Elizabeth and the Tree 

Catching up

Well, it has been so crazy around here I haven't been able to update this blog!

Thurs 25th
was of course Thanksgiving. We went down to Sac to David's Grandmother's house for the day. David's dad, Chris, Iben, Anna and Felix all were there. The kids had fun playing together, and Elizabeth was SUCH a big girl, she took a nap in her sleeping bag in the spare room by herself, and didn't get up or anything(we would have known, she can't really get back in the bag by herself. :-P) We had turkey, mash potatoes and Gravy, stuffing, the works, it was really good. We were going to stay down there that night and go to the shops on Fri, but when we realized that all the stores I wanted to go to where in Chico, and within a 1/4 mile of each other there, as opposed to all over the place in Sac, we decided to come home.

Fri 26th BLACK FRIDAY
I got up at 5 am to hit as many sales as I could. JCPenny opened at 5:30, and I was there when the doors opened. I got one of the little snow globes they were handing out, and looked around but didn't buy anything. I was going to hit Sears ext, they were giving out a $10 gift card to the first 200 people, but when I drove past there were already about 400 people outside so I decided to head on to Walmart. I saw Kristen and Dawn there, and I got all the stuff I wanted there. Next I hit Target so that I could get Buffy Season 7 for $17.77. Next I hit Circuit city, then Radio Shack, Kmart, and Mervyns. When I got home at 8:30am Elizabeth and David were just waking up. We got ready and headed out to Best Buy and Sears, where we got many good deals. We had Lunch out at La Comida, and then came home and put Elizabeth down for a nap. the rest of the day was pretty quiet. Margie stoped by with our xmas tree and a couple boxes of decorations.

Sat 27th
This was a big work day. I cleaned out our part of the Shed, it was a mess. I made it so we could get to boxes when we need to pack them, and made room for the xmas boxes that Margie had brought down. That took quite a while the place was a mess! Then I had to make room for the tree. It is amazing how much stuff I had crammed into the corner of our living room under my sewing table that had to all get moved somewhere, not to mention all the cleaning off of the sewing table I had to do so that I could fold down the right side. That took over an hour just by itself! Then we put up the tree, put on the lights and the Garland. some of that took us past baby bedtime, so we decided that was enough. Plus we don't have all ornaments yet, some are still at Margie's.

Sunday 28th
Well the tree was up, and the living room looked pretty good(except it desperately needed a vaccum) and so I decided to tackle the kitchen. It was looking pretty icky, so I did the dishes, moved everything on the counters, rearranged, cleaned counters and walls, pulled the stove apart and cleaned it, and then we pulled the table and chairs out of the klitchen and gave the floor a good scrub. David spot cleaned the floor and cleaned off the outside of the cabinets. Then we put the table and chairs back, and I vaccumed the living room. Then Molly cam over, and Babysat while we went to see National Treasure. It was one of those if you can suspend disbelief it is really good types of movies, kind of like Armageddon and stuff. not terribly realistic, but fun. Then we cam home did dinner and Put Elizabeth to bed. After she went to bed we watched Christmas Vacation and started working on Christmas cards.

So we had a very full four day weekend!

My big girl

David wanted to do an experiment with Elizabeth to see if we would be able to stay over at people's houses. We bought a sleeping bag, and she slept in it in her bed on Monday night and at naptime on tues. Then last night David slept in her room on the floor in a sleeping bag, with her on the floor next to him. With as much trouble as we have had with her sleep issues, I didn't think it would work, but it did! They laid down after storytime, and David said it took about 15 minutes for her to fall asleep. She wasn't getting up, but every minute or so she would say "Daddy! Night Night Daddy!" and he would say night night to her and then shush her. But that was it. Then when I went in to wake him up at 4am to go to work, she didn't even wake up! David picked her up to put her in her crib, and she woke up a bit. He told her that he had to go to work so she had to go back in her crib, and she said "k" and he told her he would see her tonight and she said "k", then he left and that was it. She woke up at normal time this morning. David is going to sleep in there again tonight, and then we will spend the night at Granny's thanksgiving night. I will be able to hit all the store sales on Friday,
:-)

The Pest inspection.....

Came back with only a couple very minor things that the seller has to fix, so it is really looking like we will be getting this house! I was trying to not get my hopes up until we got this info, but now that we know it passed, well...we are all starting to get excited!

Elizabeth and Santa 

In other news....

I woke up feeling very ill on Sat, I was so glad that it was a Sat and David was able to take over with Elizabeth, Because I felt awful. Luckily it was basically a 24 hour bug so I woke up feeling much better on Sunday. We went to the Anual Downtown Christmas preview in Chico, and Elizabeth got to see Santa. She ismuch happier with Santa this year, she thinks he is cool. Last year the best we could do was her in my lap and I was on the arm of his chair, and even then she wasn't happy. This time she let him pick her up and put her on his lap. She wouldn't talk to him though, and with the line the way it was, it was a quick, photo and go sort of thing. So we went to the Mall yesterday and I did a bit of shopping, and since the Santa there had no line, we saw him again. This time we hung around for about 5 minutes, and she actually said "Hello Santa" and she thanked him for the candy cane, it was cute. As soon as we left she started asking for "more Santa" so I think that we will be seeing Santa again a few more times before christmas. :-)

