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!