Things are going well with the pursuit of homeownership; we have our appraisal on Monday morning at the new place. We can move in on the 23rd of October.
A has become quite verbal lately. On Sunday, I was trying to help him get his shirt on before church and he kept sticking his arm through the neck hole. After a couple of minutes of this, I told him that if he would quit fighting me and let me help him, it would go a lot faster. He looked at me with a wounded expression and said, "I wasn't!" He has also told his sister and the church secretary, ah, administrative assistant to "wait a minute" this week, and he actually thought out loud after school one day, too. If he's a good boy on the school bus, the driver hands out dumdums lollipops, one for him, and one for K who's bouncing off the ground when she sees her brother's bus. She happened to be napping, so we came inside and A dropped his backpack in the hallway (typical kid), held up the two suckers, and said, "Hmmmm.....red or green?.....Green!", handed me the red one, took the wrapper off the green one, and ate it. He also let me read a book to him yesterday morning, for the first time in I can't remember when. The whole thing! Exciting stuff. He's also getting better fine motor skills ~ Ruth from church noticed that he is coloring in the lines (by and large) instead of just fisting the marker and scribbling with abandon all over the page. He's trying to draw bonafide shapes, like circles and squares too. It's funny; I wouldn't usually be an advocate of strict, 'coloring in the lines, all "i"s dotted, etc" mentality (hey, it's art), but for A this is actually a good thing. It shows more fine motor control, and awareness of how things are shaded (he chooses what part of the picture is green, and what should be orange, etc to provide contrast). Go, A, go!
K is also quite the chatterbox now. Despite only turning 18 months on Saturday, she identifies LOTS of things, and uses simple phrases like, "there's a car", "want milk/juice (please)", "pretty flower", "love you", etc. I really think that as she increases her word usage, it's pushing A to do the same.
In monkey news, K happens to be quite a good one. It's official; she met me at her bedroom door yesterday morning, and as I stood there in shock, she turned around and climbed back into her crib. The crib was down an hour later, and A's toddler bed was moved into K's room. It's Thomas the Train, so it's not overtly girly and doesn't exactly match the antique white French provincial dressers and night-table...but you know, it works. She was soooo excited to have her big girl bed, she didn't want to nap yesterday. Last night went a lot easier, she dropped right off to sleep.
Friday, September 28, 2007
Friday, September 14, 2007
Ours
The house is ours. We have a verbal contract with the lawyer on the phone, and we sign the papers after church on Sunday.
It's official.
We close in 30 days.
(Boing boing boing boing boing boing boing boing...)
It's official.
We close in 30 days.
(Boing boing boing boing boing boing boing boing...)
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Home and Kids
First, the house news. The seller called us last night, and she is selling us the house for sure. She said that she was selling us the house, even if someone else showed up and offered her more money, and she was willing to wait as long as we needed to get everything covered and closed. So if we wind up having to wait for the settlement to come in, she's fine with that.
In kid news: A is doing well in school, and is offering an occasional 2-word phrase now. It's still pretty garbled most of the time, and we don't always understand him the first few times, but he's trying. He is also stuck on repeating phrases from movies. Right now it's a quote from Milo and Otis: "Mommy mommy mommy mommy." "I'm not your mommy! You're a chicken you know!" ~ which comes out as "mommy mommy mommy mommy tu ta mommy chicken know." Over....and over....and over....he really likes that part of the movie, where the chick hatches and thinks Otis the dog is his mommy. A has also started a rather interesting self-stim: he raises up his shirt and twists his nipples.
Yes, you read that right.
Over the summer, when it was hovering around the 100 degree mark for the weeks upon weeks that it did, we let him run around in his shorts and no shirt. One day, he discovered "buttons?" on his chest. We told him, "No, those are your nipples." And ever since, he will go for them multiple times a day. Doesn't matter where we are; church, home, grocery store, school, wherever. We tell him, "no, put your shirt down," which he grudgingly does, then he'll reach in the top of his shirt (stretching out the collar) to do it some more.
