As I was saying....

It's the day before Thanksgiving and as of today, everything is falling into place. Thank you. We are all so relieved.
The appraisal on my parents house did not come in high enough for the buyers to get a loan to not only satisfy the buying price of the house, but also their closing costs. It's a little unreasonable to expect that, but that's what they wanted. SO, we had to appeal the appraisal which seems to be dragging....everything was coming down to the wire. The closing is still set for 12/5, we've been waiting for the lease papers on the farm house to come in, planning on renting as of 12/1 and just received those Monday. Then, we were afraid to sign them while still waiting on this appeal, yet look at the date people!! LOL Don't have much time to waste!
Got a phone call today that the buyers are anxious as well, they have "come up with their closing costs" so the initial appraisal is just fine. HUGE sigh of relief! We're meeting to sign the lease papers and hand over the checks for the rental Friday @12:30, we can start moving in over the weekend and closing on mom's house will be next Friday. PHEW!!!
Thank heavens for good wine. Hahaha!!!
Have to add that we went to parent/teacher conference for Sophia Monday night and we could not be prouder of her. She got straight A's, the teacher said that if every teacher had 20 of her they would never have a complaint and she said that she's the class role model. Once again, she's just like her mom!! LOL
Threw in a couple new pics of the girls because I'm their mama and they're so darn cute. =]
Wishing you all an outstanding day with family and friends this Thanksgiving Day.

Being thankful...

This is the time of year that we hear it the most. "What are you thankful for?" I am a firm believer that everything happens for a reason. There's always a plan. Sometimes it just takes us a while to figure out why something happened, but then one day there's a realization.
This past year with all of this house "stuff", there's been a few of those moments! The biggest being when the last buyer for this house backed out. We were devastated. We liked her, we had a rental house in a good location with a floor plan that would work for all of us and in this market, we were just plain happy to have a buyer.
Here we are two months later with another buyer and the reality is that this is a full price offer-the previous, we were taking a loss, these people are so nice & warm. The husband got down on his knees to be on Alena's level when he talked to her. I liked that. :) The last rental house was really nice, but small. The girls were going to share a room and there would be no family room or spare room for anyone to escape to for peace! The house we will be leasing for the next six months or so (pictured above!) is a 4-5 bedroom, 2 1/2 bath, salt box with 3 working fireplaces, on a beautiful horse farm. The house is large and made to look like it was built in 1773. I LOVE it.
I can't help but think that it's going to be peaceful there. As soon as I found the listing, I said to myself, "THIS is where we are supposed to be for Christmas."
So, where things stand now: contracts have been signed by the buyers and my parents on this house and the VA appraisal was done yesterday. Our realtor, who is an appraiser was here for it and she said it went great. Now we wait for a week or so for it to come back and pray that it appraises high enough for the buyer's VA loan. That is the only thing that can get in the way at this point.
The house to lease is ours, we're waiting on the papers to sign, but we should start renting as of 12/1. The owner said we can come in over Thanksgiving weekend to get started though.
The builder is more than ready to get started on the new house. Since we are hopefully close to a closing here, we are waiting for that instead of getting started with a bridge loan.
Everything just feels right now and I'm thankful for that!! As well as my amazing girls, my family, my best friend, group of friends and my career.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

Halloween fun!

We've really had a fun time of it this fall. We got invited to a HUGE pumpkin carving party that was a blast! Patients of mine that are very close friends of my boss and his family host this party every year and it was awesome. They had two huge tents, one for carving in and one for entertainment. There was food, desserts, lots of drinks(!), African storytelling & dance, a magician and lots of laughs!
The girls had a fantastic time trick-or-treating as well. Sophia was Candy Corn and Alena was a "Pretty Flowaaa"!! Haha!! She practiced all week saying "Trick-or-treat, candy please, thank you"!!Fred pushed her around in her car and she was the happiest flower ever. =]
I added a Live Feed to the blog because I wasn't sure if I should keep this up or not. I really enjoy it, but I already know what's going on around here!! LOL I know not everyone comments, so just wanted to see if there are any visitors! :)
We just got a full price offer on mom's house Tuesday. The inspection was on Friday and we are trying to stay as positive as possible!