Mom & Dad's 40th Anniversary Party

Thursday was the big day - Mom & Dad's party. Mom had been planning this thing for months, so it was nice to see her hard work come to fruition. It took place at Leu Gardens near downtown Orlando.
http://www.leugardens.org/

It was a lovely summer evening in the south, so Tim and I took a moment to enjoy the rocking chairs on the screened porch.



There were 18 people there:
Mom & Dad, of course
My two brothers, Mike & Ray
Tim & myself
Tim's mom, Sylvia
My Uncle Buster & Aunt Fay
Cousin Tiffani (who is actually the daughter of my cousin Damon, so I guess she is my first-cousin-once-removed or something?)
Mom's best friend, Helen
Helen's daughter, Tracy, her husband Greg, & daughter Sam
Helen's daughter (and my sissy!) Ashlie & her son G'Rae
And two of Mom's old friends who now live in Florida, Jackie & Mike


First we had a little pseudo-ceremony outside. Since Tracy is an ordained minister, she ran the show. My parents stood underneath what appeared to be one tree, but was actually two trees that had grown into one another - wrapping around eachother over the years and basically becoming "one". Isn't that romantic?


Tracy started out by talking about how sweet and loving and generous my parents are & how they are a living testiment to what love can be. That got us all crying right away!


Then Tracy asked Ray to step forward and he talked about all the sacrifices our parents have made for us over the years & how they've always shown us nothing but love and support. More tears!


Then Mom and Dad spoke about the fact that they married just 3 months after they met & how they wer practically strangers at the time, but they would do it all over again. Aaaaaaaaw!


Next: drinks! And fun stories! Mom and Dad recalled the more ridiculous aspects of their wedding day.

For instance, Mom hadn't met Dad's mother before the ceremony, so she ended up meeting her mother-in-law for the first time in the receiving line after the wedding ceremony. My grandmother's first words to her new daughter-in-law?
"You must be Beverly."
Ummm ... ya think? :D

After drinks (non-alcoholic, I should add), it was time for dinner ...

... and laughs ...

... and perhaps a touch of insanity.

Oh no! It's catching!!!


The flowers in the centerpieces are daisies (which my mother carried on their wedding day) and yellow roses (which my father gives to mom on special occasions). Oh, and there was cake, too!


After we ate, Helen had some of us play a Newlywed-&-Not-So-Newlywed Game.
The Newlyweds: Me & Tim (2 years) and Tracy & Greg (2 years)
The Not-So-Newlyweds: Mom & Dad (40 years) and Buster & Fay (50 years)
Tim and I tied for last place ... with my parents! But we were just one point behind the winners, so that's okay.


We finished out the evening on the patio, watching the sun set over the lake.




In my family, card games are an important part of almost every family gathering. Luckily, my darling husband LOVES card games and was sure to bring his poker kit with him. So a bunch of us got together and stayed up late playing Texas Hold 'Em. Good clean family fun!


The happy couple ... and their growing pile of chips!

Disney con't: Day 2 & 3

It has taken me over a week to download all of the photos from Disney into my photobucket account.
Okay. That's only partly true.
I also took a break to host a dinner party. And I went out & took some more pics from around our neighborhood, but then I had to download those, too, ya see? And that took, like 1,337 hours. Fer reelz, y'all.

So where were we? Oh, that's right.
Day 2.
On our second day we arrived at Magic Kingdom shortly before it opened. We rode Space Mountain first thing (yay!), but our energy flagged soon afterwards. Too bad it was blazing hot.




Apparently, disco dancing is not allowed at Disney. But Rebellious Raymond cannot hold back! Somebody find a themometer because I think he has ... Disco Fever!!!!!!


This, dear friends, is why I have so few pics of my brother, Mike. Ask him to pose & he'll just give you the "Duh" face ... or worse.

I dare you to ride the monorail and NOT sing the Monorail song from The Simpsons. It's nearly impossible. At least it is for me & Tim.

