Still waiting...

Ok, I haven't been blogging much because I feel like I'm just waiting to hear some more news on our house and I can't focus on anything else.  As far as I know, we have the house and we can give our notice to move out of the apartment on schedule... but they won't fricken tell me officially that we are approved.  I mean, I know we are, but then again I don't know that we are all set and ready to close on July 11th.  My pessimistic side is freaking me out... it's whispering screaming in my ear that something will go wrong, like the loan won't go through, or the builder won't fix something on our check list, or our closing date will have to be moved, or the house will burn down before we move it or something else crazy.  The positive side of me is like... just chill, show up on the closing date, sign some papers, get some keys and let the good times roll.  Then there is the realistic side of me still freaking the hell out!!! OMG OMG OMG we will be (hopefully) closing in 15 days and we haven't packed a single thing!  I wish Chaz was still in the Army, so we could have awesome movers come pack everything and safely move it, but he isn't, so we will be packing everything and moving most of it.  We've decided to hire somebody to do the heavy lifting and move all of our large furniture or at least that's the plan.  I first have to  find the company, get quotes and then figure out what our moving date actually will be.  I think I need a check list on how to move... BRB, I'm gonna google that.  Start playing the jeopardy theme song in your head now... Ok I'm back! 


This is what I found:



Two months before....

• Put together a 'moving book' to keep notes of what you need do, what you've done etc.

Oh Shit, I'm a month and a half behind.  Gotta go start making a "moving book cliff notes edition".  

@ Noble 

The waiting game

My mother will tell you that I defiantly took after my father when it comes to having patience, meaning, I have none, nodda, zilch, zero very little.  I've never been good at waiting for anything, but I'm not to be confused with the "instant satisfaction generation" because that generation is just annoying!  When I was little if a tooth felt some what loose, I was yanking that sucker out even if it was no where near ready to come out.  In the days leading up to Christmas my brother and I would sneak under the Christmas tree, cut the tape on our presents, unwrap them, (sometime play with them), wrap them back up and then measure the exact amount of tape to make sure there was no trace evidence of us tampering with them.  Don't even get me started on my road rage if somebody doesn't immediately start moving when the stop light turns green.  My point being... buying a house is extra stressful since I don't like wait. 

Most people I've talked with are amazed at how quickly things have been moving for us, I on the other hand say it's been torturously slow.  In one week today, we managed to find our dream home, look at our dream home a 2nd time, get pre-approved for a mortgage, submit and offer, accept a counter offer, set a closing date of July 11th, sign the purchase agreement and submit all of our home loan applications to the under writer... and now we wait!  I literally have no idea how long this process is going to take but I'm sure it will feel like For-ev-er... For-ev-er (+10 points for anybody who got just the Sandlot reference).  Does anybody know how long it will take?  Is it hours?  Days? Weeks?  Do any of you know how to do hypnosis and will you put me in a daze until we get the keys to our home?  

A photo that warms my heart, our new mailbox!!! 

@ Noble

Pre-Approval Pending

Many books, bloggers, websites, friends and family have told me when it come to buying a house "Take your time".  You all will be happy to know I did the exact opposite of that (just kidding sort of).  Chaz and I have been looking at homes and places to live for about a year now.  We haven't narrowed anything down because we haven't really found what we have been looking for.  We have toured a few homes, did some drive-by shopping but over all, we just haven't been impressed with any places until this last weekend.  I figure now that we like a place we better get moving.

Yesterday we were getting pay check stubs, tax returns and a bunch of other boring important information together so we could submit it for our pre-approval.  Nick, our mortgage expert, gave us a bunch of mortgage scenarios, none of which actually make sense to me but thats another story.

And now for the most important part of this post....

Everything has been submitted, Nick looked it all over and said we are good to go, now we are to the part WHERE WE WAIT!!  I know it has been less than 48 hours but it comes back to the "taking your time" aspect of buying a house, clearly I'm listening... I'm listening for my phone to ring or my email to chime to let me know it's time for the next step :-)

@ Noble

Home sweet home?

Let me start off by saying it's all HGTV's fault.  Every time I watch one of their shows I end up on realtor.com looking at houses and every day I'm more and more sure that we are ready for a house.  I had been bugging the hubs for quite some time to just drive around and look for houses with me, finally he gave in and off we went.  I had my eye on house in particular and we were approaching the drive I was getting excited but then my dreams were crushed when the For Sale sign was replaced by a big fat red SOLD sign (ouch, dagger straight to the heart, internet you lied to me!).  So from there we just drove around and we came across this house and I was in love.  (side note: I grew up surrounded by 40 acres of woods and want a house out in the country!)

This house come with 5 acres of woods and lost of bonuses 

I saw the trees, the front porch, 2 stories and I was sold... then I googled it and saw the price tag of OMG almost a half a million dollars!!!  Sadly a police officer doesn't get paid good enough to live in the "dream home". 

So our search continued.  I thought Chaz was just driving in the most obscure places to piss me off.  We kept coming across houses like these:  

really? 

It was 800sqft our apt. is 1200!

