Back in July we purchased a beautiful house here. It took us a while to get all the paperwork for the mortgage as we have bank accounts in 3 countries and have just moved from a fourth. This makes it very hard to get all the papers you need, and to get them quickly. Although the seller had accepted our offer and deposit, a couple weeks ago, just as we were finally ready to close they accepted a higher offer and pulled out on us. This was a big disappointment as it was a beautiful house for a very good price and we had spent lots of time and money trying to get everything needed. The government had a big reduction of stamp duty for houses sold before the end of September, so since we finally had all our financing and paperwork in place, we quickly found another beautiful house. A couple days before we were due to sign the final paperwork Emma was laid off from work. It was not a big surprise as the office has been very slow for the last few months. She came in to build up a banking practice and there was no work so the newbie had to be the first to go.
Emma is actually really excited as she now has lots of time to hang out with the kids and already has several good leads and a job interview. We decided it was not the right time to buy a house so we have renewed our lease and will stay in our rental. The kids started Montessori school in September and are having a great time. The school is just around the corner from the school they went to earlier in the year, so Emma or Latha can walk them to school. Every morning when I leave on my bike Alex follows me out and reminds me to wear my helmet and to be careful while on my bike. Last week when Emma picked the kids up, Ellie's teacher let Emma know that Ellie was a very talented artist. Combined, Eric and Emma, have no artistic talent and we usually just throw away most of the blobs and scribbles of art that the kids bring home from school. Our house is not that big and we already have lots of pictures and paintings on the wall. Ellie's teacher said that the painting she did that morning was the best one she had seen in over 20 years of teaching pre-school. We are still not sure what she is talking about but what do we know? We will let you decide. We have kept this one just in case...
In November my cousin Melanie and her daughter Tricia will be pulling into Cayman on their cruise and will have a day here. Emma is going to pick them up and probably hang out at the beach with them or whatever they want to do for their day in Cayman before getting back on the ship. Emma's parents will be our first overnight visitors in November when they visit for a week. We do have room still for visitors so come on down and visit. We are planning on having our second cold weather Christmas in a row when we go to Minnesota at Christmas to see my parents and Tamara and the clan.
Now that Emma has more time and things are starting to settle down a little at school we can get back to regular blogging. Hopefully we ride out the end of November without a hurricane as the weather is already starting to cool down a little.
a Block breakfast before a big day at Montessori