See? Oodles of fun. [insert eye-rolling smiley here] Shortly after noon it was determined that we (Ray, Tim, Tiff, & myself) should go to a water park. Typhoon Lagoon was fabulous! Too bad I can't offer proof with pics. Did I mention that Typhoon Lagoon was fabulous? Because it was. I swear, I normally hate water parks (being as pasty as I am), but this place kicks much ass. So much lush vegetation, so much shade, and so much fun. Whenever we come back to Florida I think we'll be spending a lot more time there.

After the water park, we went back to Magic Kingdom, snuck out during the electrical parade, & went to Uno's for a late dinner. Mmmmmm ... deep dish pizza ...


Day 3
Early in the morning on Day 3, I woke up feeling horrendously ill. Unfortunately, this means that Tim and I left the condo long after everyone else. We got to MGM Studios at lunch time, so we got to meet up with my parents, brothers, & Cousin Tiff for a while. Unfortunately, though, we didn't do very much. I was still sickly and grumpy and suffering from shin splints. About 2 hours after we arrived we sent Tiff a text message asking if she was bored yet. Turns out that she wanted to go swimming at the pool at our condo. Sounded good to us! So we met up with the fam again, participated in about an hour's worth of group shopping, and then Tim, Tiff and I took off.

It took us a while to get to the pool. First we went to the Downtown Disney Marketplace because Tiff wanted a Finding Nemo towel. We found one of those R2-D2 postal boxes, which was super cool!


Then we had to stop and get Tim his daily root beer float. He ate one of these almost every day of the trip.


Tiffani is texting her friends back home. Tiffani is CONSTANTLY texting. The girl is going to get carpal tunnel before she goes out on her first date. Mysteriously, she still manages to participate in conversations with us while texting. Oh, these kids today ... amazing!


Okay. We've bought a souvenir towel. We've eaten ice cream. We've even pretended to put mail in the R2-D2 post box. Is it time to swim yet? Of course not!!!! Because we need ... goggles. Apparently. So we went to Target. I think we finaly got into the pool at around 7pm - approximately 5 hours after we decided it would be a good idea. But in those hours inbetween we played a few fierce rounds of 20 questions & had a grand ol' time.

Coming up next time ... Party Pics!

Pics: Epcot

I am terrible about taking photos when I am around other people. I'll click away when I'm alone, but when I'm with people, I get wrapped up in spending time with others & I tend to forget about my camera. Also, I usually don't like asking people to pose! So sadly, there are TONS of things I did not record for posterity with my camera. I just don't have nearly as many pics from Disney World as you'd expect. Oh well! I'll still share what I have.

We decided to go to Epcot on our first day. We rode everything & went everywhere, but took less than a dozen pics. Guess I was having too much fun. Or sweating too much. Or something.

Here's Ray about to board Test Track - the car-based pseudo roller coaster at Epcot. Ray will pose for anything!


We really enjoyed the Living Seas (which I think is called something differnt now, but I can't remember what). Tons of great fish, sea turtles, and even dolphins & manatees. Skip the Finding Nemo ride, though.
"Frogfish do not swim, tending to 'walk' or 'gallop' through the water instead."

"Frogfish have the ability to change their colors to blend in with their surroundings."

Cuttlefish! Mike was obsessed with these babies & captured some really cool videos of them swimming & changing color.

A living conch! This thing was simultaneously cool and gross. And it was covered in lots of tiny little shrimp-looking things. Or could they have been baby conches?

I tried to take pics of the sting rays and sea turtles and lots of cool fish in the ENORMOUS 30-foot tall wrap-around aquarium, but nothing turned out. Just believe me when I say it was fabulous!

Later we went on Mission: Space. In case you hadn't heard, some people with heart conditions have died on this attraction/ride/thingy. Now we know why. The G-forces were much stronger that I expected. It was fun, but frankly I feel less queasy on your average loopty-loop roller coaster. Seriously. Ray was so overwhelmed that he forgot his hat

Next we went on Soarin', a new attraction that is the highest rated in all of Disney World. I took a few pics while we waited in line. Seen here are Ray, Tim, my cousin's daughter Tiff, & me.

