I Am Sam

So far so good. No more snags with the house or anything. Yay! Our closing date is 4/20, which is a Wednesday...which is weird but oh well. I'm hoping to not have to take off any extra time other than that Wednesday, but we'll see.

When we had the inspection done, or appraisal...I can't remember which. They pointed out a couple things that needed to be fixed before selling. There was a deck board with a chunk out of it, part of the fascia was missing, and the paint was chipping off the inside walls of the deck. Scott fixed the deck board and put up a piece of fascia where it was missing. We weren't sure what exactly they wanted us to do with the deck but Scott said he'd just power wash it and then use my Dad's paint sprayer and spray a coat on super fast. I didn't want to spend any money on it so I said we could just use whatever paint we have left over from all the work we've done. Surely there had to be some white or tan to use on it. As we were going through the garage (finally) I found an almost full can of white exterior paint. Perfect! So, Scott power washed the deck last night and will probably paint it today when he gets home from work. Then I guess the inspector has to come back out to check it? I dunno.

As far as the house we're buying, they were supposed to contact our sellers and schedule the appraisal last week. It never happened. So yesterday I spoke with our sellers and got phone numbers corrected and all that and it is now scheduled for Thursday. This part scares me a bit because if the appraisal comes in low...that's all we can get the loan for, even tho we already agreed on a price. So hopefully it will be higher or right around the amount we offered. If its too much lower we'll obviously have to try and negotiate but I'm not sure how much these people are going to want to. Guess we'll see...

So excited to call this house home!

Well, we hit our first snag in this home buying/selling process. Our buyers' lender required an appraisal on our house (apparently this is required for all loans now...it didn't use to be according to Scott). Anyways, in our minds the house was worth more than what we'd accepted for an offer. We know how much we've put in to it and what not so we thought we were already losing money. Turns out, the appraisal actually came in $4k lower than the offer we'd accepted. Which COMPLETELY sucks!

We'd tried negotiating with our buyers to see if they could possibly come up with any more or something. They offered $2k more than the appraised cost. Which, wouldn't have been a big deal if the woman wasn't such a bitch about it. I thought, since we were getting less than we'd wanted/needed that we'd accept that offer but keep the swing set, which had been included in the agreement. The woman said "well, that swing set was part of the agreement..." (she was much more rude about it though) so Scott replied "Yea, so was the offer we accepted!"

Anyways, after going back and forth we decided that it really wasn't worth it anymore and we just wanted to get everything over with so we accepted and are leaving the stupid swing set. However, we will NOT be leaving the other stuff they wanted unless they pay us cash for it. This included a cabinet, which I looked up and its $180 and our super cool spice rack that I think was about $40-50.

The spice rack was mentioned in a couple texts throughout this entire thing and the woman stated "it's attached so it is supposed to stay..." its just as attached as all my wedding photos...you want those too?! This woman....I tell ya. If we didn't want to be done with this so badly she wouldn't get sh*t!

Now we just have to wait for the appraisal on the house we're buying to be completed and come back and hopefully there wont be an issue there. That will probably be ordered next week some time so that it will still be valid on the closing date. The closing date is April 20th BTW. I can't wait. I need to get Scott moving on packing up the junk in the garage....he thinks he has sooooo much time but I'm guessing he wont have it anywhere close to done before its time to move.

Men....

~This may be slightly confusing but our buyers accepted on offer on their house. They're also hoping to be out by the end of March. However, the bank told them that their sale will take about 70 days and that would put us at the end of April. They've asked if they could rent our house at the end of March until their sale goes through. Our sale, will luckily be able to be completed by the end of march so we would be moving in then. March 25th is the date we're shooting for.

Now, since our buyers' sale wont be completed until April we wont get our proceeds from our house until then which means we'll be a little short on our purchase. Scott has it all figured out though so I just let him handle all that stuff.

I'm so excited to move though. Happened pretty quick.

