Stats

Here's what we gots going on:

• My appointment yesterday with the gastroenterologist was great, aside from the 45 minute wait to see her. Seriously, 30 minutes in the waiting room and 15 to see her. Not only was I in pain, but hungry and anxious to get to work early.


• She has a number of diagnosis she wants to check out including celiac, crohns and irritable bowel disease (NOT IBS)...all to be determined (or ruled out) by a lovely upper endoscopy AND colo..fun.


• B came with me to the apt and kept me company. I love that man.


• I weigh 122.4. Mkay people THIS IS NOT GOOD! I can't remember the last time I saw that on a scale. I'm thinking just before or right after starting college and I sure as heck know B has never seen me this thin. I asked him if I look hallow and he said no, so that's good I guess.


• I'm losing weight for a number of reasons: it hurts to eat so I don't, even when I'm hungry and I have a wicked-fast metabolism so match that with when I actually do eat, not much is being absorbed in a healthy way.


• A lot of my clothes hang on me now in an awkward, baggy fashion and that makes me sad.

In other news:

• Logan was the reason why we left church early on Sunday. This could be a whole post on its own but honestly I just could not bear to hear him scream for me as I walked away and left him in the nursery. Sundays are "our" days. B works so we get to do whatever we want and I certainly don't want him sad and crying for me. I wish we could have stayed longer, but clearly the Lord intended for us to instead go play with Amy and take a long nap (four hours people!).


• Semi-house hunting...we're keeping our eyes out. We LOVE the house we currently rent. Really, we do. But we know how quickly July is going to be here and how long the home-buying process can take. At the same time, we also know how fast things can go so we're treading lightly on the subject. We have a new realtor and I skim over new listings every few days. We've only seen 1 place and it was no good (right next to an apt complex...nothankyou).


• Work has been great. I still enjoy a varied schedule. I keep checking for Labor and Delivery tech positions but the turn around here is super low, which is awesome, but that just means it will be even harder for me to get a job over there. Still, I try.


• Logan's favorite words are "no" and "mine". He even taught a friend how to say mine. I can't help but smile only because when he says it, the kid has the deepest voice!! It's to die for so all I can do is say "yes, that is yours".


• Shows I'm loving right now are Parenthood, Revenge (still unsure, but like the appeal), Grey's, Private Practice, and someday soon One Tree Hill will premier. I've moved from being a CW girl to an ABC girl. I checked out Heart of Dixi...not a fan.


• B has been painting a lot more and I love watching him create new fun pieces.


• I have an awesome photo ready for the i heart faces contest next week..can't wait to share it!


• Have a wonderful Hump Day.

 

house update

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Words escape me as I try to figure out how to sum up the last week and a half. Our first week living with my parents has not been without bumps in the road, but I believe we're get past any initial issues. It's like a college dorm room without the 3am undie runs and late night trips to Denny's. Our schedules are all different and we all seem to be able to do our own thing without disrupting others' plans too much. I'm optimistic that our time here will be good, however I am getting rather nervous about this entire short sale process.

We started our home-buying adventure six months ago and if you asked me then if I thought it would take more than six months to move into our new home I'd tell you you're lying. Ha, goes to show how much I know about buying a home! I suppose this is almost like becoming a parent for the first time. You have all these preconceived notions about how everything will go, what you will and won't do, and expectations but once you begin the process everything changes. Buying a home is no joke, which we knew, but we know very little about the short sale process. Now that we are in the thick of it, I can say we are still naive about it, but willing to learn. What sucks is our realtor does not seem to know very much about short sales so getting the info we need is challenging.

We want this house and we want it bad. It's perfect for our little family and well worth the wait. I just hate to think that we could be living with my parents for more than a month or two, for both of us. It's more than a blessing to be here and without my parents help I'm not sure what we would be doing.

So cheers to them for opening our homes and please send prayers that we get a closing date very very VERY soon!

Of fires, houses and debt.