He has a new teacher at school this year, fresh out of college, and she left us a query about it in our communication notebook we pass back and forth. Her suggestion was to tie his shirt down with a weighted vest to prohibit that behaviour. Since he freaks whenever we put a jacket on him, I advised her against that option. I think this is just a phase that will end, like his incessant chewing finally ceased, and that the vest will cause more problems and disruptions in the short term outweighing any possible benefit. I'm not embarrassed by it, but it is interesting trying to explain what he's doing to other people who don't know him and ask. It's just a part of his stim right now, that we're trying to reduce by distracting him with other activities. That works best for him right now.
He is not currently involved in ABA therapy, because his therapist is having complications with a pregnancy and is in a local hospital until at least the end of October, hopefully November sometime so she can give birth to a healthy baby boy. So if you guys want to pray for Miss Jenny, she'll take all the prayers she can get.
K is fine; she is a wild child. The more people around, the more flirty and show-off-y (and LOUD) she becomes. She loves to dance and is trying to learn how to jump. In the words of the receptionist at the hospital in D.C., "she is BUSY. Oh my goodness! You have your hands full!" (Incidentally, the hospital visit was not for her, but for her daddy who just had corrective eye surgery). She climbs with abandon, and I have recently found her on top of the dining room table several times, all the way up on brother's double bed (which is on a frame), and trying to climb onto the window sill while the window was open on the second floor (heart attack time). She is greased lightning, it only takes her a couple of seconds while I help A go potty to get up there. She has shoved a dining room chair into the kitchen and started to get up on the counters a couple of times, but I rather emphatically deterred her both times.
Her vocabulary is tremendous, increasing daily, and she is already showing signs of being very generous and empathetic. The other day, A had a cold and was at the doctor's office (which he hates). They were attempting to take his blood pressure and look in his ears, and I had to pin him down to the table so they could get their readings. He was screaming, "NO NO NO NO NO" the entire time, and K started to cry because A was upset, she kept saying, "A--, oh, no" and looking very sadly at him. Also, yesterday morning we gave her a cup of juice. She took a sip, then went over and opened up the dishwasher, pulled out one of A's cups, and took it to her daddy asking, "A-- milk?" This surprised the snot out of Z and me, she did this out of her own initiative.
Another day, another unexpected joy.
In kid news: A is doing well in school, and is offering an occasional 2-word phrase now. It's still pretty garbled most of the time, and we don't always understand him the first few times, but he's trying. He is also stuck on repeating phrases from movies. Right now it's a quote from Milo and Otis: "Mommy mommy mommy mommy." "I'm not your mommy! You're a chicken you know!" ~ which comes out as "mommy mommy mommy mommy tu ta mommy chicken know." Over....and over....and over....he really likes that part of the movie, where the chick hatches and thinks Otis the dog is his mommy. A has also started a rather interesting self-stim: he raises up his shirt and twists his nipples.
Yes, you read that right.
Over the summer, when it was hovering around the 100 degree mark for the weeks upon weeks that it did, we let him run around in his shorts and no shirt. One day, he discovered "buttons?" on his chest. We told him, "No, those are your nipples." And ever since, he will go for them multiple times a day. Doesn't matter where we are; church, home, grocery store, school, wherever. We tell him, "no, put your shirt down," which he grudgingly does, then he'll reach in the top of his shirt (stretching out the collar) to do it some more.
He has a new teacher at school this year, fresh out of college, and she left us a query about it in our communication notebook we pass back and forth. Her suggestion was to tie his shirt down with a weighted vest to prohibit that behaviour. Since he freaks whenever we put a jacket on him, I advised her against that option. I think this is just a phase that will end, like his incessant chewing finally ceased, and that the vest will cause more problems and disruptions in the short term outweighing any possible benefit. I'm not embarrassed by it, but it is interesting trying to explain what he's doing to other people who don't know him and ask. It's just a part of his stim right now, that we're trying to reduce by distracting him with other activities. That works best for him right now.
