Housewarming Party

Last night we had our housewarming party. I first want to apologize for not inviting all of our family and friends. I sent out evites and I did not have every one's email address'. I didn't get around to calling to invite those who I didn't have an email address for. If you were not invited or were not able to come, consider himself invited to come over.

Ummm fudge....

Jeff's maternal grandparents



Jeff's birthday is this coming Tuesday. I was planning on combining the housewarming party with a birthday party for Jeff, but with all the preparations for the housewarming party, I plum forgot. So, to (kind of) make up for it, we sang happy birthday to Jeff with a candle in a cream puff.

Finished Product

Some have called us crazy that in one week, we are all unpacked and have the main floor all decorated. I would simply say, we are the organized type. Both Jeff and I can't stand looking at unopened boxes just sitting around or stuffed into closets. By Tuesday we were mostly unpacked and the decorating began.

First I must give a HUGE "thank you" to my sister-in-law Michelle for spending almost every waking moment with me shopping, painting, and decorating our house! I will never be able to repay her for all her hard work. Michelle, you really should become an interior designer!

Here are some photos of the main level all finished.

Entry

Living room



My favorite

Family/lounge room



Kitchen

Yes.... it finally came.

Pantry

Extra, Extra, Read all about it!

Why buy toys, when they are more entertained by newspaper and boxes? Today Michelle came over to help me decorate our house. The boxes with all my pictures, candles, and other misc. decorations were still packed up. As we started unpacking them and taking out all the paper, Mason, Zachary, and Ethan began piling up all the paper and jumping in them. All three boys were entertained for well over a half an hour. And when we asked to pick them up for lunch, they were all really disappointed that they could not play in them anymore.

Family Pictures at Manito

Here are the family pictures we took at Manito Park a few weeks ago. Honestly I am bumbed. We tried to get some really cute ones, but Mason didn't want anything to do with taking pictures all together. When it was just him in front of the camera, he did fine. I guess we will just have to try another time.

What's missing?

Have you figured it out yet? Yeah, our fridge. This was another frustration we were dealing with on Friday, the day we almost didn't get to close on our house on time. Friday morning (before we found out that the underwriter was not going to fund our loan) I called Fred's Appliance to see if I could move our scheduled delivery of the fridge from Saturday to Friday. The gentlemen I spoke to at the warehouse said he did not have our fridge. Now, we ordered our fridge two weeks prior to this, so it was suppose to be there. I then called the showroom to get some answers. The sales person (Troy) I spoke to there looked up our order and could not figure out why our fridge was not in the warehouse. He said he would do some looking into the situation for me and call me back as soon as he knew what went wrong. Well after seven hours of not hearing anything, I called Troy back, he said that the fridge we ordered was on back order until the end of the month. He asked if the sales person (Chris) who sold us our fridge informed us of this back order. Um, no, if he had don't you think we would have purchased a different fridge?, maybe one that was not on back order? Troy then looked in his system to see if either of their other locations had the fridge we ordered in their show room. Of course they didn't. I thanked Troy for looking into the situation for me and that I would be back in later in the day to be refunded my money.

After we straightened out everything with the loan, and knew the underwriter had been persuaded to fund our loan, I went out shopping for another fridge. Home Depot and Lowe's would not be able to get the fridge in that I wanted until at least this coming Wednesday. University appliance only had one sales person in the store, who was helping another customer, I didn't feel like waiting around. Then I went to Fred's Appliance and got my money back. Then I went on to Sears. I was able to get a fridge similar to the one I wanted, and have it delivered today (Sunday). Saturday night, I received a reminder call for our delivery. Sunday at 3:30pm (half way through our delivery time frame) I got a call from Sears delivery person saying that our fridge was not going to be delivered today. And that the soonest it would be was Tuesday. I became really firm with the gal, I told her that was unacceptable, I don't have a fridge, I need one because I have two small children who need milk and other foods that require being kept in a fridge. Of course she didn't care, it wasn't her who was living without a fridge.

Jeff got right on the phone and called Sears customer service, after 30 minutes of being on hold waiting for someone who spoke English, he gave up and called the sales person (Kirt) who helped me Friday night. Jeff explained to him what was going on. (This sales person already knew what happened with Fred's) Kirt told Jeff that their delivery system had dropped/deleted 500 deliveries that were scheduled for today. Kirt said we could come down, pick up a loaner fridge until ours could be delivered, and offered us a $50 gift card to Sears. So we now have a loaner fridge in our garage until the one we ordered in delivered.

