House update part 300

We've not closed on the house.
We're still working on it as if we owned it.
Cabinets are ordered and will arrive the 21st of December, making moving in before Christmas a bit of a challenge.

But I have been impressed with my husband's drive to get it done. Heck, with his current motivation we'd have had Mansfield done in 2 years instead of 5. Of course practice makes perfect, I guess. And we're not thinking this will be our house for more than 3-5 years, so if we can like it for that long, we're good.

And I can't believe it, but I haven't taken a picture! I might have a few on my or Larry's phone, but I hadn't dragged the camera there. I think it's a subconscious way for me to block this from my memory.

I might try to take some later this week. For the imaginary scrapbook. Actually.. I have a house-improvement scrap book. Back in the days before I had kids, I had enought time to start one.
Lol. Of course house was finished after we had kids, so it remains unfinished. Like so many other unfinished projects in our lives.

Twas the day before Thanksgiving

And all through the house laundry was strewn everywhere and I'm sure there's a mouse
The toys are tossed  and the floor the kids doused
caused slips,  falls spills and cries
With Mom wishing far away she could fly

The turkey sits frozen in a dish in the Fridge
And dares us to thaw it even a smidge
The stuffing is in the box on the shelf
With the Yams no one would eat but myself

The children are upstairs bouncing on their beds
Mom waiting to hear them bump their heads
Mom in her sweats, Dad off at work
How I wish life was simple as if in a book

But tomorrow we give thanks for all that we have
Grandparents, kids, brothers, sisters, moms and dads
A country known for liberty protected by the brave
For a price few realize the cost that is paid

Food, housing and clothes we have more than enough

How can I think that we have it so tough?
So grumbling aside, I place in my head
A song of Thanksgiving for all said and unsaid

From the weekend

Still don't own the house. No one has returned my calls or emails about when this might happen.

Dumpster is 2/3 full with the contents of the kitchen, broken ceiling fan, 2 rooms of tiles.

I can hardly move my arms from scraping tile up. Literally, I think I was in bed by 9:30 last night.

Larry's met several neighbors, all but 1 seem very nice. I'm sure I'll say more once I've had time and/or more experience to actually decide for myself.


Anyway..
That's all the news from here- where are the women are strong, the children are wild and the men shake their heads and go to work

Brief Update

We've been to the Sequoias and back.

It was nice and I'll come back when I have more time (ha ha ha! perhaps in 2062? Ok- less pressing issues) to upload the pictures. There was...SNOW on the ground and the day we left they were supposed to get FEET of the stuff. We did not have chains for our tires, so we were not supposed to be there.
I didn't realize Sequoias only grow at 5000+ ft altitude.
Silly me.
I was expecting to get there for the 60-something degree weather we have here.

Next time we bring winter coats hats and gloves.

The house closing is not going well.
At all.
The "assistant" who is supposed to be handing our case has let it sit on her desk countless days and now (supposedly) our file is back at an underwriting department for yes, you got it, ANOTHER underwriting. We've been approved but the first underwriting, but apparently there is a second underwriting that has to happen.

And it being a holiday week, if it doesn't get done by Tuesday, we can't close this week.
[bang head here]

And then we go into the penalty stage.... Because Wells Fargo branch A has someone who has dragged her feet and sees no urgency, we will be charged by Wells Fargo branch B because she didn't do her job in a timely manner.

No. Not at all pleased with this turn of events.

I wish I knew a lawyer who could start threatening them with something. Anything. It's just incredibly frustrating.

To top it off, we started  kitchen demolition.
We were told that no one was going to re-inspect the home, it was going to be ours home free when we started demolition. The last date we were supposed to close was Monday- this monday. 2 Days from now. This has since changed.
I have a bad bad feeling this may be a problem.


Oh, yeah, and the dumpster for the carpet etc arrived today.

Up to the minute housing news

We got a message from our realtor that the house finally passed and that we're good to close on Thursday.