Soarin' was great! You know those films that are projected over half of a dome & are meant to make you feel like you're flying? Well, this was like that only MUCH better! We sat down on chairs that lifted way up off the ground! And a breeze was blown through the screen so it really felt like we were flying! And to top it off, subtle scents were caried on the breeze to complete the experience (pine while flying through a forest, orange while flying over an orange grove, etc). When it was over, everyone applauded! Good times.

And just so ya know, Soarin' is located inside "The Land" - one of my favorite parts of Epcot. I like how it's decorated & the food offerings are quite nice since the whole building is dedicated to agriculture & such.


Now is the point where I truly failed you, dear reader. For I failed to take one single photo of the world pavilion. All of those cool countries & great food & not one pic. How could I have done this?! Bah!

Epcot is actually the larges of all of the Disney amusement parks, so it's no surprise that we were all exhausted long before the fireworks that night. Tim, Tiff, and Mike all chose to go back to the condo to rest. Ray & I stayed behind with our parents & the entire Davis clan to enjoy the evening's festivities. It wasn't as good as in years past (I've been to Disney World 5 times, so I would know!), but we still had a lovely time together. Yay!

Pics: Jekyll Island

Happy Independence Day, my fellow Americans! As I believe I mentioned last year on this blog, July 4th is a strange day in our household. Yet again, Tim has the day off of work so that he can celebrate a holiday that he doesn't celebrate. So we've spent the day sleeping in and watching an Eddie Izzard marathon on BBC America. Later tonight we'll watch televised poker while eating Indian food.We figure that there's no need to go out in search of fireworks displays because we saw TONS of fireworks while in Florida. The display at the Magic Kingdom nearly blinded me! Wowza! Good stuff, though.

So. Ummm. Yup. Sitting around. Watching TV. Pretty exciting times for us.

And that brings me to my next point. The fact is ... well, life is pretty quiet around here now & will remain quiet for the forseeable future. So I'm going to use this personal lull as an opportunity to FINALLY post some photos that have been lingering on my memory card collection for a while now.

Today I'll start off with some pics from our recent trip down south. We decided to take 2 days to make the drive down so that we could arrive in Orlando nice & early. We stayed the night at a hotel right on the beach on Jekyll Island in Georgia. I woke up before Tim & his mum, so I slipped out & took some pics of life on the beach in the morning.

Back from Florida

We're home! And we don't have sunburns! Huzzah!

Optimism & lightnin' bugs

Good news: I'm starting to get happy about the trip to Disney World.

Yesterday (Thursday, as I'm typing this late on Friday night) I was feeling incredibly intimidated by this trip. It's been a decade since I've been to WDW and, believe it or not, things can change there rather quickly. And since my beloved husband has never been to WDW, I was all the more concerned. So Sylvia (the mum-in-law) and I headed over to a bookstore to gather information.

Have you been to the travel section of your local bookstore lately? Have you noticed the SHELVES of books dedicated to Disney World? It's unreal! There's the offical guide, the unofficial guide, there's the guide for grown-ups and the guide to "the best of the best" (AKA the most expensive stuff). There's the Top 10 guide & the Zagat guide the interesting planne in a spiral bound notebook with tabs and on and on and on. And that's before you even start to consider other non-Disney options like Universal Studios or Sea World or a thousand other things. It's frightening! At one point, the mum-in-law sat down in a comfy chair with a book and let me do my research on my own, but before long I just felt dizzy from information overload. So I wandered over to her with 4 books in hand & said, "I just don't know what to do. It's so overwhelming!"

And then Divine Providence stepped in.

