Contracted

Remember this post where I said I was house hunting?

And remember how I said

"To date I have seen 11 properties and driven by over 30 different houses (hey ruling some out from the street is necessary!) Of those 11 that I've seen I seriously considered putting an offer in on two of them. One, I realized later just wasn't the right house for me - although I really liked it... it was a great house just a small backyard and couldn't get over that.

The other, I was ready and knew it was great, only to find out someone beat me to the punch... that happened this past weekend and really bummed me out. I know this is the roller coaster of house hunter, but it's tough to go from being super excited to realizing it just wasn't meant to be."

Well... the roller coaster continued... because two short days after I posted that I got a text from my agent saying that the contract on that property had fallen through and was I still interested... um... HELL YES!

The next day I met with my real estate agent (and brought my mom for support) and we put an offer together and submitted it... with a deadline of 1pm on Friday.

Of course I should have been taking it easy on Friday since Lindsey and I were headed to FL that night and I needed sleep so we could drive all night... but I just could not sleep.  Around our deadline time I got a call from my agent with their counter offer... and it wasn't far off from my offer at all!  After a counter-counter offer they agreed to my terms and I was officially under contract on a house!!  Just a few short hours before I left for Florida for a week.

So when I said that Florida wasn't as relaxing as it could have been... well that's why because suddenly my mind was racing with new home thoughts.  I had to talk to my loan officer and set up a time I could physically come in to sign the paperwork (and of course he was out of town this week)... which I did on Monday with his coworker (talk about it feeling more real!) and I was able to lock in my interest rate while in Florida (which is good... it's since gone up).  I also had to schedule my home inspection (which took place yesterday and for the most part everything looks pretty good, just some minor things).  I also had to get a homeowners insurance quote... which was taken care of.

It was all a bunch of little things... but stuff was on my mind... plus you know I just bought a house... after I thought it was gone.  Craziness!! 

I am supposed to close on August 23rd (less than a month away eek)... and things have been coming steadily along.

I just can't believe it... and since I'm going to wait with the details of the interior of the house (although I'm going to say I'm in looove) Here's a picture of my new house!  I love the look of the brick and that circle window by the door... eek... can't wait to show you more!

Picture from Listing

Florida!!

I spent the past week in Daytona Beach... and it was awesome.

This year I went with my little sister Lindsey... and let me tell you, it was so much fun spending time with her.  She's such a great person and I feel like we had some bonding time.  Really though, we've gotten a lot closer since I moved back home after my divorce.  That's one of the good things that's happened since the divorce, I got to spend countless time with my sister and really cement a good relationship with her, and for that I'm truly grateful... she's pretty awesome and funny.

So it was just the two of us, which was nice... although our beach going time - well it differs quite a bit.  I like the shade (hey I have pale skin and don't like to burn) and she prefers the sun (to get that perfect tan).  I like the pool deck where I can look at the ocean and not get sandy and she prefers sitting/laying on the beach... but despite those things, we had a good time together.

We honestly didn't do that much... just lounged around... I read 1.5 books (I'll do a review, although I haven't been keeping up with reading have I?)  But it was a great relaxing vacation (although not as relaxing as it could have been, and I'll get into those details in another post as well)  but still really nice.

It's always great just being on the ocean, where you can hear the waves and see the blue water and read a good book while in a bathing suit.

We also got to see some nature... I got to see a couple of dolphins (so cool) and these crazy creatures living in these shells I've never seen on the beach before but we saw a bunch, and a cool bird with long legs and star shaped feet and pelicans diving in the ocean for food and seagulls, and other sea creatures.

This is a place we go in Daytona where my parents own a timeshare thing.  I've probably been there about 8 times in my life... so there's a lot of fond memories here.  I also had my first kiss there (aww) It's always a place I go and feel very nostalgic... good memories in Daytona.

Here are some pictures I took... as you can tell they aren't that great!

View the first day... it was cloudy on and off while we were there... which I enjoyed and Lindsey didn't... I also burned this day... par for the course for me.

Here's Lindsey headed down to the beach... doesn't she look cute?!?