More on the house

Well, the offical word is...that there really isn't much else to report on the house right now....We did find a better loan with USAA, that doesn't have the $2000 funding fee, so we might actually have enough money to carpet the house, or at least a few rooms before we move in. We also got a lower rate, 5.5%, so our mortgage will be $1506 a month, almost 2.5 times what we pay in rent for this place, but, it will be OUR place.
They did do the pest inspection yesterday, said it would be two working days to get it back, so we will know either tmw or monday. Hopefully tmw, this pest inspection is the really big hurdle that we have to get past, because VA will not allow us to purchase a house with damage.
And my Parents are giving us$300 for appliances as a house warming gift! We should be able to get a secondhand washer and dryer, and maybe a dishwasher too! We have to buy everything with this house, the stove and dishwasher that are there are really old, and we have no washer/dryer or fridge. :-P

A different angle 

This is the house.... 

Well......

She signed the counter offer!!! She accepted our offer of $215k, with her paying $1000 of closing costs! So now we start with all the escrow details, first we need to get her to do the level 2 pest inspection. This will tell us if there are termites or dryrot in the house and deck. The thing with a VA loan is that she will have to fix this stuff before they allow us to purchase it, so we have to hope that there is not much for her to fix, because if there is a lot to fix, then odds are good that she will back out of the deal, because she won't want to spend that kind of money.
If all goes well with the pest inspection then we will have an appraiser come and look at the house, and that person will check for other structre damage and anything else that is wrong with the house so we know what we are getting into. Our Broker says that he can get us ready to close by the 17th Of Dec, so if by some miracle the seller is ready to close early, we will be too, though I doubt that will be the case. The official close date is supposed to be Dec 23rd. We shall see........

And it goes on.....

So we went down to see the house on Sat and I did actually like the place. It does need a lot of work, especially a good clean and a paint job, but it has potential. The last counter offer that we had had a deadline of Sat at 6pm. It is now Monday at 10:45, and we have yet to hear from the realtor. As of tmw, Ed is going to talk to the board of real estate agents and they should let him go past the agent and streight to the owner. She seemed like she liked us and gave us the impression that she would be signing the papers, but as of Sat at 5:30 when we were there, he had not shown up and given them to her to look at. So it doesn't seem to be the owner, but the agent that is at fault.
hopefully we will hear SOMETHING tmw, cuz this is getting rediculous.....

Offers and counter offers

Well, they took our offer of $210k with the fridge, and countered with $214k no fridge and the escrow of our house contingent on the escrow of their house (HECK NO!) so we recountered with $215k, but they pay $1000 of closing costs so that we can use the extra $$ for a fridge, washer, dryer and maybe a new stove. We also said no way will the close of escrow be contingent on close of the house they are buying. So now we are waiting to hear back from her again. Looks like we will be able to drive down and see the place today, we are off to get ready to go now. Hopefully I will like the place......

Frustrated

*sigh* I really hope this house comes through, we need to be together again as a family. Today Elizabeth was begging for her Daddy, we had to sit and look at her scrapbook so she could see pictures after she got my wallet out of my bag and started crying when she couldn't get the zipper open "Daddy, Baby!" She wanted to see the pictures of her and Daddy that are in there. She asks about him every day, but this was the first time that she really got very upset when I had to tell her no daddy today. SHe usually seems sad about it, but not like this.

Third time's a Charm?

Well we put a bid on the last place, and then got outbid the next day. So David looked at a place on Sandy Bay drive, and thought it looked good so we put a bid on it. That's right we put a bid on something that i haven't seen, eek! :-D This one could possibly go in our favor. The place is covered in the owner's stuff, and it is apparently hard to see past all the stuff. Hopefully anyone who looks at it will go ick and leave. :-D It does need work, paint, possibly new carpet, a couple new doors, but mostly it is cosmetic, though possibly the kitchen cabinets need to be replaced. It is small, not much bigger then our appartment, but it has a garage, and is in Elk grove, so it is a much better area then anything we have looked at so far(except the 3 bed we bid on, it is down the street from there). Elizabeth would be going to a decent school and we wouldn't be worried about going outside at night. We Offered $210k, they were asking $217, and we gave them till 5pm Friday, so we will know soon......

Halloween 

Went to look at even more houses yesterday, only one of them was even worth thinking about, but We still seem to like the 2nd one we saw on the first day of hunting, the one on 53rd. Of course that comes behind the three bedroom house we lost out on, and the 2bed,2 bath, 2 car garage that we liked except the area sucked. Still, I think we might put a bid in on this one, 2 bed 2 bath, 1 car garage with a really ungly cement fish pond in the back that needs to go. The inside of the house looked good, but the back yard needs to be tilled and seeded. We will have to buy a couple of those big oriental area rugs, the carpet is a very light cream almost white! They have mud in the back yard and kids, who thought that was a good idea! It is in good condition though, so don't want to make it look gross. It is right across the street from a playground, and it looks like if we were there long enough Elizabeth would go to a elementary prep school. It got 10 out of 10 and has won awards. she would even have to wear a uniform. To a public school, weird. I think i need to see the place again, but this seems to be our best option so far, other then a condo that we havn't been able to look at yet. Problem with the condo is that $177 a month goes to condo fees, and that is just wasted money. if we take the halfplex, then at least all our money is going to equity.
Not the greatest solution, but what can you do, we can't afford a three bedroom.....