It's been awhile...

Man, have we been busy. I'm officially a professional painter. I'm actually pretty decent at it. Patrick is pretty bad, but he tries to help so I have to give him credit for that. We've been working non stop on painting the house from head to toe. It's a lot of work but will be well worth it once we're all done. I'll post some pictures later.

We've just found out we have to get permission from our home owners association to put up any outdoor lights. We bought an upgraded porch light, a motion/security light for the driveway, and one for the backyard but we have to wait up to 45 days to find out if it's ok through our HOA. What a pain. But, if you want to put in a pool, you don't have to get permission from the HOA. Doesn't quite make sense to me, but who am I??

Anyone want to help us paint, let us know.

CL

Our home

It's been awhile since I last wrote. We've been so stressed out and I just haven't felt up to it, especially since we weren't hearing any good news about anything. We were having issues with my credit (not my fault), but we were having to try to prove that we were right. It was a pain. I had to get proof from Sallie Mae (a student loan) that I was in deferrment in May of 2008 to show that I haven't had a late payment for over 12 months. For some reason, Sallie Mae reported to the credit bureaus that I did not make a payment for May 2008, when in reality it was in deferrment and should have shown that. We had to wait over a week to get this letter from Sallie Mae and then send it to the credit bureaus to have it updated which takes another 3 to 5 business days. 2 of the 3 credit bureaus changed my credit score as needed, but the one we actually needed, which was the middle score, needed me to write a letter to Sallie Mae stating that I was giving my permission for them to update my credit report. It was so tedious and confusing. I faxed my permission right away, but of course we had to wait 2 days before it was put on my record at Sallie Mae. Then we had to wait another 3 to 5 business days for the credit report to be updated. So much waiting, so much annoyance. Finally, we heard good news and found that my credit score went up to exactly what we needed to get this house.


We got approved for the loan and the bank accepted our offer on our first home!!!!!!!!!!!

Then we found out some other good news which was that the home we are in now, which was to be auctioned on June 18th, got post poned again until July 31st. That means that we don't have to move in with my dad until we move into our new house. We get to stay put until we move and we don't have to move twice.

We are now in the underwriting process which can take a couple weeks. We have to send in another form, but if all goes well, our broker said we could be moved into our new house in 3 weeks!!!

We are super excited about it and just want this process to be over with. It's been such a hassle and we really hate our landlord for putting us in a stressful situation like this. Granted, it's nice because now we will be home owners, but we felt rushed and we weren't quite ready to be shoved into this situation.

I'll keep you posted.

-CL

So close, yet so far

So, they did not accept our offer on our dream home. It was almost too good to be true so we aren't completely surprised, just slightly disappointed. We decided to broaden our horizon and look for houses farther out than we'd prefer (so that includes the neighborhood we live in now). There has actually been a house that keeps popping up in our community that has been on the market for about 2 months. I've skimmed it but it hasn't impressed me so we never looked at it. Patrick and I finally decided to check it out. It's actually right around the corner from where we live now. It's just about the same house, but slightly smaller and has a few differences. One plus is that it has a larger backyard for the dogs to play in. There are also two huge trees that give off so much shade and a covered patio. One downfall, is there is no refrigerator, washer and dryer and it appears that the stove is broken. The kitchen is also pretty open, but small. We can live with it. It's a two story home with 3 bedrooms and 2 1/2 baths. It's about 1,500 square feet which is perfect for us. Does need some small improvements like new carpeting and tile and of course, a paint job, but it's something we could definitely live in. The best news, since it's been on the market for so long, they reduced the price from originally $171,000 to $124,900 after 60 days. We put a bid on it and are waiting for their response.

I did receive a phone call from our realtor, Claire, who said the listing agent had called her to say that we had the highest bid in and he wanted to go ahead and talk to the bank to see if they would speed up the process and just accept our offer. We are super excited and hope that the bank accepts it as soon as possible since we need to be out of this home by June 18th. It would be amazing to move just down the street and start setting up our new home.

I'll keep you posted.

House news

Well, I'm slightly nervous only because our house is supposedly being auctioned in 1 minute. That's a little frightening since I am currently sitting in the office of the house being auctioned with nothing around me packed. Let's cross our fingers that they postpone the auction or that they give us more time to stay here.

Patrick and I are going to meet with our realtor in a little bit to sign a counter offer for the house we are interested in. It sounds too good to be true so we aren't getting our hopes up just yet, but we really really hope we get that house. It would definitely be our dream home and would be a great investment for our first home together.

We will talk to our realtor today also about other properties we're interested in and whether or not we should put a bid in on those as well.

