FRENZIED DAY - THE HOUSE CLOSING SAGA CONTINUES....

The KHH (builder) rep was MAD, My attorney was CALM but MAD, my realtor was CALM AND COLLECTED, my lender was AT HER WITS END.

So, the only way to get around WELLS FARGO's mistake on DROPPING the BALL for our house closing, was to suggest a CRAZY SOLUTION....or our closing would be in TWO WEEKS!!

So, what WAS the solution? Find someone that had 33K lying around for the past 30 days in an account and have them "give us" that amount, to which we would return to them immediately with our "rejected" down payment. IS THAT NOT INSANE?

OTHERWISE we go to a "FULL DOCUMENTATION" loan which takes TWO WEEKS.

So I made 97 calls today. I thought at first we would be closing FRIDAY. Then I thought we would be moving in 1 WEEK at one point today, then I thought we were closing TOMORROW. So to change dates with all involved....

I called each of the utility companies THREE TIMES today (15 calls) to change start dates every time I called (I think they know me by voice now),
I talked with my lender girl 24 times today,
the ATTORNEY 3 times,
I talked to Uhaul THREE TIMES to change dates,
I called BROOKE'S SCHOOL to change last day,
I called my PARENTS 3 times,
my REALTOR 5 times,
the GARAGE DOOR guy 2 times,
the APPLIANCE people,
My sister 3 times, the new WARD people....

My mother in law is BRILLIANT. She suggested that they take out a "home equity loan" of 33K for 3 days essentially, that we would repay with the TRUE downpayment money. The bank accepted. So THEY were at the bank for 1 hour - BLESS THEIR SOULS!!!!

Kimball Hill our builder, was LIVID with Wells Fargo. The manager for KH was called WELLS FARGO VICE PRES and many HIGH UP people and I can just IMAGINE what words were exchanged. Wells Fargo has screwed them over TOO many times. We are the LAST CLOSING for them EVER (they went bankrupt 6 months ago) - and for OUR closing to be delayed is VERY COSTLY to Kimball Hill.

Also - I must have faxed about 60 documents today to our lender - in about 5 trips as they kept asking for MORE STUFF.

So - CROSS YOUR FINGERS - lets hope they don't want me to fax over DENTAL RECORDS, GENEOLOGY BACK TO ADAM, REPORT CARDS from Kindergarten, Immunization records, or Passport information?!?!??!?!??!

NIGHTMARE HOUSE CLOSING - WHAT THE HECK?!?!?

So, today WAS the big exciting day to close on our house. I was so nervous (I know that seems like a weird emotion per se..) that I could barely eat. I was a ball of energy.

So we get there at 3 PM, and get the word that our Lender - I might add a MAJOR BANK - did not wire the money on time and it was past the magical time of 3:30 and nothing more could be wired.

Well, a hassle, but no big deal. We just wouldn't be able to get in tonite. We would have to fax some stuff, meet someone tomorrow, and get the keys after the wired money was taken care of. So we did what we could - sign ALL the papers.

It took 2 hours.

I called our lender girl as I drove away if she knew what happened. She had told me everything was ALL GOOD TO GO, and yet here we were, our downpayment in hand, and the bank did not WIRE THE MONEY. I asked in my message if she could help speed things along for the next day.

So I get a voice message as I was picking up my kids from the babysitters - THERE IS A BIG PROBLEM.

Because we did NET anything on the house we sold in November, THERE IS A BIG PROBLEM. The COMPUTER shows that we are 13 K short because we didn't net that on the house, EVEN THOUGH we had the entire down payment in hand.

We are no longer a "straight to close" loan - we are now a "need tons of documentation" close. So we find this out, a 7 PM TONITE, instead of BEFORE or AT THE TABLE at closing. Or better yet - DURING THE 7 MONTHS WE HAVE BEEN WORKING WITH OUR LENDER, or THE 5 1/2 months ago that we actually SOLD our house!

That this was even a TERM in the contract was never conveyed to us. No one VERIFIED that we actually did or did NOT net that. And to ambiguously think that we DID net that amount is a little preposterous. We were told that EVERYTHING WAS GOOD TO GO - BUT NO.

