day Weekend
What a beautiful weekend. We typically have a BBQ at my parent’s house to celebrate the day, but this year we changed the venue to Tyson and Heidi’s house. It was a great call as the kids played for hours in the pool while the adults got a chance to hang out, eat, drink and talk. The next day, the kids put their bathing suits on again as we went to Carpinteria State beach on what had to be one of the best beach days of the year — nice and warm outside, with very little breeze. Cathy is not a beach person, but even she enjoyed the beach that day. The kids boogie boarded and played in the sand for 5+ hours and if it wasn’t for needing to get home to our little Spikey dog (and also beating the traffic) we could have stayed even longer. It was a great way to cap off the month.
That’s all for now…more next month!