"Excuse me," a voice said. "Are you going to Florida?"
The question came from the man sitting across the way from my MIL.
"Yes," we said. "In fact, we're leaving for Disney World in just a few days for a family reunion. But we've been too busy with other things to plan our trip and now we don't know what to do!"
"Well," said the kind man, "I used to be a travel agent. Maybe I can help."
And help he did. He gave us handy advice and even told us which books to ignore and which are actually helpful (and luckily, the helpful books are smaller and cheaper than the not-so-helpful books). This man was fabulous! After chatting with him for 10 minutes, he went about his way. He never even told us his name. But ever since I spoke with him, I've been feeling much much better about this trip. Yay. :)

In other news, I am tipsy. Tonight is the mum-in-law's last night in NC, so we decided to have a bottle of wine with dinner. The others gave up early, so I ended up drinking about half the bottle on my own. As a result, I am making TONS of typos and I am trying my best to fix them as I go along. I hope I'm doing an excellent job and when I come back to re-read this post tomorrow I'll be supremely impressed with my own Tipsy typing skills.
Anyway.
We decided to eat dinner in the breakfast nook so we could enjoy the beautiful view of our wooded back garden. While we were eating dinner, Sylvia noticed some small flashes of light. And for a moment she was concerned that maybe there was something wrong with her! Maybe the alcohol was affecting her vision. What else couled explain these tiny flashes of green light?!? Luckily, she said something to us and Tim explained that what she was seeing were fireflies ... or "lightnin' bugs" as we call 'em in my neck o' the woods. She had never seen them before! Can you imagine? It was then that I realized that during the past week, we'd always been out shopping at dusk so Sylvia had been missing this every night. How glad I am that we started dinner later tonight and she was able to catch our own, miniature electric light show. Yay. :)

Orlando - T-minus a couple days or so

Tim's mum arrived on Monday evening. Poor jet-lagged thing! But she is recovering nicely and we've been very lazy together for a few days and plan on continuing the laziness until the weekend. Because it aaaaaaaaall comes apart after that.

Ya see, next week is the final week of June. The week I've been dreading for nearly a year now. Because next week I have to be in Orlando.
UUUUuuuuuuuuuuuggggggggghhhhhh.
Now don't get me wrong. I've been to Disney 4 times. The place is great fun! Love it! Unless, of course, I'm there during the heat of summer when, coincidently, the parks are the busiest. It is HELLISH!!!!!! But this is what Mom wanted to do. This, for some ungodly reason, is the way that my mother wants us to celebrate the 40th wedding anniversary of my parents. So I and 15 other loved ones will be down there together, burning and sweltinging and melting and suffering from heat stroke, all for the love of my parents.

Seriously, Mom. You want proof that you and Dad are loved? This is your proof. Because this is the closest approximation to "going to hell and back" than can possibly be conceived of while we are still living. You're welcome.

The good news is we'll be around loved ones, of course. That will be fun. But other than that, I have no earthly idea what we're going to do with our time. Tim and I have been totally consumed with house stuff for so many months that I have not spent even 5 minutes planning this trip. So that is my goal for the next couple of days: research Disney & Orlando, find out what sort of weather is ahead of us, & maybe possibly make some decisions about something.

Or I'll just sit around and eat grapes with Tim's mum. One or the other.


Final kvetch: It's steamy hot in this part of the country. High of 97 two days ago with humidity to match. I wish I were in Seattle!!!!!

Shut the damn windows!

Once upon a time, my mom's best friend, Helen, lived in a haunted farm house in Pennsylvania. That's right - haunted. Helen & her family believed that the ghost was a woman because some members of the family had seen her silhouette from afar. Also, the ghost had a habit of moving Helen's jewelry around and rearranging the china in the hutch - typical girly stuff. The only bad thing about this ghost is that she had a habit of opening the windows and the front door and just leaving them open. It didn't matter what the weather was like outside; she just kept opening the windows! Well, one cold and snowy winter's night, Helen and the family drove home after an evening out to find the windows WIDE open & snow blowing into the house.
Helen had had enough.
She stormed into the house & yelled, "Listen. I don't mind that you move the china. I don't even mind that you play with my jewelry. But will you PLEASE shut the damn windows!!?!?!?!!!!!"
And the ghost obeyed. From that day on, the doors and windows were never mysteriously left open.

I love that story. I often think of it whenever I'm closing windows, be they the windows on a house or even the internet windows on my computer.

