It's finally happening!

Tomorrow, at 10:00 am on 12/31/12, we will be signing paperwork to be homeowners. I can't believe it's finally happening after waiting so long! God has really come through for us on this house, so it must be the one for us.

After all the junk with the qualifying incomes and homeownership counseling program, the inspection and appraisal, the counter-offers and haggling, the packing and more packing, we've finally come to the time where the house will be ours. Tomorrow, after we get the keys, I will take lots of pictures with my new camera so everyone who's not here can see what a great house it is for us. We won't have internet until the 4th, but I will hopefully be using that time to unpack and get settled so I can upload the pictures the minute we get online again. :-)

About that new camera...

Yesterday, while I was closing up the branch at work, I got a text message from our credit card company. They asked if I had authorized a $296.79 charge for BestBuy. I almost texted and told them no, but I decided to call Nat and see if he had done it, and if so why he had bought something that expensive. So I called and asked. This was roughly the conversation that followed:

Did you buy something for around $300 at BestBuy?

Yes.

What did you get?

A TV.

What?? Why did you get a $300 TV when we have a perfectly good one??

I can return it.

But why did you get one? We'll talk about it when I get home.

There were a few more exchanges of "I can take it back" and "Whatever, we'll talk about it later" after this, but since I was fuming, I didn't really think it would be good to continue the conversation. So I texted our CC company back and told them that it wasn't fraud and went home.

Nat was sheepish. And rightfully so, if I do say so myself. We have been scrimping and saving every penny over the last 6 months because we have student loans to pay and we were trying to buy a house. When we got the actual amount that we would need to pay at closing, it was a few thousand less than we were planning. Apparently, Nat had told me that he didn't mind spending money now because we had some extra. I missed that statement, but apparently he was okay with purchasing a new TV because it was on sale. After more exchanging of "I can take it back" and "why because we don't want TV's in the bedrooms" (personal choice which he misunderstood because he thought I did want one in our bedroom), he said that the TV was actually small in comparison to the other thing he bought.

What other thing?

Are you sure you want to know? It was supposed to be a surprise for our new house, along with the TV.

What other thing did you buy?

Okay. I bought you a camera.

You got me a camera?

Yes. It's almost exactly like the one you had on your amazon wish list, but better. Do you want me to tell you how much it cost?

No... How much?

Anyway, we have been discussing the fact that I want a new camera, a nice camera that I can use to pick up as a photography hobby. He was right, the TV was small in comparison. They were supposed to both be presents that would have bows on them in the new house, a bigger TV and my camera. Our CC company spoiled the surprise by the fraud alert (Nat's fault because he tried to do them in 2 separate transactions back to back), but it was probably better that way. I'm not a huge fan of financially large surprises, but this time it was okay. We've been talking about getting me a camera for a long time, but it was always one of those 'wait until after we...' kind of deals.

It was done from a good place, but he was in the dog-house for a while after that. It took me a while to wrap my head around how much he spent on my camera and the TV, as well as a wireless router for the house (ours is awful and slowly cratering).

................................

Now we're almost completely packed (and by we, I mean I packed everything), and ready to go to settlement. It's been a long and harrowing process, but will be worth it! I'm ready to have  more room and not have to share a bathroom with company! Very ready for that last bit. Pictures will be coming soon (hopefully).

It's been a while...

... so much for my aspiration of writing at least weekly.

Things have been crazy lately. In the biggest news, we lost the house we had been waiting on for 4 months. They wouldn't budge on their price by more than $2000, which was way out of our price range. The house is now listed for the price that the bank has approved and it's way more than the house is worth in my opinion.

So we continued looking at other houses to see if we could find something else. We saw a few houses online that were worth looking at, one of them being a brand new house in a developing area. When our realtor showed us the house, I had to try really hard not to fall in love with it. I didn't want to get my hopes up again and then be let down. Although there were 2 houses that we really liked on that look, we decided to get more information about the new construction house.

The only reason the house was still on the market (since it was brand new and really well priced) was because it is owned by Arundel Community Development Services, or ACDS. They are a government group that's run by the county which helps mid to low income first-time home buyers purchase quality housing. For us, that pretty much just means lots of paperwork and hoops to jump through. To put an offer in on this house, we had to apply for a program that has an income cap and requires HUD-certified housing counseling for each participant. After they wiggled our income down to fit the requirements, we haggled about the offer a bit. But now, we have a contract!!

We're supposed to go to settlement before the end of the year, but it's looking like it's going to be the 31st of December. We had to put in a 30 day intent to vacate at our apartment complex, so it's going to be tight. We didn't want to pay any additional rent, so our move out date is the 31st. If we close that day, it's going to be a rough day! Oh, and did I mention that my inlaws are going to be here that whole week? Crazy (or as a friend would put it: cray-cray!).

I'm looking forward to Christmas because we will get to see family, but I'm also pretty sad. My family can't travel up here (since my dad's surgery... more on that later), and I can't take off work to go down there so we won't get to visit my family during the holidays. After some periods of introspection, I have discovered that this really upsets me. This will be the first time ever that I won't get to see my family during the holidays. I'm very glad that Nat's family is coming up, stressed, but glad. It will be really nice to see them and have them over for a little while, and we'll get to go down to Virginia to see additional family as well. Unfortunately, I still have to work. :(

Back to my family not being able to travel: my dad had some pretty invasive neck surgery in mid-November. He had narrowing of the spinal column, 3 bulging disks, and was beginning to have some nerve damage from the difficulties he was experiencing. So, the doctors decided that he needed to have the surgery sooner rather than later, so they had it set in less than 3 weeks from when the decision was made. Fast turn around, and a several weeks later, he is doing well. From what they tell me, it has been a long recovery for Dad as well as for Mom because she is the caretaker. For a few weeks, he wasn't allowed to do anything other than get up and go to the bathroom on his own. Anyway, he's doing MUCH better now.

Hate to be a downer during Christmas time, but I really want to go home! *insert sappy country song here*

I'll end on a happy note: I beat my sister at Words with Friends, and here's a picture of our house!