Ugh... what else will go wrong....

A nail biter of a day

What we thought was going to be a stress-free day, turned out to be a nail biter of one.

At 9:20 this morning Megan, (the gal handling our loan) called to let us know that our loan had not been funded yet. She said that the underwriter would not fund the loan because they called one last time this morning to verify Jeff's employment and of course, as we all know, Jeff just switched jobs this past Monday. Megan asked Jeff to obtain an offer letter from his current employer, so they could verify that he really did start a new job and to make sure his income has not changed. No problem we thought, Jeff went right down, got the letter, and faxed it off to Megan.

Before Jeff even got back from his office, Megan called him to let him know that the underwriter was not satisfied with funding the loan on just the offer letter. They now wanted to wait to fund the loan until Jeff has received one pay check from his new employer. What? Are you kidding me? What is one paycheck going to prove that the offer letter has not already proved? Once Jeff got home, he called Megan back and left a message on her voice mail, letting her know that this was crap, why was this last employment verification done at the LAST minute? He also told her that he expected this all to be worked out today, and that we also expected to be able to close today.

About an hour later (10:30) our realtor called to see if we needed his help with anything, since we would not be able to close today. Well yeah you can help us get this all cleared up and get our loan closed today! Our realtor explained to me all different aspects of how this all could turn out, and what our options would be.

We then talked to Megan again, she let us know that she was going to do everything in her power to persuade the underwriter to make an exception- to look closer at all the other factors, like: our credit score, debt to income ratio, how long Jeff had been with his previous employer, etc.

After another three hours of sitting around, waiting for the phone to ring, biting my nails, pulling hair our, pacing, cleaning random things, pacing some more, biting my nails more..... Megan called to let us know that the underwriter finally was going to fund the loan! Yeah!!! Megan just had one more form she needed us to sign, so she said she would email it to us, we could print it off, sign it, scan it into our computer, and email it back to her. Simple right? Wrong! Today just had to be the day our printer would run out of ink. Figures. (by this time it was 2:00)

I called Megan back, let her know our situation and asked if we drove out to her office, if we would make it in time to get all the loan documents filed. She said to hurry, made sure we knew where to go and hung up. We got to her office just in time, signed the papers, and went to walk out the door when our realtor walked in to check on the progress, found us there, and so we filled him in. Megan came back to the reception area where we were and let us know that we made it just in the nick of time.

Jeff and I came home, relieved and thankful that everything worked out. Jeff's Dad came over to help Jeff pick up our new furniture from Mor's Warehouse, on the way to Mor Jeff stopped by the title company to see if he could get the keys. He was told that the documents they (at the title company) were waiting on so they could release the keys to him, were not there yet, but should be soon. So Jeff went and waited in the car, he waited there for 30 minutes. Finally at 4:30 a FedEx truck pulled up, made his delivery, and when he came back out, he pointed at Jeff, with a big grin on his face, and pointed back towards the building. Jeff got out of the car and told the FedEx guy that he just made Jeff's day!

All packed

We are all packed, except for the basic necessities. It didn't take me as long as I thought it would to get it all done, considering I did most of the packing by myself while the boys were sleeping. As a result I am dead tired, physically, mentally, and emotionally. I will be glad when we are moved in, unpacked, and back to living a (somewhat) normal life.

I am not looking forward to cleaning the apartment. I don't have a ton of deep cleaning to do, as I have tried to keep up on it while living here. But I need to have it all cleaned before our final walk through on Wed., Sept. 17. If anyone would be willing to help me clean, please let me know. I will be cleaning the apartment on the evening of either Monday the 15th or Tuesday the 16th.

Asthma attack

We have come to realize over the last year or so that Mason is allergic to cats and dogs. Now we are beginning to think that he also has allergy induced asthma. Mason has been having a hard time breathing all day. When he would breath, he would act the way most people do when their nose is stuffed. So today I was assuming he was getting a cold. It wasn't until his breathing got worse that I realized he was having an asthma attack. I gave him a nebulizer treatment. When the treatment didn't help his breathing, I called Jeff to let him know what was going on. Jeff was able to get off work a little early to come evaluate how bad of an attack Mason was having. When Jeff got home he listened to Mason's breathing and he became a nervous wreck. I asked Jeff how bad was Mason, he replied, Bad. Jeff gave Mason another treatment, when this didn't make much of a difference, Jeff gave Mason a nebulizer medication that contains a steroid. (Steroid's help open the airways better.)