Little Lily only woke me up twice last night, as opposed to the 8 times she woke us up the night before. We tried to keep her up as long as we could after we got home from work, but she's still a puppy and they need their rest. She woke up at 3 AM so I let her out. It only took her about 10 minutes to fall back asleep after she was done biting my face and hair. Then she woke up again at 6 AM. That took her 15 minutes to fall back asleep and luckily for me, she slept in until about 9:45 AM. Hopefully this pattern keeps going and eventually I can get a full nights rest. Although, she's been sleeping on my neck, regardless if I'm on my stomach, back or side. She is on top of me!! Another mama's girl!!

Now, introducing... Lily Larabell!!

We did something crazy and got a new puppy. It's all my mom's fault. We were driving to lunch but we were about 20 minutes early before the restaurant opened. We saw a family with a sign selling puppies and my mom forced us to stop there. They had about 6 puppies that are half pit bull and half Shar Pei. I hate Shar Pei's. I've always had problems with them when I worked at the veterinary clinic, but like I said, my mom forced us to get one. We had lunch and came back to get our little princess. We definitely love her now. Molly is still getting used to her but can be a little aggressive so we've been seperating Lily. Kobe is calm and just doesn't care about her at this point.

Welcome Lily to our happy little family.

Another update

Well, we went to look at houses last Friday with my wonderful friend and realtor, Claire. She made a special trip with us even though we don't have our preapproval yet and it was sorta pointless to look at the houses without one. We looked at 10 houses and found 3 that we liked. One was in immaculate condition and we would have bought it right then and there if we could've.

She gave us a referral to a broker she works with who also has more references and can get us approved with anyone instead of simply through Country Wide, who we were trying to go through. Her name is Tracy. So when I got the letter on Monday from Sallie Mae (that was the letter we needed in order to fix my credit), I e-mailed it to Tracy, who in turn called the credit bureau's and is having my credit updated. She said it would take about 4 days so hopefully we hear something by tomorrow at the latest. Once that is all settled, we can begin the process of getting preapproved or simply approved for a home loan. We can then narrow down our price range and start putting in offers since we are in a time crunch.

Our house is going up for auction in 11 days!! That's kinda scary!!

My mom is coming to visit on Wednesday, 6 days. I'm cleaned out one of the rooms that we originally used as a spare bedroom. The fuse that powers the entire room went out and we are not going to fix it. So we just moved the bed into the office, which has plenty of room for it. I vaccuumed the other room so it's one thing less I have to worry about when we actually start moving. Then I cleaned the spare bathroom (tub, sink, etc.) so my mom can use it when she's here. I was gonna clean the rest of the house, but everything gets so dusty so quickly that I have to wait til it's closer to the day she arrives.

In other news, Patrick went to school today and hopefully it will be his last day. He might have to go back in for one more presentation but we're hoping not. Then summer school starts for both of us on June 1st. We are So excited - NOT!! He's taking a Biology class and I'm taking a math class. Unfortunately, they don't offer the class I'm taking at the college that's close by, so I have to drive a little bit farther to MCC for my class. Oh well. Gotta get it done.

Cross your fingers that we get our loan soon. We're running out of time.

ENT appointment and more

So my appointment with the Ear, Nose and Throat doctor is tomorrow morning. I feel absolutely fine so I hope they can figure something out. My dad kept saying that he had a doctor he recommended me to go to, but I made my appointment anyway. Turns out, it's the same doctor so that's good, right? I'll keep you posted.

In other news, Patrick and I went for a walk last night with the dogs because there is a foreclosure house right around the corner from us, but in the more expensive neighborhood. It was one of the properties our realtor e-mailed to us. We snuck a peak, all while hoping no one would call the police since it was dark out and we had a flashlight. It was scary looking through the windows because I kept freakin myself out like someone was going to stare right back at me from the inside. Creepy!! Anyway, from what we saw, we really liked it. So I called our realtor to see if we could get the lock box code to check it out today and turns out, there are already a few offers. So, we're giving up on that house. Darn tootin'. We still haven't recieved the letter that will decide if we can get a home loan yet, although it's only been a few days. Be patient.

At this point, we are super anxious and I think we just want to know for certain what is going to happen. It's all so fuzzy with how many days we're allowed to stay in this house, especially now that we have my mom coming on May 13th.

In other news, I'm pet sitting for a friend of a friend at the beginning of May. I went to their house to meet the cat and see the house. Holy Moly!! It is a gorgeous home. The whole neighborhood is. Luckily, they have a pool that looks like it goes right into the lake in their backyard and they said we could come over and swim while I'm petsitting. Don't need to ask me twice!! I'm super excited about it because we don't have a pool in our neighborhood.