Apple picking and pumpkin pie!

So today was a much better day, weather wise and fun wise!

It was supposed to be just as cold today, but not as wet. A friend, her baby, Nat, and I all went to the farm we had planned on going to yesterday. It was pretty cold (about 50˚), but the baby was all wrapped up in a wrap on Mom (or me after the wrap was hurting her C-section incision after a while) and we were wearing jackets so it wasn't too bad.

On the way, we stopped to get gas in her car on post. Their gas station only allows people to go to the pumps one way, and they are always full of cars. This is what we had to do:

Yes. That is the hose stretched across the car. Don't worry, Nat was watching it to make sure everything went okay.

Anyway, the farm was about a hour away from where we live, and in a completely different atmosphere. When you get off the highway, you go to small country roads with open fields and good crops. It was much more like the open spaces you find in Texas. And the houses were HUGE!

The farm had pick your own stuff, as well as stuff that had already been harvested. We chose to pick our own apples from their orchard. It was so much fun! They had 8 or 9 different kinds of apples, I think we got almost of them. Here I am picking a Suncrisp apple.

I believe I'm going to make applesauce with several of the apples. Nat wants an apple pie though. We may have enough. Here are a few more pictures of us at the orchards.

I didn't realize that apple trees were so small. They make good apples though!

Here's a tall one.

That's my friend on the right (because that's obviously not my hubby). They were looking for larger apples. The Braeburn apples were all fairly small.

We also got a pumpkin. There were several different kinds, but the pumpkin pie bin caught my eye. I didn't know it, but they have pumpkins specially bred to be good in pies. I figured now would be a good time to make a pumpkin pie from scratch, I've never done one before.

I sent Nat to the store for evaporated milk, but we had everything else. So I started.

Cooking the pumpkin was by far the hardest part. I cut it up and pulled out the seeds (planning on toasting them later).

Then you boil them in about an inch of water for half a hour. This is the beginning, they were more yellow at the end. But I forgot to get a picture of that. Then you skin them and put all the 'meat' into the mixing bowl.

While the pumpkin was cooking, I made the two pie crusts by hand with my mother-in-law's recipe. It's one of the best I've had.

Ready to go in the oven!

The finished product! 

About to try the first bite!

It turned out pretty well overall! We didn't have any whipped cream (we forgot it at the store), but it was still very good.

It cooked really fast, 10 minutes less than was said in the recipe. Or our oven is off, which I've been thinking for a while. Real pumpkin does taste different than the canned stuff, it's actually weaker in taste. It may work to try it with another pumpkin and boil it down to concentrate the taste. Maybe something to think about. I'm pretty sure I won't be cooking real pumpkin pies again for a while, it's too much work!

Much better day than yesterday.

My mood matches the weather.

Ever have one of those days where nothing goes right? That was today.

I volunteer in the church nursery on Sunday mornings now, with the 12-18 month olds. One of the little boys fell and busted his lip. While I was cleaning him up, the other little boy in class that day had a meltdown because I was holding boy #1 instead of him. He didn't stop until I put down boy #1 and picked him up to rock him in the rocking chair. (And I've been working in the nursery for almost 2 months now and I still don't have a name tag, but that's not that big of a deal.)

We had planned to go apple picking with our small group from church after our 3rd service got out, which was going to be really exciting. And now it's cold and raining, so no one showed up. I had only heard back from 2 people anyway, so the whole thing probably would have been a bust anyway, regardless of the rain. I was really looking forward to going because I've wanted to do that ever since we learned that we were moving here. I missed it last season, and it's a rather short season so we only have a few weeks left to go.

When we left the church after waiting for people, I remembered we were going to pass CVS where my prescription was waiting to be picked up. So we stopped by to grab it. After waiting for the 5 people in line in front of me, I got up to the counter and told the lady my name. She hunted. And hunted. And checked the computer. And hunted again. Apparently, when I called in for a refill, it didn't take. So we waited some more, and when I finally got back up to the counter (I had to get in line again) they had gotten my order ready.

It's depressing days like this that just make me want to crawl back in bed and start the day over. Too bad it's closer to bed time than it is to morning. : (

Hurry! Hurry! Hurry!... Nevermind.

I'm finally posting again! I've been meaning to write a post for a while, but I just haven't gotten around to it until now.

First, an update on how our housing situation is unfolding. On Sept. 1, 30 days before we were supposed to close on the house, I emailed our realtor asking for an update because we probably should have heard something by then. She got back to me and said she should check with the listing agent and get back to us.

So we waited for a few days. She called me on Wednesday evening with some bad-ish news. According to the listing agent, the title company that the sellers requested us to use was causing problems. We opted to use this company because we thought it might make the process move faster and the were even a bit cheaper than the company we were planning on using. Unfortunately, that's not the case anymore. After the listing agent found out that the company hadn't submitted our application for a MONTH after we got all the paperwork taken care of, she fired them. Instead of a title company now, we're working with an attorney's office that specializes in titling and short sales. Hopefully things will go much faster now.

All in all, we're at least 30 days behind on everything. Fortunately, we don't have to start over, but we're going to have to wait at least an extra 30 days. Ugh. One more month paying an arm and a leg in rent. At least it's just a delay. Now we know that the bank hasn't just flat turned our offer down. :)

Second, you know those episodes of Scooby Doo where they drive the Mystery Machine through fog rising off the pavement? That exists!! Over the last few weeks, it's rained several times here, after the sun had been shining most of the day on the pavement. At night, there is steam/fog rising up from the ground to make a low lying haze in front of car headlights. I always thought that was just a dramatic trick of the animators.

Third, I'm attempting to grow herbs again. I bought another basil plant (after I've purchased one and been given one, both of which I promptly assassinated). So far, it's been almost a week and I haven't killed it yet. I changed the planter I put it into, and I'm trying to remember to not over or under water it. I put the basil and my regrowing mint into one pot, and my rosemary and lavender into the other. I hope they do well! I think I'm going to have to bring them inside soon because it's getting pretty cold at night. Some of those plants are supposed to be annuals, but I think if I bring them inside during the winter I can trick them into growing more than one season. :)

Fourth, and finally, I'm really looking forward to fall this year! I can't wait until the trees start changing and we can go apple picking! I will be sure to post lots of pictures!

