Marina and JJ Mc Kenna

We were looking and bidding now since 2008. We got few offers accepted, but with wired conditions that we could not accept. One of the conditions was to allow renters to stay 15 days after the closing! Ridicules.
Well, finally the house we got was in our neighborhood unoccupied and owned by the bank. Big back yard, 3 bedrooms and two bath house with foundation and two cars garage. I loved it, it was perfect for us and only cosmetic repairs needs to be done. As usual our FHA offer was declined as owners accept ONLY pre-approval with Home Path loan. Our realtor Filia Franco found a lender Linda LaGrasso who specializes in that type of loan. Once our offer was accepted for $430K ($40K less then listed) everything went very fast! The escrow was closed in 28 days! Escrow closed on Friday October 29th and we moved in during Halloween weekend. It wasn’t easy, but we did it …
And now, finally, we are the homeowners!

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I wanted to give this to my husband for Christmas, but those were sold out So I got a black one instead…. We placed it in our daughter’s room as the light is too bright. I am going to keep track of those seeds that we planted there!
Day One
January 4
January 9
February 3
February 27

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So we put together the chicken coop in an evening, roofed it on another, put wheels on the house and we’re kinda done for now.  Here are the girls:

Lieutenant much-poo

Cuckoo

Brown Leghorn

Black Australorp

Of course, this idea, like every cool one we ever have, is entirely my wife’s.  Here’s the coop that Jack built.

A blue man coop.

All these and more chickens and goats available from the Split Rail Family Ranch.

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I bought this machine for $25. The motor wasn’t working, so we opened it up to clean and see what’s wrong. The wires were all rotten and rheostat needed cleaning and adjustments. One part needed replacement, but I could not find the name for it. I ordered “new” motor from the e-bay and yesterday my husband attached it to the machine with new wires. Machine worked! It is amazing The motor came with rheostat which had the part needed replacement. It is a bit bigger, so my husband increased the hole for knee bar attachment in the wooden base of the machine. He also adjusted the bar as it wasn’t horizontal to the floor. Now this Singer just needs cleaning and my daughter can start using it this long weekend

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On November 8, 2009 we bought 4 chickens! They are 5 months old and live in a custom built house in our backyard. They did not lay eggs yet, but we hope that they will start soon. They are so cool!

December 20, 2009 we got a first egg!

And here an egg sandwich for breakfast!

Today, December 30 2009 new egg from other chicken!

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Today, November 7 2009 we are going to check this house out in our neighborhood. It is 3 beds 2 bath house with the dock. It is listed for $499K a bit more than we can afford. We see what this property has to offer.

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Soo… as not to seem the lout and in a rare opportunity to flout my wife’s brilliance, let me expound on how much I admire my bride.  We hung out tonight at Julie’s house.  Misha didn’t greet us because he passed away last night.  Julie got a call from the Vet and wanted as many details as possible in regards to how and why Misha died.  She has spent the last year dedicated to prolonging that poor animal’s life.

We ate chinese food and drank a little sake… the whole time I sat in awe of how entirely blessed, graced and lucky I am to have Marina Nikolaevna as my wife.  I’m trying to ingrain that pronouncing a person’s first and middle name is respectful in Russian culture.  Anywho… my brain started wandering to all the particulars of who she is and how unfair it must seem from her perspective to be married to such a boring man.

Anyway, none of that really pertains to fingerprinting and I’m not sure really how many pages it would take for me to get there at my present rate so ->->->->-> fast forward->->->->->-> I was thinking about all the unique things about my wife, like “what do the whorls on her fingers look like and could I memorize them?  Could I count ever freckle on her face and arms with my eyes closed?  How many nose hairs does she have?” and each of these questions made me wonder at whether I’ve given my wife the attention that she really deserves?  This week she drove to Santa Rosa for another step in her citizenship process.  She was actually on the road driving at 7:20 am!

I suppose I selfishly think she’s becoming a citizen to further destroy another possible blockade to our total future happiness.  I recognize the glaring autobiographical fallacy staring back at me and I name him “George”, but that still doesnt’ discourage my basic feelings of affection and advanced feelings of devoted ardor that overwhelm me when I look at her face in the muted light from the Home Depot lamps on her side of the bed.  “her side of the bed”… man, my life is awesome!  sorry, Nacho, I mean …my life is fantastic!

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This was a two week project. First, JJ made a wooden frame and then I made six 10×10 boxes. Those we can fold for a sorage later. Now Xenya has a lot of space for her craft!

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I finally submitted my application for Citizenship to INS based on my 5 years permanent residency. I received FedEx confirmation on September 25, 2009

On October 2, 2009 my check for $675 cleared the bank. My application is accepted.

On October 5, 2009 I received a letter from INS with my case number.

On October 10, 2009 I received a finger print appointment for October 21, 2009.

On November 7, 2009 I received an Interview Invitation for December 8, 2009 at 10:15

On December 8, 2009 I passed the exam. It was very easy and took less than an hour. I was mostly asked questions regard my application and only few civil questions. I was asked what year constitution was written, how many senators in the House, at what age man need to register for the army, name one state that borders with Canada, what ocean is on East cost and I was asked to read and write one sentence. Very easy. Then the interviewer told me that I passed the test and my application is being submitted for approval. That is it! Now the invitation for ceremony will come within 30 days.

January, 2 2010 I’ve got a letter with Oath Ceremony on Thursday, January 28, 2010 at 1:45 PM in Masonic Center!

January 28, 2010 I attended San Francisco ceremony and become an US Citizen. My son, who is 17 and lived with me also become a citizen automatically. I registered to vote and applied for US passport at the ceremony.

February 23, 2010 I received a letter from Passport department wanting me to fill-in another application and with the copy included in a pack, I need to go to the local postal office to sign the application with the witness. This pack did not have my Citizenship certificate, I hope it would not get lost. I did the application on-line and will bring it tomorrow.

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I got a call from my husband saying that we won our bid!!!!

He also said that they want to close in 10 days…. I called our Wells Fargo loan representative, Tiffany Gaser, and she told me that the saling agent asked her which loan we pre-approved for? Now the concearn is that they might back-out of the deal and pick who puts down more…. She also said that there would be NO WAY with any kind of loan to close in 10 days. So, even though we got all excited… that is might be not over yet

Today Fillia called us and told us that the deal is off. So no house… We have to start all over again….

–UPDATE:  Today, October 8th, my husband told me that the bank wants our offer again! We are meeting with Fillia tonight. Hopefully we will get the house finally
We actually not the only ones bidding again… So, somebody could win over agan… tired of it

And they did pick others

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