About the house...

Before I forget -

Anna, we have wall paper in only one room in the house, the living room. It's a brown-ish color with a diamond pattern and a border at the top. The blue dining room is just a faux paint job, and actually it's not blue anymore, it's now Desert Camel, as is the family room and entry way. The kitchen is still white. Our bedroom is a FUNKY purple faux paint job with a border at the top. Once the border comes down, we will be painting it Gentle Rain, which is a very pale, soft gray color. Emma's room was just plain white, but we've painted in Pale Daffodil, which is the exact same color she had in her old room. We figured the more we could make it feel like her old room, the easier she'd adjust to the new house. We have wall paper borders at the top of the kitchen, the spare bedroom, and the half bath on the first floor (the walls in the half bath are the same as the walls in the master bedroom). We plan on leaving the wallpaper in the living room for now because it's not SO bad, but will be getting rid of it eventually. We do plan on getting rid of the borders everywhere as soon as we have the time.

Faith - I know I already facebooked you, but just for everyone else' sake, I'll say it again. You were so right. I am sooo sooo sooo in love with my new washer and dryer. The washer took longer than I expected, but then BAM! The dryer took 27 minutes to dry an extra large load. I almost peed my pants with excitement!

But, just so you don't think I'm bragging, Anna, I'll go ahead and tell you all that my dishwasher sucks Butt. Big time. In fact, my plates don't even fit in them. Anywhere. It is so bizarre. And it's like mom and dad's OLD dishwasher, where you have to actually use a sponge and soap to pre-wash the dishes before you put them in the washer. Sort of pointless. So. Bah.

I'll take more pics once we get things in their place, get furniture situated (OMG - Mike and I are actually getting bedroom furniture this weekend! Can you believe it?) and things put away so you can see the improvement with the paint jobs and whatnot.

Let's all let out a heavy sigh...

It was late when I took this pic. Sorry. I was tired.
Master Bath. Tub is to the right, behind the door.

Master bedroom. Yes, those walls are purple. Very purple.

Master

Spare Room

Emma's Room

Bathroom

1st floor laundry room

Entryway

Dining Room

Living Room

Family Room

Kitchen

Kitchen

Ok, the Universe just wanted us to sweat a little. You know how I said about fearing The Jinx? Yeah. Well, I was fairly certain that I would never again in my life share good news with anyone ever. Why? Because the day after I announced our good news about the house to the world... we got a call.

Call #1: The house that we were supposed to buy went into foreclosure. Apparently the seller decided to stop paying the mortgage, because he had moved out and his soon to be ex-wife was staying in the house. So he just didn't pay the mortgage for 8 months or so. And nobody knew it. Now, yes this is bad, BUT the timing of foreclosure didn't make any sense. Apparently a mortgage lender can't send a mortgage to foreclosure lawyers if it is under contract. We'd been under contract for a month, when they sent it to foreclosure on Wednesday. So, the likelyhood that we'd get our house was looking bad. If we DID get it, it would probably be a good two weeks after we THOUGHT we'd get it.

Well, we thought it wasn't so bad. We were selling our house, and if need be we could stay with either set of the rents for a couple weeks, or even a month of two if we needed to find a new house.

Call #2: This phone call came on Thursday at 7:00 pm. At this point, the ONLY item left in the house was one bucket of cleaning supplies, and I was sweeping out the garage, the very last part of the house left to be cleaned. We were literally about 10 minutes away from locking up and leaving. Call #2 was to let us know that the buyer for our house was likely not going to be approved for her mortgage.


BUT HOW CAN THAT BE? We got mortgage confirmation from her on March 18, and we got our final HUD-1 sheet earlier that morning??? Makes no sense?? Well... apparently our buyer gets paid in cash, and her mortgage confirmation was conditional on her continuing to provide bank statements. Well, this Monday her mortgage company decided that they wanted a letter in writing to prove that the cash deposits were indeed from her employer. So, she provided one. So, she thought that was done and done on Monday. But NOOOOOOO her mortgage company underwriters decided that they couldn't approve the loan without the approval of the Head Underwriter. So, by Thursday at 7:00pm our buyers agent had called our agent and told her that they were still waiting for final word from the H.U., but that it was looking like our buyer wouldn't get the mortgage.