By the time Mason went to bed, he was breathing better, not completely better, but enough that Jeff was not as worried about Mason as he had been when he first got home from work. I am really thankful Jeff is a Respiratory Therapist! I know he has saved Mason from having to go to the Doctor or the ER many times because Jeff knows the early warning signs of asthma attacks, upper respiratory infections, and other respiratory related illnesses.

Signing

We signed all the paperwork for our house today. Once Viking Construction signs the paperwork, they will send the packet of paperwork back to the tile company along with our keys. Once the tile company receives our keys, they will contact our realtor so that he can make arrangements with us to get us our keys. At this time all we know is that we will be getting our keys on Friday, but we do not know what time yet.

Helper

Mason has really enjoyed helping us pack. I guess he though he would save us the trouble of having to pack him, so he went ahead and packed himself in a box for us!

Boys

I had Julia's three boys today, in case you missed my post entitled "testosterone X 5", the five boys range in age from 6 months to five years old. These boys keep me busy, that is for sure. They also keep me laughing. I wish I had a tape recorder with me at all times.

I thought I would post a few of the funny things they did today.

On the way back to our apartment, (after picking Connor up from Kindergarten) Connor said, Hey Sir-Steen.... Mason immediately interrupted Connor and very matter-of-factly told Connor, "Her... name... is... Crystyne.........Borders..."

After getting the four younger boys down for their naps, I cooked up some spaghetti for my lunch and I used some left over meatballs I had from last nights dinner (meatball sandwiches). I sat down and ate about half of my lunch, then I remembered I needed to look something up on the Internet. I came over to the computer desk and sat my lunch down. Connor came over and said, "yum that looks good". I told him he could eat a bit if he wanted. I figured he would turn me down since he had just eaten a whole PB&J sandwich and some apple slices for lunch. Very much to my surprise he grabbed my fork and picked up a meatball. The next thing I knew all that was left in my bowl was these two meatballs and a few noodles. I know that boys have a HUGE appetite and will eat you out of house and home, I didn't think it would start this soon. Thanks for saving some for me Connor. :)
Benjamin's favorite toy is this set of rings.

Zachary didn't want his picture taken.

Connor really enjoys the two babies! He loves helping Cooper walk around the apartment. He is also a BIG help rocking and singing to Benjamin when I am busy tending to the other little ones' needs.

I can tell that I am going to have my hands full with Cooper. I left him on the couch for a second, came back in the room and this is what I found. He was actually all the way on the sofa table, but by the time I got the camera, he had climbed down.

Firsts and Lasts

Yesterday was our last Sunday in the Beacon Hill Ward. Jeff and I have been in that ward for 5 1/2 years. It was really sad saying good bye to our friends and fellow ward members who we have known for the last 5 1/2 years. I know we will probably see them on occasion, but it will be sad not attending church with them on a weekly basis. I remember when we moved into the Beacon Hill Ward I HATED the ward. I didn't have any friends and I felt like no one made any effort to get to know me. Then I realized that not knowing anyone and not being able to get to know anyone was my fault. Once I realized that, I reached out to others and made some really great friends. Two of my really good friends both moved out of state in July, I have had a really hard time with dealing with the emptiness their moving has left me with. Hopefully I will make some new friends and be able to fill that empty part of my life.

Today was Jeff's first day at Stat Medical. Yesterday, Jeff was nervous about starting his new job and he didn't know if he was going to be able to calm his nerves enough to sleep. In a way it was like the first day of school all over for him. His first day went well, he filled out all of the 'new employee' paper work. Jeff thinks he will be very happy with the change in employers, Stat is a very laid back, non-stressful, easy going environment. That type of environment is just what Jeff was looking for.

Manito Park

Saturday we decided to take a break from all the packing, shopping, and other stuff we are doing in preparation to move. We went up to Manito Park for a picnic with Jared, Michelle, and Ethan. While we were there we also took some family pictures. I don't have any of our family pictures, they are all on Jared and Michelle's camera. As soon as she sends them to me, I will post them for every one to see.

Just had to stop to smell the flowers

Looking for the fish in the Japanese gardens

Jared, Michelle, and Ethan

Too cute!

Where is Mason?