1 year

I'm going to take a minute and pat myself on the back. I just pulled up my name on the MLS as Listing and Selling member and I was ecstatic to see the results. I quit working my office job on May 12th of last year to pursue a career in real estate. In one year I have 8 (10 if you count a closing on Friday and one next month) closings under my belt and almost $1.2 Million in sales, which for a rookie in this market is pretty good, don't you think. I'm having more fun than I ever thought I could have and I really am proud of myself.

There is also no way in hell I would be able to get to this point if it weren't for some people who I need to mention.

My parents. You both have had my back through good times and bad and to support me through this past year has been incredible. Thank you for all of the help you have given to me and the opportunity that you gave me and my family. I love you.

The Twins. Jenny & Christie, for real, if it weren't for these two ladies I would be sitting here typing, 'holy shit, a year has gone by and I have nothing to show for it.' The support you have given me, gave me every bit of confidence that I needed to make it. I am beyond grateful for everything you have done for me and the confidence you have in me. :-)

Jeremy & Espen. I feel like I have all the time in the world and not nearly enough time for you guys. Thank you for believing in me and giving me hugs when I'd cry about a stressful closing or cheering me along at a successful one. Obviously I love you both to pieces.

So that's it, my back hurts from all of this self-patting. Yeah me!!

My 32nd Birthday & the year of the CAPE

I turned 32 this past Sunday. I am still having a hard time writing/saying it. 32. 32.

The plan for the weekend was to get dinner with my girlfriends and then head over to Allison's to play on her new Xbox Kinect. Scottsdale was filled with tourists because of some football game and the restaurants were apparently going to be packed so at the last minute we scrapped dinner and decided to head to Allison's a bit earlier and hang out there for the night.

Now I need to include a little back-story. A few days before my birthday, Jeremy and I went to American Apparel to try to find a stripey shirt that I couldn't buy online because they don't accept gift cards (thank you Allison for my Christmas gift, btw). I couldn't find the shirt but I did find an amazing wool cape. I tried  it on and didn't want to take it off, it was so hilariously big on my and intended for way colder climates but I didn't care, I loved it. After twirling around in it in the store I hung it back up on the hanger and snapped a quick picture of it...

I posted it to Facebook and said: Just going to put this out there, my birthday is Sunday if anyone wants to buy me the Amer. Apparel wool cape.

On Saturday night the plan was for Jeremy and Espen to come over to Allison's and when Espen got tired, Jeremy would take him home. So we headed out the door on our way to my birthday party!

It wasn't long before the girls wanted to give me my present. Wrapped in a huge Nordstrom bag was the best gift ever from the best girls & boyfriend ever...

I thought I was going to pass out when I saw what was peeking out from the tissue in the bag. The beautiful woolly cape was mine and oh my god, I was SO EXCITED. For days I had been thinking about how I could save up for the cape, would it still be available, will it be summer time by then...

After modeling my cape we proceeded with drinking wine, smoking cigarettes and talking babies and ever so often we'd go inside and dance with the kinect.

I had a a freakin' blast. I love my friends so much! They are beyond amazing ladies on so many levels. 

The next morning I woke up to pancakes in bed and a hand written birthday card from Espen...

Espen loves my cape too. He got inside and said 'mommy, look. I'm in a valcano!'

Espen and I made spinning art in the morning and blew bubbles as the day went on...

At some point Espen got out the tape and dressed up like 'the Karate Kid' (his words). How hilarious is this photo??

We were starving so by 4:30 we were getting ready to head out the door to have my birthday dinner at Carlsbad Tavern (so delicious, OMG). Before we left we had a little impromptu photo shoot to showcase my most amazing cape. Ha. Obsessed? YES!

...Get ready for some serious cape pictures...

Dinner at Carlsbad was amazing as usual and we finished off dinner with a piece of birthday Key Lime pie. 



{babe}






{making a wish...that i wouldn't look wierd in pictures}


I had a lovely birthday.


thank you to my friends and to jeremy and espen, i love love love you all!

4 years

Months ago, for reasons unknown to me, Espen requested a Christmas birthday party. I think it's because at some point I mentioned another pool party like last year and he must of thought no, let's do the complete opposite. As the months went on he'd still periodically mention the Christmas theme...that is how we came to have Christmas in August.

I'd like to take a moment to thank my beautiful friends and loving family, we had so much fun on Espen's birthday, it just would not have been the same without you.

From having the pool completely to ourselves, to jeremy making a mad dash in the morning to grab the balloons that I forgot, to the wacky Christmas cake and gifts wrapped in Santa's and snowballs-Espen's 4th birthday party was a huge success.

So many photos were taken and I'm sorry, I'm going to share about 40 of them...for now, I'll start with the day through my eyes/camera.




