Shoot Me Now

If I ever say I'm moving again, just shoot me. I mean it. My next move will be to a retirement home. No other move in the history of moves (and I've moved so many times I've literally lost count) has kicked my butt as hard as this one. Of course, that could be because before I even got the joy of moving, I spent a solid week scraping wallpaper (over 30 hours of that alone), painting (I'm STILL painting!), building a fence, building a closet (still working on that one), cleaning, packing....oh, bother. I have been nonstop busy since we signed those papers and I am worn out, frazzled and really ready for a vacation. Tomorrow I get to clean out the rental unit (can't wait, rah) and Friday we do the final things like mowing the lawn. I cannot WAIT to be finished with that place and I am so over moving. Seriously. If I even joke about it, have me committed. The nearest looney bin is two hours north in my hometown. I'm sure they'll leave a light on for me.

Seven things....

So I've been tagged....twice! Still, I'm stopping at seven. That's difficult enough, even when I'm not sleep deprived and worn out.

These are the rules.... each player starts with 7 random facts about themselves on their Blog. People who are tagged need to blog 7 facts about themselves and post the rules as well. At the end of their blog list 7 people you are tagging. Let them know that they are tagged by leaving them a comment. So, time for my 7 random facts:

1. Since everyone else is talking about their spelling bee champ status, I might as well come clean and declare that I was the third grade spelling bee champion. I won with the word "encyclopedia," and I'm still proud of that fact, so nyah.

2. I love to be outside, but it doesn't like me. I burn very easily, I'm allergic to so many plants that I'm paranoid about touching anything I can't identify (and that isn't much...thank goodness my hubby is a science teacher), and I am allergic to many bees and wasps. So....I stay indoors and gaze longingly out the window. I can take a hint. I know where I'm not wanted.

3. I want another tattoo, but since I doubt I'll ever decide what I want, I probably won't get one.

4. I have had two moments in my life when I truly thought I was dying, and I was disappointed both times when my life didn't flash before my eyes. Maybe when it does, I'll actually be dying and won't be disappointed...but then I won't be able to tell anyone.

5. I know from experience that if you die in your dreams, you do NOT die in real life. Just thought you'd want to know that. ;) And that is totally unrelated to number four.

6. Anytime you work on a house, it always takes longer than you think it will. Always!

7. Today is the anniversary of the day I met my husband (June 16th). It was 17 years ago and I still mark it on my calendar. Does that make me a romantic? :)

I'll have to tag people later. I'm worn out tonight. See number six.

And so it begins

The house is bought and the fence posts are sunk. They will spend a couple of days curing in the concrete before we string the rest of the fence. It'll be so nice for Bailey to have a real yard again. I have to admit, none of it seems real and it hasn't sunk in yet that we are homeowners once again. I guess having the keys and access to the house will help that! If they get out early, we could get it next Friday, but the official date is the 18th. When we moved the closing up, we couldn't change the possession date, but it wasn't a big deal since we just wanted the extra time to build the fence. Now to pack what we will before carrying it over. No pictures so far, we've been too busy.

The Last Great Housing Snag (I HOPE)

Well, I knew it couldn't end so easily. I knew there would have to be one final, ugly snag since the VA was involved in this. The final step in our loan process was having a VA certified "expert" (and considering the person we dealt with, I use that term very loosely) appraise the home. With a VA loan, you can ONLY borrow what the house is worth, period, and the house is worth whatever they say it is. That's pretty well true with any house, it's only worth what you can sell it for, but the VA is a whole other beast. They notoriously lowball everything compared with local agents who know the area better. They did it last time we bought a property, and this time they came up with a figure all of $300 short of the actual sale price. Since we can only borrow the value of the house, that meant either we dropped the sale, renegotiated with the sellers or coughed up the $300 ourselves. Now $300 isn't a horrible amount of money, but come on....$300? That's just nitpicking. We looked through the paperwork and there were several things she didn't even take into consideration, namely that there's a refrigerator and a three car parking pad in front of the house. Surely those things merit the other $300 so everyone's happy. DH called her today. Ha. What a total witch, and that's ironic considering her report ended with "and if you have any problems or questions at all, please feel free to contact me!" The woman was like talking with a brick wall and was extremely rude. It was obvious there was no working this out on her end. We could fight it, but after some of the stories she told us about other cases she's currently trying to fight, it isn't worth it for a measley $300 and probably the six months it would take to be rejected.
On to plan B, which our realtor suggested, which was ask for a price reduction from the sellers. We were hesitant since they had already dropped the price by nearly $20,000 a month ago and I can't blame them for not wanting to do it. I sure wouldn't and so we figured we'd just put off building the fence for our dog for a few months and just pay the $300. We were shocked when our realtor called tonight to say the seller's realtor had offered to split the $300 from his commission and hers, which means we get to keep our cash. I'm so relieved and I told her we would only let her do that if we can invite her over for a few steak dinners down the road as repayment. She laughed but agreed. I do have to say she's the best real estate agent we've ever dealt with and she has gone to bat for us multiple times the last six months. She's a great advisor in the whole real estate arena. We moved our closing up to Friday so that we can build the fence this weekend and hopefully the weather will cooperate. Soon we will be homeowners again and all the headaches that brings with it.