So, that meant that we'd have to move back into the house that we had JUST EMPTIED, and then put the house back on the market IN MID-SPRING while the market is saturated... EXACTLY the conditions we wanted to avoid by putting it on the market in January. UGH.

So, we went to bed Thursday not knowing if we'd actually close on our house at 10am like planned, or if we'd close on our house at all. If we didn't sell our house, we couldn't buy the new one. And at that point, even if we DID sell our house, we still didn't know whether we were going to be able to buy the new house out of foreclosure.

So we slept realllllly great on Thursday night.


Long story short, we spent all morning agonizing and fearing the worst, until we got the call at 11:30 am that our buyer had been approved for a mortgage! HALLELUJAH!!


AND


AND


AND


By some miracle of miracles, we were able to buy our new house out of foreclosure after it being in foreclosure for just TWO DAYS. This is unheard of!!


So, long story short, I will never be sharing good news on this blog ever, ever, ever again.

Did I forget to mention...?

No, I didn't forget to mention. It was like I purposefully neglected to mention that...

We're moving!! TOMORROW! ACK!

We sold the house after it was on the market for about 5 weeks (you were close with your guess of 1 month, Lauren!!) and have been getting things with the house wrapped up for the last 7 weeks. There was the inspection, and the FHA appraisal, and both resulted in us having to do some major, but not TOO major work on the house. And then there's been the packing. Lots and lots of packing. And cleaning.

But, I'm glad it's almost over. I didn't really tell anybody (family included) about the move until very recently, because I have this thing about jinxing myself. (ask Darin, she knows) I have been petrified that something would go wrong, or our buyer would back out. But the day is here (in a couple hours) and there's no turning back.

We'll miss this house. Sort of. Ok not really. We'll miss the memories of this being our first home, and of bringing Emma home here. But that's about it. Goodbye, money pit. Goodbye, house in which you cannot make any noise while Emma's sleeping. Goodbye, house with the really annoying neighbors who may or may not live across the street!

We're moving to a new house in Linglestown, so it's not far from where we are now, maybe about 10-15 minutes. I don't have pictures yet, but I'll try to get some up by this weekend. It's in a very cute development, at the end of a cul-de-sac. There are some things that will need updating, (like the blue carpet, everywhere) but generally it's in great shape. The kicker that will make all you ladies jealous??? The house comes with a pretty much brand spanking new GE front loading washer and dryer. Awwwwwww Yeaaaaaaaah!

So, I'm happy.

Whole Lotta Random Emma Pictures

Sometimes she gets really into her books
She loves to lay in this little nook between the couch and a gate

doubled over with laughter

She was laughing so hard, I'm positive she peed her pants!

Loves tubby time!

This is her "MMMMMMM" face she makes when she's eating something good

Naturally, I taught her how to do it:)

Yummy lasagna

She's so cuddly in the morning!!

just being a goofball!

Someone has someone wrapped around their little finger. But I'm not naming names.

Sometimes she needs privacy

Hey! Get outta here!

She loves to read with daddy

How could you not love this face?

And this one?

Oh, she's up to something

Just laying around

Stretching it out

I introduced Emma to Oswald this week. I can't tell you how much joy this brings me.

The End.

Why I Cried Today

So, today was a not so good day. It started out with Emma waking up an hour and a half earlier than her norm, screaming bloody murder. Not good.

She popped a tooth a few days ago, then had two really great days, and now is back in pain again today.

Sometimes when she is teething, Emma has a hard time eating anything. Today this turned into epic non-eatingness, as she ate pretty much nothing before lunch. Normally I could just handle this at home and do my best to try different foods, but we had to be at Toyota by 9am, for my recall repairs.