Here's me doing what I do... read by the pool in the shade... I should I smiled huh?

Here I am reading and looking at the pool... I also painted my toenails and added glitter... love!

You can kinda see my sun burnt knees from reading while sitting.  And you can catch a glimpse of the book I read.

View of the sky over the city part of Daytona, taken from the room

We had beautiful weather the last day which made everything look so pretty.

This group played volleyball all week... but look at how pretty everything look and how blue the water is.

A panoramic picture of the beach on Friday (our last day) so much fun!

That was our trip to Florida... it really was great and the whole trip only cost me around $350... you can't beat that!!  Thanks to my Dad and Janet for letting me use the place this year.

Fantasy Project Runway

I'm back with another Fantasy reality show game.

This time - Project Runway!!

I created the cards... this time I included some information I found on the Lifetime website.  Not all the designers had all of the areas, but they all had most.

The cards included name, age, hometown, currently resides, a picture, favorite designers (which doesn't help me considering I don't really know designers), design influence (which is funny to me), Favorite Past Runway designer, Favorite Colors, Favorite Fabrics, Dream Celebrity Client (I'm horrible at remembering celebrity names sometimes), Music on While Designing, and Style Icon (again didn't recognize all of them).

This was particularly hard because we know nothing about these people other than the random information above.  This show is also hard b/c you can really see it going a bunch of different ways.  It's tough picking someone, and then thinking about how on the show they could be the most annoying thing ever... and then you have to root for them.

To throw another wrench in there, they are bringing back one previous designer for a runway redemption... so one of us had to take a gamble with that person. 

It will be interesting to see how everything shakes out... but fun compared to the previous 'draft' since we knew most of those people.

Michelle won the ro-sham-bo match - which sucks only b/c I wanted to leave her with someone she did NOT like b/c I thought it would be funny... that didn't happen though.

Michelle's choices were:  Alexandria, Miranda, Sandro, Mystery Redemption Person, Karen, Jeremy, Dom, and Alexander.

Here are mine!

Kahindo (can't even pronounce her name, but liked her profile.

 

Helen (Gwen Stefani as dream celebrity client - sounds interesting to me!)

 

Bradon (I like that his favorite past Runway designer was Patricia from last season)

 

Angela (She likes vintage looks)

 

Justin (he wants Angelina Jolie as a Dream client and like Mondo as a past Runway designer)

 

Sue (She likes Gunmetal grey)

 

Ken (He likes neoprene, wool, and spandex... seems interesting... and Beyonce)

 

Timothy (this is who Michelle didn't want b/c of his past Runway designer favorite... but I do like his answer to favorite color - Every Color)

Looking forward to an interesting season!!



Weekend in Review - Strange Weekend

As always we'll start on Thursday night... which involved me, my mom and my sister doing some shopping... you see my friend from college just had a second baby, so we went out to get some gifts to send her.

I was happy because I found some adorable Levi's Overalls and shoes that looked like Chucks... shopping for babies is so much fun.  We had an unintentional monkey theme though, but there's lots of cute monkey stuff!!

I also send her other daughter a new big sister gift of a book - The Eleventh Hour.  I got it stuck in my head to send this particular book, because I wanted something special.  This book is special to me because I got it when I first learned out to read.  What I also really loved about this book is it involves an activity.  This is a book you could look at for hours and hours (shoot, when it arrived in the mail Lindsey looked at it for about an hour while waiting for dinner).  I love it and I really hope she loves it too.  It's a beautifully illustrated book as well.

We also went to HomeGoods where I got myself something... It was so darling and my mom convinced me just to get it since it was unique... not the greatest picture, but it's really cute.

so happy

Then we went to dinner... it was a really nice evening with some of my favorite gals.

On Friday... I was lazy most of the day, and it was amazing.  That night Dan, my mom and I went and looked at 4 hours (that's included in the number I told you about last post) so that was fun.  That night, we made some burgers on pretzel buns... totally delicious.

On Saturday, day, I didn't have much going on, but then we left to go visit with Dan's friend Kyle.  He was selling some art and photographs at a local car show.  The best part of the show was FREE concession, can you believe that?!?  I got a blue snow cone!

