Thursday, November 29, 2007

Cancer sucks.

I belong to a sewing board, lots of wonderful women chatting it up and getting some sewing done in between. I think the majority of the women are moms, hence the name SEWINGMAMAS.

There is one lady on there, who I have "known" for oh gosh.. 5 or 6 years now??? She's had bouts with cancer on and off almost the whole time.

She just had a baby two months after Luke was born, a miracle little boy. She shouldn't have been able to have anymore children after her chemo and radiation, but she did. She also has 6 year old twin boys.

She basically was just told there is nothing more they can do. The spot in her lungs has more than doubled. She was just in the hospital due to a collapsed lung. What do you SAY to someone who posts that?? Nothing I want to type sounds good enough. How can you just say "I'm sorry"?? To that. That can happen to ANYONE. My aunt passed away two weeks ago after finding out she had cancer less than six months ago. What do I say to my cousins??? One of whom is a very close friend of mine and has six children, my childrens ages? I hate cancer. That's all I can say. It takes way too many wonderful people away. WAY too many.

I'm sorry for this sad post, I'm just so angry and sad for this woman, and pray all the time that it doesn't happen to me.

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!


Everywhere you go!

Thanksgiving is tomorrow- yay!!! As soon as I see that Santa cross Times Square- the first Christmas Carol is getting broken out!!!!!!!! Now.. do I want Celine? Bing? Dean-o? Sammy? Maybe a nice mix. :D Seriously.. I can't wait. I'm SO excited. We're going to my sister in laws- Matt's sisters, for dinner tomorrow. Should be fabulous! Everyone is going to be there with the exception of his brother and his family from down south (currently in Mississippi!) That means there will be NINETEEN grandchildren there! Oh my gosh! It's going to be so much fun. :)

I have almost finished my Christmas shopping. I have to- I've been doing it little by little due to money constraints. I have a few things left I have to get, but for the most part it's done! Check out the quilt that I made Faith for Christmas! I'm hoping to get one done for Chris as well. Faiths is made up of different cotton fabrics, some organics, some hand dyed fabrics- all very very girly! I'm really very proud of it. It's a collaboration of squares from many many different moms on my sewing board. Fairies, unicorns, castles, princesses etc. SO Faith! Chris' will be fun too, I'm hoping to do an "I-spy" quilt.

News on the house- we signed the contracts today! We should be out of attorney review sometimes next week!! Appraisel came back at where we needed it to be HOORAY!! We have some termite issues to fix, but at least everything seems to be working out. Thank goodness! Just keep praying for a good outcome. December 27th is the tentative close date.

Ok, off to sew now. I'm going to attempt to make Faith a dress to wear tomorrow to Thanksgiving dinner. Hmmmm I think the boys all have something they can wear. ;) I'll update later with pics of Faiths dress if I finish!

Happy Thanksgiving all!

Friday, November 16, 2007

Whoo hoo!

Today was a good day! I finished the quilt that I'm making for Faith for Christmas (it's so cute, I'll try and remember to upload pics!) and we got a TERRIFIC offer on the house! They offered only $5k under our list price! All they want us to fix is the sidewalk- no problem!

The only issue we may have is they are FHA. Like the first buyers. I come to find out that the first appraisal that the first buyers got stay on public record for 6 months. So the new buyers mortgage company may deny that as well because the appraisal came back so low. Man I can't stand FHA. Our realtor (and the previous buyers realtor) both agree that the guy who did the appraisal was terrible. It should NOT have come back that low. He used comparables from a year ago and from houses not even in our neighborhood but in really bad ones! He even said in his report (of which I have a copy of) that with all the upgrades we did on our house, it appeared newer than the 60 years that the house is!!!!!!!! So no one understands why it came back so low.

Regardless, it turns out these buyers REALLY love the house and they are going to try and fight their mortgage company to get a new appraisal! I am SO happy! If their mortgage company doesn't agree, then we will probably drop the house to the appraisal cost- just to get rid of it, unless we get another offer. It's a bummer- but we just want to be rid of this house!!! Of course it will be much nicer to have the extra ten grand I tell ya!!

So please pray, light a candle, think happy thoughts- whatever you do- that this works out and we can sell the house at a decent price!!!! Please!!

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Houses, husbands, and termites

Oh my.
So we got an offer on our house on Saturday.

Ok backpeddle.. we started our house at $229k back in what, April? Lowered it, lowered it, lowered it.. it's now at $199.9k. It's also November. We bought our current house in July- so you can tell that we're feeling a financial pinch now right? Months of double mortgages, does not a stressfree situation make!

We received an offer of $175k, we countered with $190k, they accepted. We were supposed to close the 15th of Nov. THey were FHA- meaning the appraisal had to come back at the sale price. It did not, it came back at $184k. (the appraisor was using OLD sale prices- we feel it was unfair- whatever) The buyers walked, even though we agreed to lower the price again.

We got another offer. $170k contingent on them selling their house. We countered again with $190k. Never heard back until last week. They offered $160k, as is, willing to settle on 11/15. Well that wouldn't even pay off the mortgage and our realtor fees! We said no. They came back TODAY saying $170k as is. That would JUST pay all our fees- and not be able to pay back what we borrowed to put down on current house.

