Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Monday, July 30, 2012
Coke zero in the morning
I think that there is just something off when you see an 8 year old bit drinking a coke zero at the work out place at 8:30 in the morning.
I don't wonder why we are FAT at all in this country. A diet coke or a coke zero dies not limit the amount if calories you take in for the day. Grab a water ...
Sent from my iPhone
I don't wonder why we are FAT at all in this country. A diet coke or a coke zero dies not limit the amount if calories you take in for the day. Grab a water ...
Sent from my iPhone
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Do you know the other Asians?
I went to see some friends play tennis the other night. While I was sitting there a women sits about 10 feet away. This was our conversation:
Lady: Hi
Me: Hi, How are you?
Lady: Good, Hey, there are two Asian's in the next court, do you know them?
Me: Umm ... no.
Lady: Really?
Me: Yes, I've only lived here a week, I don't know any very many people.
Lady: Oh, you look like someone I know.
Me: I guess you have a really pretty friend.
She laughed, I laughed. But really ... come on lady, ALL ASIANS DO NOT LOOK ALIKE!
In other news, I finally went shopping for furniture today. Now that the house is really ours, I felt like I could shop. I bought this table and chairs. It is a "espresso" color, which should look really nice in the house. It opens to 60" by 60", so this should be plenty of room when we have people over.
Then we went and bought a leather couch, chair and chair and a half for the family room. The girls each got new beds and a new chest/dresser thing.
This is the living room set:
I also bought three more pillows that match the middle chair to tie in the other pieces (I will be not be using the ones that the chair and couch come with)
This is what the girls got for their rooms:
We got one set in black and one set in white.
Monday, July 23, 2012
The new house!
We got our appraisal done on he new house on 10 July. I started to call on the following Friday, after thinking that it may come in low. After having our loan person be out of the office 4 out of 10 work days ... I finally found someone who could forward me a copy of the appraisal. It was 11 days after it was done that we finally got it. I read that it came in $9,000 less than what the current contract was on the house. And now the fun starts.
No one wants pay more for a house than what it's worth.
What do we do? There were really 3 options:
1. We could ask the sellers to lower the price to the cost of the house.
2. We could make up the 9K difference (NOT going to happen)
3. We could back out of the contract due to financing. (This was really our first choice, but decided to give them a chance to reduce the price)
We went with option 1. (This was actually the original price that we asked for the house). We gave them 30 hours to figure out if this is what they wanted to do. At 5pm on Sunday, we finally heard from our realtor who said that we needed to give them more time because they wanted to look at the appraisal to see if the best comps were used.
I was honestly ready to give the house back to them. We actually asked them if we could move in early ... rent the house from them before we bought it. They said that they would, but this was the deal: They wanted $3000 in earnest money (that we would NOT, I repeat, WOULD NOT get back when we closed) and then charge us $100 a day for 17 days. 17 days at a total of $4700 seemed like A LOT of money to me. We passed on the "deal". Actually, this put the sellers in a whole new light for us.
So today, the sellers signed the papers to reduce the price of the house. They were not happy at at, they had bought the house for almost 40K more than what we bought it for. I looked at the signature on amendment to contract and one of the sellers, you could tell was completely pissed. We were also told that the wife was crying as she was signing the papers. I understand being upset ... because I'm sure that I could be in this case too, but crying?
So now that this is finalized, we will be able to start buying things for the house ... like buy a kitchen table and chairs and get Gabby a bed. Sometimes, it's just the little things that make you happy.
No one wants pay more for a house than what it's worth.
What do we do? There were really 3 options:
1. We could ask the sellers to lower the price to the cost of the house.
2. We could make up the 9K difference (NOT going to happen)
3. We could back out of the contract due to financing. (This was really our first choice, but decided to give them a chance to reduce the price)
We went with option 1. (This was actually the original price that we asked for the house). We gave them 30 hours to figure out if this is what they wanted to do. At 5pm on Sunday, we finally heard from our realtor who said that we needed to give them more time because they wanted to look at the appraisal to see if the best comps were used.
I was honestly ready to give the house back to them. We actually asked them if we could move in early ... rent the house from them before we bought it. They said that they would, but this was the deal: They wanted $3000 in earnest money (that we would NOT, I repeat, WOULD NOT get back when we closed) and then charge us $100 a day for 17 days. 17 days at a total of $4700 seemed like A LOT of money to me. We passed on the "deal". Actually, this put the sellers in a whole new light for us.
So today, the sellers signed the papers to reduce the price of the house. They were not happy at at, they had bought the house for almost 40K more than what we bought it for. I looked at the signature on amendment to contract and one of the sellers, you could tell was completely pissed. We were also told that the wife was crying as she was signing the papers. I understand being upset ... because I'm sure that I could be in this case too, but crying?
So now that this is finalized, we will be able to start buying things for the house ... like buy a kitchen table and chairs and get Gabby a bed. Sometimes, it's just the little things that make you happy.
Friday, July 20, 2012
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Last week
It has been an interesting week.