They were also going to show a movie (hence the white screen in the background) but we only stayed for an hour or so.  It was nice to see Kyle's photographs, he's pretty talented.

After that, we went to Dan's sister's house and headed downtown to see The Urge in a free concert at Soldier's Memorial.  We got down there early enough to see one of the opening bands.  We got pretty nice seats (we brought folding chairs.)

Great seats other than that tree...

We were happy to get there early to get these good seats and have a few $7 beers...

It was a great concert... The Urge is a popular St. Louis based band, they haven't played in awhile, but sounds like they are coming up with new music which is nice.

This is where the strange part comes in.  The concert was strange... I ran into a friend and the exchange was strange... and then on the way back to the car I passed right by my ex-husband.  We didn't talk, but it just felt strange (that whole, what do I do? what do I do? dilemma).  I haven't seen him since I moved out (which is two years ago in a couple of months... oh how times flies)

Just left me with a weird taste in my mouth about the night.. but really we had a good time and the weather was amazing!!  After the concert we went back to Dan's sister's place and hung out which was nice.

Sunday was just another low-key day with watching crappy movies on Netflix... one of which involved a witch cutting off a part of a guy's leg, cooking it and eating it in front of him while he watch... yuck.  Pair that with watching part of Sin City later in the day where the dude cuts off a chicks hand and eats it while she watches - luckily they don't show that in that movie... but two movies where they eat some one's body part in front of them is not fun.

How was everyone else's weekend?  Did you have any strange occurrences?

The (sorta, kinda) Big News

I've been hinting at something for a couple of weeks now... but said I wasn't blog-ready for it.

Then I was thinking about it this weekend and a lot of people who read my blog already know... and I'm feeling more and more comfortable telling people about it... so here it goes...

I have decided to buy a house (eek!)

Yes, that's right, I've been house hunting for the past week weeks... and it's surreal, crazy, exciting, nerve wracking, emotional, scary, and really really cool.

But before I get into the details... let's back up and take a look at why I decided to buy a house.

You may remember a couple of months back when I wrote this bittersweet post about moving in with my boyfriend but that meaning I would need to find a new home for my cats.  When my search really didn't find them a home and me just being sad about it all the time, I started to think of different options.

While I was thinking I wanted to rent before buying a house and saving up some money.  I started to really think about why I wanted to rent instead of buying.  And a lot of that was just fear of doing it all myself.  Granted - I think this is a pretty legitimate fear... but I also began to give myself some credit - I could do it myself... after all I know many people who do!

Then back in May, my cousin bought a house and that really started to make me feel like I could do it too.  So I approached the boyfriend with - if I bought a house and found one where we could keep the cats and dogs separated - would you be okay with that?  And surprisingly he said yes.

So then, I really started to think about it - is it the right choice?  Am I doing it for the right reasons?  If we broke up, would I be okay with doing it all on my own?  Those sorts of questions.  I really didn't want to just up and make a decision about something so major!  I wanted to think it out and make sure I was ready.

After deciding that it indeed was what I wanted to do, I started researching how much could I afford.  Because, frankly I had no idea what this amount of house would equal that amount of payment.  After talking it over with some people, I decided my first step would be to get preapproved.

I started by looking on my credit union's website and that took me to a lender's site.  I put in an application and began to work with a loan officer there.  I had a meeting with him (and my dad) to discuss what things might look like.  He was very knowledgeable and was able to lay out what my expected costs would be and if I qualified for a first time home buyers credit (which I don't - sadface!... even though my name was never on the mortgage at my last house, we did file taxes together and deducted interest - so I had some interest in it or whatever... oh well, if that's the only 'bad' thing to come out of the divorce I'm good with it - my credit is awesome so there!)

It was a really great meeting and really let me understand what kinds of costs to expect buying a house.  My mortgage dude, also referred me to a real estate agent.  Since I didn't really have any ties to anyone, I went ahead and used his suggestion.  She got me set up on a site where I can view properties and search by different kinds of criteria.

Using a combination of that site, Zillow, Craigslist, recommendations from friends and family I have been on the hunt.