Other than that, it's all new home business. We WANT to find out!!!

Wish us luck!!

CL

Well, this morning I spent my time in urgent care. I have been suffering from dizzy spells for about a year now (June 2008). My very first episode, I woke up in the middle of the night feeling nauseous. I got up to go to the bathroom and fell over into the wall. I felt like I was completely drunk. Patrick woke up and helped me to the bathroom where I was profusely vomiting. I slept on the couch until the morning to see if it would go away. It didn't. Patrick drove me to the urgent care and as soon as the car stopped, I was violently vomiting in the parking lot. I could barely walk and felt sick to my stomach. On top of that, I still hadn't gained my balance back. The doctor hooked me up to IV fluids and administered a medication to help with the nausea. Gradually, all my symptoms went away. I followed up with my family doctor and she never really diagnosed what it specifically was that was wrong. Neither did urgent care. They did prescribe me with steriods and a medication that helps with nausea and the dizziness.

Since then, I've experienced a few episodes of dizziness but have always taken the medication and it goes away. Then recently I had another episode so I went to a different family doctor. She used an otoscope to look into my ears and when she looked in the left ear, I experienced pain I wouldn't put on my worst enemy. She said I had an inner ear infection and prescibed me ear drops and a stronger prescription to help with the dizziness and nausea.

After that visit, I've experienced a few dizzy spells while at work but take the medication and it seems to go away.

Yesterday, I experienced another dizzy spell so I took my meds. It didn't go away. I called the pharmacy to see if I could take another pill and she said I could. When I woke up this morning I was still dizzy so I knew something was wrong. The urgent care doctor couldn't really tell me what it was but recommended that I see a ear, nose and throat doctor to possibly get an MRI or cat scan done. I've scheduled an appointment for next week so wish me well. Still feeling a little dizzy but I have to go to work so hopefully nothing crazy happens.

Hopefully someone will figure out what is wrong with me because now everyone is saying that it's vertigo which could be caused by a million different things.

With Love,
CL

Darn Tootin'

I wrote a big long blog and even included old pictures. Then my stupid ass, clicked on another button thinking it wouldn't take me to another page, but it did. So, there goes my blog. And now you're stuck with this boring one.

CL

P.S. I've been saying darn tootin' lately and I don't know where I picked it up from. It's quite weird.

House Hunting

I thought I'd start off with this picture I found. This was the very first time Patrick and I hung out. Already I was falling for him, as you can see.

Well, I've noticed a lot of people have blogs lately and I thought it would be an easy way to let everyone know what was going on with Patrick and I without having to call or e-mail each person. So, here it goes...

We received a letter on our garage a couple days ago stating that the house we are renting was now in active foreclosure and will be auctioned on May 18th at noon. Great!! No, it's not good news at all. We have been paying our rent on time for 7 months now and our lease is not up until Oct. 4th!! So that means we are getting kicked out in short notice and our landlord broke our lease. To make it even better, she claims she had no idea that the house would be put up for foreclosure. She claims that her husband lost his job and they were in the process of try to get a loan modification to lower their mortgage payments. Also that they were told not to pay their mortgage for 2 months. Well, obviously a house does not go up for foreclosure in just 2 months. It takes at least 6 to 7 months so she wasn't paying her mortgage since right after we moved in. Thanks Lady!!

So now, Patrick and I are trying to look into buying a house since there are so many cheap foreclosure houses. Our only issue... we only have a month, maybe two to move out of this house before we are officially evicted. Ok, so there are more than one issues. Another issue, my mom is coming to visit on May 13th, 5 days before the auction date. She was coming to relax and see us, not to house hunt and pack our things for us. Another issue, we still have to get approved for a loan. We're having some issues but are trying to work on those as quickly as possible. Another issue, we don't know the exact date we have to be out of this house. We've been told we have 30 days after the auction date and possibly another 30 days after that. No one is 100% sure.

Good news... we are living at this house rent free for at least a month. The landlord said she will give us back our refundable deposit but not all of our deposits because she is losing money and didn't know this was going to happen. Whether I believe that or not, that's not the point. Technically if we wanted to, we could probably take her to small claims court to fight for all of our deposits, as well as her breaking the lease, moving costs and emotional distress. But, we don't have the time, money or energy to do that. It sucks!!

Anyway, we have an appointment tomorrow to speak with someone regarding a home loan. Wish us luck with that and with everything else. Hopefully we won't end up homeless for a month. It might be a little cramped if we're living out of my car with 2 dogs!!