Amateur Night at California Title Company

So, we signed on our new house today. We got word that one of the CA realtors drove to Mexico to get the missing signature and got the document back into the right hands. When I showed up to the title company I was informed that the California people were still missing one other document and were trying to get, which of coarse should have been done way before closing, yet they did not have it. Supposedly that is the last thing needed before everything funds. If they did their job we might get funded tomorrow and the house will finally be ours, if not it should happen on Monday. I feel really good about it finally and am very excited! We see an end in sight and I cannot wait to do the final dance!

You have got to be kidding me

We found out why the funding is at a halt....and all I can say is you have got to be kidding me. The title company had one paper that the husband signed, but not the wife. (how the title guy missed that seeing that is his job and all?????). It will not fund until all signatures are there, and here is the beautiful part...the wife is now in Mexico....no I am not kidding, I wish I were, but I am not.

Half way there...kinda

We signed for the sale of the old house today. Tomorrow we will sign for the new house, but the funding is not all in tact yet. In California they are still missing one signature and it cannot fund until they get that. We need that house to fund so we can get our proceeds from that house to put into the new house. It will all happen, and hopefully all will be done by Friday or Monday. We are getting there!

Will it actually happen????

We have now lived in the new house just over five weeks without owning it and necessitating four extensions.The first sign of trouble was three days before scheduled closing. Next time it came two days before we were supposed to close. it happened again one day before supposed closing...and the last extension came without any closing date because we knew better than to get our hopes up that time. So 3days before, two days before, one day before....and I keep teasing that the next time it will happen the day of, which is today. Everyone keeps saying that could not possibly happen, but then again I never thought we would possibly be where we are now. We have an appointment to close on the old house today at 3:30...I am feeling pretty confident that it will actually happen this time, but not much surprises me anymore. The next step is closing on the new house tomorrow at 4:00 ( that is if all the funding happens as we have been told it will.) Tomorrow has the potential of being a glorious day!

Tub Time

One of my favorite features of the new house is the huge Master tub. I have always wanted one of these, and now Grant and I have been able to fully enjoy it....but we are not the only ones. The kids are loving it too! I for some crazy reason this whole deal falls through, I am taking the tub with me!

Good day gone bad....gone worse

It started out as a good normal day. We were told last night that closing on the house was scheduled in California for today and all was good to go. This all came about after a drama on Monday that about did Grant and I in. We were told if we did not close on Thursday (yet we were set to close on Friday) we would lose our interest rate. After a big mess we found out that we would not lose the rate, but if we did not close on Thursday it would cost the finance people more money. There is so much to the story I cannot even scratch the surface. So back to today. I got to go to TJ Maxx and find a new diaper bag (mine broke). I picked up James from school and we did an art project together to enter into her school contest. I called our realtor to find out what time we were going to close on the old house, but had to leave a message. I get a call from her saying there was an e-mail, she did not know what it said but she was on her way to the office to read it and let us know. In short, we will not be closing tomorrow, or even this week...actually probably not until next Wednesday...another extension. Our sellers are going to start charging us rent, but our buyers will pay the same to compensate. We feel like we are being lied to and not taken care of...not many people are trying to help us or get us answers. I was on the computer and phone today trying to get a hold of the Finance people and realtor in California to get a straight answer. I do not feel like I should have to do it...we are paying other people a lot of money to do it, but it is not getting done, so I will step up.

So the getting worse. After the call I try to make dinner. I am grilling chicken, but the wind is blowing so hard it keeps blowing the flames out. Chicken is now in the oven and in the mean time kids are eating ramen noodles. Our home phone stopped working AGAIN. We have lived here three weeks and over a week of that we have not had working service...yet they charged me for it even after they said they would not...go figure. Then I go to switch the laundry and I discover that I probably ruined one of my favorite pairs of Grant's pants...a color bled. I am trying every trick I know to try and get it out...but I doubt it will work. Not my day.

I know this is not the end of the world, but it really stinks right now. I do not want to hear "this too will pass" not the right words of encouragement right now. The more time passes, the worse it gets!

On a positive note, I finally got my ironing!

Easter

I love taking pictures of the kids and family at Easter...I get to have everyone match. I think we have a pretty good looking little bunch of kiddos. Easter was really kick back and relaxed this year. We colored eggs earlier this week with the cousins and Easter evening had an egg hunt at our house. The Easter Bunny came a little bit later for us, he had to wait until we had the house clean so he could hide the eggs. The kids were troopers and made sure I called the Easter Bunny when we were done to let them know they cleaned (They have never been so willing to help!) They are starting to get a slight grasp on the reason we celebrate Easter, and it is very cool as a parent to hear them explain it back! It was a good day with the family and at church.