And then tonight I get an email and phone message from our mortgage broker assistant wanting to go over the numbers on our W2s and taxes.
Seriously.
I sent back a 'break it down Barney style' email and cc'd her boss.
I am still not in a mood to be messed with. And I'm not even sure who to direct my frustrations about this whole process at. But she got in my line of fire tonight.


So between now and Thursday we might go take a road trip as a family to see the Sequoias.
If I disappear, that's where I'll be.

Or sitting in a corner rocking and moaning to myself

With the good comes the bad

Sometimes it's good that I've been able to get over my fear of talking to people and talk. Sometimes too much and sometimes I says stuff that comes out completely wrong and leads to one of those silences.

Sigh.

The more tightly wound I become the more I have a tendency to say just whatever that comes to my mouth (it skips the mind part, so it doesn't come to mind). With the house and everything else going on, it's safe to say I'm pretty tightly wound these days.

I started running again which used to help me unwind, however I gave myself a bursitis in my foot which put a quick end to that and made me even grumpier. That and the dumb dog tried to bite the rotating belt of the treadmill or has jumped up on it only for it to fling her backwards into a chair. Which the kids think is hysterical if they're awake and encourage her to do it more. But it ruins my rhythm having to stop to yell at the dog to stop or to put her outside to howl to come in or behind her gate to bark and howl to come out. (why did I get a dog??)

But my foot decided it'd had enough of that nonsense, anyway.

Other than that.. it appears the appraiser has it in for us because she doesn't like our real estate agent or the fact that he challenged her appraisal value. Larry is about 1/2 a breath away from calling her up and asking 'what is your problem?!' House has still not passed her inspection and while she's not supposed to add new things when she goes to re-inspect old ones she did and appears that she will. 
I can't wait to hear what she'll say when she sees Larry moved our little trailer into the garage there.
He's about ready to start moving all our tools over there so we can start moving now while she's dinking around with the reports and inspections. Really, we've already been working on fixing it, it's practially ours.
And to be really honest, I'm digging the real estate lock box with key feature. You don't have to worry about loosing the key, you just remember the 4 digit code. That would come in handy here at least weekly.

In other news.. wars and rumors of war.

Kids are doing well, I'm learning a whole lot reading all the history books before deciding to dumb it down considerably for my first graders.  I never understood the Crusaides before. I mean I'd heard of them, particularly with the Spanish Inquisition, but I never understood the reason behind them before. And NOW all the volitility surrounding Jerusulem makes alot of sense to me.

And we also studied comets and shooting stars. Apparently a big one fell in Jerusulem which is a holy site for a religious group. Built a shrine around it and bow to it.  My kids couldn't understand the concept of bowing and worshiping a rock.

But it all ties in. It's pretty wild. And as much as I'd love to send my kids to school, I'm still hemming and hawing on what or how much they'll actually learn there. I mean besides the required gay penguin book in 3rd grade. Yes. It's CA required ciricullum to study a book about gay penguins in 3rd grade. Somethings I could live without living here. That would be one.
The traffic would be another
And the cost of living
And rain would be nice once in a while

But if I need a little kick into being thankful all I have to do is watch the weather channel anytime from now until April. Always makes me feel better about living here. Just wish I could convince family and/or friends to move here with us.

So my father sent me a link

And I thought it was funny enough to share with my bloggy audience of 2.
Or at least it was funny if you'd worked in healthcare or intimately knew someone who did.

But before I went and cut and pasted it for the world to see, I read this: (I bolded for emphasis)

Copyright © 2009 by the American Academy of Family Physicians.
This content is owned by the AAFP. A person viewing it online may make one printout of the material and may use that printout only for his or her personal, non-commercial reference. This material may not otherwise be downloaded, copied, printed, stored, transmitted or reproduced in any medium, whether now known or later invented, except as authorized in writing by the AAFP. Contact fpmserv@aafp.org for copyright questions and/or permission requests.


How's that for wordage? and how much do you imagine they paid a law firm for that line?

But since they won't share, I can't, either.

Bah humbug.


PS.
Does this count as filtering what I write?