I got there, and the service people said the work would only take a half hour, but they were running behind so it would be more like an hour, or hour and fifteen. Wicked bummer with a starving child who won't eat any of the food I brought with me. The waiting room was packed, so I decided to walk to the starbucks next door. Bought two different kinds of (yummy) pastries, hoping Emma would eat something. She didn't. So I went to Cafe Fresco on the other side of the dealership, hoping to try eggs, or a biscuit, or something. No go there, either. So I just took her across the street and walk around the mall parking lot (it was closed and empty) to kill time and keep her moving.

After about an hour I decided to head back to Toyota for the last few minutes before my car was ready.

We walked in, and I let Emma out of her stroller to play in the kiddy area. It was the first time all day that she seemed herself. She was giggling and playing with all the different toys that we don't have at home. Like I said, we were in the corner, and Emma was giggling, but she was by no means being loud or obnoxious. Then, after about 10 minutes a guy sitting on the other side of the room, BARKS out at me,

"Hey lady, how 'bout you shut your kid up!"

And that is a direct quote. He was so loud, and so sharp, that it scared Emma and she started crying. So I looked up, and then heard another two or three people mutter things along the lines of,

"yeah, tell me about it..."

And I lost it and started crying right there on the spot.

Those people had no idea that this poor little girl has been teething just about non-stop for the last three weeks. They didn't know that her mouth hurt so much that she couldn't even eat anything in the 4 hours since she'd been awake. They didn't know that I'd had to drag her around for the last hour, because the service on the car took forever. No. All they knew about her was that she was playing intently in the corner and giggling. And apparently this is unforgiveable.

I didn't realize I was getting my car serviced at the Library. But I must have been, because that is the ONLY place I can think of, where her giggling may have been out of line. And I'm not even sure about that...

If you haven't noticed....

My blog well has run dry. I just can't think of anything witty or funny or rage-enducing to chronicle. Except, ya know, my eyebrow hairs. And I know that's the only reason you all even read this blog, so I hate to disappoint. So for now, I'm going to do a little update on Miss Emma, per request. I do not have pics at this point, but I will soon.

Poor little Emma. That girl will just Not. Stop. Teething. Seriously. 14 teeth in the last 10 months, and with few exceptions, they've come one at a time. So, from the time she was 5 months old she hasn't had much of a break. And for all of you out there who told me that after the first few teeth, it wouldn't bother her as much... I HATE YOU. Because for this little girl, each tooth has been worse and worse. And this week has been particularly bad. She just isn't herself. Those of you who know her, know that she is rarely still. Well, this week all she's wanted to do is curl up in a ball and watch Finding Nemo or Veggie Tales. It's really sad and pathetic. I just keep telling myself, "Only 6 more baby teeth!!"

Other than teething, Emma is just nuts. Crazy crazy crazy. She loves to dance, blow raspberries on my tummy, climb all over things, and eat eat eat.

She is ridiculously skinny, but somehow she just never stops eating. And I mean NEVER. All day, every day.

Oh, and also she randomly does really funny things like the one day she decided that her method of opening doors would be to KICK them open. Chuck Norris style. It was hilarious. And also this week she found an empty diaper box that has a little opening in the bottom. So she puts it on her head and walks around running in to things, and peering out of the hole.

And she loves to be outside. It's warmed up quite a bit here, so we've been out a bunch lately. She found her sled in the back yard, and decided she wanted sled rides, and then that she wanted to pull the sled around herself. It looks really funny when it's 60 degrees out!

And she kisses EVERYTHING! (Except for us). Just tonight she kissed her handful of mashed potatoes. She kisses pictures in books, she kisses her stuffed animals, she kisses her own reflection in the mirror, she kisses her toothbrush, she kisses the couch, she kisses my toes, she kisses daddy's knee...the list goes on.

So cute. Oh, and she likes to pretend that she's a puppy. She'll get down and crawl around, and stick her tongue out and pant like a puppy. It's wildly entertaining.

She's just wildly entertaining in general. And I like it.

5 o'clock shadow

Does anybody else get a five o'clock shadow... on their eyebrows? It's like I have to tweeze every 5 minutes. Annoying.