All About Hubby

Husband Meme

1. Where did you meet? at the golf course where I bartended and he frequently golfed

2. How long did you date before you got married? we dated a year before getting engaged and then it was two more years till the wedding - I had to finish college!

3. How long have you been married? almost 16 months

4. What does he do that surprises you? Plans sweet date nights or brings me something he knows I like

5. What is your favorite feature of his? the way he walks, his hands, his smile...

6. What is your favorite quality of his? he's waaaaaaay funny

7. Does he have a nickname for you? honey

8. What is his favorite color? blue

9. What is his favorite food? anything with meat and veggies

10. What is his favorite sport? Football/Baseball - it's a tie

11. When and where was your first kiss? July 18, 2004 (our first date)by my parent's garage

12. What is your favorite thing to do as a couple? hang out together, watch movies

13. Do you have any children? nope, not yet

14. Does he have a hidden talent? He can actually sing quite well..when he tries

15. How old is he? 26

16. Who said I love you first? He did, while we were slow dancing to one of our favorite songs at a Tim McGraw concert he took me to.

17. What’s his favorite type of music? country

18. What do you admire most about him? He's a hard worker, he's financially smart and he checks into everything to make sure we're getting a good deal and it's "right" for us.

19. Do you think he will read this? Nope. I know he won't.


HUSBAND MEME

1. He’s sitting in front of the TV - What is on the screen? Football

2. You’re out to eat. What kind of dressing does he get on his salad? French

3. What is one food he won't eat? Shrimp - he's allergic.

4. You go out to the bar. What does he order? Captain & Coke or Lime Green Tom Collins

5. Where did he go to high school? mmmm that might be too much info to put online

6. What size shoe does he wear? 13.5

7. If he was to collect anything, what would it be? Green Bay Packer memorabilia

8. What is his favorite type of sandwich? I was just informed that he LOVES eggsalad sandwiches...I have never seen him eat one, however.

9. What would the Husband eat every day if he could? Hu Hot

10. What is his favorite cereal? Cap'n Crunch

11. What would he never wear? Pink

12. What is his favorite sports team? The Packers and the Brewers (a tie)

13. Who is his best friend? me first then his brother Randy

14. What is something you do that he wishes you wouldn’t do? Get frustrated easily and "yell" at him

15. How many states has he lived in? just one

16. What is his heritage? german

17. You bake him a cake for his birthday; what kind is it? Chocolate/caramel from Manderfields Bakery...I don't bake cakes.

18. Did he play sports in high school? Football

19. What could he spend hours doing? playing Madden on his Wii

I'm baaaaaaaaaack.

Whoa! Can you believe my last post was January 17?! A lot has happened since then. I'll do my best to fill in the blanks.

When I last posted we were devastated to learn that the closing date for our house had been pushed back. Again. That's right - we were given four different closing dates and we watched each pass by with nothing being done.

It was down right upsetting. We had some complications because our house was a foreclosure, owned by the mega company Freddie Mac. So, of course a lot of the house sale/closing had to take place out of state in Virginia of all places.

Wait. Let me back up. I want to document all of our struggles with the purchase of this house so we can look back and laugh our heads off at everything that went "wrong."

Here's how it all went down:

Back in November I was sitting in my deer stand, having just taken a four-point buck. I was celebrating my victory and texting back and forth with my husband when he wrote "How do you feel about living in _______" (insert small town where he grew up).

I typed back "I don't care where we live as long as it's in a HOUSE."

He made it happen. Two days later we toured the house. Two days after that we wrote up the offer to purchase the house. Three days later we had an accepted offer. A week later we met with a local banker and signed zillions of papers to get the ball rolling on the loan.

See how smoothly things were going at the beginning? Then the shoe fell.

The day after we met with our local loan officer she called Mark to tell him that she couldn't do the loan because the laws regarding foreclosed, manufactured homes had recently changed. Our only hope, she said, was to get our loan directly through a mortgage broker.

Luckily our realtor knew a broker, who was part of her same real estate group. So, Mark set up a meeting with him. In the mean time we had to meat with our realtor two more times to sign additional paper work that the seller, Freddie Mac required.

The day of our meeting with the mortgage guy came and we went to his office only to be told that he wasn't in and his secretary didn't think he was expecting to meet with us since he was at a Christmas party with his girlfriend. Um, excuse me? We had that appointment set for weeks.

Hubby, who does not like to be pushed around, some how got the secretary to give us both his cell phone number and his girlfriend's number. We finally got a hold of him and he simply said "Oh, I must have forgotten."

Soooooooooo we left all the paper work there, with his assurance that he'd get things started and we'd set up another date to meet with him.