The problem is ... well, I have a nasty habit of leaving windows open for a loooooong time. Internet browser windows, I mean. I just keep finding good stuff! Not great enough to add to My Favorites, but still really good, ya know? Plus I like to have a lot of windows open at once. A LOT. For instance, I have 13 pages open on my browser right now & that's actually a fairly small number for me. This isn't good because, inevitably, Internet Explorer will crash from my over-enthusiasm & I'll lose all of those precious windows that I had kept open. This always breaks my heart.

So I think occasionally I will post links to interesting things here on my blog so I can shut some damn windows and still be able to refer to them later. And if any of you feel like following the links & enjoying my finds, so much the better!

Bake & Destroy blog: nataliecakes.wordpress.com/
Married ... With Dinner blog: marriedwithdinner.com/
Recipe for ice cream in a bag: www.kidsdomain.com/craft/icecream.html
Paris Daily Photo blog: www.parisdailyphoto.com/
"Durham: The Making of an Image" article: www.indyweek.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A31990

And here's a simple recipe I like. I found it at one of my very favorite blogs: Posie Gets Cozy.

(Bis)Quick Applesauce Muffins
2 c. Bisquick
1/4 c. sugar
1 t. cinnamon
1/2 c. applesauce
1 slightly beaten egg
2 T. vegetable oil

Melted butter
Cinnamon sugar

Mix ingredients together for 30 seconds. Fill muffin pans 3/4 full. Bake for 10 minutes at 400 degrees F. Cool slightly, then dip top lightly in melted butter, then in cinnamon sugar. Makes a dozen.

PS: Yes, I know I should be posting the 400 photos I have saved on my camera. It's just such a hassel & I can't get things to look the way I want on the screen and blah. If anyone has some tips, I'd appreciate it.

PPS: One more link. This one is for george.
NPR/Marketplace story: "What's an escrow?"

Quirks of marrying a Simpson's fan (who also happens to be a foreigner)

Scene: Mary and Tim are sitting on the couch, looking at the Falkland Islands on Google Maps. After much hunting, they finally find a city.

Tim: That must be Stanley.
Mary: Stanley? They have a city called Stanley?!
Tim: It's the capitol.
Mary: [stunned with confusion & awe]
Tim: What. It's a perfectly cromulent name.
Mary: I've never heard anyone use the word "cromulent" in ordinary conversation before.
Tim: And that's why you love me.

Indeed.

Tony or Tony?

So which did you watch: Tony Soprano & the series finale of "The Sopranos"? Or did you watch the Tony Awards? Honestly, I have never seen a single solitary episode of "The Sopranos" (yes, really!) and since I don't have HBO, it didn't bother me one bit that I was missing the big finale. Probably a good thing, though, as I hear that tons of fans are seriously pissed off with the lame ending to the show.

Oh well!

Good thing I was watching the Tony Awards. :D

The only problem, of course, is that there are now all of these shows that I desperately want to see! I have spent a LOT of time today watching footage of "Spring Awakening" on YouTube, so I have "Bitch of Living" playing on repeat in my brain (complete with stomping and jumping around). And oh how I looooooong to see "The Coast of Utopia"! I don't care that it's 9 hours long. I want to see it! Or at least read it. The very very best part of the night, though, was when David Hyde Pierce won his Tony for "Curtains". Oh my god. When they were listing the names of the nominees, you could see the blood draining out of his face, as he realized that there was no possible way he could beat the competition. He was heartbroken. I felt ill just looking at him because I was so sure that the kid from "Spring Awakening" was going to win. But then .... but then! ... They called his name! And the man was so shocked I thought he was going to pass out. You know how people say, "You could have knocked him over with a feather"? I think that was literally true in this case. It was amazing. He started to cry a bit as he walked towards the stage & it was so clear that this meant the world to him. Loved it. LOVED IT!

So of course, the down side of this is that I find myself REALLY REALLY missing the world of theatre today. It's been a year and a half since I've been on-stage. It doesn't feel like that long, but there you have it. I've got to fix this. Really. I know that this is a new town and they do things differently here and I'll have to start from the bottom, but I really need to start. This is just too big a part of me to let it die.

The only problem? I got to put together a resume. I can't remember half the stuff I've done, let alone when I did it! Eep!

