Inspired

This morning, I was reading the blogs that I check regularly, and I was inspired by Donna Downey, scrapbooker, artist extraordinaire, and creator of the Inspired Artist Workshop. She shared her weight loss story (she has lost almost 50 pounds since January 2008 and has begun running 5k and 10k races) and though I had read pieces of it before, the thing that struck me today was that she said “i like that i only compete with myself and enjoy the time spent challenging my body to perform.”

“I only compete with myself…” That’s what I need to do. I am competing with so many images in my head: actresses, models, coworkers, everyone who is thinner than me. I need to stop thinking about other people and think of myself. Yes, I want to lose weight and be healthy for my husband and my son, for my doctor who said she’d like me to lose 10 pounds, for others who I feel look at me and see me as overweight. But they key is that I need to do it for myself. I need to want to be healthy and to lose weight, or it will never happen.

I am inspired to compete with myself and to see what this body can do. God created this body, so I know that it can do great things!

Why does moving have to be so emotional?

Packing is in full swing, and there are boxes everywhere! There is a lot of work to do, but I have also had some time to think about this move. Moving is exciting and scary at the same time.

It hit me a few days after we signed the purchase agreement that we had legally agreed to buy this house. I felt sick for a minute as I thought of all of the negative things about the house (not that there are many): the small yard, the small master bathroom, the outdated kitchen. Of course, I felt that same way after I had signed the lease for my first apartment, too, and I ended up loving that apartment. I know I'll love our new house, too.

I also got teary eyed when I thought of the duplex being Nathaniel's only home so far. He's just starting to know his room and points to it when he wants to crawl up the stairs to go play with his toys up there. In the new house, there won't be stairs to crawl up to get to his room, and he loves crawling up stairs! There are stairs from the basement to the main floor, but that doesn't seem quite the same to me. I really will miss the duplex. It was our home when Del and I got married and the home we brought our newborn baby to.

I know that we will make this new house ours and that we all will love it! I'm looking foward to having more space, having Nathaniel's room on the main floor so that he can go play whenever he wants, having a dedicated scrapbook space, having a two-car garage.... It will be a great house, and though it will be the first home we will own, the duplex will always be our first home.

Let the Packing Begin!

We just had our inspection and signed the purchase agreement for the house!!! I'm so excited! A part of me won't completely believe it until I have the keys in my hand, but I think it's all going to work out. The inspector identified a few things that need to be fixed, but nothing major.

Now the real work begins. Sorting, packing, sorting, and more packing! I'm looking forward to it, though. I know that I/we have too much "stuff," and I can't wait to go through everything and purge. I've already started a moving/packing to do list, and I think we'll get started on it tonight!

Thank you, Lord, for giving us patience and for helping us through this process! Amen!

We Got It!

Pending inspection, of course. The clause in the letter from the bank is that we buy the house "as is," but it sounds like (I haven't ready the letter myself, yet) we can have an inspection and make a decision from there. If the inspector identifies anything major, we can still reject the house. Yea! I'm so excited! Now we have to schedule the inspection and keep praying. The other condition from the bank is that we close by March 24. That's later than the date in our original contract--March 13--but still less than 30 days. It looks like we may have a few BUSY weeks ahead! This is such an exciting time! And we do have a back-up plan, so to speak: five more houses on our "to see" list in case this one still falls through.

Waiting a Little Longer

So we're still waiting for news on the house. On Monday, we learned that we had verbal approval from the bank doing the foreclosure, and we were told that we would receive a letter on Tuesday. It's Wednesday now, and we haven't received a letter. Our realtor said that the seller's agent wasn't able to get ahold of the bank yesterday, so we're still waiting. We're anxious to see what this letter says because we're wondering if we'll be allowed to have an inspection. If not, then we'll drop this house and move on. We're not going to buy a house "as is." While this house looks like it is in good condition, you never know what's on the inside: mold, termite damage, etc. We're still holding out hope, but our patience is wearing thin. Lord, please help us to be patient and to know your will.

Still Waiting

We're still waiting for news on the house. The deadline that we gave the seller/bank is tomorrow at 1:00 p.m., but today our realtor called and said that she doesn't expect to hear anything for a week or a week and a half. I guess that the paperwork at the bank has to go through three departments, so that's why it takes so long. It's so frustrating! Our realtor said that people who can wait for the bank's decision generally get the house, but the longer we wait, the longer the house stays on the market for someone else to make an offer on it, too. We plan to leave our offer on the table, but we're also going to resume looking. We really want that house, but we don't want to sit around doing nothing in case our offer isn't accepted. Please have your perfect will, Lord!

Another House Update

Well, here's the latest in the continuing saga.... Yesterday, our realtor was finally able to contact the seller's agent, who had finally met with the owner of the house. They had a "small counter" to our offer. Apparently, this is a standard for a house in foreclosure, but the counter was that the house would remain on the market and the seller could accept any other offers until we are approved by the bank. Our initial reaction was anger. If they want a better offer, then they should reject our offer and raise the asking price! But as we talked about it, this is the condition we've been operating under already. We put it our offer almost two weeks ago, and the house has remained on the market but no other offers have come in (as far as we know, anyway). Our realtor said that he's seen the bank take anywhere from three days to three weeks to approve a buyer. While we're okay with the house remaining on the market (as I said, that's the way things are now), we want a deadline. We can't wait indefinitely for the bank to make a decision. We need to start packing, to give our "landlords" (my parents-in-law) notice that we're moving, etc. We went to see the house again last night and agreed that we are still very interested in it. So we signed the counter but put an exiparation date on our offer of Wednesday, February 18 at 1:00 p.m. We'll continue waiting and see what happens! We figure that if the bank still hasn't approved us by next Wednesday, we'll leave our offer on the table but will resume looking at houses to see if we can find something else that we like. Maybe we'll be approved before we find something else. Or maybe we'll find another house and will withdraw our offer on this house. So, to make a long story short (too late!), the waiting continues....