so... weak.... skeeters... drained... all... my... blood

Seriously, WTF is up with all the mosquitos? They attack when we take Kory outside to pee (which we now refer to "Feeding the Mosquitos")Then they follow us back in the apartment and continue to feed. And then I smack them with a flyswatter, and they leave blood spatter on the walls!

We went over to the new house tonight to get measurements of the back deck so my dad can build a railing around it. The skeeters were awful. It was nearly impossible to read the tape measure because I couldn't hold my arms still for the 5 seconds it would take.

Oh, and tonight was the first night I drove all the way back to the garage of the new house with the Jeep. It was not fun. If I had done that before, we might have had to rethink that place. It's long, narrow, and crooked. And the side door of the house, the one that comes out from the kitchen, has 2 steps that come out into the driveway. And the neighbor has a tall wooden fence on the other side. So you have to watch your driver's side for the fence, passengers' side GROUND for the step, and hope you don't run over too much lawn in the process. Fixing that somehow might take precedence over redoing the kitchen!

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I just bought a $2 Powerball ticket. Jackpot is $15 million.

Our luck has been pretty shitty lately. It has to get better, right? I figure $15 million might make up for some of the crap we've had to deal with in the last few years.

C'mon numbers!

On Friday, our guy at the credit union that has been processing our mortgage stuff, informed us that none of the private mortgage insurance places will insure our loan, so therefore, the credit union can't give us the loan. This is after almost a month of going back and forth with him, and at every step he's said everything is fine, nothing to worry about, you're right on track, no problem closing on June 20.... and after two letters stating "Congratulations, you're APPROVED to purchase {property address}."

So, we now have an accepted offer, less than a month to be out of our apartment, earnest money paid, and NO FREAKIN FINANCING. We've got some guy that our realtor recommended working on it, and a coworker recommended Anchor Bank because they have some program that doesn't require PMI, but seriously... How fucked up is it that we were told APPROVED for over a month, and then all of a sudden we're not??

I'm thinking after we get stuff taken care of (that is, have a place to live), I am filing a complaint with my Credit Union's board and/or with the National Association of Credit Unions, and then possibly calling one of the local tv stations and let them know. Just so that nobody else tries to get a mortgage through HEARTLAND CREDIT UNION, only to be left without the money when they need it.



As if I didn't have enough stress in my life.

They accepted our offer! We are getting a house!!!!!

Edit to add:
Here is the MLS page. The pictures aren't the best, and we have some definite ideas for what we'd like to change as we can afford it (#1 bright blue door and shutters have GOT to go. #2 kitchen countertop, sink, and cabinet knobs...) But the yard is nice and private, and there is a hot tub(!!) and garage and full basement and HUGE living room. I think it's gonna be good.

Edit again: If that top link doesn't work, try this one: http://scwmls.fnismls.com:80/publink/default.asp?GUID=00ddd381-3a2e-446c-961d-016d4006af38&Report=Yes
and if that doesn't work, guess you'll have to come to our housewarming party, huh? (J/K, I will take pictures next time we go see it)

Saw 4 houses on Thursday night. None of them we absolutely loved, but we pretty much have to choose between them.

#1 decent kitchen, not bad basement, needs a lot of paint and cosmetic, big garage, nice deck, all appliances including newish washer/dryer, TINY TINY yard which backs up to busy road so lots of road noise.

#2 smallish kitchen, huge living room, only 2 bedrooms, basement partially finished, new appliances in kitchen, no washing machine (but the dryer was included), smallish yard but very private, big garage, nice deck with a practically brand new hot tub

#3 awful lavenderish mauve color EVERYWHERE (except one bedroom upstairs that was like neon pepto bismol pink and made me want to vomit), white carpet with red koolaid stains everywhere, bathroom sink cracked, basement in great shape, NO APPLIANCES, tiny yard, big garage.

#4 3 bedroom 1.5 bath, although the half bath was in the laundry closet area and would be difficult to get to, tiny kitchen, no basement, nice utility room, fenced yard, no garage, limited street parking, "driveway" big enough to hold one vehicle off the street.

Originally we liked #4 best, but after sleeping on it, decided the lack of parking and storage might be annoying (no garage and no basement = lots of crap ends up in the house, right?). We ruled out #3 right away due to the huge amount of stuff we'd have to do (paint, carpet, buy appliances... no fun). So we were back to #1 and #2. Originally we ruled out #2 because it was the highest list price and we didn't like the kitchen and there was a closet downstairs that was halfway remodeled. But we figured we'd look at those two again and compare, see which would be a better deal for us non-handy-people. Our agent called to arrange second showings for both, and the people who are selling #1 said it was too short of notice. Guess they didn't want to sell very badly. House #2 is not occupied currently, so that was no problem. Went back there, decided we could definitely live with the kitchen and the closet wasn't such a big deal, the yard was nicer, the overall location was quieter (same street as #1, but opposite side), and the few things we really didn't like (like the bright blue doors and shutters) could be dealt with. So, house #2 it is. I'm meeting our agent at 4:30 to sign the offer (shhh.. I'm signing Bec's name too, because she's working)

Everyone cross your fingers that this one works out so we don't end up homeless!

Our real estate agent just called and said the selling agent let her know there is another offer on the house an it's "substantially higher". He's not allowed to give the amount of the offer, but she asked if we went up $4K from our original (which would match the seller's counter offer), if that would keep us in the running, and he said probably not. Grrrrrrrr...

Our only hope for this now is that the other prospective buyer has a house to sell or some other time consuming contingency, and the seller realizes that time = money too.

Regardless, we have to be out of this apartment by the end of June. So we have to know ASAP if we're getting this place or if we need to start looking HARD for something else that is available NOW.

We put an offer in yesterday afternoon on a 3 bedroom, 1.5 bath house on Memphis Dr. They had til Saturday night to answer, but they came back with a counter by 8pm. We offered $12K under their asking price, they came back at $8K below asking price, so we're going to go back at $10K under asking and hopefully get it for that. Signing papers for the counter offer tonight. Fingers crossed!

My parents are talking about getting my mom a new car. A 2008 GMC Acadia, to be exact. Which is nice, because my mom has been driving this shitty old 1997 Chevy Lumina for 10 years now, while my dad got a brand new truck in 2000, and a brand new (expensive) motorcycle in like, 2005. Bec and I were talking about selling or trading my pickup and getting a car, so we'd have something that could haul the baby around and was better on gas.
Last weekend when we were up, they were talking about trading their shitty blue car for my pickup, and then trading the truck towards mom's new car. That would have been fine with me, except we hate the blue car. But whatever, it would fill the need that we had right now.

NOW, the new plan is, Mom & Dad will GIVE us the shitty blue car, so we can SELL my truck and GET THIS -- buy a motorcycle! It would be perfect, because then I wouldn't have to drive the shitty blue car very often, I could take the motorcycle to work all summer, which will save bazillions of dollars in gas! Yay.

I think tomorrow, Charleigh and I will go to the DMV and get a new title for the truck. Because I lost it somewhere, and now I actually do have an incentive to go get it again!