He is not currently involved in ABA therapy, because his therapist is having complications with a pregnancy and is in a local hospital until at least the end of October, hopefully November sometime so she can give birth to a healthy baby boy. So if you guys want to pray for Miss Jenny, she'll take all the prayers she can get.
K is fine; she is a wild child. The more people around, the more flirty and show-off-y (and LOUD) she becomes. She loves to dance and is trying to learn how to jump. In the words of the receptionist at the hospital in D.C., "she is BUSY. Oh my goodness! You have your hands full!" (Incidentally, the hospital visit was not for her, but for her daddy who just had corrective eye surgery). She climbs with abandon, and I have recently found her on top of the dining room table several times, all the way up on brother's double bed (which is on a frame), and trying to climb onto the window sill while the window was open on the second floor (heart attack time). She is greased lightning, it only takes her a couple of seconds while I help A go potty to get up there. She has shoved a dining room chair into the kitchen and started to get up on the counters a couple of times, but I rather emphatically deterred her both times.
Her vocabulary is tremendous, increasing daily, and she is already showing signs of being very generous and empathetic. The other day, A had a cold and was at the doctor's office (which he hates). They were attempting to take his blood pressure and look in his ears, and I had to pin him down to the table so they could get their readings. He was screaming, "NO NO NO NO NO" the entire time, and K started to cry because A was upset, she kept saying, "A--, oh, no" and looking very sadly at him. Also, yesterday morning we gave her a cup of juice. She took a sip, then went over and opened up the dishwasher, pulled out one of A's cups, and took it to her daddy asking, "A-- milk?" This surprised the snot out of Z and me, she did this out of her own initiative.
Another day, another unexpected joy.
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Faith and Patience
All right; let's clear the air first. To whoever has been praying for us to have more patience: KNOCK IT OFF! We keep getting things to practice on.
We talked with the homeowner last night (Monday), and her lawyer friend who is doing the settlement for the home sale had been on vacation, and would be out of town Monday and Tuesday working on another case.
She (the lawyer) is supposed to talk to our mortgage company on Thursday. Let's hope the rates either remain unchanged or drop further, or we can't cover the closing costs any more. Somehow, though, with everything else, I think we're already taken care of. God has been three steps ahead of everything so far, so no worries. The homeowner never did say we "got the house" in so many words, but it does look promising. It is just taking longer than us excited people would like. Z and I are both planners; this is driving us nuts!
**
Then. We got another call from the homeowner this afternoon at lunch time. She was getting our information for the contract (!!), and finding out what the closing window was for our mortgage company (ours is 30 to 45 days). The reason being, she is, and I quote, "slurping out the septic tank for [us] so it's like new". There is always an inspection within 30 days after a cleaning to make sure that the septic tank isn't leaking into the yard, and the homeowner didn't want to "sign a contract with [us] next week, have the septic guys clean it, have it inspected, and then have the closing drag on longer than the closing window so [she]'d have to pay for another inspection"; she only wants to do it once.
!! I've been doing a happy dance every so often for the last two hours.
Guess this means I've got to start packing...we're probably moving by November. :)
Here is the house. You can see the mountains in the background.
We talked with the homeowner last night (Monday), and her lawyer friend who is doing the settlement for the home sale had been on vacation, and would be out of town Monday and Tuesday working on another case.
She (the lawyer) is supposed to talk to our mortgage company on Thursday. Let's hope the rates either remain unchanged or drop further, or we can't cover the closing costs any more. Somehow, though, with everything else, I think we're already taken care of. God has been three steps ahead of everything so far, so no worries. The homeowner never did say we "got the house" in so many words, but it does look promising. It is just taking longer than us excited people would like. Z and I are both planners; this is driving us nuts!
**
Then. We got another call from the homeowner this afternoon at lunch time. She was getting our information for the contract (!!), and finding out what the closing window was for our mortgage company (ours is 30 to 45 days). The reason being, she is, and I quote, "slurping out the septic tank for [us] so it's like new". There is always an inspection within 30 days after a cleaning to make sure that the septic tank isn't leaking into the yard, and the homeowner didn't want to "sign a contract with [us] next week, have the septic guys clean it, have it inspected, and then have the closing drag on longer than the closing window so [she]'d have to pay for another inspection"; she only wants to do it once.
