Saturday

Inspected.

We close on our house in 23 days. We just got the inspection back. Most of the things the buyer requested had to do with the crappy wiring that goes into a house built in 1961. We are not planning on fixing much. We are agreeing to move the CO detector to within 15 feet from a bedroom and will install 2 GFCI outlets in the kitchen.

We are not going to trim any trees, put up any railings to the basement, put covers on the dryer vent, or replace any windows in the basement, among other VERY MINOR things. This buyer is asking a lot of people who just gave them about $7k (and our agent agrees with us that they are being super picky.)

And now we pack.

Wednesday

This is for real.

this sign is actually hanging on a bulletin board at my grad school.

Tuesday

My little old lady next door.

Last weekend while I was in Carbondale packing, I walked General 4 times. During one of our walks, the little old lady next door came out to talk to me (as per usual). We had a nice convo about us selling the house and who the buyers are, and that she saw them and talked to them while they were looking at the house.

Back in August, she gave me her St. Joseph to bury in the backyard. She said he would sell the house, but that we both had to honestly pray to him. While I did say a little prayer to whoever wanted to listen, I didn't exactly pray to St. Joe and I surely did not convince hubby to pray to him.

Last weekend she told me that she found the spot where I buried St. Joe and she moved him two weeks ago. Since August, she had put her house on the market FSBO, so she decided to put St. Joe in between our two houses. She said that she told St. Joe to work his magic on both of our houses, but that he better sell our house first because (to me) "your man in lonely in that big house by himself, I can tell."

She's a little crazy, but she's such a sweet old lady and I will miss her quirkiness and neighborhood gossip.

Monday

28 years ago today the

28 years ago today the man I love dearly was born.

Happy birthday hubby! Love you!

Thursday

Hidden Potential

Instead of House Hunters, I think we should now be on the show called Hidden Potential. If you don't watch HGTV as much as I do and know what that is, it's basically where you buy a junker in the neighborhood you want to live and fix it up.

Tonight while house hunting, we showed my parents a foreclosed house we are pretty interested in. We both LOVE the neighborhood and the lot, and the house seems to be structurally sound. It just needs a little cosmetic face-lift. The most expensive items on that list include new carpet/flooring in most of the house, a new furnace, appliances and light fixtures. The good news is, we could just take out a little bit bigger loan and do it all at the beginning.

While it lacks one of my requests - a double vanity sink in the master bedroom - I'm willing to compromise because it does have a walk-in master closet and a formal dining room and a two-car garage.

We've looked at so many houses in the last six months, but this is one of the few that I could actually see myself living in. I can see us raising our children in this house and watching them play in the backyard.

Wednesday

cat in a bag.

I did not put the cat in the bag. i did move it to be next to General.

The rest of the story

So the people whose offer we rejected last week, came back with a much better offer this week. We have reluctantly accepted. It was not quite as high as we would have liked, therefore decreasing the new house's price significantly.

The good news is, we're moving on. FINALLY. We are house-hunting tomorrow. HGTV hasn't called us yet to send the film crew, but if they do I'll keep you posted. We have two houses in mind that we're pretty interested in, and another that I'm somewhat interested in.

The other good news hubby got the D-coordinator job at local new-to-us-area catholic high school!!! He's super excited about it and if he's in a good mood, that usually makes me in a good mood too!

Monday

Now we're talking

I think we might be in business with the same buyer as last week. Somehow, they found more money.

But I'm keeping my deep freeze.

Saturday

Boots electric

That's Jesse Hughes signing to us on Valentine's day.

Thursday

The story

Someone finally put an offer on our house, barely. They bid $15k less than the house is listed for. We countered at $3k less. They counter-countered at $13k less. We counter-counter-countered at $4k less and threw in the deep-freeze and bar hubby and my dad built in the basement. They rejected our offer. They told our agent they will only go up to $10k less, and our agent recommended we wait for the next buyer to come along than to deal with these people.

Our agent also says they are first-time buyers and will probably be back soon when they realize their errors.

Next.

happy valentines day to me!

I just got these flowers at my desk. Love that hubby!!!

Happy Birthday dad!



So I don't really have a photo of me and my dad from when I was little, but I know that the one of me in the teal is his favorite pic that he took of me when I was young. The other photo is me on my grandpa (his dad)'s lap. Can you tell I'm related to him? At Christmas we had 3D glasses to enhance my aunts lights into shapes. Arent we fun?







Wednesday

Losing weight

The thing that sucks about losing weight is when your pants stop fitting. The other thing that sucks more is not wanting to spend money on new clothes.

Monday

New Post.

We had a great weekend at the mansion relaxing and watching tv. We went to dinner with Em and Rusty and my roomies at Trattoria Marcella. If you are in the mood for eating a 7x8 pan of lasagna, I suggest you go there. Michael ordered that and it looked really good. I stuck with the whole wheat spaghetti for dinner, but caved to try the flash-fried spinach app and cheese polenta jenga stick.

We don't have good news on the house, but traffic has definitely picked up. A family looked last week and has not made a decision yet, so at least we're still in the running. Another family is coming tomorrow. I wouldn't call my outlook hopeful, or optimistic, but I am slightly encouraged that people are out there looking again. It's been about 3 months since we've heard ANYTHING.

I'm hoping Jesse from the Eagles of Death Metal will rock my socks and lift my spirits this weekend.

Friday

Hot tub

The best part of my week this week will be tonight when I relax in my uncle's hot tub with hubby. I think today's weather is perfect for hot tubbing because it's cool enough to want to be in the warm water, but warm enough that you don't have icicles hanging off your chin.

We're staying in St. Chuck this weekend if you need us. Tomorrow is my dad's 60th birthday dinner at Trattoria Marcella. He's turning into such an old man, grumpy and not picking up his feet when he walks.

Tomorrow's celebration is just for the six of us, then we're having a family dinner next week on his actual birthday.

I might tease him about being old, but he knows I love him. I'll always be daddy's little girl. :)

Thursday

Update on nothing.

A lot of things are happening, but nothing is happening. People are looking at our house, but not choosing ours. We put a new roof on, it hasn't done any good yet. I've lost 10 lbs, but want to do better. Valentine's and hubby's birthday are coming up and I have zero dollars to get him a nice present with. Class 1 in grad school is more interesting than I thought it would be. General still has a half-black belly and prefers grandma to me (yes, this hurts my feelings).

Tuesday

Look out for zombies!

I want to know if someone with the initials JMD did this. If so, that's hilarious.

Monday

My WW Quest

I'm currently on the quest to find the best soda-ww cake I can make. Ha that rhymes! Cake I can make!

Ok.

The concept is you mix one box of cake mix with one can of diet soda. No eggs. No oil, just mix and soda. The result is in a 9x13 pan cut into 12 pieces of cake - for only 1 point a piece.

So far, I've made white cake with diet orange soda - this one was excellent. Loved it. I put cool whip -free on it, so it was maybe 1.5 points per piece, but still totally worth it to eat cake.

Last night I made french vanilla cake mix with diet cream soda. It's good, but too vanilla if you know what I mean.

Up next will be either chocolate cake mix or white cake mix with diet dr pepper. I'll keep you posted.

Sunday

General's black belly

Generals belly is turning black. I think this is because he's 4 now which is considered old age for pugs...