Wasting No Time

We have wasted no time getting settled into our new house. These past few weeks have been full of lots to do and much fun to be had.

We have installed a new microwave:

This was actually quite easy considering we had done this before, and we were able to use the holes that were already on the wall!

We bought a new table for our kitchen since the other one is being used in the dining room:

We have eaten JUMBO marshmallows that are bigger than any I have ever seen before:
We have read plenty of stories and have had lots of fun reading stories to others:
We got to spend some great time with cousin David on several occasions:

We've gotten some much-need cuddle time while watching "Veggietales":

Daddy got to ride with us in the back seat of the van:

And Jason is in the midst of quite a great task of putting together our new desk in our den.

When he's done...sometime within the next several hours, it should look something like this:

Considering I only have about two and a half more weeks left of my summer, we've had a great time. Other than having the unfortunate experience of having broken a tooth recently that requires me to get a bridge to repair the problem, life is good. We are going camping over the holiday weekend with my parents and my sister, so that should be full of great memories.

Until next time...

Pinch Me, I Must Be Dreaming!

I'm actually in my new house. I can't believe it.

A whole week later and many unpacked boxes later (and many more to go), I finally have the normal necessities I have grown so accustomed to...except for my dinner plates. Those are still proving to be quite elusive. I was getting so tired of eating off of little kid plastic plates that I went to the Dollar Tree the other day and purchased some dinner plates. They aren't all that bad for spending only a dollar per plate.

I just now got my Internet set up or I would have posted sooner.

Our closing went VERY smoothly. Almost too smoothly. We were in and out of there in less than an hour. I take that as God's final blessing to reassure us that regardless of all we had been through with the banks and underwriters, He wanted us to have this house in the end. Boy, was this whole ordeal quite the headache. There were a few times throughout this whole process where I was starting to doubt whether or not we were supposed to get this house after all. Looking back to how things were for us a year ago, I NEVER would have guessed in my wildest dreams that we would end up here in this city with these jobs and a house that by far exceeds my expectations on what we could qualify for. God has been so good to us.

My parents were such a great help for us during the move. They took the girls for the entire weekend so we could move without worrying about the kids being underfoot while trying to get things moved into the house. One of the most exciting things about all this was being able to go through boxes of stuff that we hadn't seen since last October! That might also be the reason why I can't find my plates. We did have to move quickly, so we weren't really thinking about putting things in boxes and in ways that would be easy to find.

It was so exciting bringing the girls back home to our new house. Jason and I were looking forward to that the entire weekend. We just couldn't wait to see the looks on their faces when they saw their rooms with their beds set up, and all their bedding freshly washed and waiting for them.

Most of my week this week has been consumed with various unpacking and cleaning. I was so overwhelmed with all the unpacking. I didn't seem to be making a dent in anything; after all, I did rearrange my closet six different times this week! I decided that yesterday would officially be "do nothing" day. We ran a bunch of various other errands, but with regards to unpacking or rearranging, I did not do it. It was a nice break. The one thing I have been dreading most is getting the girls' stuff in order. They have SO MANY TOYS! It seemed like a lot when we were living in the basement, but that was the basement. That was 1/4 the size of my whole house now! Now they have TONS of toys that they have recently rediscovered that were hiding in storage for the past eight months.

That has actually been a blessing in disguise. The girls have been so well entertained by toys they haven't seen in months, that they are so consumed with playing that I don't hear from them for hours at a time! That has been nice when unpacking, but they are also leaving quite the trail of various toys behind them. We'll have to re-train them to keep their toys in their rooms instead of strewn all over the house.

Today Jason decided to take the day off work and help me out with the unpacking. We also got a lot of other things done, too! We bought an over-the-stove microwave, and we even got to install it. We also got a great counter-height table for our little nook in the kitchen. We needed a little something for the girls to eat breakfast there instead of going into the dining room to eat. This table is so cool. I'm going to have to take a picture of that and the microwave and post them for next time.

We are also in the middle of our painting project. The family room was pumpkin orange when we bought the house, and now we are in the middle of painting the room in normal colors. What took so long was painting the walls with primer first so the orange doesn't bleed through and altar the color of the new paint. I will have to post a picture of that too when we are done. This has definitely been a busy week, but I am so grateful to be here now. Now this whole move, eight months later, seems real.

Beyond Frustrated

We still haven't closed on our house yet. Our close date has changed four different times! This is ridiculous!

We were supposed to close on May 21st and then they pushed it back to the 25th only to find they needed more time and pushed it back to the 28th. We got notified a couple days before the final date only to find that we have to push back our close date ONE MORE TIME. The worst part of it all is that the bank that currently owns the house is not willing to push back a close date any more. If we get notification that the underwriters need yet more time, we are going to lose our house, and I am going to flip my lid. I already lost it last week when I found out that they were pushing us back to June 11th. Poor Jason. He got the brunt of all my rage. Being the passive-aggressive person that I am, I will flip my lid but I will never direct it at the people who are most deserving of such circumstances.

All that I have endured recently regarding the house is all the fault of my bank. I am so annoyed with them right now. The woman who is handling our loan has had since the beginning of April to process our loan. I know our file has been sent back and forth several times with underwriters, but the worst part is that she didn't submit all of our information to the final underwriters and everything got sent back to the bank to finish before the final processing.

When we expressed our frustration with the bank, our mortgage broker gave a long list of "excuses" as to why she hasn't been able to process our information in time. I'm sorry, but it's your job. You get paid to ensure people get to close on the houses they are qualified to purchase. We are more than qualified to purchase this house. The more excuses I saw in that email, the more unwilling I was to accept her reasoning for the delay. One thing I would say to my students when they are giving me excuses for not turning in their homework is, "The more excuses you give me, the more I'm going to think that you are not willing to accept responsibility for your actions." That's totally what it seemed like to me. All I know is that I better get this house to close, or...or...or...I'm going to be REALLY mad. Not to mention we'd lose the tax credit.

The thing that adds to this situation is that one of our cats have gone missing. When we found out we were moving, we knew we would need a safe place for our cats to stay for a while, so Jason's mom was more than willing to help us out. Jason took a weekend and drove out to Utah while his mom drove from Sacramento and met up with him so he give her temporary custody of the cats. We got a call last night to let us know that Paisley has been missing for about a week. What makes this so hard is that Paisley is the most loveable cat I've ever known...and he's considered the girls' cat. We haven't told the girls yet. We're just hoping he turns up sometime before Jason goes out to pick up the cats. Poor Paisley. He's just so cute. Here's a picture of Meghan and Paisley right after we got him. He was a little stray that some kid found in the school parking lot and I decided to take him home. He is the best cat. He is so gentle, he loves everyone, and the girls love to play with him. I hope he comes back safely. And we get our house.