So...
I started gathering boxes from work to bring home for packing. I've found that the print paper boxes are my best bet so far. No shortage of those! Last Friday I was carrying two of them out...now, you have to understand that EVERY door in this building is a rotating one...unless you're handicapped. So squeezing in them with two boxes wasn't the easiest thing in the world. Once I was on the other side of the door, I failed to realize how windy it really was....they blew straight outta my hands!! I gave up...I wasn't about to chase them! So there they sit, clear the heck away from the door, inbetween buildings, stuck in the snow...not my problem now. I got four more yesterday so I'm alright for now.


~Boston got his second stripe the other night so now he just needs one more before he can get his yellow belt! :) Unfortunately he (we) forgot his belt that night so he'll have to get the actual stripe when we go tomorrow.

Also, Scott signed him and myself up to do TKD as well. This was a surprise to me. We'd mentioned it but hadn't fully discussed it and then he just kinda went and signed us up. Okie Dokie then....

We'll probably get our uniforms tomorrow and hit up our first class on Thursday. My worry about this is that Boston's class starts at 6 and goes to 6:30 and adult classes start at 7:15. So there is 45 minutes in there of nothing and then our class goes until 8:15 and that's past his bedtime. So by the time we're done and get home (half hour), it'll be almost 9PM. Those nights are going to make for rough mornings! I suppose he'll adjust. He usually does, but he's already like a teenager to get outta bed in the morning. Ugh!

Only about two months behind this time! Go me!

Boston has been kicking butt at TaeKwonDO! He has broken two boards, both with his elbow, and he's earned one stripe. I guess they have stripe testing once a month and when a child gets 3 stripes they then move up to the next belt color. He has stripe testing again tonight so maybe he'll come home with another one!

They do "pole jumping" each time the group goes through it gets raised up another level. When boston first arted thishe'd do a little hop right before jumping and then not really be able to clear the pole. He's gotten much better and can jump a lot higher now :)
 They also test their kicking skills. Each kid goes through the line and kicks the ball a few times. Boston has a pretty good kick, this is no problem for him.

Right before Christmas Boston mentioned something about being a Ninja. I told him that we could sign up for TaeKwonDo if he really wanted to. He said "but I want to play t-ball". I explained to him that he could do both and that we'd go check things out when we got the chance.

We went to Jacob's in Urbandale. This is quite a ways from our house but Scott knows the Jacobs family and I didn't feel like fighting about it. :)

When we first went I assumed we would just sit outside the room and watch the other kids and Boston would see if he thought it would be fun. I was wrong. Mrs. Jacobs had Boston (and another first timer) take off their shoes and join the class. He was very shy about it but went in and listened pretty well. He didn't really go through any of the motions like he was supposed to but I didn't mind. He was in the room. He wasn't crying. He was listening to everything else.

Once the class was over I told him how good he did and asked if he had fun. He initially liked it but when I said "Do you want us to sign you up?" he said "Actually....I didn't like it...."

All I thought was "I call bullshit!!".

But what I said was "Well, we're going to come back again on Wednesday and try again." He said OK and we were on our way.

Wednesday when I dropped him off at school in the morning I told him Dad was going to pick him up. He said "I kinda do want you to sign me up for.........whatever its called."  "TaeKwonDo?"  "Yea, that."

I was elated!!! SOMETHING he found interest in! FINALLY!! This kid just doesn't care...about anything. Shows no interest....in anything.

So, we went back on Wednesday. Same thing. He went in. He listened. He participated just enough to get by but I could tell that he was getting into it. So, we signed him up, he got his uniform and he was the happiest lil boy around! He was told that in order to get his white belt he had to recite a pledge...

"I must  ------   myself in a positive manner and avoid anything that would reduce my mental or physical health" (Bad mom can't remember the whole thing!!)

But he did!!

Due to weather and Holidays we've only been able to go back twice since then. The first time we went back was the following Monday. He'd memorized his pledge and received his white belt!!! That was 12/21/15. He was sooooooooooo excited!!!

The second time was yesterday. Well, apparently, once every month they have board breaking days. This was one of those days. $2 a board. I didn't "sign him up" for it, thinking....there's no way this kid is going to get up in front of the other kids and do something he's never even tried before. NOT. A. CHANCE.

I was wrong...

I ended up signing him up and thought. If he doesn't do it, I save $2. :) Because of this he was last to go....