Socialites?

Over the past week, we have been eerily social. All the time. I'm going to write about this because it marks our achievement of actually making and spending time with friends. :)

Sunday: Church time with friends, saw several people and stayed for a while after church to chat.
Monday: Going away party with our friends for someone who is deploying tomorrow. We sat and chatted for a few hours, had some great food and fun, as well as some deep fried oreos. There were lots of people there and it was a great time.
Tuesday: The same couple we were celebrating the night before came over for dinner. He is deploying tomorrow, and their baby is due in a month. Nat and I are going to be there as much as possible and video tape Baby as much as possible so we can send them to him while he's over seas.
Wednesday: My cousin Kim came up from Norfolk where she's stationed to stay the night with us. We hung out and went to Annapolis to see the Naval Academy (she's in the navy), then watched Despicable Me because she hadn't ever seen it. We had a blast. She is returning home this morning.
Thursday: Nat is playing kickball with his team after work. I'm sitting that one out.
Friday: Consolation get together to help the aforesaid soon-to-be-mom and take her mind off of things, after work of course. Nat is sitting this one out because it's a girls night out. :)
Saturday: Headed down to Virginia to see Nat's aunt and uncle for the evening. We'll leave after I get off work to make the hour-ish trip down there.
Sunday: Church with Nat's family, and probably lunch as well. Then we're headed over to Alexandria, VA to see Jeremiah and Katie Gibson who are down here from Boston for a few days. We're headed to dinner with them in the evening.

As people who normally only are social on Sunday, we might hit a bit of overload at some point! It's been a great week though! We have wonderful friends and family, I think I'm actually learning to like it here. :)

Next Steps

We did things rather out of order with this housing issue. We put in an offer on Saturday for more than the amount we had been approved for with the bank. Then we went to the bank to see if we could raise our approval. Fortunately, they were willing to do that so we won't have to back out of our end of the deal.

We signed our lives away with all the paperwork on Saturday, and our wonderful realtor explained the process to us. Once we put in an offer with the listing realtor (the one who's selling the house), she will take it to the owners for their approval. If they approve everything, then the agent will take the offer to the bank since this sale is a short sale. Our realtor Katerina was also kind enough to talk us through what a short sale is, which for those who do not know is as follows: when a homeowner can no longer pay their mortgage they have two options. Those options are a short sale and foreclosure. Banks are getting pretty tired of foreclosures in this market, so short sales are increasing in frequency. A short sale is kind of the first step to a foreclosure. The bank and seller both agree that the house needs to be sold as soon as possible, and at a lower price than the balance of the mortgage on the house. Since the sale will be short to pay off the mortgage, the bank will swallow the losses and write them off at the end of the year on their taxes or whatever they do. The seller does not make any money off the house, but they are no longer liable nor do they have to pay taxes and the mortgage payments on that house. If a bank is willing to do that, it's a good alternative to a foreclosure. It also doesn't hurt your credit as badly I don't think.

Anyway, once the seller agrees to the offer, it gets sent to the bank for approval. That's where we are right now. The seller has approved our offer (wooo!!!) with only a minor change. It was listed with the realtor that they were also selling their fridge, but they have decided to keep that. I think we're okay with that since our offer was lower than the asking price. Now we're just waiting to hear from the bank!

If/When we have a contract on the house I will post a picture. :)

We're approved!

As evidenced by the title of this post, we have been credit approved for a mortgage! It's wonderful news, and we're planning on putting in an offer on a great house as soon as possible.

We actually found out that we were approved a week ago, but we hadn't seen anything particularly interesting until today. We went to showings with our realtor on Wednesday to 3 houses. The first was fine, not something that we were even remotely interested in. The second house was so cute! It was one of those houses that has so much character it's really hard to pass up. It had a white picket fence, beautiful floors and a great fireplace. There were lots of hidden passages and storage places, random doors that didn't lead anywhere, and an absolutely beautiful kitchen. Unfortunately, it didn't suit our needs at all. It's not worth purchasing a house just because it has character (although it was tempting!). The last house we saw was supposed to need 'cosmetic work'. That statement normally means that the house needs some paint, possibly even new carpet or sheetrock on the walls. The house we walked into was disgusting. There were holes in the walls, the baseboard heater was falling apart, there was mold on the furniture and carpet. That house needed so much more than 'cosmetic work' - it was a flipper!

Our realtor also tried to get an appointment at a house in Severn, but they didn't allow showings after 2pm. So we scheduled one for today at 10. It was a beautiful house! We pulled up and I knew that I was already interested in this house. It's a single family home, 3 beds and 2 full baths, 3 floors with a finished basement. The entire top floor is the master bedroom suite, the other two bedrooms are on the ground floor and share a full bathroom. There is a nice sized living room when you walk in from the front, and a small dining area by the kitchen, which is a pretty good size and has lots of cabinet space. The basement has the laundry room and a great gathering room which is L-shaped. There is an outside door leading up to the back yard that is large and has some large trees for shade. There is also a 2 tiered deck from the kitchen which will be great for back yard parties and entertaining. :)

We have a meeting with our realtor tomorrow to work on the offer and sign paperwork!!

4th of July (and then some)

[Imagine a fireworks video here... it didn't upload. Look at Facebook for it.]

We went to watch the fireworks yesterday at one of the most historic places in the country. Baltimore Harbor is where the war of 1812 was fought, which prompted Frances Scott Key to write the "Star Spangled Banner." I couldn't help thinking about that last night as we were sitting under bombs bursting and red glare from rockets.

That was my patriotic bit. Other than that, it was just awesome! A couple's parents from our small group sailed their boat up from Florida and were docked in the harbor. Our entire small group was invited to come aboard to watch the fireworks. We were so close that pieces of the burnt fireworks were falling on us. This is the barge that the show was shot from:

It's a little difficult to see, but it's on the left in the picture. That's how close we were. (It was really loud too!)