Our offer from Sat, offered $185k. We said "ok, but 'as-is'". We gave them the home inspection report from last buyers, to go over. They came back and said the termite damage worried them (long story- we don't think it's termite damage but Matthew damage due to him drilling holes to run wires and leaving sawdust. The exact spot where he was drilling is where the termite people said there was termite damage) Anyhow, we came back and said- ok we want to do another termite inspection- we will pay for whatever repairs is needed as per the inspection. If you will continue with the sale and everything else 'as-is'. So we're waiting to hear back from that.

In the meantime, my realtor just emailed me to say that the 1pm showing we had on our house went "very well, the buyers are very interested and well qualified, so we'll wait to hear back". So I'm starting to feel optimistic about this!


It's really heartbreaking. We put SO much money into this house. New paint, new sheetrocking, new flooring, new carpeting, totally remodeled bathroom, and the week before we moved out our central AC unit fried and we had to replace it (another $2500 down the drain!) it hurts SO much to think that we're going to just break even with what we owe on our mortgage and what we owe our realtors. Our house appraised last May 06 for $214k when we refinanced, and this year it only appraised for $184k and people are only offereing $170k?!?!? Seriously, the market SUCKS.

Oh and the husband part of my title.. I MISS HIM! He's been gone since Sunday afternoon and I'm going NUTSO with 4 kiddos all by my lonesome. Plus he missed James' 8th birthday too. :( I just miss him.. only two more days til he comes home!!!!!!!!!!

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

46 minute countown..

til season 4 of Project Runway! Oh my I can't WAIT!
I just joined a fantasy Project Runway pool too. Does that show what a huge fan I am??? Or am I just a dork? *lol*

I chose Carmen on a pool I'm doing on a board I'm on. After reading projectrungays blog though.. I'm pretty certain that's not going to happen... they showed a couple of her designs.. ummmmm ok.. not really. I should have gone with my first choice Christian. I was only going to go with him though because my son's name is Christian, so I couldn't justify that! I'm such a loser. *lol* I really need to go out more ya think????

Ok, off to play a little Super Mario Galaxy, drink some peach wine, and then wait for PR to start! What a great night!

(Only thing that would make it greater is if my house sold and my hubby were home! )

Monday, November 12, 2007

Oops..

Ok so that last post I added a pic of my lovely baby sister Stacy- and right next to that was an not to flattering caption to the pic. I swear it was not done intentionally and I do not under any circumstance think that any of my sisters are fat! It was merely a reference to a favorite Christmas song of mine that I decided to title my blog entry.

OOps! Serious faux paux!

Christmas is coming...


The goose is getting fat!

Ok seriously folks. It's November 12th. Since when did Christmas start the first week of November? My sister and I drove to a local winery today to get some peach wine (YUM!) and apple cider donuts. See I'm still in the fall mindset! I don't want to think about snow and Santa yet! Anyhow, we took the kiddos to dinner at Friendlys (have the new buffalo chicken quesidillas. You will NOT be sorry!). Across the street from Friendlys was a big ol house totally decked out for the holidays. About $100 a month electric bill worth of lights and a big ol SEASONS GREETINGS! I say we take back our Thanksgiving and the fall. Who's with me? Start a revolution! Cluck like a turkey! Refuse to acknowledge Christmas til after Turkey Day!! Poor Tom is getting the very short end of the stick here.. Santa's getting a full two months now!!!!!

(Let's not mention how much of my Christmas shopping I've gotten done yet though. Hey I have four kids and two mortgages to worry about!)

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Evil.


She ratted me out to my husband.

Evil. Evil I tell you!

Due to annoying sisters..


I had to edit my last entry. I just have to explain, because Karen certainly thinks she's super cool with her editing capabilities. "You said 'don't get me wrong' twice!"

So I just wanted to make a special entry all about Karen. Don't you feel special now?

Free at last!

Is it bad that I enjoy a night to myself without the hubby? I love him to death- but I LOVE having the bed all to myself. I can take all the covers, lay however the hell I want to, and toss and turn to my hearts content if I want to! Seriously, it's like heaven!

Matt's in Dallas all week. Lucky man. It's 35 degrees right now. He's living it up in 70 degree weather. What happened to the fall? Can someone tell me? Because it went straight from summer to winter. Do you know I saw FLURRIES the other day?? Flurries! In the beginning of November! Seriously, I don't remember that happening in NJ before. We don't usually get snow til at LEAST December.

Don't get me wrong. I LOVE snow. I would love to move back to New England. However, I'm stuck in NJ. So you just learn to expect a few things.... like a nice fall season. Gradually reducing the temperature until it gets ball freezing cold.

Ok back to the alone thing. It's cold in my house, dh is gone in Dallas and I'm sitting on the PC writing in my brand new blog. I think I need a glass of wine to enjoy the solitude!

Ok, in the future I promise to get witty. I just don't have a damn thing to say and I wanted to write in my blog. I'm jealous of my friend who writes ass slapping funny blogs. I wanna be like her!