Good-bye Friday

So what does one say after neglecting one's blog for a while? I know it is customary to apologize, but that's boring. So forget that mess. ;)

It's been a week now since we walked away from the old house. That was a sad day for me. I really grew to love that house. I enjoyed the colorful walls. And I will desperately miss the enormous bathtub.



And of course, Dinosaur Duck, the bizarre bit of statuary in the back garden that (at least, in our eyes) looks more like a brontosaurus than a bird.

There are oodles of things I like better about our own place, but ... well, it's always hard to say goodbye to something. So last Friday when I shut that door for the last time, I got a little misty-eyed. Plus, the old owner of our new house stopped by one last time before flying out to Italy. And then my mother flew back to Tulsa that evening. So it was just one good-bye after another last Friday. No wonder I've been feeling low since then!

Luckily, before Mom left, we found a little time to visit a tea shop in Raleigh. The place is called V's and it is located in a Victorian house that, oddly enough, is laid out almost exactly like the house where my mother grew up. It was the perfectly, girly way to end her visit. The food was soooooo good. Tim likes a nice cream tea, so I'll have to take him there sometime.


So that was last week. And I've felt a tad low this week as a result, but I'm starting to perk up a bit. I have plenty of projects lined up in my mind. And I'm meeting a potential new girlfriend Saturday morning! So now that things are starting to happen in my life, maybe I'll actually start posting a few times a week again. Ya never know ...

Not dead, just moving

Run-down of recent events:
Wednesday, May 23rd: Pack! Pack, I say!
Thursday, May 24th: The movers arrived at 9:30am. The movers finished unloading everything into our new house shortly before noon. AND they didn't break anything! Talk about some kick-ass movers! We still left a lot of little stuff at the old house, though (mainly pantry stuff), so our work is far from over.
Friday: The washer & drier were delivered, but the drier is the wrong color. They brought a blue one. They'll bring a white one to us later, but left the blue one so I could do some freakin' laundry. By the by, I LOVE these machines. Holy crapulence.
Saturday: Ran out to the old house to grab some pantry stuff. The cable man arrived and gave me my blessed internet connection. Yay!
Sunday: Went to Mark's to watch the Monaco race. Boooooring. Ran out to old house to get more food items. Then returned to our new house and cleaned like the dickens! I unpacked all of the kitchen items and then ran to Target to buy a new lamp because ...
Monday: Mom arrived!!! Mom is here for 5 days to see the house & to help with the final details of the move. She loves the house, of course.
Tuesday: Back-breaking labor. The old house has to be cleaned within an inch of its life (or within an inch of our lives, whichever comes first) in order for us to get back our enormous deposit. Tim has to work, of course, but Mom is here to help! Yay Mom! We took a break to eat lunch at the local patisserie/bistro and to stop into the little yarn store so Mom could meet the owner. But other than that, we spent many an hour scrubbing and vacuuming and scrubbing some more and we STILL are not done! Ugh.

So you see, my life is just waaaaaaay too exciting to be posting anything on my blog right now. :P

The House: first pics

Yesterday while walking through Our House for the first time, I finally got around to snapping a few pics to share with you all. Here are a few of them.

1. The front door as seen from the front path. Notice the pink climbing roses on the handrail.


2. The stairs, carpeted for your stair-sliding comfort. ;) By the by, the half-bath is under the stairs.


3. To the left of the entry, the dining room. The downstairs hallway is to the right in this photo.


4. To the right of the entry, the living room.


5. Here's a view from the back of the living room looking out through the front windows.


6. The breakfast nook, overlooking the deck & back garden.

The Key Fiasco

Yesterday was sooooooo damn exhausting. When it was all over, I had blisters on my feet & felt totally zapped of my strength. That's why I only posted the photo of the keys last night. But oh what we had to endure to get those keys ...

The closing itself was easy. Over the course of an hour we signed dozens of documents & handed over a cashier's check. Luckily, the paperwork was in line just as we were expecting. All we needed were the keys.

Ah, yes. The keys. Those all-important keys.