!! I've been doing a happy dance every so often for the last two hours.
Guess this means I've got to start packing...we're probably moving by November. :)
Here is the house. You can see the mountains in the background.
Saturday, September 8, 2007
Waiting on Monday
OK. So Z was awakened by our mortgage broker yesterday afternoon. Apparently the Fed lowered interest rates yesterday afternoon, so they can offer us $5,000 more in a mortgage, but our payments will stay the same. (They'll increase by 2 bucks a month; doable!).
We contacted the lady who owns the house last night. She is talking with her lawyer friend, but seems like she's very agreeable to our most recent offer, where we pay the closing costs out of the mortgage loan. She will still get the original amount she was OK with on Wednesday. And her whole demeanor was changed in a positive way, and she said something very interesting just before we got off the phone...."God knows the desires of your heart, and the Lord moves in mysterious ways sometimes."
!
We'll know for sure on Monday evening, her lawyer is on vacation ending on Sunday....
Really, now, how often does a bank call you and tell you they want less money? (Which if we hadn't altered our amount by 5K, with the lower interest rate they would have received almost 10,000 less).
The urge to start jumping up and down for joy is becoming more and more difficult to tamp down...but still ~ we wait for Monday.
:)
We contacted the lady who owns the house last night. She is talking with her lawyer friend, but seems like she's very agreeable to our most recent offer, where we pay the closing costs out of the mortgage loan. She will still get the original amount she was OK with on Wednesday. And her whole demeanor was changed in a positive way, and she said something very interesting just before we got off the phone...."God knows the desires of your heart, and the Lord moves in mysterious ways sometimes."
!
We'll know for sure on Monday evening, her lawyer is on vacation ending on Sunday....
Really, now, how often does a bank call you and tell you they want less money? (Which if we hadn't altered our amount by 5K, with the lower interest rate they would have received almost 10,000 less).
The urge to start jumping up and down for joy is becoming more and more difficult to tamp down...but still ~ we wait for Monday.
:)
Thursday, September 6, 2007
The Waiting Game
Well.
We saw the house and yard.
Everything is in excellent condition and beautiful. It's less than 5 minutes to the Interstate, and when it snows the guy who plows for the county is the nearest neighbor, and he plows his way out to get to the other roads. (So our roads are done before the snow emergency route. Sweet!).
She was willing to accept $12K less than her asking price, but no more, and she isn't willing to pay the closing costs.
So now we wait, because we don't have enough to cover closing costs if she takes our full amount available.
Either she waits until our settlement comes in from the car accident (May 2006), which should be in sometime the next 2-3 months, or she reconsiders and just accepts it the way we offered it. (Preferable for us).
We're not worried about it; we got this far. If God wants us in this house, it's already taken care of. And if He doesn't, then He's got something better somewhere else. Now we just have to be patient. :) That's the hard part!
We saw the house and yard.
Everything is in excellent condition and beautiful. It's less than 5 minutes to the Interstate, and when it snows the guy who plows for the county is the nearest neighbor, and he plows his way out to get to the other roads. (So our roads are done before the snow emergency route. Sweet!).
She was willing to accept $12K less than her asking price, but no more, and she isn't willing to pay the closing costs.
So now we wait, because we don't have enough to cover closing costs if she takes our full amount available.
Either she waits until our settlement comes in from the car accident (May 2006), which should be in sometime the next 2-3 months, or she reconsiders and just accepts it the way we offered it. (Preferable for us).
We're not worried about it; we got this far. If God wants us in this house, it's already taken care of. And if He doesn't, then He's got something better somewhere else. Now we just have to be patient. :) That's the hard part!