{so cute}

{mama!! in the pool!!}

{nerds talking about true blood}

{espen hiding from the camera}

{up in the air}

{papa, an orca & a smoke, 'nuf said}

{caribbean cooler?}

{INWL-Improvised noodle water launcher}

{i couldn't resist, this is my dad XO}

{blurry balloon/birthday boy}

{heck yes, christmas cake}

{i cut those trees down myself}

{what happen's when your cake gets a huge crack? you fill it with icing}

{uh, woops}

{time foe bed birthday boy}

busy day

I don't really have a schedule these days. Some things are constant, I wake up at the same time, Jeremy leaves the house around 10am just about the time when my mom arrives to watch Espen. But, aside from that, it's kind of up in the air. My mom comes down to watch Espen Monday through Thursday, sometimes I have emails, phone calls, showings or appointments to take care of, but some days we just sit around a gab and occasionally run out to look at houses, just out of curiosity or an out of town buyer. She understands, though that my day can go from gossip to gotta go in a matter of minutes. This was exactly what happened on Thursday. I knew I had a lot to do that day, but it ended up being a race against the clock and turned out to be tons of fun!

I had to meet a guy at one of the twins listings, we were there not even 15 minutes when he insisted I get an offer worked up for him, so back to the house I headed. By this time, my mom and Espen were on their way to the children's museum and we were hoping to meet up their before my mom had to head home.

I jumped on the computer, wrote the most confusing offer (to long of a story, it still doesn't make sense to me), sent the offer off to the buyer, glanced at the clock and decided to jump in the car and meet my mom and Espen at the Museum.

They have the most amazing structure built in the museum. It's 40 feet of structural steel that is twisted and welded together with a flying bath tub, a tiny boat and tunnels that are not even 2.5 feet wide, you literally have to crouch down and 'duck walk' through the entire exhibit. Espen was up and down and all around the thing. I was sweating and achy and fumbling around. It was hilarious.


{blurry yes, but espen took it}

{so hard to catch him on film}





{he looks like he's 12}


Espen and my mom had already been at the museum for a while so Espen and I said our goodbyes to my mom and went off to explore a few more exhibits before we had to dash out and head to Target to get Kate's son a gift for his birthday party that evening. (yes, I wait till the last minute, I can't be the only one).

From Target we headed over to the car wash. I had to meet two sets of buyers starting Friday at 8am so if I didn't get Big Fancy cleaned then I would be showing houses in Big Yucky. From there we headed home to meet Jeremy and headed up to north Phoenix only 30 minutes late (ha) for Stefan's birthday party at Chuck E Cheese.

It was great to see Kate, Larry, Stefan and there bun in the oven although we didn't get to much time to chit chat since we were all busy dumping tokens in the arcade games and chasing our kiddos around.



While Jeremy was in the bathroom he watched a dad wipe his sobbing kid down from the major shit he took IN HIS PANTS and then quickly left El Cheese. It wasn't until after 5 kids came running out of the over-sized hamster tunnels squealing about the poop in the there that Jeremy remembered the little boy from the bathroom telling his dad through tears that he had in fact pooped in there. So sick. AND, Stefan stepped in it! He was hobbling around on one foot till his Grandma swept him away for a quick wash up in the bathroom. I think he quickly forgot about it once Chuck E came out with gifts and an attendant set up the little plastic room with the crazy fans that blow tickets around, the Ticket Blaster! He did so good, 160 tickets is what he got.

We had to wrap things up because I had to get to bed early to prepare for 3 days of non stop work. On the way home Espen suddenly had the urge to PEE, like an end or the world, tears streaming down his face had to pee right around Scottsdale and Mountain View. Jeremy took a quick detour to a nearby park and it ended up being a nice place to wind down after such a busy day and an even nicer way to spend time with the boys before I disappeared into my job for the next 3 days.

Friday Night in LA

Part of the reason why we went to LA a couple of weeks ago was so that Jeremy could see Portal in Compton. Instead of making it a whirlwind trip on his own we decided to all go out and make a weekend of it. Matt & Katy were kind enough to let us stay at their place. I love their home, it is precious. Built in the 20's, it shows it's age in the most amazing ways. Layers of paint, doors that stick, original 'this & that's', wood floors and niches in the walls. I love it. They have an amazing front yard with tons of grass and the back yard is filled with flowering plants. I think it's a pretty quintessential LA home.

Our drive out there was easy breezy but we were a bit behind schedule so once we arrived Jeremy and Matt headed for Compton and Katy, Espen and I headed for the back yard. I ate almost an entire wheel of brie, drank a ton of wine and watched Katy and Espen run around the yard drawing pictures and at one point she had Espen surprise me with a bouquet of flowers that he picked from around their garden. We were up so late, Espen started to grow restless. We ended up inside and tried to make Espen a fort out of couch cushions and Katy read him a story that we were sure would put him to sleep but instead he became so amped up that he and I had to call it a night and retreat into our room were he could sit in bed with the lights off and unwind before crashing. Katy is such a gracious host and SO GOOD with Espen which I totally appreciate.






{matt & katy's weird roommate}






{why does espen look like he's 18 in this picture}


{yes, katy made that for him}