At the start of all this we were given a closing date of December 30, 2008. We soon learned that would not be happening and our closing date was pushed back to the first Friday in January.

We had to meet one more time with the realtor so sign more papers for the sale and then we simply had to wait to make sure the title cleared - something we understood our realtor was taking care of. The week we were supposed to close we learned that date was being pushed back to Tuesday of the next week because there were still some issues with the title.

We met with the mortgage guy and signed all the papers for our loan. And we waited. Through all this, Mark hounded these people - calling them 5 to 6 times a day wanting to know what they were doing to make this happen. I'm soooo proud of him for sticking up for us and staying on top of this. We definitley wouldn't have gotten this house if it weren't for him.

Finally, Mark was fed up with getting half answers and he tracked down the numbers for the actual people at Freddie Mac. And he started hounding them.

We learned that the title had been cleared for some time, but Freddie Mac was waiting for paperwork from our mortgage guy before they would finalize the sale! Here we had the mortgage guy telling us that he was waiting on Freddie Mac. Ridiculous.

So Mark yelled some more and we had another closing date set for January 19. In the mean time we had already purchase the new paint and carpeting for the house, had a date set for the carpet install, had a plumber and furnace guy set to come to the house and had movers all lined up for Saturday, January 24.

Then. We got the call. On January 19 we were informed we would not be closing. After Mark had already taken time off work, after I had already informed my new boss that I would need a few hours off to close. We. Were. Not. Closing. Again.

To say the least, I was crushed. It felt like this was never going to happen for us; like we were being punished for some reason.

Mark threatened these people. My husband, the man that has not a mean bone in his body, yelled/screamed/and threatened these people within an inch of their lives if they did not make this happen for us.

We closed on Friday, January 23 at 3:30 p.m. Mark had the keys to our house in hand that morning at 7:30 a.m. as per his agreement to spare the lives of our realtor and mortgage guy.

We closed without hassle and quickly high-tailed it to our new house to begin painting. We worked on the house till 1 a.m. and went back to our apartment to sleep for a few hours. We woke at 5:45 a.m. that Saturday to finish packing some things, then I met my sister-in-law (The Painting Queen) back at the house to work on painting. Our moving helper guys (aka my brother, a couple of Mark's brothers, my dad and my buddy Ryan) showed up at the apartment to load up and 2 trips later we were officially moved in!

It's been a whirl-wind of activity ever since. We painted every wall in the entire house, re-carpeted every room in the house, did some extreme cleaning, changed some light fixtures and all the locks/door knobs in the house, re-wired some stuff, unpacked a lot of stuff, organized still more stuff...and here we are - enjoying our new house.

I must admit at times I was ready to throw in the towel. I simply couldn't believe everything that was happening to us and felt like we had the worst luck ever. Now I see the reason for it all.

We are so happy and I have an even great appreciation for my husband and all that he does to insure my happiness. Amazing.

In the last week or so, I've been worried about financial things as I learned my hours were being cut at my new job. Today I realized (after looking back at all that happened with this house) that I need to let go and know that everything will work out.

Watch for some fun, new house pics in the very near future because I'm baaaaaaaack, blogging buddies!

Not Forgotten

Dont worry, I promise I haven't forgotten about this little space in the great blog-o-sphere. It's just that we've been going through a very trying time and I really haven't felt much like posting.

I promise some day (soon) to share the details of all we've been through in the last two weeks. I just can't bring myself to type it out quite yet.

In any event, I'm so amazed that through it all we've found the strength and faith to brush aside those "why me's?" and other thoughts of feeling sorry for ourselves and really appreciate that we have each other no matter what happens.

No more than ever, we recognize just how many families there are out there who are struggling and in need of prayer and kind thoughts.

Here's just a small list of those I've been thinking of/praying for this week: Amanda, Harper, Brayden, Eden's Family, Little Russ, and Ashley.

It's so important to remember that even in times when we're feeling all alone...scared...forgotten...there's always someone we can turn to.

Blessings to all of you!

More Papers?!

Since we started this adventure into first-time-home-ownership, we've signed more papers than I care to count. Just when I thought we were in the clear - at least for a little while - hubby brought home a stack of paperwork last night.

By my rough calculation, we've signed more than 200 sheets of paper in just these "initial stages" of the process. That's got to be at least a whole tree, right?

I sure hope these mortgage people, banks, and realtors are using recycled paper.

We're still shooting for a closing date of January 16, at which time I'm sure we'll sign another 127 papers before we can actually lay claim to the house.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining....I'm simply whining!

Have a great Wednesday!

Not Me!

It's time for Not Me! Monday again, so hop on over to MckMama's blog and check out the fun.