For those who have never purchased a home before, the seller's portion of the closing is very short. They were there for maybe 15 minutes. Once they co-signed a few documents with us, they were free to go. Unfortunately, they forgot to leave the keys. Once we realized the problem, the attorney called their cell phone. The sellers were at the local university, packing the husband's office. We could have met them at his office for the keys, but the idea of navigating that campus and (worst of all) finding a parking place sounded like a nightmare. They had to go back to the attorney's office in a couple hours to pick up a very large check, so we suggested that they just leave the keys there. No problem, right? Right.

So I chose to stay in town and wait.
And wait.
I got some lunch.
I went to a bookstore.
I talked to people on the phone.
I went to Target and wandered every single aisle.
I even tried on bathing suits because I figured that Murphy's Law would kick in and I'd get a phone call while naked in a dressing room.
No such luck. Four hours had passed. Nothing.

Fifteen minutes before the attorney's office closed, I called to see if somehow I'd missed their call. Nope. They hadn't seen the sellers yet. I started to freak out. We'd signed all of those papers! We'd paid all of that money! We NEEDED those keys! Eeep! The attorney's assistant hit the phones & tried to find the sellers. And then, miraculously, they appeared at the office 7 minutes before the office closed. Luckily, I was right around the corner. When I walked into the office, the clock was chiming the hour. The assistant placed the keys in my eager hands. It was over. It was over! The house is ours!!!

Keys

Episode 12: The first feathers

Recently I was reading a real estate website written by a realtor. I was researching what happens at a closing (Me? Doing internet research?! What a surprise! :P) and at the end of the article, the realtor said something that really opened my eyes. He said that after a closing is complete, a buyer will often say, "Well, it's not like I really own the house. The bank paid for most of it!" But he said that no, that's not true. When you sign that paperwork at the closing, you become a homeowner. You own that house. You just happen to owe the bank a lot of money!

All this is to say that we will be homeowners in less than 48 hours. See those bricks? Those will be ours. Same with the windows. And the deck. And the oodles of trees and bushes. I'm still totally stunned by this. I think I will be for a long time.

Of course, the problem with buying a nest is that then one must feather it. Today we bought our first feathers (although they will be extraordinarily useful feathers); we bought a washer and dryer. The current owners of the house - being the sweet eccentric Europeans that they are - own one of those combo washer/drier all-in-one machines. I cannot understand why they did this to themselves. I've used those machines before (in Scotland and England) & I've always found them to be complicated and slooooooooow. Slowslowslow. It could easily take a couple of hours to wash a load of laundry. And the drying cycle? Forget it. There's a reason why the current owners have drying racks all over the scullery; it's almost faster to air dry your laundry than to use the pathetic dryer that comes in those all-in-one jobbies. No disrespect to the current homeowners (because, honestly, I love them dearly), but I thought one of the few joys of leaving Europe was that you could use a decent washer & dryer set! Luckily for us, they are taking their wacky little contraption with them, giving us the opportunity to buy a fancy schmancy top-o-the-line set.


But what did we get, you ask? Well, ya know those TV ads for the fancy LG washing machine with the steam cycle? That's what we got. Consumer Reports gave them fabulous ratings and Sears was having a sale, so we went for it. We just went with white machines, though, because the fancy colored ones cost extra (and I knew I'd get sick of the colors anyway). But these machines are GORGEOUS. Sleek & sturdy. They have LCD screens, for heavens sake. My washing machine will talk to me in French if I want it to. How freaky is that?!? I'm sure my mother-in-law will be rendered speechless when her sweet little English eyes fall upon the amazing works of modern engineering that will soon find a home in our scullery.

Mkay. Must go. Time for din-din.

Woot!

Since it's been a week, I thought I should post a wee bit o' an update. Mkay? Mkay!

1. All the paperwork for the loan is DONE! DoneDoneDone! They've sent it all over to the closing lawyers & everything. No more searching for old tax forms! No more nervous phone calls to England to confirm account info! No more! Woot!
2. The appraisal went great. And according to the appraiser, the house is actually worth more than we're paying for it. So we have already earned some equity! Woot!
3. Tim had his annual review at work & got a nice raise. Woot!
4. The closing for the house will take place on Monday. That's right, kids. We will be homeowners as of Monday afternoon. WOOT!