Bad News

Those are the words I heard from our realtor yesterday. Our closing will not go as planned tomorrow. We are pushed off yet another week...AHHHHHHH! I kind of had a feeling it was going to happen, so I suppose I will just deal with it. I am not sure how much more Grant can take though. I feel so bad for him, I am sure his stress level is affecting his health. We just wish the finance company would be upfront with us and let us know if there are any other possible hang ups so we do not keep upsetting our sellers. We are hoping they are not too fired up and will not kick us out of the house, I doubt they will, but they may start charging us rent...I do not blame them! So here we are bending to a will other than our own, and I am pretty sure we will survive!

The Move

So, we sold our house and bought another one...kind of. We were set to sign on both houses March 27, and as a part of our deal with the people from whom we are buying we got early occupancy and started the move March 24th. After Mayflower came and moved all our heavy stuff we began doing our own loads. Not long into that we got a call from our realtor saying there was a problem. Long story short they would not be able to close for another two weeks. We were afraid the deal might fall apart and we were already moved over to a house that is contingent upon selling ours. We have been reassured that everything is going to happen, just later than we thought. We love the new house, but feel a little weird living in a house we do not own...yet. We think we are supposed to close in two days, but no one will tell us for sure, and truth be told they probably have no clue. We have all our stuff out of the old house, but are hesitant to totally organize the new house or hang pictures until we have signed.

Talking to people I have realized that often opposition is in all good things. It was basically a miracle, in my mind, that our house sold for asking price in this economic climate, that the people we bought from were willing to go down on their price and that the interest rates were low right at the perfect time. Our stars did align, so it must have been too easy. I have decided that times are getting tougher, we are nearing the second coming, so opposition is so strong, stronger than before. Our job is to have hope, faith, patience and submission to the will of the Lord (I just really hope the will of the Lord includes closing in two days and that stress out of my life.)

Anyhow, I have been consumed by getting the new house set up and trying to make it home. This is the 7th home we have lived in (not including the month and a half we lived with mom and dad when we first moved to Farmington) in almost nine years of marriage, and it was BY FAR the hardest move ever (and I was not even 7 months pregnant like last time.) I hope not have to do it again any time soon!

I was involved in a few things in high school. I played in the orchestra all three years. I ran for student body, but seeing as it was a popularity contest, I was not elected...oh well. But my main thing was running. I did cross-country and track. The longer the distance the better (3-6 miles was long then.) I was actually pretty decent at it. My Sophomore year our team took State! After high school I let running go for awhile. Twelve years later When the doctor asked me if I retained weight while nursing I picked it back up again in an attempt to lose the weight. In the process I found something I could do just for me. When Asher was five months old I ran my first half Marathon. I was thrilled that I was able to finish running the whole thing. Several months after that I ran another one, and just after Asher turned one I ran my first full marathon. It has been a great thing for me, and little did I know that this year it would become even more great! After having Miquelyn another half marathon was great motivation to get back in shape. The cool thing about this one is that I was able to do it with so many people. How cool that so many of my siblings or their spouse wanted to join in on the fun. We thought for sure there was no way we would all win the lottery and get accepted, but we did and got to do this together. How cool is that! Chanel and her family, Mikael and Mom came to support us all even though they were not running.

It was fun to keep in touch with everyone, talk about how our training was going and help each other prepare. I am truly grateful for the relationship I have with my brothers, sister and their spouses and kids. We have a great family that makes huge efforts to be together and enjoy each other!

We had a great training group in Farmington. Britney Nygren was there ever step of the way, but got injured just weeks before the race...next time she will be in the picture too. It was so nice to have each other to help motivate for the long runs on Saturday.

The best part about this whole things is that I got to do this one with my sweetheart. I never thought we would be doing this together. As I was riding the bus up to the race the first time I was nervous, scared and all by myself. I looked around and saw all these happy couples riding up together and got a little sad because I thought I would never be able to do that, I would always be riding the bus alone. Little did I know only two short years later I would be that couple others envied! I have the best husband ever. He claims to hate running, but he is actually good at it! I am so proud of him. I am so grateful that he stuck it out to do it together even though he claims he hated every minute of it. He did amazing, and it was incredible to be able to do it together. I improved my time from last Moab race by 4 minutes. I ran a 1:59 meeting my goal of wanting to go under 2 hours. Grant met his goal of going under 1:50 and ran a 1:48. It was a great weekend I will never forget! Thank you Grant for making yet another dream come true!