To date I have seen 11 properties and driven by over 30 different houses (hey ruling some out from the street is necessary!)  Of those 11 that I've seen I seriously considered putting an offer in on two of them.  One, I realized later just wasn't the right house for me - although I really liked it... it was a great house just a small backyard and couldn't get over that. 

The other, I was ready and knew it was great, only to find out someone beat me to the punch... that happened this past weekend and really bummed me out.  I know this is the roller coaster of house hunter, but it's tough to go from being super excited to realizing it just wasn't meant to be.

I am leaving on vacation on Friday and returning on July 27th... and then going out of town again August 1-4 so I'm not sure when I'll see more - if I'll find some this week to see, or if I'll wait awhile.  I'm trying not to over think it... I know I need to be patient.

But that's where I'm currently at - in the market.  I am mostly looking in Lindbergh, Mehlville and Oakville... but now considering widening the search.  I'm looking at around 130k - I've looked at some over that - knowing that's part of the negotiation, but haven't looked at anything over 135k.  (Although I do have some marked on my Listing Book for around 139k)

It's all a very exciting time, and I really can't wait to find the right one.  Since I'm living at home, I'm not in a super rush, which is good, I just know I need to not get that eager and buy something I later regret. 

So that's my big news... I was going to wait until I had found a place, but whatever - I'm sharing now... might as well right??  I can't wait to share with you when I do find a place, and then personalizing it and moving it... Eek!!

Fantasy RW/RR Challenge Rivals 2

Since Michelle and I had so much fun doing Fantasy Survivor last season we were eager to try it again.  MTV Real World/Road Rules Challenge started last night and we decided that was the perfect opportunity.

I made up some of the same sheets I did last time.  I included a brief description I found on a website to describe why they were rivals.  See... the premise of this show is they are paired up with people they don't get along with... ya know, ramp up the drama a bit.

This time we decided to pick before watching the first episode, since we knew a lot of the teams and this way we wouldn't have an extra team.  We also kept it split again on picking an even amount of guy and girl teams.

This time I won the Rock, Paper, Scissors game and we were off...

Michelle ended up with - Frank and Johnny, Ty and Leroy, Knight and Preston, Derek and Robb, Sarah and Trishelle, Camila and Jemmye, Anastasia and Jessica, and Jasmine and Theresa.

Here are my picks...

CT and Wes - I think they are strong athletes and although in the end I don't like Wes, I always want to like Wes for some reason.

Dunbar and Tyrie - Since they are returning and bigger guys I thought they could do well... turns out I couldn't be more wrong considering they were the first eliminated.

Zach and Trey - Look at him, he's like a god or something... so pretty... how can you not pick him? (Ok this pic doesn't show that since they are being goofy, but watch the show, you'll see what I mean...)

Jordan and Marlon - this was the team I picked last, while it seems they might be athletic enough, they are rookies... and in a game like this means you can't expect them to be around too long.

Paula and Emily - Paula and been around forever and always seems to last to the end (why I don't know... she's pretty annoying to me) and Emily is probably the most athletic female there... so it's my pick for a very strong team.

Diem and Aneesa - Love Diem and her story and Aneesa is pretty BA, so I think they'll make a strong showing.

Nany and Jonna - I thought I remembered them... and based on their picture seems like an ok choice, plus they are veterans...

Cooke and Naomi - Had to pick someone and they weren't the rookies, so sounded like a good choice haha.  But, Naomi went home in the first episode, so... Cooke will be getting a new partner, maybe that's good news, also might be bad

I'm looking forward to this season - who do you think will win?

Weekend in Review - Fourth of July

It was so amazing to have a four day weekend... sure that's only one additional day than I normally get, but it felt like so much more.  Maybe it was because we did something every day of the weekend... or maybe it was because everyone else was off too - so it just felt more like a vacation, but either way you slice it - it was amazing to have all that time off.