The bad news is that the movers will be here next Thursday & we've barely packed a thing. Also I need to call the various utility companies and get things switched over into our names. But still! Woot!

Pessimism

My mind was not made to deal with finances. I know this sounds strange because I'm known for being financially responsible, but that's mainly because I fear money. It confuses me. And it bores me. In the past, I have said that the surest way to cure my insomnia would be to repeat words like "mortgage" and "interest rates" and "escrow" into my ear. Just the sounds of those words would send my eyelids sagging.

Strange how those words are now keeping me awake at night.

The last 10 days or so have been hellishly stressful for me. The work involved in picking a mortgage lender was almost enough to give me a stroke. I felt utterly hopeless & overwhelmed by pessimism. I had horrific headaches, dizziness, and even random twitchiness. I barely ate. I slept only a couple hours per night. I couldn't drive. I didn't get dressed for days. I began to feel very odd sensations in my head & began to worry that the stress was affecting the cyst in my brain (the beloved Brain Spider). It was baaaaaaad, kids. Very bad. Loved ones became concerned for my health and urged me to contact a neurologist. But I knew - I KNEW! - that as soon as we were finally able to settle on a mortgage lender, I would feel better. Easier said than done, sadly, but it is done now. Finally. Finally done.

I could bore you with the details, but I see no need to torture you as I have been tortured over the past 2 weeks. Instead, I'll just tell you that (a) despite what we had been told originally, the company we really wanted to work with was able to find the time to work with us afterall and (2) they were able to offer us a rate that will save us thousands of dollars.
Hallelujah!
If you're looking for proof that there is a God, this may well be it. Or maybe it's thanks to the 4-leaf clover from my last post. One or the other. At any rate, once I heard from the manager of the mortgage department at Prefered Lender Co., I suddenly felt such relief. It's all going to be okay now. Whew!

But as the photo suggests, there is still much more to do. There's more paperwork to send to loan officers & attorneys & agents & inspectors. And bills to pay. And boxes to pack. And more money just flowing out of our hands than I care to think about. But the headaches & pessimism are fading. I even managed to sleep last night.

Lucky

This morning - for the first time EVER - I found a 4 leaf clover. Then I found another. And another. Then I decided to stop looking because that seemed greedy.

But the point is that this has NEVER happened to me before! When I was a kid, I spent sooooooo much time looking for 4 leaf clovers with friends. And every time one of them exclaimed, "Found one!" my heart sunk a little. It never happened. And eventually I convinced myself that it would never happen. No 4 leaf clovers for me. I decided I just wasn't lucky enough.

Fast forward to last week. A few times while George and Holly were here, they mentioned how lucky I am. And I have mixed feelings about that. It's true that I have a sweet, loving husband. It's true that I don't have to work anymore. It's true that we're about to move into the cutest freakin' house ever.

But this Stepford-Wife existence isn't quite as blissful as people might assume. Frankly, it's rather lonely. And there are other not-so-pleasant issues in my life, but I'd rather not discuss them. In fact, I'd rather not discuss a lot of the negative things because when I talk about them too much, I focus on them too much. And that depresses the hell out of me and keeps me from appreciating the good things around me. I don't want to seem ungrateful. I truly appreciate the things Tim and I have accomplished, the place where we are. I feel we are quite blessed. And I find that as I get older, I also appreciate the little things more than ever. I appreciate the roof over our heads, the food in our pantry, the cool breeze that is blowing through the garden, the bunny rabbit that didn't scamper away as I watched it munch on the grass.

Could it be possible that I'm turning into ... [gasp!] an optimist?! Could that really truly happen? Or is it just easier to be an optimist when things seem to be going right? Will this optimism fade this week as I wade through the nightmare called Picking A Mortgage Lender? We shall see.

But my point is that, yes, I am lucky. And you know what? So are you. You don't even need a bit of clover to tell you so. Just look around.