In other news, we're waiting to hear back from the mortgage company. They should be contacting us today or tomorrow (hopefully today) to tell us whether or not we will be able to buy a house! We're getting excited, but no too excited because we still don't have an affirmative. I'll post the news sometime soon.

I also have started an herb garden (thanks to Pintrest) in mason jars. Apparently oregano doesn't do well in high temperatures. I had all the plants (oregano, basil, lavender, mint, and rosemary) on the patio and even with regular watering the oregano dried up and looked dead. I watered it really well and brought it inside and now it's alive again! I feel a bit like Dr. Frankenstein because I was pretty sure that it was completely dead as the leaves were all shriveled up and brittle. It was a pleasant surprise because I made the following meal with my fresh herbs:

It was kind of chicken caprese, and it was a lot better than it looks in this photo. :( 

We went swimming for the first time yesterday! That was fun, and the water was already really warm. Fortunately it wasn't just warm in spots. Ew. Anyway, Nat and I went to the farmer's market that is in the parking lot of the community center to get fresh peaches and some fresh peppers, and saw that there was almost no one in the pool. So we ran home and changed and walked over to the pool and hopped in. It was a nice, refreshing dip.

It was a fun few days recently, but now it's back to work.

Over 3 million without power

Friday night we had a little storm. There was some wind, a little rain, and a massive power outage. I'm still not completely sure that the storm was nearly as bad in our area as other people say it was. The thunder didn't even shake the windows.

Anyway, the lights flickered a few times then went out completely. It was about 11:15 pm. Thinking that the power would come back on by itself in a few hours, we went to bed.

Next morning, still no power. Nat got to sleep in, but I had to get up and get ready for work. Showering and trying to get ready by flashlight (no windows in our bathroom) is not a pleasant experience. Fortunately we had flashlights because I was able to rig a way to see. We also never lost water coverage, and our hot water heater is gas powered. That was a huge blessing. I was not looking forward to a cold shower in a very dark bathroom.

So I showered then put on make up by the windows, trying to be quite to not wake up Nat and also trying not to open the fridge. I did open it a few times to get out our water pitcher and pour some milk into my cereal, but I closed it fast. I was still expecting the power to come back on at any time.

On the way to work, there were a few branches on the road, but that was expected because the growth is very close to the road. By the time I got to the main street, I realized the street light was out. Not blinking, but completely dead. If you know my opinion of Maryland drivers, this was an incredibly bad thing. Most people were doing the correct thing by making the 3-4 lane road intersection a 4 way stop. Some people were very stupid and decided to run through the light at about 50 miles an hour. Fortunately, I made it in to work.

Everything was dead: no signs, no lights, no phones, no computers, and no alarm. My manager and her boss were both there (strange site to see a VP in jean shorts) because the alarm was beeping and running off a battery backup. Since we didn't have any power whatsoever, Wendy said that if we were not up and running by 10:00 am, we could all go home! To help our members, we put a sign on the door saying that we had no power, so we would not be opening. Then the workers started guessing when a persistent member would try one door handle, then the other, then look inside, then knock. I guessed 9:30, after we were supposed to open at 9. Other guesses included 9:20, 9:03, and 9:10.

At 9:27 a member pulled one handle, shook the locked door, cupped their hands to the glass to see inside, swiped their card to try to get to the (powerless) ATM, shook the door again, then went to sit in his car. I won the satisfaction of guessing correctly! The member sat in his car for about 15 minutes, hoping we would open. He never saw the huge sign that was taped to the window three inches from where he peered into the branch.

We got to go home at 10, which was great! My first Saturday off at home since I started working there. We spent the day trying to stay cool and not open doors. It was about 100˚ outside, and it actually didn't get crazy warm inside. I think we topped out at 79˚ yesterday evening. We called BGE (our electric provider) who told us that they would have the power on by 1:00. Nat had planned to go into Washington DC to have lunch with his aunt, uncle, and cousins already. It was great that I got to go too! It's nice having family so close, but it's also annoying that I work on one of the only days that they have off.

We all met at Hill Country BBQ close to the capitol building (we drove, that was scary). It was by far the best BBQ that I have had in this state. The waiter told us that all the brisket is slow smoked over wood that is shipped up from Lockhart, Texas. Everything there was based on a little family diner in Lockhart. It was absolutely a wonderful taste of home. The waiter, Charles, walked up to us as we sat down and recognized Nat. It turns out that Charles and Nat had a few classes together at ACU. None of us were from this area, but all the ACU alumni ended up in that restaurant and he happened to be our server. It's a small world when you are an ACU alumni.

After lunch, we made it back home and fell into an afternoon-long food coma. For some reason, we hadn't ever pulled out the candles that we have. I finally remembered to do that yesterday evening after our excursion to Chick-fil-a. It was an absolute mad house there. The drive-thru was wrapped around the building twice, and it was packed inside as well. Since so many people were without power, it was a good place to find AC and a meal. After we left the chaos, we came back home, lit the candles and played cards for a while.

At this point, I was resigned to the fact that we wouldn't be getting power any time soon so we just went to bed. It's really unpleasant to sleep when it's really hot. This is when I join the rest of Maryland and become a pansy. Fortunately, we woke up this morning to the sound of our fish filter running! Our power came back on at 8:33 Sunday morning which means we were out of power for about 33 hours.

Really frustrating turn of events.

We've had some setbacks in being able to actually purchase a house. At the beginning, we thought we would be golden because our credit scores are high and we qualified for 100% financing (which we thought would only require us to pay $500 of closing costs).

Let's just say we know about the real world now.

The first thing we found out was that while we do qualify for 100% financing, we have to pay AT LEAST $500 in closing costs (of the expected $10,500). Needless to say, we didn't have that much in our account at the time of the application so it was deferred for approval until we were able to come up with the money. We have worked that kink out now, including proposed 3% help from the seller (which is normal up right now).