...I did not shop this weekend for the most deliciously pink long sleeve t-shirt I could find. I am not wearing said t-shirt underneath my snazzy black polo work shirt. I do not expect to receive numerous compliments on my amazingly pink attire.

I did not drink soda at a family gathering over the weekend and smile a little when family members wondered out loud if I was pregnant.

Saturday did not find us working feverishly to coax our sick car into working again. By "us" I certainly don't mean Mark worked while I relaxed in my parent's warm house with a cup of cappuccino. Nope, that is definitely not what I mean.

A crazy ice storm did not hit our area Saturday night, coating our little neck of the woods in slippy, sliddey dangerous stuff. I did not beg hubby to make an unnecessary trip to my parent's house to pick up a book my mom finished reading that I've been dying to start. Lovely hubby did not curse (under his breath) while navigating the trecherous roads.

I did not spend much of the day yesterday teaching myself a variety of crochet stitches. I did not break down in tears when I just couldn't figure one out...because that would mean I care about "little old lady things" like crocheting.

I certainly did not wake up this morning at 6:30 a.m., go to the bathroom and fumble with my alarm clock to re-set it for 7:15 a.m. I did not speedily shower, dress, dry my hair and put on make-up to make sure I'd have enough time to do a bit of blogging.

I am not super pumped to watch a new episode of Jon & Kate Plus Eight tonight and I'm not counting down to the season premiere of American Idol.

We do not have less than two weeks before we move into our house!

What have you not done this week? C'mon you know you wanna join the fun!
P.S. I actually posted this weekend...twice! If you missed those amazing posts, be sure to scroll down!

Leftover Names? Recycle them!

I had a thought yesterday that I can't seem to get out of my head. The thought fits the theme of pretty much all my thoughts lately...the world of motherhood and babies.

I think I've mentioned that Mark and I have both a boy's name and a girl's name picked out for our future first children. We love both names and can't imagine not having children to fit them. These names are perfect and we already use them when dreaming of the things we'll do with our family.

But...what if? What if we end up having all boys? Or all girls? Our names would go unused! I couldn't bear it.

Just when it seems all hope is lost...never fear, the Internet is here.

Check this out. Looks like just about anything can be recycled these days!

RiNgInG iN tHe NeW yEaR 'o9

Well, I'm finally recovered from New Year's Eve. Ha. Just kidding. I' ve just been pretty lazy on the blogging front.

We did have a fun New Year's Eve, though and we realized we're waaaaaaaay too old to be staying up so late!

I ended up only having to work until 3 p.m. on New Year's Eve so we met up with a few of my aunts/uncles at a local bar for some drinks and dice games. I had seriously like 4 drinks, then we went out to eat and then headed to Mark's brother's house.

I swear I only had four drinks and get this...I felt sick the next day. I had a headache and didn't feel right....after four drinks! See, I'm just getting waaaaaay too old! Ha ha.

New Year's Day we ended up doing a bit of shopping because Mark needed new work shoes, so we just had to hit up HuHot again. I think we're becoming addicted to that place! It's soooooooooo good.

It was a pretty relaxing day, which made it really hard for both of us to go to work yesterday. Ugh. Thankfully the day went by quickly. Last night I headed over to my parent's house to do laundry for one of the last times because...pretty soon we're moving to our own house with our own washer and dryer! Yay!

We (meaning me and my brother-from-another-mother Ryan) dyed my brother's hair black last night. I'm not sure how Ben got into this kick that he needed a "$6 makeover" but he did, and wanted his hair black for 2009. It ended up looking really nice, but then again he's one of those guys who looks good no matter what he does.

Our car had a little trouble last night...meaning it refused to start, so it stayed stranded at my parent's house last night. So we got up super early this morning to go over there and dump some Heet in the gas tank. Thankfully it started up after that.


We just made our weekend Wal-Mart run and now Mark is playing Madden Wii (for the 9,000th time since we got it last year) and I'm going to do some more packing. We have a birthday party later for my great-uncle, but other than that we're going to have a pretty relaxing weekend, thank goodness.

After a busy week, I really need a little time to breathe. And pack. And pick out paint colors for our new house. And sign more papers for the loan for our new house. And start cleaning the apartment for moving-out. And...well actually my weekend might not be so relaxing after all.

The good news? My little niece taught me how to crochet...so I'm starting an afghan! Believe it or not, I find knitting and crocheting soooooooooooo enjoyable and relaxing. So, I'm looking forward to my project...after all that other stuff is done.

I'll leave you with a few fun pictures to tide you over, you know, just in case I don't get around to blogging for the rest of the weekend....

My parent's dog, Otis, trying to get into the holiday spirit.

Jade, my adorable godson, at Christmas.

Ben's new hair.