Sunday, April 15, 2012

Some updates and pictures

Life has been crazy lately, but a good sort of crazy.

We are selling our house!  We have outgrown our starter house and we want to move to a more suburban (bordering rural) setting with better schools. We spent months decluttering and staging our home. We got an offer after 3 weeks on the market (Praise God!!!). And in FL, especially our area, this is an amazing and wonderful thing!! We have been working with the buyers to get this deal done but right now we are in a holding pattern (not the buyers fault, our fault!)

We found the PERFECT house for us. And when I say perfect, I mean: It fit all of the "must haves" as well as the "would likes!" The ONLY thing going against this house is that it is a short sale. The short sale process is anything but SHORT.

If you're not familiar with a short sale, it is basically a sale where the property is selling for less than the amount owed on the mortgage. The seller will walk away empty handed and the bank often times forgives the remaining amount on the loan. This is a very VERY common practice in Florida, since prices soared the fastest during the boom 2004-2006, and fell the fastest in the wake of it.

The people selling the house we want bought it in 2009. I guess the husband is military and got promoted very recently, so they are leaving the area earlier than anticipated. And since 2009 real estate prices have plunged even further, meaning they currently owe more on the house than it is worth.

Our experience so far: The people selling seem very nice. They definitely care about the house and have taken care of it. It was in very nice condition when we viewed it. They were very accomodating when we asked for a 2nd viewing later that day. We put our offer in to THEM first. That's the start. They decide whether they want to accept or decline or counter our offer. They accepted our offer after a few minor changes to the contract (for instance they want to take their fridge, washer, and dryer with them).

From that point, it is up to the BANK, and whether or not the bank will accept our offer or not. This is where the endless waiting began. Our seller-accepted offer was handed over to their bank over a month ago. We're still waiting to hear back whether they have accepted our offer or whether they want to counter. From what our realtor has told us, the bank will get an appraisal of the house first to see whether our offer is reasonable or not. Then negotiations between us and their lender will begin. Who knows how long that will take?

I'm getting nervous because the process is taking so long. Our buyers for our current house have been great and very understanding of the process. They are first time homebuyers currently renting and have thankfully agreed to a late close date if need be (we're talking end of June, ugh!) We have relayed to them through our realtor that we certainly hope this short sale process doesn't take that long. The ideal moving time for us would be end of May, first week of June. That way the kids are almost out of school (or out for the summer) and it would be a perfect transition time.

Please keep your fingers crossed and say a prayer for us that this all works out! Devastation wouldn't even begin to cover the emotional ruin I would be in if everything fell apart. But I have a good feeling that it will all work out. I just wish it would hurry up. I'm not a patient person and this waiting game is making me crazy!

Anyway, apparently I have a one-track mind and can only fully concentrate on one thing at a time. So for a year, I focused on losing weight. And I think I did pretty good. I exceeded even my own expectations.


But I've been slipping up. I've eaten when I know I shouldn't. I've eaten more than I should have when I knew I shouldn't.  :(

I weighed myself on the 10th of this month and I was up to 171. I cried. I know I haven't focused on calories as much and I haven't been as consistent with eating every 3 hours to keep my metabolism going. But 171 made me cry. I don't want to be a yo-yo dieter!!

5 days later and a little more attention paid to my daily intake and I am down 3 pounds again to 168. But that's still a 10 pound gain in just a few months! And I feel it. I feel like crap. I don't even need to step on the scale to be able to tell you I put some weight back on. Because I feel it in my pants, I believe I see it in my face and my belly looks more bloated than usual. Ugh.

But I did manage to dress up nice for my husband's department's awards dinner. I didn't FEEL so great when I dressed up, but some of the pictures came out pretty good (but really, it's the angle some photos were taken that was flattering my figure!)

Besides the house-selling thing (which has taken up the vast majority of my time) -  day to day life has kept me busy. My little girl is a firecracker! She keeps me very busy during the day while the boys are at school.


How is it that my daughter is now 18 months old? And my oldest son is 7 and already almost through 1st grade?

Anyway I need to end here for now and will write again in the next few days!

Here are a handful of pictures taken in last few months....





I have a jawline!! And even though this isn't the best picture, it perfectly shows my face's actual shape - and I like it. I never want to have a "round" face again!!! My face has been considered "round" since I was little, so this face shape is a first for me!

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Pinterest... oh no...and a quick update

I have become quickly addicted to Pinterest.

Check it out! By clicking on the link above, it should take you to my boards... just in case you are interested. I want to kick myself for wasting time. I am walking away from the computer.... in 2 minutes. I'm going to blog for a minute and then walk away. Really. I've spent every moment of my child-free (read: when they go to bed) time on pinterest for the past 2 nights.

And on a weight-related note...
I need to get back on the weight-loss bandwagon. I have been holding steady for several months and I'll admit that I haven't been really working at losing weight the past few months. Here's why:

My hair has thinned a lot - or at least, I feel it has. And I know it is because I have lost such a drastic amount of weight, therefore, regardless of how much nutrition I am giving my body, it is NOT as much as I WAS giving it when I was so big. So I needed these past few months to just maintain and let myself not stress so much about calories.

Family and friends around me insist my hair doesn't look any different.

Which makes me feel a little bit better....

But it doesn't change the fact that I KNOW my hair has thinned. I can feel it when I brush it. Drying it with a hairdryer doesn't take as long as it used to, even though my hair is still pretty much the same length. I have to put volumizing mousse in it every single day and I use volumizing shampoos and conditioners otherwise I feel like I'm really going bald.

Anyway I am incredibly distracted... the news is on and I just realized I have a ton of stuff to do before I go to bed! Busy week ahead; I hope to update more soon. And I plan to get back on the weight loss bandwagon very soon too.

Here's a few recent pics; I hope you all have a wonderful 2012!!
Ok seriously, I don't know how to stand/pose lol. Taken 12/25

12/25/2011

Me and my hubby, 12/25/2011 taken by my son

Me and my babies, 12/25/2011

Friday, January 6, 2012

Interesting site....

I came across a site that I thought might be worth mentioning on my blog. It's called www.mybodygallery.com and I think it's interesting! Granted, you are relying on the honesty and truthfulness of other women, but I think it's easy to spot out those who are clearly misrepresenting themselves. I didn't see too much of that.

I spent some time browsing. Here are my thoughts:

1. Your height really plays a huge role in how your weight (#) looks on you. I know this is a no-brainer, but it is so evident when looking at the pictures of different height/weights. 130 on 4'11 is vastly different from someone who is 5'10 - and even very different from someone who is 5'2 or 5'3!

2. I wish the site had two extra options - one that could account for having had children, and also an age-range option.

I can tell you - without a doubt in my mind - that even though my weight is now the weight range I had in high school - my body is not the same AT ALL - and the weight is not distributed the same, either. I can't tell if that is because I've had children? Or if it is because I am not 17-18 anymore? Or because I gained and then lost weight? But regardless, I think there is a difference in how one carries weight at different ages.

3. Every person is different!
With that said, based on the overall look of the different size ranges for my height (5'2) - I would like to look more like the average appearance I see in the 120-130 range.