17 months

Today Jordyn is 17 months old. I look at her and still see my sweet 5 pound baby girl swaddled in her hospital blanket. She is everything I ever dreamed she would be and worth every second we waited for her - and there are a lot of seconds in 8 years! I'd do it all over again for her. She fills my heart with such joy, and I absolutely melt when she says mama.

This past weekend she was a flower girl at my cousin's wedding. She was perfect.

Please can we get some good news??

I haven't posted for a few weeks. I've been in a funk. When I wrote my last post I had just gotten laid off and Jordyn was recovering from a stomach bug. Things only got worse once April arrived.

First, the lovely chief of police decided all shifts should bump to another shift so that night shift guys could experience day shift, and vice versa. So after getting screwed at the end of the year and having to do a 4 month night shift assignment, N and his entire shift were put on night shift for 3 months. Fabu. It sucks on many levels, but mostly for N because it messes up his body clock. There are a host of other reasons it sucks, but I'll leave that alone for now. Then mom came to visit from NY, which was great. Jordyn had finally started feeling better in the middle of mom's visit, so by the end she was back to her normal fun self. Mom left on a Monday. That Friday night, I went in to check on Jordyn before I went to bed. I was shocked to find vomit in her crib! I was alone since N was at work, so I got her up and brought her into the bathroom to clean her up. As we were sitting on the bathroom floor, she puked her guts up. Macaroni and cheese and grapes are not fun on the other end. She was shaking and felt very hot, so I took her temp and it was 102. She continued to throw up every 45 minutes until 3am. Her fever was almost 103. First thing Sat morning I called the dr and took her in to see him. He did an exam and as he listened to her lungs he said they sounded really "junky." He recommended a blood test and chest xray - thankfully they have a lab in their office and were there on sat. Her white blood cells were over 20,000 and her chest xray showed spots on her lungs. After everything my poor girl has been through, she was diagnosed with pneumonia. He gave her a shot of antibiotics and a prescription for oral antibiotics and alternating tylenol and motrin for the fever. All day all she did was lay on me - she was burning up and I felt so bad for her. By 6pm her fever broke and she was feeling much better. So we were resigned to time at home for her to heal. Thankfully the antibiotics worked and she didnt need to be admitted to the hospital for oxygen or anything.

As we were on the mend, I got a call from Mom that Grandma wasn't doing well. She's been in a nursing home with dementia for the last 4 years and had recently taken a turn for the worse. So we were waiting to see what would happen. The Saturday before Easter Jordyn was feeling better so I took her to the community Easter egg hunt by our new house. Let me jsut say I love my new neighborhood. Jordyn had a blast gathering eggs - I have lots of great pics but of course have not downloaded them yet. We came home and my mom called - Grandma had passed away. So we dropped everything, booked flights and all headed to NY the next day because the funeral was Monday. I was concerned about traveling with Jordyn since she was still recovering and was still on antibiotics, but she did great.

We are back home and Jordyn is doing great. I finally took her to school yesterday - she had been out for 2 whole weeks! She had a good day, and when I came to pick her up her teacher took me aside and said she had to talk to me. She wanted to let me know some kids in the adjacent toddler class had hand-foot-mouth disease and strep. Great, next thing for me to look forward to.

I finally updated my resume yesterday and sent it out to a few places. I am in such a funk because honestly, I just don't know what I want to do. I could fill my days spending time with Jordyn, cooking, cleaning, yoga, volunteer work, etc. But now that we have this big beautiful house, I have to find a job so I can pay for it. It sucks, because if we never moved we could have made it work on one salary. I never expected to get laid off so we went ahead with the home purchase. In the end I know it was the right thing to do, but right now I feel so helpless and unhappy - I just don't know how to handle it all. I mean seriously, how much is one person expected to handle?

I really need something good to happen, and fast.

Can't catch a break

I've been silent lately, but alot has happened. My last post was long, so I am going to keep this one short. After all the drama, we finally closed on both houses Monday 3/16. We moved into the new house the next day and have been here almost 2 weeks. We love it. Its huge - so much room, so much storage - everything we ever wanted. My kitchen is amazing and cooking in it is a dream. Jordyn is doing great and adapting to her new surroundings surprisingly well. Everything was going perfectly.

On Thursday I got laid off. 10 days after closing on my house, I lost my job. I am angry, hurt, pissed off, sad, and various other emotions I can't express. This is the 2nd time I have been laid off in 9 years at this company. The first time I felt it was personal. This time I know it was economical. In a team of 14 people, 4 of us were laid off. The company is in the shitter and the economy sucks. It doesn't sting any less, especially since I now have a larger mortgage to pay. My boss and other superiors knew about the move. How do you knowingly make the decision to lay someone off who just bought a new house. Never mind in 9 years I never had a less than perfect review, not a glitch on my HR file. I am furious.