He got up....

Practiced his elbow strike with Mrs. Jacobs....

Stepped up to the board....

SNAPPED it in half like it was nothing!!

I couldn't believe it!!!

I missed getting it on camera becuase my phone was dying and its new and I couldn't find the camera fast enough.. Damnit.

I'm so proud of him. So overwhelmingly proud. This child is so shy and has very little self confidence and I tried and tried to find something, ANYTHING he would be interested in...we've found it.

I can see his confidence building with each class.

I love it.
He loves it.
Scott loves it.
We're so happy for him.

Well, I've proven it once again...that I'm terrible at keepin gup with this thing. I don't think about it most of the time and then also, I don't think my life is all that interesting to post that often either. :)

Let me see if I can catch up. Although I'm sure the people reading this are on Facebook too and know already!

We bought a camper. Sold the boat, bought a camper. Scott decided to sell the boat because for some reason thelake this year was FULL OF DRAMA. It wasn't even any fun anymore. I didn't enjoy going out there unless it was without Boston. most of the reason behind that is because when I have him out there I don't really like to drink (makes me nervous since he doesn't know how to swim yet). Course, when I don't drink and everyone else is hammered....its not fun, I get annoyed and I go home with Boston. Yay. Fun. Scott was tired of all the drama too plus a large number of his friends just go camping instead, included his brother and his mom. So, after we sold the boat Scott got a wild hair and decided we were going to go to the RV Show at the Fairgrounds. I assumed we were just wasting time, looking around to see if we like anything and then discuss it further. ....I was wrong....

We found one we really liked that suited us for what we wanted to do. Big enough for other to come stay with us but not like a million dollar house on wheels. They really aren't that expensive either, surprisingly (cheaper than my car!!) We had a pretty busy fall but we able to take the camper out two or three times before seasons end. We got it broke in and bought thing specifically for it so it'll be a nice little place to stay. Boston also loves it, much more than the boat. His cousins can come out and play, theres usually a playground close by, we can bring the dogs, we can go fishing, so many more things to do than on the boat. (Although, I realyl do like the tan I would always get).

I fully plan on taking that bad boy up to Green Bay sometime next season, if only to tailgate. I'm so excited for nicer weather so we can get out and enjoy it some more. Here's a pic of the inside....



On the way to the campgrounds there were a lot of nice houses and land for sale. This sparked Scott's interest in looking for a new house, or building a new one. He wanted to be more in the country and have a little more land. I started looking, because I was bored at work, not really thinking....like many of Scott's ideas....that this would actually go anywhere. Weeeeeellllllllllllllllll....it just so happens that I found a house in northern Bondurant that is absolutely GORGEOUS! Four bedroom, 2.5 bath, unfinished basement, almost one full acre on a corner lot, access to the nearby "lake", on a culdesac with lots of kids around. Ugh! Love it!



Scott absolutely fell in love!! And so did I!! We set up a time to view it. Took a tour, loved the owners and put in an offer. They accepted and we put our house up for sale as soon as we could. It is now listed on Zillow and FSBOhomes.com.

The hard part is going to be selling our house. We have no basement and I have a feeling that will be our downfall. The sellers didn't give a time frame for us to sell but obviously they aren't going to wait forever. :) Hopefully spring will bring the right buyer our way and we can get things moving.

Just about every year my Dad and I go to the Good Guys Car Show at the Fairgrounds. We did skip it last year, which was sad but time just didn't work out. Of course, once Boston was born, he joined us also and always does a great job checking out all the cars and not being too whiney. Also, Scott has joined us in recent years also.

We got there about 9:30 and didn't leave until 3. Boston walked the entire time. I couldn't believe it. It has grown so big that we didn't even get through all the cars within that 4 hours!! A little insane and overwhelming but totally worth it!

I've always been partial to the older trucks mostly...








Scott loves the ol' Mopars and of course, the Road Runners...






I'm not sure what my dads favorite is...he kinda likes everything :)



I have a million other pics somewhere but since I'm at work I don't fully have access to them all. I love spending the day with my men! They're the best and they love that I'm a car girl :)