We'll start out on Wednesday - since no one had to work the next day we decided to go out on the town.  Dan, me, Andy, Dave, Caleb, and some of his friends all went to Nick's Pub.  I had been here once before a long time ago, but didn't really remember too much about it.  It's a cool bar and has a ton of beers on tap.  I was excited because they had Woodchuck Pear Cider on tap - so so tasty - light and fresh a delightful summer drink.  I had been drinking a lot of beer lately but in the last couple of weeks decided I didn't really want it.  So I've been drinking other things - when I decide to drink that is.  We spent a good portion of the night there.  It was a lot of fun - although it was smokey and loud too.  They had a musician come on later in the night and that just makes it hard to talk to people.

On Thursday - Fourth of July - we mostly spent time at home, but I got food for a barbecue.  Summer holidays always seem right to grill.

We had bratwurst burgers (although I will probably just get actual brats next time).  I had mine on an onion cheese roll.  We also had potatoes (cut up with onion and garlic with butter and grilled) and asparagus.  Very tasty.

After we ate we headed over to Chesterfield to see the fireworks.  I was soooo excited to see fireworks this year since they had been cancelled last year due to the drought.  Chesterfield was an amazing place to see them too - we had great seats, weren't crowded by other people and was easy getting in and out (although we did have to wait to get out but still).

The firework show went on for so long (like 30 minutes) and the fireworks themselves were huge - so big!!  It was really amazing!!

On Friday during the day we took a trip to the bird store to get Quina some new toys.  I know I need to talk about that dang bird, but let's just say I'm not her biggest fan.  But this weekend she let me hold her - so a step forward... of course she was distracted playing with my hair elastic... but hey - still a win in my book!

That night we went out to John and Amanda's place in St. Charles where they grilled.  It was quite yummy and I got to have my first s'more of the year - I looove me some s'mores.  I also tried this new drink - Mikes Hard Punch - I had the mango and the strawberry pineapple - they are really good and 8% alcohol!

On Saturday night we went over to my cousin's house where we watched the NASCAR race and (surprise surprise) grill again.  I made Dan get chili cheese brats which he thought would be gross but they were the biggest hit - so I win!

Sunday was mostly a low key sort of day, but after all the going out over the weekend we deserved it!

How was your Fourth of July weekend??

Weekend in Review - Wait Wait

My weekend started out pretty exciting.  My mom and I had bought tickets to see Wait Wait... Don't Tell me at Powell Hall.  If you don't know what that is - it's a radio show on NPR.  Here in St. Louis it is played over the weekend and is referred to as the Radio New Quiz.  It's like a mixture of trivia/pop culture/news/weird stories/comedians/game show... I mean what's not to love?!?

Here's the "official" description from their website -
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! is NPR's weekly hour-long quiz program. Each week on the radio you can test your knowledge against some of the best and brightest in the news and entertainment world while figuring out what's real news and what's made up. On the Web, you can play along too.
It takes more than a couple brain cells to make this show what it is... so let's give credit where credit's due.

Personally I think you should go to the website and listen to the whole PodCast - b/c it was great!! 

Here's the set from our seats - without a zoom on.

And here's one zoomed in a bit

And here's one with them on stage and their special guest who just happened to be Jackie Joyner Kersee... and let me tell you how exciting that was.  As you may or may not know I did track and field in high school (ok, more field than track) but JJK is from East St. Louis and did track and field and won several Olympic medals.  It was really cool to hear her and she's so down to earth.  It was really amazing!!

Waaay down there, but still!

I know it's probably crazy to some that we paid money to go see a radio show recorded, but I don't care, it was cool seeing the behind the scenes stuff and it's totally funny!  Seriously - go listen to it!

The only other thing of real importance that happened this weekend was a BBQ at, where else, Andy's.  This time it was to celebrate Abby's dance recital.  Aww.  I brought her flowers because that's what you do... although she already had a bunch.  Oh well - they were pretty flowers too - bright pink Gerber daisies!

The party was real nice, especially with the beautiful weather.  We even lit a fire.  Dan made his famous ribs (ok they weren't famous before Andy's but they are now).  He put them out and they were gone in like 5 minutes no joke.  So yummy!

I also made him make his other famous Capt Crunch Berries treat - yum-o!

All-in-all it was a wonderful weekend!!