Smortgagebord

Are you wondering why you haven't seen anymore obsessively excited pictures of my house? As Liz Lemon would say 'Blurgh!'

We have fallen into the fun times of jumping through the hoops to get your mortgage. Initially, I had the heart-stopping moment when they said they had to re-qualify us because they hadn't included J's student loan payment into our monthly obligations. Three business days later, the issue was resolved and I breathed a sigh of relief. That is, until I read the rest of the email that apologized for any 'inconvenience' that would be caused by pushing back our closing date, due to an exception that we had been assured would be no problem, but is now a huge problem, as it's been denied. We have to provide a 30 day paystub prior to closing, instead of within two months after closing, as we'd been previously told.

Apparently, with all the folks who got approved for three million dollar homes who should have been buying a double-wide and then defaulted on their mortgage, the industry's a little tight right now. Yes, I understand why...what I can't appreciate is that, based on the assurances made to us, we locked into a rate, signed a contract for a closing date of June 30th (also, the date we need to close by in order to get the first-time home-buyer tax credit) picked out, lovingly caressed and put our stamp on finishes that would make it a home of our own.

So, while I'd like to say I'm being zen and just going with the flow; I am not. I am a freak on a stick. I am the most neurotic, anxiety-driven person known to man. I have been cyber-stalking my loan processor, the real-estate broker and anyone else who will listen. Luckily, we have an awesome realtor and team who are working their booties off to make this all come together, but I swear I'm about to go Joe Biden, because while it may be an 'inconvenience' to the big wigs in the finance department, to us; this is a 'big f$^#%ng deal!'

Stay tuned...I may be changing my facebook album titled 'A Very, Very, Very Fine House' to 'Living in a Van, Down By The River'.

SallyHP Goes Green

My first post as Contributing Editor on the Green MomCentral blog went up today. If you just can't get enough of me, you can now catch me there twice a week! I'm very excited for this next venture in the blogosphere and hope you'll enjoy it as well.

More Than Meets The Eye

Today, after a leisurely morning of running kiddos to and fro, I told H we had a birthday party to attend that afternoon. He was ecstatic for the opportunity to wander the toy aisle at Target, pronouncing for all to hear exactly what he'd be getting for his birthday...in August.

Amidst protests by H that the birthday boy would not like a bottle of wine, I indulged him in the under ten dollar purchase of the Transformer, Scalpel, (a creepy microscope/flying insect) with a matching Transformer card, of course. Oh, did I mention that this was a 30th birthday party? For one of J's co-workers?

Luckily, said birthday boy is probably one of the most gracious and genuinely nice people you'll ever meet and he took the time to open the gift with H, take it out of the packaging and then 'transform' it...which, I don't know how many of you have tried that lately, but it's not exactly an intuitive process. It's the little things, like seeing them acknowledge how excited your child is about something that may not be exciting to them, that makes you genuinely like someone.

Cake consumed, a ball-game playing in the back-ground and a party foul perpetrated by H (who quickly pronounced over the spillage of beer 'It's okay! It was empty!') I decided it was time to tuck the kiddos under my arms and head home so that J could enjoy some much-deserved social time with his friends.

Before leaving, Birthday Boy suggested to H that they 'share' the Transformer, and that H's shift would start tonight. Of course, you could tell from the shifting of his eyes and sly smile that this was what H had planned and hoped for all along. The car ride home was spent with me reinforcing to H that this was a very special exception and he would never get to take a birthday gift home with him again.

And, yes, it's tucked in with him right now.

As the evening wore on, I was plagued with questions; Did I do the wrong thing? Should I have allowed him to get the gift even though I knew it was completely age-inappropriate, and kind of a gag gift even if H wasn't in on the gag?

I hope I didn't set him up for disappointment at future parties where he'll get the hairy eyeball if he presents the guest of honor with a parenting plan for joint custody of the gift. Then again, I think we'll just cross that bridge when we get there.

A Little Lift

A little something to start your day on the right foot...and maybe a bit of a dare as well.

Tea for You

Yesterday, President Obama signed into law what most think will be a good first step toward overhauling the largest and most expensive institution in our nation; health care. What seems to most (and when I say most, I'm saying it because health care reform was a major platform upon which Obama got elected by the majority of Americans) to be a positive step toward taking care of our own, has been under harsh scrutiny and has endured a lot of false propaganda by it's opponents.

I would say that the vast majority of those that support health care reform would freely admit that this is not a perfect first step, but it is the best step that could be taken right now. Do we need tort reform? Absolutely. Should we look at starting to cover only evidence-based procedures? Maybe. Should we take the hardest look at the devastatingly huge amount of money that we spend on end-of-life care by coming to terms with our fear of the idea of losing a loved one? Probably. But, all of those things will take a long time, overcoming social mores and the pressure that family members feel to make a 'good' decision, or to prolong the inevitable. I'm proud of this first step, and I look forward to the progress that can be made from it.

Click here to see a very abbreviated list of some of the benefits we can expect to see from the health-care bill. I like that it cites its sources for each reason...although number 7 is not cited, so I'm inclined to believe it's a looser number.

I thought this video was interesting, keeping in mind that it was obviously edited; but since it was edited to my own political slant I, of course, like it. Even though it will take a good chunk of an afternoon, I've decided that I will sit and read the whole bill so that I do understand...I would hate to feel as unprepared to defend my position as these folks obviously were if put on the spot.