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A regular update is long overdue. I find that I am not too fond of the moment by moment type of writing that most of you are so good at. I just think it's boring (for me! not you) and I want fun things to write about. Whelp...I waited long enough so in honor of this crazy-ass week I have here a list for you. Enjoy!

1. House hunting: Since we cancelled on contract with the first house three weeks ago we have been anxiously and fervernly looking for THE house. Let me tell you that is no easy feat, especially when we are limited by our financial qualifications and location. We desperately wanted to stay in the town we live in because our jobs are here and, well, we love it! But we were willing to look in the small towns that surround our college town. Within a week we were back out with our broker and the day concluded with a house that was a mile from our work in a newer neighborhood. The very fact that there was a house we could afford in this neighborhood was surprising. And once we saw the house, we knew it was THE ONE. When we got there, another couple arrived not five minutes later to see the house. Their broker was not with them and they started to walk around the house. Our broker kindly kicked them out until we were done and I did not feel bad about them waiting in the brisk wind outside! We came home and slept on it, but it was very obvious how smittin we were with the house. First thing the next morning we put an offer on the table and waited. We learned that there was another competing offer and so we upped ours. The seller accepted! We were then waiting to hear from the bank, being that this is a short sale, and we knew it might be awhile. Well, little did we know the sellers were trying to get a loan modification so they didn't have to sell the house the whole time we were waiting! Finally, yesterday morning they signed all the paperwork and we are officially under-contract! This feels so much better and different than the first house!! Can't wait to share more!
2. Fire: Two nights ago I was running a load of laundry in our ghetto dryer. It usually takes two cycles to dry clothes and before the first round was over I started to smell burning. I was not cooking anything and checked the laundry. The dryer was over-heating!! The clothes were so hot I could not even touch them!! I called maintenance and being that there was no fire it was not considered an emergency. So I had to let the wet clothes that were in the wash stay wet. I was so mad! I don't have a drying rack and no where near enough space to spread things out to dry. Maintenance came by yesterday afternoon (which they had told me would have been first thing in the morning!!!) and cleaned out or vent. It was pretty backed up. THEN I had been home with Logan for about a half hour making myself some pizza in the toaster oven. Logan was asleep and I was catching up on emails. I went to check on the pizza and IT WAS ON FIRE!! The whole toaster oven on the inside was on fire! Flames and they just kept sparking and making more!! I was fa-reaking out so the first thing I thought to do was throw  water on it. While it was still on. While it was still plugged into the wall. Yeah...not my brightest moment but THANK THE GOOD LORD ABOVE I did not start an electrical fire and the flames ceased. However, the fire of anxiety and mild heart attack I was having did not cease. Not for the entire day. Oy.
3. Debt: I am happy and oh-so-proud to announce that we are 100% DEBT FREE!! Not one penny do we owe to anyone!! Thanks to our tax return we have paid all our credit cards and still have enough left over for savings, necessities and fun. B and I are going on a date on Friday and I CANNOT WAIT!!!
4. I know there is more...I just need to put it into a new post. :)

It's the house, not the town

>We had to make a hard decision this week.

Since the day we put the offer on our house we went back four or five times just to check things out and show off our home to our family. We were so proud and could not wait to get into something bigger, something that we could paint and decorate as we wanted. On the outside there did not seem to be very many fixes we had to make. A few cosmetic things outside, new screens on the windows, painting and decorating. It all seemed easy.

One of the stipulations with the bank was that they would fix some kind of plumbing issue, whatever that was. There was a hole in the ceiling which we assumed was where the issue was. We just had to wait for that to be fixed and then we could get our inspector in. We waited. And we waited. Our inspection objection deadline was quickly approaching and our 10 day allowance to make any objections was nearly gone. We forced an extension which was not too difficult. And we waited some more.

Long story short, there were too many issues outside of an actual inspection, based on our personal inspection many times, that we could not bare financially or logically. For one, the house is on a rather busy street and I would not feel comfortable letting Logan and our future children play alone outside. Anything can happen. So on Saturday, we made the difficult decision to pull out of the contract. It's just not the house for us. We still love the town, though we are going to try to find something closer to where we work. I know THE ONE is out there, just like I knew B was out there for me. We just have to be more picky. It was a great lesson learned and next time we put an offer on a house I know it will be right.