Ok, Now I know I sound like a brat but our apartment is newer construction and I'm used to certain things, like central air condition, no bars on the windows or doors, no drug raids going on next door.  I really don't ask for that much.  Then after we got out of the ghetto (thats the funny thing about memphis, you will be driving around seeing half million dollar homes and then a block later you are in the slums, no joke), we followed the signs to a neighborhood that was mostly all new construction.  I perked up and felt safe enough to unlocked the doors and then I saw my dream home.  

Yup that's my SVU in the drive and it looks good! 

It's a simple 3 bedroom 2 bath home.  It has a great kitchen, living space, bonus room upstairs, 2 car garage.  The master bath has a jetted whirlpool soaking tub that is huge, double vanities, separate shower and large walk in closet!  I'm totally in love... now only if we knew how to buy a house. Chaz and I have ZERO debt, so to choose to go into debt for 30 years freaks me out, ALOT!!  Also, I have no clue as to what I'm doing.  I got online and googled "how to buy our pretty dream home" there were many helpful website but I'm afraid we aren't going to get a pre-approval for a mortgage in time and this gem is going to be sold and we will never find a house as perfect as this one.  The realtor said the builder was very motivated to sell (which translates to me OMG HURRY UP, cuz it's going to be gone soon!!).  I just want to send an email to the builder and let him know it's our dream home and for him to wait for us to figure out how in the hell to get a mortgage so we can buy his pretty home.  Think that will work?  Do any of you have any tips on how to buy a house?  How to find a mortgage?  How to re-build a broke heart if this house gets sold to somebody rather than us?  

@ Noble

    

Bachelorette

Tomorrow we get to watch Ashley send home more guys... but wait I've been seeing a rumor around twitter that on tomorrows episode Bentley takes himself out of the game.  I'm kinda skeptical about all this just because he considers himself to be "super competitive".  I suppose only time will tell.

Recap of last week:

Williams gets the first 1 on 1 date with Ashley.  They fly to Vegas and she then forces the guy into, cake tasting, diamond ring shopping and then they go to a little chapel.  William is clearly freaking out because in his Q&A he saw himself doing stand up comedy in the next 5 years, Not Married on his first date!  Well,  when it comes down to asking him if he would marry Ashley he said "I do"  Ashley thought this was so cute but didn't marry the guy... Big shocker!  If she would have married him this would have been the shortest season of the Bachelorette to date.  After all that that had dinner in the lake in front of the Bellagio Hotel  and had a beautiful water/lights show.

She did a group date with: Constantine, Ryan M, Chris, Ben F, Nick, Bentley, West, Lucas, Stephen, Blake, Matt and Ames.  They were split up in two groups, to do a dance with some big Vegas Dance group since dancing is Ashley's thing.  Half of the guys went home feeling sorry for themselves.  The other half that stayed got to dance and get extra time with Ashley.  Where, West told Ashley about his wife passing away.  Also Bentley told the cameras he didn't really like Ashley but still gave her a smooch at the end of the evening.  


The next date was all luck:  She flipped a coin to decide who would go on a date with her J.P or Mickey.  Mickey went on the date and the date was totally controlled by flipping a coin.  She even flipped a coin to see if she would keep him around which she did then they enjoyed a concert on the Beach by Colbie Cailliet.  


Bottoms up, it's cocktail time:  The masked man Jeff was about to remove his mask after telling Ashley about almost dying and divorcing his wife of 10 years but they were interrupted by Matt stepping in and ruins the moment so the mask is still on!  J.P. is a sly guy, he gets Ashley to flip a coin to see if he gets a kiss and he got his kiss!  


Rose Ceremony: The guys that she gave a rose to were: Ames, Ben C, Ben F, Bentley, Blake, Chris, Constantine, J.P., Jeff, Lucas, Mickey, Nick, Ryan P, West, William


The guys that went home: Stephen, Matt and Ryan M.  Better luck on the Bachelor Pad boys.  


Be sure to tune in tomorrow on ABC at 8/7c for more.  Or just come back next week to read my blog! 


@ Noble. 

Bachelorette

Tonight is another all new episode of the Bachelorette!!  

Here's a little recap of last week:

I WAS RIGHT!! 

Bentley: is an ASS!  I'm gonna hate to love to watch this train wreck unfold.   

Ryan P: is the one she gave the first impression rose to and therefore in my mind they will be in love forever.  I don't know why, I just see those two together.  

Tim:  Got so drunk he passed out and was carried out by some of the other guys.  END of his journey 

Jeff:  They guy is in a mask... he says he's doing it so Ashley can get to know the real him, she bought it and kept him around.  I have a feeling he will be going home soon. 

Ames:  Gave Ashley tickets to the ballet, they must have been good tickets, because she kept him around too.  

West:  has the sympathy vote from America now because his wife died.  

The other guys didn't do anything to stand out enough for me to remember them an entire week later.  

Make sure to tune into ABC tonight a 8/7c 

All is Fair in Love & War {and good editing}

After much time off from writing, I've been searching to something (really anything) to inspire  me back to writing... and I've found it!  My love for reality TV.  I heart the Bachelor/Bachelorette series on ABC.  Just to let all of you know, the opinions expressed in this blog are my and mine alone.  ABC didn't put me up to this and relax people, I'm joking on a lot of the stuff I'm about to say (so please don't get pissy if/when I offend you/your ideals/believes or political affiliation cuz I'm sure it will happen)!  Just remember I'm writing all of this in the name of reality television love!