The good news is I get a pretty good severance since I have been there so long. I can take some time to decide what I want to do and update my resume. I am just not looking forward to looking for a new job with the way things are right now. I don't want that stress, and don't want to worry about whether we will be able to afford our new house.

Oh and Jordyn had a stomach bug all week. Nothing like a layoff and some vomit to make you feel good about yourself.

Angry, Angry, Angry. Did I mention I was Angry?

Remember my previous screaming post from Monday? It's still going on. I am still screaming. This has been such a horrible week and the upcoming weekend is not providing much relief. I am supposed to be packing and getting excited about moving into my new beautiful house. Instead I am stressed out, trying to pack and hoping that we will finally close on our current house so we can close on the new one. I am so angry I can't even see straight and hope that typing this will help blow off some steam and make me feel better. I doubt it, but its worth a shot. Buckle up - its going to be a long, bumpy ride.

Everything was going perfectly. We put our house on the market at the end of January and after 2 offers in a week, we had a contract. We found our dream house shortly after and put an offer on it. We found out we qualified for a VA loan which was going to save us tons of money and fees so we were excited to have some cash for our savings to finally start Jordyn's college fund. Inspections were done, utilities switched over, address change with the post office - everything you'd do for a move. Then last Wednesday (the 4th) we got a call from an appraiser who needed to do the appraisal on our home for the new buyers. I was surprised they hadn't done it yet since we were supposed to close the coming Tuesday (the 10th.) The appraiser came and went and that was it. That Thursday I got a call from my realtor that our house didn't appraise for the sales price. We were shocked because we did a good comparative analysis of the neighborhood to get our sales price. The buyers did the same and obviously thought it was a fair price because they made an offer and we had a contract. Both realtors called the buyer's loan officer to request a review and they submitted both of their comps for backup. That evening the buyers came by to do their final walk through of the house and nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

On Friday, our realtor called and said the appraiser felt he used good comps and rejected the re-evaluation of the appraisal. Oh, I forgot to mention he was off by $14,000, and he used the wrong sales price as the base value!! Clearly, there was something wrong. Then the buyers decided that the house was only worth what the appraiser said it was worth and unless we lowered our price, they wanted out. I could not believe this was happening. We were a few days away from closing and it seemed like it was all up in the air. First we thought, screw them. We'll get our own appraisal and put the house back on the market. It sold in 7 days last time so we were sure it would sell again. Our realtor spent the weekend getting 3rd party opinions and valuations of our home. What we found out is that no matter what someone else said, our home was now flagged in the system with the value the appraiser gave it, and would stay like that for 90 days. It was basically up to the appraiser and his report was complete. Our realtor then got in touch with the buyer's loan officer - this was Sunday night. They had a mutual friend so they were able to discuss everything. He agreed that the appraisal was way off based on the comps we had, and so did his manager. They were going to try and override the appraiser and up the value on the home themselves. We went to bed feeling hopeful.

Monday morning came and we found out that the bank had no luck - they could not override the appraiser's decision and they asked him one more time to reconsider. Again, he said no. This put us in a tough spot. We had 2 options - lower the price, eat into our profit and sell the house. Or option 2, put it back on the market, get our own appraisal, have 2 mortgages, run the risk of the existing appraisal overriding anything new and coming across the same problem 3 months from now. After taking all the emotion out of it, we decided to take the hit and get rid of the house. In this market, at least we were still making a profit. So we amended the contract, extended a few days and planned for a later in the week close.

The next day (Tuesday), I got a note from the title company of our new house with our settlement statement - what we had to bring to closing on the new house. She called me to discuss further and we set up the closing for Thursday (12th) as planned. Then she asked when we were closing on our current home. I told her it was up in the air - briefly explained there were some issues but they were being worked on. She became very quiet and then told me we needed the settlement statement from our sale in order to purchase the new home. Another roadblock we didn't expect. I called our loan officer and she said they only approved us for a loan based on our sale - they didn't approve it based on 2 mortgages. She said they could do it but it would have to go through underwriting again and could hold it up another week. We knew our house close was in process so we said forget it, and would let them know when our close was scheduled so we could come in to sign the ppwk on the new house. Crisis averted.

Wednesday I got a call from my realtor. As the buyer's loan was going through underwriting with the new price, something was flagged so they had to pull it. They said it was being worked on and would have to go back through underwriting and legal. Still looked OK for Thursday close. Thursday rolls around with no new. Their docs were still with the bank and the title company was just waiting to receive them to prepare the close. We agreed to do a 9am close today (Friday) and a 4pm close on our new home. Late in the day the title company still had not received the docs. We moved from 9am to 2pm. We'd do them back to back which was no problem - theit bank wires the money immediately so their loan would be legit and free us up to buy our home.

