Update on Life

It has been so long since I blogged, but I have been so incredibly busy! The biggest piece of news is that my husband and are officially homeowners! We closed on the scheduled date of Wednesday October 14. I had actually called our realtor earlier in the day to see if he had heard anything about us closing, and he hadn't, so I thought it would happen on the following day, but he called me a few hours later and told us to come get our keys because we had the house! I hadn't posted the pictures of the house because I didn't want to jinx it in some way, but for those who are interested, you can view the pictures here. So after we got the keys, we started transferring our stuff from our roommates aparment into the house. And then I had to drive a little over an hour to the airport in Tucson to pick up my friend Kelsey - so needless to say, I was very busy that day!

So the next day, Kelsey and I drove up to Glendale, which is a suburb of Phoenix, the go to a hockey game. Granted it wasn't my Predators playing, but I didn't care because I just wanted to see hockey, any hockey would do! So we watch the Phoenix Coyotes take on the St. Louis Blues (Kelsey's 2nd fave team). The Coyotes won in overtime, but it was still a good game, and great to see our former goalie Mason again - I heart him! It was also weird to see our former player Fiddler do well, haha. We drove back to Sierra Vista that night and were so tired we just went straight to bed. The rest of her time here, we hung out, ran errands, and finally felt connected to the world again when I got my internet hooked up, haha. Kelsey left on Monday and I was sad to see her go - it was nice to have one of my best friends out here, even if all we did was hang out not doing a whole lot.

So we thought the Army was going to ship our stuff out here free of charge, well we were wrong. They wanted to charge nearly $3000 to do it, and I really didn't want to drain my savings to do so. So the hubby and I are flying out to TN on November 11, loading our stuff into a truck on the 12th, and driving right back out here. Yeah it's going to be a lot of work, but the Army will pay us $7500 to do it, and I think we'll only be spending about $2000 to do it ourselves. As of right now, we have two new couches we bought and a new bedroom set, but other than that's it's pretty empty. Oh well, soon enough we'll have our stuff, not looking forward to driving that truck though, haha.

So that's my update. I feel like I wrote a lot, so I try to update more often so I don't have to write as much, haha.

Annoyed.

When I woke up this morning, I looked at my phone and realized I had a missed call from my realtor and our mortgage broker. I immediately took this as a good sign, but I was wrong. I called our realtor first and he told me he had good news and bad news - which to me is always just bad news. He said that he wasn't sure if we'd be able to close by Wednesday because the mortgage underwriter was taking a long time. Something that should've only taken a week has taken two. So that was the bad news, the good news was that if they don't make the deadline, then they pay us $1300. Believe me, $1300 would be nice, that's essentially the rest of our closing costs, but I could care less because I just want to be in my home! Plus, my friend Kelsey is flying into town on Wednesday and I don't want her to have to stay in a hotel. So after I talked to the realtor, I call the mortgage broker back. He told me to go ahead and set up our homeowners insurance. I guess to make it go faster in case the loan does indeed come through this week. I was really hoping to close by the end of this week so we could go furniture shopping this weekend up in Tucson, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen.

Aside from that, my husband called the movers yesterday and they referred us to the Fort Campbell Transportation office. Who told us it would probably be 3-4 weeks until we got our stuff. Mostly because it takes 10 days to process the paperwork. Annoying to say the least.

So that's all that's new with me. Hope to have a better update next week!

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Cancer in general is a very important cause I support since so many people in my life have suffered or died from it. My Uncle Mark died when I was 8 from lung cancer, my Grandma in 2007 from cervical cancer, and my friend Sarah had lymphoma. But I hold the breast cancer cause especially close to my heart. My Aunt MaryAnn beat the disease about 10 years ago, while my mother died from it in 1993 when I was nine.

I encourage every woman to do a self breast exam every month and when the time is right, get yearly mammograms. And if your doctor tries to talk you out of it, find a doctor who will do it! My mom requested a mammogram when she was 26, only to be told she was 'too young' to get cancer. 13 years later she found the lump and had cancer. Granted that doctor got sued for malpractice - it didn't make up for the cancer that had already come. I will be getting my first mammogram when I am 29 - 10 years before my mother was diagnosed.

I know everyone reading this has been affected by breast cancer or just cancer in general. Don't let it be YOU.

Almost There.

When the husband and I first talk to our mortgage broker, he told us that we would need pay stubs from one months worth of pay, and we were told that my husband started during the beginning of a new pay period. Well, he got paid two weeks later, but it was only for one weeks worth of work, basically meaning that they're one week ahead with pay (if that makes sense). So we initially thought he'd have one months pay on Sept 18, but in fact he only had three weeks of pay. Our mortgage broker decided to try to submit the loan paperwork anyway and see if the lender would notice. That was last Wednesday. I called up there today to see if he had heard anything and he said he was just waiting on one last piece of paperwork - the approval of the mortgage underwriter - aka the last step in the loan process. I talked to our realtor too, and he think we should be in the home by next week! We scheduled our final walkthrough for Monday, to make sure everything we requested to be fixed was done accordingly.

I am really excited! I think I am going to call the movers from the Army tomorrow to schedule our stuff to be delivered next Friday (can always be changed if need be). The only other thing in our way is the cost this may entail. When one gets out of the Army, they will only move your belongings as far as your 'home of record' or where you entered in the service at. NYC was 900 miles from where we lived in TN, however AZ is 1500 miles, so we may have to pay whatever their price is for 600 miles. We do know one girl who said she never had to pay for her extra mileage, but we're not sure if we'll be as lucky.

Anyway, that's the latest news. I can't wait to get into the house & decorate and just make it my own. I will post pictures soon!