A Series of Fortunate Events

>This week has been one of the best weeks in a verrrrryyyyy long time.

• I am loving my new work schedule. I spend my entire morning with Logan. We usually have breakfast together, play for awhile, read books, listen to music, take a shower, watch Dinosaur Train and take a nap. Sometimes I nap or sometimes, like today, I catch up on Greek and write. Having Mondays and Fridays off has been awesome. I work two days, get a day off, work three days, another day off. I LOVE IT!!! Not to mention, we don't have to pay for child care!!
• Buying a house. This whole process has been such a whirlwind! I cannot believe how fast we have found a house and gone under contract. I never imagined it would be so quick for us and so far, everything has been great. We met with our lender yesterday and that went really well. We need to set up our inspection for next week and then we are done, as long as the inspection goes well.
• Money. This is always an up and down issue. A few good months here, a few bad months there. We were just blessed with some extra money and it could not have come at a better time! So Logan and I are going to go and do some birthday shopping today!!

What else is there to say? I am so happy!!

Negotiating and Other House Related Info

>Hehe....I left you hanging there and I don't feel bad about it one bit! So here is the update I have and I'll start right where I left off.

Monday afternoon I left for work and had not been there an hour before B called me. He had heard from our realtor. The house is under foreclosure so we were negotiating with a bank. I had heard several suggestions on how long it takes to hear back and it really could have gone either way. We asked to hear back by Wednesday night at the very latest so I was not expecting to hear from our realtor so quickly. I was training an employee at work and had to call B back on a different phone. The first word was that the bank countered and it was $4000 over what we were qualified for. Our realtor instantly argued that we were not qualified for that much and so they called us back, accepting our original offer, but moved the closing date up an entire month. Normally, this would not have been an issue, but we we could not carry rent and a mortgage in May. Whelp, we did some quick math and knew we would be getting a nice tax return this year and even still if our apartment is rented before our lease is up but we are out then we get our money back. Either way, win win. So we said yes but the bank had closed and had to wait until Tuesday morning to hear the good word.

Tuesday morning my stomach was in knots! We had not heard from the realtor yet, I finally called him and he said he still had not heard anything either. So we waited all afternoon and I was at work, so close to throwing up from all the anxiety! B called me around 4pm and the bank had accepted!! So I was giddy all night but we still had to wait for one last word from Fannie Mae and that came this morning. We are officially UNDER CONTRACT!!

This does not mean everything is all said and done. We actually have several things to do between now and March 4th, and most of it happens in the next 10 days. I will continue to share our experience here...we just pray that all goes well with the inspection, etc.

Making An Offer

>I have some serious catching up to do in the way of the Project 31 challenge and life in general. For now, though, I thought I'd share our experience with making an offer on a house. That's right folks: we found a house we nearly love and made an offer on it yesterday!

Before making an offer, you MUST have your finances in order and when I say this I don't just mean you know what you make and your DH makes and what you spend. That is wayyyyy to general. You must literally disect every single little expense and factor in emergencies (like if you have pets) and anything upcoming (medical procedures, etc). B spent and entire DAY doing this. After it was done, we knew exactly what we could afford in the way of a mortgage. The next step was letting our lender know what that was.

We found this house on the first day we went out house hunting nearly 2 weeks ago. B was instantly in love and I was almost there. I was not in love with the location-yet. And this is SO SO SOOOOO important. No matter how nice and perfect the house is, you MUST like the location. You have to understand that when you're buying a house, you're also buying the location. If you have messy neighbors, a busy street, and a really long drive to work is it really worth it? Our house is on the corner and the street in front is not busy, but it certainly has moderate traffic. We stood around on the property for a good 20 minutes, watching the neighbors and cars go by. It is a very quite neighborhood and the traffic was not noisy or a safety concern.