This morning I got a phone call that the title company still hadn't received the docs. The title company and both realtors left messages and emails for the loan officer and they never heard back. At almost noon I started to feel like it wasn't going to happen. The buyer went to the bank to hunt down the loan officer to find out wtf was going on, because they were in limbo too. He finally responded that the docs had not yet been sent to the title company and he didn't know what the hold up was, but was still hopeful we could do it today. I wasn't. This was starting to get old. And I had an appointment set up for tomorrow to have the grout on our tile floors sealed. Plus the fridge was supposed to be delivered Monday morning. We were going to spend the weekend bringing little things over and finish packing. I started to feel like my weekend was going to be filled with more stress. Boy was I ever right.

By 4pm there was no news. The title company still hadn't received the docs and we were still in a holding pattern. I started to fear that there was something wrong with their loan, but we confirmed with the bank everything was fine - it was just through the final underwriting and legal approvals. So now, we wait and hope that Monday morning rolls around and we get a call to come in and close on this house. The new house is waiting for us, all our docs are ready to be signed and keys waiting. The new glitch is that N has to work Monday - he can't even take off or call in sick because he is training a rookie. So we have no idea how he is going to be able to sign any of this paperwork. More to worry about.

The good news is that the sales person at the builder feels so bad for us and asked if there was anything she could do. I asked if I can have their builder key to let the guy in to still do my floors and she said yes, and left a key for me to pick up in the morning. So tomorrow morning our floors will be done. We had to call Sears to change the delivery date of the fridge from Monday to Tuesday, and the movers are still scheduled for Tuesday.

If we don't close on our current house on Monday I am seriously going to lose it. I really don't know how much more of this I can take. I just want to be in my new, beautiful house and I can't even get excited about it.

Well, I told you it was going to be a bumpy ride. And as predicted I don't feel any better. In fact, I am still angry. Angry about all of it. The stupid appraiser who didn't take any of our protest or background information into consideration. Angry that the buyer's are getting a freaking steal on this house. Angry at losing $14k for Jordyn's college fund. Angry that I can't relax and be excited about my new house. Angry that I can't sleep and this stress is making me ill - I woke up with a fever yesterday. And really angry at that damn appraiser for starting this whole mess. Did I mention I was angry at the appraiser??

I need a massage. And a drink. And I just need this to all be over.

Frustrated

I want to scream. I NEED to scream. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

OK I feel better. Not really.

Sassy girl

Jordyn has been super fun lately. Smiling, laughing and just being cute. Here is a recent pic of her sitting out in the sun enjoying an afternoon snack. Don't you want to bite her?

Update

Wow, I haven't posted in awhile. The last few weeks have been completely insane. I've been dealing with a sick baby who has had one illness after another. It started with a double ear infection which cleared after the antibiotics for 10 days. Then she had a upper respiratory infection with wheezing and she needed a nebulizer. At the same time she developed a stomach virus and was throwing up for a day. The chest congestion was better and she had loose coughing and a runny nose. It took her a good week to bounce back and start eating well again. Then I noticed her 1 year molars started coming in, but she was especially cranky and pulling on her ears. Of course, she now has another ear infection. Poor thing just can't catch a break. Its a combination of daycare and the weather. Hopefully as the weather gets warmer these illnesses will slow down a bit. I just want my baby to be healthy!!

In other news, we sold our house! In my last post we were about to put it on the market. After one day we had 5 showings and got an offer on the 2nd day. We went back and forth and couldnt come to an agreement so we didn't accept. We had a few more showings during the week and on that Thursday we got another offer. This time it was a better offer and we negotiated a bit but finally accepted. After only 7 days on the market we had a contract. We were really surprised because we didn't expect the house to sell so fast. But I guess Austin isn't as bad as some other markets - I know people who have had their house or apt on the market in other states for months with no interest. The new buyers wanted to close in 30 days so we had to act fast to find a new house. Luckily our realtor is a good friend so he helped us find something great. He used to work for one of the builders here in town so we went to visit one of the communities in the part of town we wanted to live in. They had 3 inventory homes available for immediate move in. We loved all 3 of them but one of them was perfect for us. It had the right amount of bedrooms, a family room, huge kitchen with granite countertops, game room upstairs and a guest suite with full bath downstairs. Its beautiful and most importantly, its huge. We are going from 1900 sq feet to 3048 sq feet. We desperately need the room and this is the house we can see Jordyn and any future children grow up in. So now we have to pack up everything and move in a month. Its exciting and scary all at the same time but we feel like its the right decision. All the stars were aligned with selling this house and finding the right new one, so it was all meant to be.

Here is a pic of us in front of our current house with the sold sign, and a pic of the outside of our new house. More updates to come!