When we were told about the monetary needs, we were also told about all the paperwork that we needed to submit: 2 years W-2s, 2 months pay stubs, all paid receipts for loans, and current monthly statements to determine the monthly payment for any unpaid loans. I think there was something else, but I'm not remembering it at the moment. ACU decided to randomly deny Nat access to his previous W-2s from 2010, so we had to order a paper copy through the mail. In hopes that we continue with the process with the 2010 tax return instead of a W-2, I included that. I submitted all that paperwork the next day, and since anything involving my account can only be handled by a supervisor, the supervisor in the real estate department looked at it a few days later.

I got a call today from the supervisor saying a few things:

• my part time income (with the CU we are using for the mortgage) doesn't count as income
• all the paid receipts we sent in, don't count because they don't have the individual account numbers on the receipts (most online sites don't have the account numbers anywhere on the receipt, but we're still required to have them)
• we have to have Nat's W-2, and nothing can be submitted to the private mortgage insurance company (who decides if we are ultimately able to pay) until all the documentation is gathered

Oh, and did I mention that we have to tell our apartment complex if we are going to be moving out by July 5th?

I'm making a quilt!

So I've decided to make a quilt. And I'm actually making it! I've always wanted to do something like this, but I've never really wanted to actually do the quilting. I love the piecing process, but I could easily pass on the quilting, especially if it needs to be done by hand. I'm thinking about having it machine quilted, but it depends on how it turns out.

Here are the colors:

The furthest right fabric is my favorite and kind of what all the colors are based on.  The browns are more of an accent color, as it will end up being mostly blue and white.

This is what I did yesterday:

This is going to be a diamond shape in the middle, which you can't really tell from this picture. I'll post more once I get the next section done. I had enough white muslin on hand to be able to complete the big square in the middle, and I'm about to finish the border around that. Then there will be a white border, then the outer blue border.

Each border will be strip pieced with a repeating pattern of the four colors, roughly 3 inches wide. It's exciting that I don't have too much left, but the strip piecing is rather daunting. It's a lot of ironing and trimming and sewing and cutting (not in that order though).

Oh... and I think I just heard 8 gun shots in my complex and Nat's in Canada. Anyone have a dog I can borrow for the night? I'm staying inside and not answering the door ever. It just went off again. Scary!

Problems with the Purchase

Ugh. Buying a house is nerve-racking. Especially on a schedule. Upon suggestion of a friend, we have now contacted a realtor. She said the first step would be to get pre-approved (which we knew and are in the process of doing). In order to do that, we have submitted an online application for a mortgage. Unfortunately, the online version of the application has several flaws.

Now we're just waiting on the mortgage advisors to give us a call, either tomorrow or Wednesday. I'm a lot nervous about what we qualify for, and a little worried that this might not be what we need to do. Since we've been praying about this decision, I'm not sure if God is telling us that we need to stay put, or if Satan is trying to keep us from where we need to be. It's rather frustrating. :(

I think I'm going to use this blog to chronicle our home purchasing experience, or at least some of it. I'll try to post pictures of showings and all that too!

Big (and expensive) Development

This might be a little premature, but I'm going to post it anyway. So that means keep it a secret (while it's posted on the internet for anyone to read)!

Nat and I went house hunting yesterday. It's a really scary thought that we're prepared to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars that we don't have to purchase a house. We are slowly getting over the sticker shock of home prices here, and becoming used to the idea of a town house rather than a free standing home.

Because this is the first time either of us have done something this drastic, we are completely lost. Let's just say that we've been doing a lot of researching on what steps need to be taken and when. In discussing this with one of my coworkers, I was given the name and contact information of what appears to be a top flight realtor. My coworker said that this realtor showed her two places, and she bought the second one. From their website, this team of realtors spend a great deal of time  getting to know you and what you are looking for before they actually show you houses. They also spend a lot of time with first time buyers (us) to help walk them through the process. I have an email in to her to set up a meeting time!

We also have a call in to the mortgage advisors at our credit union. From all that I've heard from members and employees who have worked with them, they are incredibly helpful and to the best possible job. There are a few products which I am particularly interested in: 100% financing so we don't have to have a down payment and 3.5% downpayment (if the first doesn't work out). We have lot of questions to ask them at our meeting.

The scariest part of this whole thing is that our apartment lease is up on September first. We pretty much have to have closed on a house by August and move in before September unless we want to sign another year long lease in our apartment. This complex doesn't do anything shorter than a year. Also, we will have to tell them we're moving out in July I believe. I'm not exactly sure when they try to get you to sign the next lease. It's a scary thought and we don't have much time at all!

So, that leads to the house hunting we did last night:

 This house was a no-go. It looks really nice, but it's in an area of town that is NOT where we want to be. I've been warned by several people to stay away from that part of town, so I'm glad we went to look before we did anything else with this house.

 This house is a cute one, but I believe it's way our of our price range. I think it's something like $230,000 or so? Anyway, we saw a house similar to this one but in a different neighborhood. It was billed at $339,900! It did have another story, but that's still outrageous!

 This is the same one from above.

 This house, I think, was my favorite. It needs a coat of paint, but we were going to have a showing. It's also less than $200,000, which is a big plus!

Here it is again. It's 3 beds and 2.5 baths. Unfortunately, we found out when we got home last night that it's pending already. :(

There were several other houses and duplexes that we looked at, but I didn't get pictures of. I will definitely post pictures of the ones where we have showings.

It's a little (okay, a lot) scary that we're going to own our own little piece of land!

Vacation, Texas Style

A few months ago, my manager came into my office and asked when I wanted to take my summer leave. Since I was new, I didn't realize that I would be able to take any time off, much less a week. I came to find out that every employee is required to take 5 consecutive business days off each year. After a huge hassle through which I discovered I wasn't actually supposed to have any time off and it's actually really bad to ask for leave without pay, I got a few days off so we could come to Texas.

First off, I just want to say that June in Texas is HOT! I had already forgotten just how hot it actually is here. At least it is a dry heat, where as with 60% humidity, 95˚ would be absolutely unbearable.