I asked her what the bottom line was - she said she didn't guarentee we would close tomorrow.

*This may not SEEM like a big deal, but when we have
*MOVING TRUCKS,
*HELPERS IN TWO CITIES TO MOVE ON SAT.,
* APPLIANCES BEING DELIVERED on Thursday,
*A GARAGE DOOR PERSON COMING in 2 days,
*People coming to help PAINT tomorrow,
*People coming to INSTALL appliances on Thursday,
*Brian getting SUB PLANS for the next THREE days all ready,
*SITTERS for the next FIVE days (not easy to get all those ducks in a row - let me tell you!), *UTILITIES being turned on tomorrow

... I mean we really planned ahead to make everything work.

So I am TOTALLY emotionally exhausted and drained of ALL energy.

I just keep telling myself - it will work out!!!

Moving Day approaches....

Am I ready? We won't have a fridge, oven, microwave, washer OR dryer in our new place. All the walls are STARK white (can we say revisiting student housing wall whiteness nightmares) and the lawn is currently all dirt. The clothes closets all need shelving units in them. There is not even a pegboard in the garage to hand up a rake.

Am I ready to take this on? Do I have the energy? Do I have the stamina? Do I have the ability to remind myself that Rome wasn't built in a day? Do I have the patience to deal with my kids surrounded, ONCE AGAIN, by totally and utter chaos????

Do I have the heart to throw out our couches that got invaded by mice? The couches that I love?

Will we have money to put in air conditioning for the summer?

Will we have money, someday, to buy ourselves a place to sit our behinds in our living room?

Should we invest in some camping chairs for our living room?

How am I going to organize the kitchen? Do I really lack an intuition for kitchen organizing?

Can I bear to look in box after box and see the never-ending randomness that is inside them?

CAN I DO IT????? I must take a deep breathe, and just TRY to convince myself I can do it!!

BABY SIGN LANGUAGE

So, I have to say, BABY SIGN LANGUAGE is very exciting. Its actually ASL (American Sign Language) using the most important words for babies.

I have done it with all 3 of my kids, and it is a LIFESAVER.

So far Kylianne has signed the soonest. She started signing "All Done" at 10 1/2 months.

This has been the BEST tool, because she can tell me if she is grunting because she wants "MORE" (she still hasn't done this one yet) or if she is "ALL DONE" from eating.

And last night, to my exploding heart's delight, she put her hand up to my I-love-you-signed hand and signed back "I Love you" (not perfect form of course) back at me as she said,

"Luh-buh!"

For being just shy of 11 months, is close enough for ME to understand what she means.

Brooke's first sign came at 13 months and is was "MORE" and shortly thereafter it was "PLEASE."

Tyler signed "PLEASE" about that same age.

Kylie's other developments, for anyone that cares, is she has 8 TEETH NOW! I think that is the biggest mouthful of teeth at that age of all my kids.

AND she does not take after her mom, who was bald until she was 2, she has got some great CRAZY BABY EINSTEIN hair that is only tamed in pig-tails.

Has anyone else had good exeriences with Baby Signing? Which signs did your kids do first? Do you continue to use signing with your kids in church or anything?

HILARIOUS TWILIGHT ONE MINUTE SPOOF - ESPECIALLY THE PART WITH ALICE PITCHING!!

I LAUGHED SO HARD AT THIS. Brian and I both love it when "Alice" says

"ITS TIME!" And then pitches the baseball - so horribly - and so hilariously!!!!!

I am just going to put the link because this video part is giving me a hard time -but it is so worth the FOUR MINUTES. You will be laughing to yourself all day!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goix7jFXD9Q

NEW MOON MADNESS?????

SO, maybe I am regressing back to my teenage years, but I have become an somewhat AVID follower of TWILGHT'S sequel movie - NEW MOON- and their website.

http://www.newmoonmovie.org/

I like checking out what they filmed that day, casting developments, and so forth.

Here are the new movie posters - FUN!!

Me and THE GIRLS here have a plan in place already for November to see NEW MOON at the local

IMAX THEATER.

OH YEAH!!!

Which poster do you NEW MOON fans like better?