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
House Hunters ~ Maryland
Z and I have been wanting to move out to the community where our church is located. It will make it so much easier to be involved with the projects and activities we have going, plus it's an excellent school district for the kids. Plus, he is out of the military soon and we need our own place in just over a year regardless. With A's issues about changes in his routine, it may be easier to go ahead and move out there now, and then keep coming to his regular therapists, and then when Z changes jobs and insurance carriers, switch providers (if we have to) then instead of everything all at once.
On a lark, Sunday we drove around the area looking at different things for sale and we happened upon a For Sale By Owner. It has everything we needed (3 bedrooms), plus some of the stuff we wanted (2 full bathrooms and an additional bedroom for a guest room/office, on just over an acre of land so the kids have room to play and I have room to garden). PLUS, there are additional things that we just love: the house is gorgeous and only 5 years old, and we have a view of the mountains. Off one of the two decks!) ~ the only thing is, the asking price is 12K more expensive than what we have been approved for. With the way the market is here, though, she may just jump on it. The house has been up for sale for several months. What we can offer is still $100K more than she paid for it five years ago, so she's making quite the hefty return, nearly doubling her initial investment.
That's the other crazy thing: with Z's credit being bruised after his divorce almost six years ago, we didn't figure we'd qualify for such a large amount, nor for a fixed rate (we counted on an adjustable one, even though we would have preferred the other kind), and figured our interest rate would be pretty high.
Lo and behold, we have 3 different mortgage companies fighting over him, and the best offer so far is a 30-yr, fixed rate of 6.25%. Which is fantastic for here, the lowest most banks will go is 6.50, most are up around 6.98. And that's for perfect credit people, which we most definitely aren't (we aren't that bad, either, but it's not tickling 800 by any stretch).
And we have an appointment at the house tonight to see more and talk turkey.
!
We figured that doors wouldn't even be opened for such a venture, and they're not only open, they're slammed wide open. We have been praying that if this isn't the right one, everything would be shut hard...and so far things just keep getting better and better. We have our approval letter in hand. Z applied on Monday and got it back yesterday (Tuesday). There is absolutely no way we should have made it this far in the process, so we know it has to be God. So we're excited, but trying not to be TOO excited. We'll see where this takes us!
Will post more later, including pictures if we get it. :)
On a lark, Sunday we drove around the area looking at different things for sale and we happened upon a For Sale By Owner. It has everything we needed (3 bedrooms), plus some of the stuff we wanted (2 full bathrooms and an additional bedroom for a guest room/office, on just over an acre of land so the kids have room to play and I have room to garden). PLUS, there are additional things that we just love: the house is gorgeous and only 5 years old, and we have a view of the mountains. Off one of the two decks!) ~ the only thing is, the asking price is 12K more expensive than what we have been approved for. With the way the market is here, though, she may just jump on it. The house has been up for sale for several months. What we can offer is still $100K more than she paid for it five years ago, so she's making quite the hefty return, nearly doubling her initial investment.
That's the other crazy thing: with Z's credit being bruised after his divorce almost six years ago, we didn't figure we'd qualify for such a large amount, nor for a fixed rate (we counted on an adjustable one, even though we would have preferred the other kind), and figured our interest rate would be pretty high.
Lo and behold, we have 3 different mortgage companies fighting over him, and the best offer so far is a 30-yr, fixed rate of 6.25%. Which is fantastic for here, the lowest most banks will go is 6.50, most are up around 6.98. And that's for perfect credit people, which we most definitely aren't (we aren't that bad, either, but it's not tickling 800 by any stretch).
And we have an appointment at the house tonight to see more and talk turkey.
!
We figured that doors wouldn't even be opened for such a venture, and they're not only open, they're slammed wide open. We have been praying that if this isn't the right one, everything would be shut hard...and so far things just keep getting better and better. We have our approval letter in hand. Z applied on Monday and got it back yesterday (Tuesday). There is absolutely no way we should have made it this far in the process, so we know it has to be God. So we're excited, but trying not to be TOO excited. We'll see where this takes us!
Will post more later, including pictures if we get it. :)
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