The girls and I packed up the car a week ago, so that on Thursday morning, we could set out to go "home". The trip was a pretty non eventful 13 hours. I didn't leave anyone at a rest area ... so let's put this trip in the "win" column.
The girls and I got up on Friday morning, and started to drive around. Not really sure where to go ... but we found the Krispy Kreme doughnut place, a Starbucks and the bank. Those are all good starting points, right?
On Monday, we were trying to get to the grocery store, and ended up gong to the airport that is about 10 miles from the house. Oops ... but what can you do, sometimes you just need to roll with getting lost.
I did manage to get Hannah registered for school, get cable/phone and internet and electricity for the house. This is a good starting point. I forgot how much stuff you have to do when you move. It's not like moving to Hong Kong ... it seems like so much more. Is that because we just have more crap in the US?
Its funny to say, but there are many times that I have found myself missing Hong Kong. I can't seem to put my finger on it, but I think that I am not entering the stage where the US isn't as sparkly as it was 6 weeks ago.
J asked me a question the other day, " Do you think that people do stupid things on purpose?". It made me think that "stupid" is a very dark shade of grey.
The girls and I packed up the car a week ago, so that on Thursday morning, we could set out to go "home". The trip was a pretty non eventful 13 hours. I didn't leave anyone at a rest area ... so let's put this trip in the "win" column.
The girls and I got up on Friday morning, and started to drive around. Not really sure where to go ... but we found the Krispy Kreme doughnut place, a Starbucks and the bank. Those are all good starting points, right?
On Monday, we were trying to get to the grocery store, and ended up gong to the airport that is about 10 miles from the house. Oops ... but what can you do, sometimes you just need to roll with getting lost.
I did manage to get Hannah registered for school, get cable/phone and internet and electricity for the house. This is a good starting point. I forgot how much stuff you have to do when you move. It's not like moving to Hong Kong ... it seems like so much more. Is that because we just have more crap in the US?
Its funny to say, but there are many times that I have found myself missing Hong Kong. I can't seem to put my finger on it, but I think that I am not entering the stage where the US isn't as sparkly as it was 6 weeks ago.
J asked me a question the other day, " Do you think that people do stupid things on purpose?". It made me think that "stupid" is a very dark shade of grey.
Wednesday, July 4, 2012
Rainbows and rain
Rainbows
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
My weeks
Things are NOT dull in Georgia.
We have had days of 100+ degrees this week. Days that are "just" 90* feel pretty cool
The buyers have had some inspections done with the house … at this point, I'm just done - cooked - baked - whatever. Just done.
As for the new house … the inspection was AWESOME. He found some insulation issues (it needs a bit more in a couple of places) and the back door hinge is loose. This was pretty awesome to hear! J and I are both very excited!
Jonathan comes home today for a week. Yeah! He will be hanging out, doing some work, and supervising the packing process.
The girls went to camp. They were so excited on the ride up to camp. Reality set in for Gabby when she realized that she was alone. For as confident as she is, she is pretty sensitive - which still shocks me sometimes. This was the conversation with G as I was leaving:
Me: I love you
G: Yeah
Me: Are you mad at me?
G: Yeah
Me: Why? I thought that we agreed to this, you in a cabin, H in a cabin
G: You agreed
Oh my gosh … knife through the heart. My thinking was that they wouldn't want to be with each other because they had been with each other for the last two years. I guess I was wrong.
So the last thing that G said to me was, "I love you, you need to send me a care package". Yesterday, I sent the package with stuff that she (and Hannah) like: playing cards, skittles, goldfish, gum, lip smackers lip gloss, and a special additive for G - beef jerky. (she is very unique).
We have had days of 100+ degrees this week. Days that are "just" 90* feel pretty cool
The buyers have had some inspections done with the house … at this point, I'm just done - cooked - baked - whatever. Just done.
As for the new house … the inspection was AWESOME. He found some insulation issues (it needs a bit more in a couple of places) and the back door hinge is loose. This was pretty awesome to hear! J and I are both very excited!
Jonathan comes home today for a week. Yeah! He will be hanging out, doing some work, and supervising the packing process.
The girls went to camp. They were so excited on the ride up to camp. Reality set in for Gabby when she realized that she was alone. For as confident as she is, she is pretty sensitive - which still shocks me sometimes. This was the conversation with G as I was leaving:
Me: I love you
G: Yeah
Me: Are you mad at me?
G: Yeah
Me: Why? I thought that we agreed to this, you in a cabin, H in a cabin
G: You agreed
Oh my gosh … knife through the heart. My thinking was that they wouldn't want to be with each other because they had been with each other for the last two years. I guess I was wrong.
So the last thing that G said to me was, "I love you, you need to send me a care package". Yesterday, I sent the package with stuff that she (and Hannah) like: playing cards, skittles, goldfish, gum, lip smackers lip gloss, and a special additive for G - beef jerky. (she is very unique).
Sunday, July 1, 2012
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