The crazy week

Vietnamese New Year fell right on the same day as Valentine's day but we just celebrated Valentine's day first and then celebrated Vietnamese/Chinese New year (but I refuse to call it Chinese New Year). There was a huge celebration on Sunday that my parents even got to see on TV through the Vietnamese channel broadcasting from Seattle, but of course it was on Sunday during our church time so we couldn't go see it. But that's ok, good food makes up for it. We went out to eat and bought some traditional Viet Tet (New Year) food. See
here for pics . It was fun.

That was about the only thing fun this week. We had a stressful week. We lost the land we have been interested in for quite some time to some rich billionaire who came in and bought that piece of land and all the surrounding area with cash. It wouldn't have been so bad if we didn't sign the contract the night before and waited 'til the next morning but we did and we were too late. The bank saw how much more they were getting so they terminated our contract. They have all the power and we couldn't compete with the billionaire so we started again on ground zero in the land searching of our custom building process. That was stressful. As of Friday we thought there is nothing out there. But we're glad this whole thing happened because to be frank, the only reason we loved the lot in the Highlands was because of location. It's less than 5 minutes to the freeway, the view was amazing, the trails into the mountains are 2 minutes away, it's by central park, movie theater and all new developing shops and hospital. Location was beyond perfect, the lot though was small. 6002 sq.ft was a bit smaller than we're hoping. The fees alone to build were so high, not to mention HOA and taxes.

So we started looking for something else and we're pros at land finding now after this last experience. Lakeview, 3/4 of an acre, mountain view on a decent lot on a quiet street are now our choices for about the same amount of money. What's your vote? Too many choices. I'm not complaining though. At least there are other choices besides the one on the highlands. Also spring is here. The trees are blooming flowers and buds. This whole week was clear blue sky and in the high 50's low 60's. I tried to not neglect our children in all this craziness. We went on walks and to the parks and Reena thinks it's warm enough to go to the beach park. We love Seattle.

We got a babysitter and went into town for a night. Kids free! (Pictures from phone. Love you phone!)


While driving around I ran into a huge neighborhood with houses built with stucco. Wild. I felt like I was in the dessert again.