Second, life is better when I'm sitting in a saddle. A stubborn horse plodding along underneath me and a good friend riding next to me makes a hot evening positively delightful. I want enjoy Texas the way it was meant to be: from the back of a horse while getting completely and utterly covered in red dirt. Rebekah and I had a blast playing with the horses this evening. Poor Tigger had hives, so we decided not to ride him. JuneBug and Soldier were great though. It was great to know that those horses act just the same way after 6 months of not being ridden as they do week after week. It's also nice to know that I remember how to ride and each of the personalities of the horses. Anyway, after riding, Rebekah and I groomed all three of the ponies: brushing, combing, cleaning hooves, wiping down. That and holding a sleeping baby are my two main sources of mental therapy. :)

Third, I have missed the sky here. Tonight I saw a sunset behind the clouds and an orange moon rise and turn yellow then white. There's just nothing quite like the Texas sky. I tried to get a picture, but that didn't work out well. I guess you will just have to use your imagination.

Finally, children are sticky. That's just the way of things. And, anything they touch also becomes sticky, be it people, furniture, or toys.

It has been a great visit so far, and I'm looking forward to the rest. I'll do my best to update this post with any other exciting news.

Backyard BBQ the way it should be!

Yesterday, we were invited to a barbecue at some friends from church's house. It was so much fun! It started at 2, but we didn't get there until close to 3 because I had to work. Fortunately, that was just peachy. When we did finally get there, we walked up to the house and saw people in the back yard playing and were waved down the hill.

That's where the fun began, just like that and just that easy. It is very nice to be able to relax with friends for an afternoon of just being. Several of the wives were inside playing with the newborn baby (who is the son of the homeowners), and the guys were out on the back lawn playing a game called washers. We all spent a good deal of chatting and playing, then the host started grilling. Being similar to a pot luck, there was lots of food and we certainly ate well. The grilling was fantastic and the food was even better. Since it was only about 80, we all sat outside on the deck (with a shade for us fair-skinned type) to enjoy the food and friends.

After lunch/supper several people needed to leave for various reasons, but a few couples stayed. We played bocce ball (an Italian game) and the washer game some more. In the washer game, there were two boxes, each with a coffee can in the middle. The goal was to get a 2 in. diameter washer into the can or in the box or in front of the box, and score the points. I managed to get it in the box once, but Nat was able to get the washer into the can several times. Hopefully out children will get his athletic ability, not mine. As a group, we had a great deal of fun! I love making memories with friends and putting down roots here in Maryland.

Go Rangers... uh... I mean.... Orioles?

I discovered yesterday that there are a few people in my office who are die hard Oriole's fans. That's unfortunate because we went to a game to go see the Rangers last night. Work might be a bit uncomfortable today.

The game however, was awesome! Granted, I'm not a huge baseball fan, but when Josh Hamilton had 4 homeruns and the 1 HR hit by the O's was caught by someone in our group, it qualifies as exciting. We got on TV for the O's homer, but I'm betting that most people didn't see it because it was a shot from far away.

Let me just say that I love public transit. I never really understood the need for it while in Texas, but I do now! I was under the impression that public transit was just a bus system that was scary to ride. While there is a scary element on the trains here, they don't have the same problem that plagues Texas transit. Everyone uses public transit here. Yes, I will admit that there were several bullet holes in the windows of our train car on the way to Camden Yards, but they were all on the outside. Neither going or coming did we have any crazies on our cars.

The crazies came while we were at the game. We were sitting on the first level, in left field. Behind and to the right of our seats, a guy was constantly yelling in a deep, carrying voice. Constantly. It got old quickly. He tried heckling the Rangers in left field and in the bullpen, but to no avail. It was certainly annoying though. Finally, during the last few innings, he lost his voice. It was blissful when he couldn't yell anymore. There was another person who was even stranger. After Caleb caught the HR ball, this girl decided to come up and ask to "hold" the ball, which really meant she was going to take it and not give it back. Of course, she was not allowed to handle the ball. Caleb put it straight into his bag and left it there. That was smart because the girl had to be chased off a few times. I'm fairly sure she was highly intoxicated.

Having only been to Rangers games in Arlington, I didn't realize that every single MLB game was not sold out. I know better now. There were a grand total of 11,200 people at the game last night. And that was just how many tickets were sold, not an actual count of people. I liked this though, because when I needed to go to the bathroom, I was the only person in there. Unheard of for a women's bathroom at a major event such as a game. It was wonderful! No line and a cleaner bathroom than normal.

All in all, it was a great evening. We had a great time with friends, got to know them better and made memories! Oh, and the Rangers won!!

Outdoor Adventures

Apparently, starting in May, you do not have to stay indoors. This is news to me, as a Texan. I believe the forecast for today in Abilene is 100˚. In response to that, it is currently below 70˚ in Maryland.

Nat and I went last night and bought a tent and a frisbee. Random combination, I know, but there's a reason behind it. In a few weekends, we and a few friends are going to be traveling up to the northern border of Maryland (only an hour and a half away) to go camping at a state park. We bought the frisbee because we were at the sports equipment store and have been wanting one for a while now. This is the one we got.

 It glows in the dark and everything!

Anyway, we decided to take it out for a spin after church today in the 70˚ weather. (Spin pun intended.) I learned that through all the ultimate frisbee games I played in college, I never really used my left hand. But I should have. I have really good aim and distance, as well as level flight with my left hand. My right hand throws abysmally. I can't really catch with either hand, but that's a different problem entirely.

I'm looking forward to playing frisbee while we're camping in northern MD!

I'll include these comments in this post, since they're about outdoorsy stuff. One evening, we went out for a walk. There are some truly beautiful places around our apartment: lots of wooded areas, deer, and pretty little streams. Here's a picture of a little stream that's in the park behind our complex.

At the bottom, you can almost see the water running down. The yellow irises are really pretty, and bigger than I have seen them. I guess they may not actually be irises, but that's okay.

I also have never really known how pine trees actually grow. I've always known that they don't really shed their needles (hence the evergreen status), but they grow nonetheless. On our walk, I saw this! I know how pine trees grow now.

The bright green tufts were soft, new growth. It all makes sense now!

That's enough outdoorsy things for now. I'm sure I'll have more later, especially since we can actually be outside when the sun's out.