Are you ready for some pre-season warm ups?  

Yes, I feel that the bachelorette is like a sport, everybody is competing for something; it should be love but I'm sure more are in it for fame, free booze, embarrassment, infamy...  There's a whole lotta fighting and crying all the way through season and in the end there is typically a shiny prize!  It's pretty much the NFL and the Final Rose is the Super Bowl.

Ok, now that's out of the way, I'm going to introduce you to the Bachelorette.

Name: Ashely Herbert

Age: 26

Occupation: Dentist

Hometown: Madawaska, ME

Claim to Fame:  Being dumped by Brad Womack on the last season of the Bachelor 

After reading all 25 of the guys Bio's here what I have to say about them:  

Ames, 31:  He is on this show for the fame and to whore around too, I'm sure.  Ashley, please don't give this guy a rose! 

Anthony, 28:  He's a butcher (creepy)... but seems like a nice fellow.  

Ben C, 28:  Ehhh, I'm not impressed.  I'm sure he will be sweet and all, but not the one for her.

Ben F, 28:  Winemaker +1, hair cut -3 

Bentley, 28:  His parents named him after a car, 1st mistake. 2nd Occupation: Businessman (can he be a bit more vague?) 3rd wearing a blue & red flannel for your official head shot says to me: I'm putting no effort into this and I'm an Ass! 

Blake, 27:  He's a Dentists so thats a good start and the guy can take a good photo. 

Chris D, 25:  Interview ? who do you most admire: "Barack Obama..." Minus 9,834,023,938,509 points! Sorry, you do not pass go, and do not collect a Rose! (p.s. I hope Ashely voted for Cheney/Palin) 

Chris M, 27:  He kinda looks like he's 16 & stoned but had good answers to his interview ?'s, so he won't be written off just yet.  

Constantine, 30:  I suspect he's actually a spy for whatever country still names their kids Constantine. 

Frank, 26:  The funny guys never lasts too long, sorry pal. P.S. your shirt has buttons for a reason. 

J.P. 34:  No picture, No love from me.  Also, please don't be so vague in your q&a, it's not mysterious & sexy, just annoying.  

Jeff, 35:  "If he could be someone else for just one day, who would it be and why? Arnold, the Governator, for his fitness success and position in our community."  Betcha he's regretting saying that now. LOL  

J.P.  26: He's ok(ish) on paper... guess we will really see what he's like when he opens his mouth. 

**OMG I'm only 1/2 way thru with these guys, why did I ever think writing about all of them was a good idea... I forgive you if you stop reading now and just look at their pictures from now on** 

Lucas, 30:  "Conservative Repupilcan"  Plus 5 points, comment on going to the country club kinda makes you a dork, but that's ok still.  Also, not too hard on the eyes. Hope he makes the top 3

Matt, 28:  "Occupation: Office Supply Salesman"  Can we say "The Office"  I like this guy already.  Also, the rest of his Q&A does not elude to him being a creeper.  I think he will make top 5 (that is if he isn't a weirdo when he opens his mouth). 

Michael, 29:  He's ok, I don't have a strong opinion one way or another... I also, haven't heard him speak yet.  Only time can tell... 

Mickey, 31:  I can't actually believe this guy has ever read a book.  Also, I think he was casting for a different show, maybe "true beauty" lets say and got mixed up and wandered into the Bachelorette casting. 

Nick, 26:  He's got the whole Matthew McConaughey thing going for him... 

Rob, 27:  This guy reminds me of Stifler on American Pie.  

Ryan M, 27:  He's from Michigan so extra points for him!  He kinda looks like a jock, which is also score additional points.  

Ryan P, 31:  This guy is the winner!  I don't actually have any proof that he is the winner, but he looks cute, he answered his Q&A with charm & intelligence, loves the earth and well I just see him and Ashley together.  Again, I've never heard him speak so I just hope he doesn't screw it but, because I'm already planning their wedding!

Stephen, 27:  He is a hairstylist... with that hair... No rose for you sir. 

Tim, 35:  HAHAHA, I'm not sure why, I just laugh when I see this guy.  There is just something about him that screams "I'm trying too hard and I act like I'm still in my early 20's" Please send him home on day 1 Ashley! 

West, 30:  I'm a sucker for blue eyes, and that's probably why I like this guy.  There isn't anything that stands out about him in a good or bad way.  I think he will go far in the show. 

William, 30:  "Do you have any pets and if so, what kind? No. Roommate has fish."  He's cute but has no brain, if you didn't believe me from that last quote of his, heres another "Where do you see yourself in 5 years? Doing stand-up comedy or voice over work." Way to aim high my friend... way to aim high. 

Finally I'm done!  Be sure to tune into ABC Monday Night, at 9/8c and tell me what you think of the guys!!  I hope my projected winner is actually a winner!  

@ Noble 

* All Photos were taken from ABC.com *