Wednesday, August 26, 2009

We're still here :)

Whew, my posts have been awful lately! We have just been very very occupied lately trying to figure things out. We still haven't decided what we are going to do in terms of our housing, but we have been looking at some houses. We're going back out on Saturday morning to see some more, and there is one that we are going to see for a second time. We like the house a lot, but we just aren't totally sure about the area. It's Decatur, but pretty far out, like close to North Dekalb Mall (ick). But it is a really good school district, so that's definitely a plus. We'll see.

So, finally for some Roxanne updates. She is WILD these days. Her verbal skills are really amazing, too. She has started singing some songs pretty well, including "eensy weensy spider," "ABC's" and "Don't Bite Your Friends" from Yo Gabba Gabba. She especially loves that last one. It's hilarious. I'm going to try and video tape her singing it soon. She dances to it, too. I have been AWFUL with the photos lately, since I don't know where most of the parts are, like the charger and the uploader thingy. I think they are packed. I'll find it at some point, I promise. Roxanne is very clear in expressing herself these days, and she can usually tell me what she wants or why she is upset. We are working on asking for things, instead of whining, but we all know how that goes... Usually, it sounds like this:
Roxanne: "mmmmaaaaaammmmmmaaaaaaa" accompanied by arm waving, crying, and thrashing in the general direction of her water cup
Me: "Roxanne, if you want water, then ask for it nicely."
Roxanne: "Water, pheeeeez." now sitting nicely in her seat and looking at me sweetly.

She is very into naming things, especially colors. She holds up different things, like blocks or cars or crayons, and says "yellow block," (etc.) and she's right about 50% of the time. She knows orange and yellow, but the others seem to confuse her a little. She likes to name things in terms of possession, too, so she will put on my shoes and say "mama shoes" or get one of Justin's shirts and say "dada shirt." She knows her own name now, too, and has started saying it more often. Mainly just in terms of things, like her water or her food. It sounds kind of like "reh-zann" when she says her name. She says some sentences, like "open the water peez" when she wants the lid taken off of her sippy cup, or "I'm all done" when she wants to get out of her seat. Of course, she doesn't speak totally clearly, but it's eerily clear. I think she might be a touch ahead of the curve on her language skills, but I think it's from spending so much time with a 3 year old. On days when it's just Ben and Roxanne, our conversations are not nearly as complete or complex. Three year olds like to talk. A lot. A lot a lot.

She's a very cuddly thing these days. She loves snuggling still, and she gives lots of kisses. She likes to say hi to people when they walk in a room, especially Mike, my stepdad, and Leah and my Mom. And me and Justin... When I walk into the room with her, she looks up and says "Hey Mama." So grown up. She absolutely loves staying with Nana, Mike and Leah. When we pull up to the house, she lists out all of their names, even though she is sometimes shy when they first say hi to her. We really feel lucky to be staying here. But we do hope to get things figured out sooner rather than later. We hope to make an offer on a house in the next two weeks, or just go back to renting if we really can't find anything. But we would like to take advantage of all of the buyer incentives in front of us. But holy cow, I have been looking at real estate listings CONSTANTLY lately. My mom has been helping me search, too. It's nice to have a second set of eyes. Looking for foreclosures is really tough.

OK, that's all for now. I'll try and get some pictures and/or video up soon.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

At least it's settled

We officially didn't get the house. We're hoping to at least get our earnest money back, but we won't know until Friday or so. At least we know we tried as many different things as possible to make it work, but in the end, the only option we had was paying an uncomfortably high interest rate which in turn created an uncomfortably high monthly payment. We aren't interested in making our lives more stressful. So now the big giant decision is whether to go back to renting or try to buy another foreclosure. Neither option is all that appealing right now. Well, I guess I should just say that there are definitely looming downsides to either one. I have to admit that it's comforting to be at home at my mom's house during this process. I feel taken care of and sheltered. We'll be back on our feet soon, and I have to admit that I feel some relief today to at least have a clear answer about the Decatur house.

And if anyone is house hunting, there's a nice place back on the market in North Decatur Heights!

Thursday, August 13, 2009

No good news

We still aren't any closer to a closing date. Unfortunately, the third bank I mentioned in the previous post didn't have a good offer either. The lowest interest rate was being offered by a bank who is now not offering any more loans to people getting our down payment assistance program. It might be a temporary thing, but no one knows. I'll keep you posted, but things are looking pretty bad right now for the house. I promise to give a Roxanne update soon. I'm just worn down and feeling sorry for myself. Blech.

Saturday, August 8, 2009

No news for now

We are still exploring our options. Sadly, this includes looking at some rental listings, but hopefully that will not be necessary. We just are running into a lot of problems because of the crazy fees and interest rates that are being offered by the two options we have for right now. There might be a third bank we can consider, but we won't find out until Monday. Hopefully that might work out. But who knows. We thank everyone for their well wishes, and e-mails. Sorry I haven't responded much to e-mails. I don't really have anything nice to say at the moment. Of course, I should say that my mom and Mike and Leah have been very gracious in letting us stay with them, and we can't thank them enough. For the second time in our married lives, we've stayed with my family during a tough spot. We are so lucky. Thanks to Kendree and Jon and Ella and Chloe for their hospitality back when we were newlyweds.

We are doing our best to stay positive. We will keep trying to find a solution that lets us get our house. We love it.

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

A possibly fatal blow...

So, Taylor, Bean and Whitaker, the mortgage company that was supposed to be funding our loan, has been forced to cease all loan origination effective today. They apparently got into trouble for fraud or something, and are in big trouble. Our mortgage broker tells us that his contact at the DCA is going to send over a list of new lenders for us to look at, and our down payment assistance funds are still reserved, but we are back to square one on our mortgage. And our broker apparently can't help with the new loan, so he's out of the picture once we get a new lender set up, and he's not going to end up getting paid for all of the time and effort he's put into this. Oddly, my boss has been trying to refinance her house for four months, and finally closed last Friday, but they were supposed to be with Taylor, Bean and Whitaker, too, and now they are having to start over, too.

Justin and I have to talk about things. We are at a loss. We've got to regroup and figure out what our next step will be.