Maryland Drivers

Unfortunately, I don't really have anything new or exciting to report. I did get new shoes today, that I love! But I'm not sure if that's worthy enough for an entire post. I will say that it's raining right now!

Therefore: You now get to read some stories about the crazy MD drivers.

Today, on my way to work, I followed one of the worst drivers I have seen so far. The road I take is a curvy, narrow road, a back way to get me where I need to go. At a light, I pulled up behind a little white car, something that looked like an Altima. I didn't think anything of it until the first left-hand turn. As the car was pulling into the turn, it didn't turn until the front wheel was off the pavement. Then he slowly moved back over into the center of the lane as he pulled out of the turn. This happened for every single left-hand turn. There are about a dozen of those. Now, I can understand accidentally pulling a bit too far off on one turn because you don't realize how narrow the road is, but every single one? And on one turn he was so far off the road that he was flinging leaf litter and debris onto the road behind him. It was a bit scary driving behind him.

On Wednesday of last week, something insane happened at work. Wednesday was my day off, which I used to attend a meeting and go to Annapolis to get my notary commission. When I came to work on Thursday, one of the offices that is normally used was dark and a coworker said that I probably wouldn't be able to use it either. I asked my supervisor where I should sit and why I couldn't use that office. Lo and behold, he showed me where a truck had crashed into the wall the day before. The windowsill is coming off, the whole wall is slightly bowed in and cracked from the windowsill to the floor, a few bricks are missing from the outside, and the bushes outside the window are all scraped up and pushed over. (Thankfully no one was in the office when it was hit, otherwise it could have been very, very bad.) Apparently, an elderly and rather infirm man's gas pedal got stuck in the depressed position. He was parking in front of the building to come inside for some business, and his car kept moving. The truck was almost damage-free, but the wall was definitely not that lucky.

The majority of drivers in this state speed. By a lot. Normally on a road with a limit of 55, the average driver is moving at about 65 or 70. Sometimes you will also see someone traveling at an average speed of about 90 or so. Incredibly dangerous and equally stupid.

Those drivers who are not traveling way above the speed limit are usually traveling at least 15 below the limit. In the left hand lane.

There is one thing that the previous two categories of drivers have in common is that they do no use their turn signals. Ever. In a line of 15 or 20 cars, I will be the only one who has turned on my signal.

Here are a few facts I've learned from these stories:

1. No one in MD uses their turn signals.
2. Speed limits are a suggestion, not a law.
3. Walls are not an obstacle if your car is big enough.
4. Stop light bulbs that go out are never replaced.

There may be updates to this post later on, as people continue to be stupid. 

A few things I've learned today...

First: I was never gifted with the ability to be a barber/hairstylist.

Second: animals in Maryland are really stupid. Not just the robins that continually bang into our sliding glass door in the mornings, but also the groundhogs who run across the busy street and then hide between the tires of cars. Nat says the deer are also like that, especially on the golf course.

Third: if you buy several fish, it's really difficult to tell the different genders. Until they have babies. Currently, we have 4 adult fish (one died for no apparent reason) and at least 7 babies. They're hard to count because they hide in the big fuzzy plants. I know there are at least 7 because I counted that many staying still in the plant at one particular point in time. I'm planning on calling PetSmart and seeing if they will take/buy the babies back once they get bigger. It is rather exciting to have babies though. That means I've taken good enough care of them to not kill all the fish!

There are actually two fish in this picture, but the other one is really hard to find, especially since they're almost see through.

Fourth: I really don't like ticks. They are really bad here at the moment because we've had such a mild winter. We had a picnic for lunch today in a nearby park/preserve, and I saw a little one crawling on the back of Nat's leg. Gross! We left soon after that and have now thoroughly checks for ticks.

Fifth and finally: We have tissue paper trees! I missed the peak flowering, but the flowers look like those elementary school kids make with little tissue paper squares. :)

Stupid Robin of Spring

After the ladies did a wonderful job of cleaning our deck (see previous post), our sliding glass doors were spotless. A few days later, I started seeing streaks at about head height. They look very much like bug splatters on a car windshield.

Today, as I was getting ready for work, I finally figured out what those spots were. It is very possible that they are bug splatters, put there by a very stupid robin. I had leaned over to put something in my work bag, and I heard a THUMP... THUMP...  Low and behold, when I looked at the window, there was a robin with a bit of nesting material in his mouth trying to fly through the glass.

I choose to believe that this same robin has tried to fly though our window with a tasty morsel in his mouth, only to find that it splatters on impact. It makes my day a bit better to try to imagine a very confused robin wondering why he can't fly into a particular space, and in addition to that, why his meal suddenly disappeared. That might make me mean, but it's funny!

Old Lady Leary Left a Lantern in the Shed... or a Cigaret.

BEEP.... BEEP.... BEEP.... BEEP.... BANG BANG BANG on the door.

Fire alarms and firemen knocking on the door is not something pleasant to wake up to. Scrambling to put on clothes and shoes, completely forgetting to grab the important papers and our computers and other valuables.

BEEP.... BEEP.... BEEP.... BEEP.... BEEP.... BEEP.... BEEP.... BEEP....

Ugh. It was freezing outside. There were 3 fire trucks and an ambulance. Tons of firemen, hoses running all over everywhere, people and dogs standing around.

BEEP.... BEEP.... BEEP.... BEEP.... They finally got the alarm turned off and we could go back inside. So much for a good night's sleep that night!

About a month and a half ago, we had an idiotic neighbor light his porch on fire. At 1:00 am. We only have a volunteer fire station, but the one fire truck they had staffed came, along with two from the nearby army base. An ambulance also showed up. The fire department set off the building alarm then knocked on our door, and all the other doors, to get us out. So everyone in the entire building evacuated: people, children, dogs, cats. At first, most everyone was waiting outside. Slowly, people started going to their cars because it was so cold out. There were no flames from the building, all the firemen were moseying about. Apparently they were trying to figure out how to turn the alarm back off.

The firemen finally turned off the alarm and let us all go back inside.