Blogging Nonsense

I got this from someone's blog but we are blaming Felicia for the whole mess! Answer in a word, if possible:

1. Yourself? quiet
2. Your husband? loud
3. Your hair? wild
4. Your mother? crazy
5. Your father? distant
6. Your favorite thing? my kids
7. Your dream last night? none
8. Your favorite drink? tea
9. Your dream car? Lexus
10. The room you're in right now? dining
11. Your fear? spiders
12. What you want to be in 10 years? rich
13. Muffins? blueberry
14. Who you hung out with last night? Husband
15. What you're not? patient
16. Time? 7:07 p.m.
17. What you're wearing? cotton!
18. Your favorite weather? warm
19. Your favorite book? non fiction
20. Last thing you ate? fortune cookie
21. Your worst vice? computer
22. Your best friend is? stressed!
23. What you're thinking about right now? scrapping
24. Your car? truck!
25. Your life? insane

Yep, I'm slow at updating. Life just got a little crazy there for a while. Where, oh where to begin? The house inspection went very well. In fact, the inspector said he'd never seen a house that old in that nice of condition or that nicely redone. It is a pretty snazzy house and I can't wait to live in it. We did request that they fix four extremely minor things such as reattaching a section of flashing that had come loose. We only dinged the items it would be physically difficult for DH to do and I'm happy to report they agreed to everything and signed off on it. We officially close June 11th and get the keys by 5 p.m. on the 18th. The owners are going to let us put up the fencing as soon as we close, so that will be one thing out of the way before we actually move in, and that will definitely help. We'll be able to bring Bailey over and let her run around while we work on the house. She is in such desperate need of a yard. I keep telling her it's coming soon, but I can feel her desperation, especially since it's getting too hot for her to walk very far with me. Poor baby.
The girls are happy to be out of school. Shona's teacher hosted a reading night where each child read a book he or she had written. It was quite a good time, even though it dragged out a bit. I was impressed with Shona's ability to speak in public. She was a little nervous, but spoke in a loud, clear voice and showed everyone her photos to go along with the story. She did her required curtsey at the end and smiled at everyone. What a ham. I just know she's going to be in the drama club in high school. The good part is Shona is going to be in summer school (by choice!) and is going to have the same teacher she had this year. No big adjustment. Summer school starts in another week and runs through the month of June. Can't wait because that means scrapping time for me, when I can squeeze it in between packing, painting, wallpaper stripping, moving...ugh...did I say I was going to scrap? Well, maybe I'll at least get some good move in photos out of the deal.

The weight loss thing is going very well. I'm only 15 pounds from my goal weight and I never dreamed I would ever be able to say that. I had to go shopping for clothing this weekend because nothing fit and I had to shop for a bathing suit. Even when I was skinny that was an ordeal, so I can't say it was fun, but at least I didn't come out of the fitting room crying this time. And I even found a suit I can live with. I'm still chugging along, hope you do the same.

Happy Mother's Day

OK, to end the suspense...although there was a question about the size of the lot that went with the house, we did finally reach an agreement everyone was happy with and we are currently under contract on the house. The inspection should take place this week and hopefully they don't find a lot wrong with it. I'll update when I know.

My Mother's Day was wonderful and unexpected. We've never done much for the day, other than take our mothers out for lunch and drag them wherever they want to go. This year we live too far away for lunch out with our mothers (a fact we are enjoying quite a bit), so I said I did NOT want to brave the crowds out in town. I expected that to be the end of it since we don't really do gifts, either. Imagine my surprise when I walked in to see this on the table this morning:



Gifts! Each of my girls had picked out a plant for me to plant in our new home as soon as we get the keys. That really touched me. It is such a homey touch. Shona picked pink Victory roses, which I think are gorgeous. I'm already trying to figure out where I'll plant them in the new yard. Katy picked a house plant called a Money Tree. I can't wait to see it grow. I've always wanted a big, palmy plant for my living room. They did good! Shona had painted a cute teapot for me and each girl had a card. John had bought a necklace I know I hadn't mentioned in months, but he remembered. Do I have him trained or what? As a nice topping, my paper and a glass of tea were on the table, too. They fixed me a steak dinner and strawberry shortcake for dessert. It was a perfect Mother's Day!

In other news, though...here is why I don't let other people have control of the camera. I asked the girls to take a Mother's Day photo of me, hopefully closeup to get my necklace in the shot and although both tried, this turned out to be the best photo. Sad but true. Back behind the camera for me!