After we had seen close to 15 properties we kept coming back to this house. We'd compare it to the others and in no way was this house comparable. It is that great. So on our last day out last week, we felt like we had seen it all, the best of the best in our price range and it was time to make a decision. Over the weekend we checked on the overall growth of the town, schools, churches, medical centers, and yes, nearby sex offenders. This down is on the rise in nearly every category (minus the sex offenders--there are eight in the entire town). We were ready to make a jump and try not to lose the house. We sat around thinking about it for so long we truly hoped it was still available. Lucky for us, it is a foreclosure and a previous offer on it last week did not go anywhere. It was go time!

We contacted our lender and had him send us a prequal letter and set up a time to meet with our realtor. We wanted to have our offer in first thing in the morning. Monday morning, we were up early. Nerves and happy anxiety coursed through our veins. We had breakfast at IHOP and headed to the office. Our realtor was still having trouble getting a hold of the listing agent on the house over the weekend so we tried again and he got through! He determined that the house was still available and it was time to make an offer. We called our lender and determined, based on what our offer would be, what our monthly payment would be just for good measure and got the ball rolling.

We spent the next hour and a half reading tons of paper work and initialing it at the bottom. Now, how do you make a good offer? The house was listed at nearly $5000 over what we were qualified for so we knew we would be going in at the top end of our qualification. We then put down $2000 in earnest money. Earnest money is just a way of saying, "Hey, we are super serious about this" and asked for $2500 in closing costs. Most realtors tell you that at least $1000 is necessary for earnest money but we wanted the bank to see our aggression. We also asking for part of the closing costs because banks rarely ever replace something if there is a flaw in the inspection. The buyer is always responsible for those things and well, it's the least they could do. ;) We asked to hear from the bank by Wednesday with an acceptance or counter offer and we were off. Logan had fallen asleep in his stroller and we were beaming ear to ear. Had we really just done that?!?!

Not four hours later the phone rang....

(TO BE CONTINUED...)

that big 'ol news you've been waiting for

>So, I'm sorry lovies that I have been stringing you along for a few weeks. I'm sure that my news has been the only think you could think of alllll week long! Lol. It's something that I need to start writing about, a process if you will.

Our little family is getting ready to make a BIG MOVE! That's right:

WE'RE GOING TO BUY A HOUSE!

We learned we would be embarking on this fun adventure the beginning of December. Our lease on our apartment is not up until June so we have taken our time talking to a lender and choosing a realtor. The entire process, so far, has been quite stressful, no matter how excited we are to actually move into a home we can call our own with a fenced yard for the dogs, man cave for B, and play room for Logan. What does mommy get? A space (room or not) to paint.

I know there are many of you out there who have shed your property virgin card at some time long ago and the idea of us going down that monumental marital road is so invigorating! I will do my best to share details (though not too much) about the process. Already in the short WEEK that we have been out house hunting we have fall in love and had our hearts broken over a house. This is way worse than any middle school romance. Trust me. I think it is fair to say that falling in love with a house literally at first sight is like falling in love with that cute boy in youth group. The shopping process is so stressful and exciting all at once. One minute you're on cloud nine because the house is soooo adorable on the outside and then you walk in and your heart sinks because the carpet is trashed (replaceable), the wallpaper is dated (removable), and there is no closet space (ummmm). 

The biggest lesson I have learned so far is that you can change just about anything. You can knock a wall out if you want a more open floor plan. Painting, new wood floors, new counters...the possibilities are endless! I've also learned that you MUST have a MUST HAVE list, WISH LIST, and DEAL BREAKER list. If you don't, then you might compromise on something you really didn't want and it's not easily changeable (adding a new bathroom to a house with no where to put one).

Over the next several weeks I will keep you posted on what's going on with the house hunt. 

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In other news I found out I might have a stomach ulcer. While I am glad that there has been some progress made in diagnosing the issue, I am fa-reeeking out. I have to have my stomach scoped next week sometime. I'm totally dreading it!!