After a few weeks, I went into the complex office for something and asked what had caused the fire. The neighbor on the 3rd floor had decided to smoke on his deck. He didn't manage to get the cigaret out and his wooden deck had caught fire. Unable to get it under control with the fire extinguisher, he had called 911.

Don't get me wrong, I'm glad he called, but it seems like that was a dumb thing to do in the first place. If you have a wooden deck, why would you not make sure that anything with fire is completely put out before you go to bed? I don't understand some people.

Anywho... later on a restoration company came and looked at our deck and the two above us. Over the last few days, the company has been repairing the decks. Two ladies came to clean our deck this afternoon. Now it's sparkly clean and doesn't have cob webs anymore. :) Unfortunately they had to deal with those too.

Glad nothing else happened!

The Church We Found

Finding the right church for us was difficult. It was really hard to leave Highland behind, everything and everyone I had known the church to be. Having grown up in the Bible belt, I thought that we would have to drive for hours to find a church that was a decent size and had similar beliefs. Fortunately, I was wrong.

About 10 minutes away from us, we found the Church at Severn Run. Of course, no worship center will be like Highland, I knew that from the start. But Severn Run has a lot of the aspects that I love about Highland: great small groups, loving people who are interested in your wellbeing, strong faith as a community, and many other things.

The thing that I love the most about this church is our Journey group. It's a Bible study group that meets each week (ours on Wednesdays) to study and pray together. Our group is large enough to have 2 smaller groups meeting in different places because no house has the space for all of us. That doesn't mean we're two groups though. I haven't met all the couples (we are the young married group), but those I have met were instant friends.

It's through the Journey groups that Severn Run really works. We spend a great deal of time in prayer and study, but we are also encouraged to serve the church and community. Last month, there was a banquet to kick of a capital campaign to pay off the building. A few of the leaders in our group were selected to plan and execute this banquet. Together, we pulled off a beautiful banquet for about 300 of the members. It was a great meal and time together where we were able to serve the church in a unique way. Soon, we will be starting a service project which will focus on reaching out to the community.

We also have 2 new additions to our group! We welcomed two new baby boys in the last week and a half. I love that each family has a meal train - group members who have volunteered to bring meals a week or two. We get to take dinner to one family tonight, and see their beautiful baby boy Noah. Looking forward to it!

Anyway, we're beginning to settle into life with our church, and enjoying the faithful!

Life in Maryland

Talk about culture shock. Moving from Texas was a huge adjustment for me. I think I've recovered enough to be able to give MD a fair viewing now, but in my heart I will always be a Texas girl.

I've been told that this winter has been an incredibly mild winter for the coast. For which I am really glad because I would not do well with lots of snow and having to drive around in it. A mild winter also means that the foliage will come out a lot faster in the spring. And was it ever beautiful! My sister would have really enjoyed seeing how all the trees were covered in flowers: pinks, purples, yellows, reds, whites. It was great. I was told that the cherry tree blossoms down in Washington, DC were worth the travel time, but this year they came too early so I would have had to miss work to see them. Maybe next year I can post pictures.

I did get a picture of an awesome flowering tree by my office. And this was after the blooms started falling off, so it was prettier a few days before this.

I guess I should mention my work. After about a month or so of being here, and applying at probably 50 different places, I got an interview with a credit union in the area. God seemed to have opened this door for me, I applied on a whim because I was so impressed when we set up our account with them, and I got an interview! It seems a bit strange to be working at a credit union (CU) when I just spent 4 years training to be a teacher. Teaching, at the moment, is out of the picture (more about that later).

Honestly, I was just glad to have a job lined up. I am really enjoying working at the CU, it's engaging work where you always have to be on your toes. Essentially, I'm one of the people who set up and maintain accounts and work with patrons to be sure their accounts are in good order. Our members make sure that no two things are exactly alike. Most of the time it's great and the members are really generous and kind. Fortunately, I haven't had any trouble yet. I'm actually getting a few more hours a week already, so I guess my managers are impressed. :)

Now I can explain why it seems like teaching is a closed door at the moment. While I was student teaching in Abilene last fall, I looked into changing my Texas certification to a Maryland certification. In looking, I figured out that I couldn't do anything until I had my actual Texas certification. So I waited. Once that came in January, I gathered everything I needed (or so I thought): my certification, my Texas test scores, transcript, and a cover letter with lots of personal information. Once I had sent all that in, I waited.
And waited.
And finally got an email saying that they wouldn't accept the test scores the way I sent them (which I had to ask for from my certification offer), which is the only way that Texas sends scores. Instead, I was required to get my scores sent on a TEA letterhead. The question I had to ask was why would TEA give me my scores on letterhead when they don't even mail your scores out to you? Oh well, I got in touch with a very nice lady who sent me 2 copies on letterhead (one for them and one for me).
So I sent that in, again.
In the original email, the Dept of Education said that once I sent that last piece of information they needed in, I would be assigned a representative to look at my case and they would respond in 14-16 weeks, saying whether or not I qualified for a Maryland certification. Therefore, it was fairly pointless to try to get a Maryland teaching job at the moment.

Anyway... things are going fairly well. I'll post later about our church and small group.

The Beginning

We're going to try this again. I started a blog a long time ago, and forgot what it was. So now I'm going to  try to keep up with this one so that I can keep in touch with friends a long way away.

I will try to post lots of pictures so that those who want to can see how things are going in Maryland and how we're doing now that we're here.

So: first things first. Lots of pictures of the various crafts I have done over the last few months so I can pin them to Pintrest (no, I don't have a problem... not at all...).

Our bathroom has absolutely NO storage. So I covered the shelves of this bookcase so we could have some more storage space. The buttons match our shower curtain and our towels. The next picture is also in the bathroom, which had a huge empty wall. So I filled it. :)

The top basket has washcloths rolled up, and the others hold towels for guests. Got the idea from Pintrest.

This started as Cream Soda bottles and turned into flower vases. It's just covered in textured paper (which can't really be seen in the picture). Easy, and spiced up a dull corner.

Ok, so I don't have a bunch of pictures, but this will work for now.