We were able to walk through our future home this week! So here are some pictures just for you Andrea! :) We close on April 30th.
Friday, March 27, 2009
Our Future Home!
We were able to walk through our future home this week! So here are some pictures just for you Andrea! :) We close on April 30th.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
We're homeowners!!!
I'm so excited to announce that Derek and I are homeowners!!! I was very nervous to go through the process again after what happened the first time, but we knew if we didnt act fast, the house would be gone! To our surprise, we were faced with another offer on this house as well, and had to make some big decisions in order to get it in the end. And we ended up getting the house...BARELY! Our realtor wasnt able to tell us what the other people offered, but she told us it was very close and had we offered anything less, it wouldnt have been ours. Oofda. The other people who put an offer on it have been through this process 3 times now... and Derek and I decided if we lost this house too, we were going to put off looking for a house altogether. This process is a lot more stressful and exhausting than I expected. We are so glad its over!!!
The house is brand new, and the basement is unfinished, which is what Derek originally wanted. He used to work in construction, so he is very excited to finish the house and we can make it our own this way. My dad is also excited I think, as he and Derek discussed all of the options we have of finishing it! Great bonding time for Derek and Dad :)
Right now there are 2 bedrooms and 1 bath, and when its finished there will be 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. We have a decent sized yard, and a three car garage as well. All of the appliances are stainless steel, and its all brand new obviously, since the house has never been lived in! We will have to put some money into it, but since there is plenty of space for the two of us, we wouldnt have to do anything for a while. I have a feeling Derek wont be able to wait long though!
Anyway, we are excited and I couldnt wait to share the news! We are closing a lot earlier than we hoped to, but we will make it work. Talk about a busy couple of months...as if I wasnt busy enough already!!! I will be more than ready for a vacation after all of this is over! :)
The house is brand new, and the basement is unfinished, which is what Derek originally wanted. He used to work in construction, so he is very excited to finish the house and we can make it our own this way. My dad is also excited I think, as he and Derek discussed all of the options we have of finishing it! Great bonding time for Derek and Dad :)
Right now there are 2 bedrooms and 1 bath, and when its finished there will be 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. We have a decent sized yard, and a three car garage as well. All of the appliances are stainless steel, and its all brand new obviously, since the house has never been lived in! We will have to put some money into it, but since there is plenty of space for the two of us, we wouldnt have to do anything for a while. I have a feeling Derek wont be able to wait long though!
Anyway, we are excited and I couldnt wait to share the news! We are closing a lot earlier than we hoped to, but we will make it work. Talk about a busy couple of months...as if I wasnt busy enough already!!! I will be more than ready for a vacation after all of this is over! :)
Saturday, March 7, 2009
It can only get better from here
Go figure, after a super stressful couple of weeks, I ended up getting sick. It never fails.
I'm slowly recovering now. I was so congested and my throat was so swollen that I could barely talk. I of course had to miss work too, so I'm hoping to pick up shifts after my crazy busy week of classes this week. If I dont make up those days, I can pretty much kiss my honeymoon goodbye, because I wont have enough PTO. :( Ugh.
For those of you who havent heard yet, we didnt end up getting our "perfect" house. Another couple put an offer on it, and offered the full asking price. We were shocked, and are still quite bummed about it. Since then we've looked at many more houses and just cant find anything that compares. Now Derek keeps looking further and further out of town...which is not at all what I had in mind. I know it wasnt meant to be, and it just means something better will come out of it... hopefully we'll see what that is very soon!
School is busy as always, and I missed class this week too so I'm trying to play catch up. Pretty difficult when you're not feeling well and you have only a few short days to put together a huge 20-30 minute presentation. Hopefully Ill feel 100% better in the morning and it will all go smoothly. One can only hope.
I got a wonderful surprise in the mail yesterday. Dereks brother and sister in law knew I'd been stressed out the past couple of weeks, so they sent me a gift certificate for an entire day at the spa! It literally includes everything you would go to a spa for: 30 minute full body massage, pedicure, manicure, 30 minute facial, along with getting my hair colored and styled, and my makeup done!! Holy cow! Talk about a day of pampering. Hopefully Derek and I can have a date night or something after. Im definitely looking forward to that! I guess having a massage therapist in the family will come in handy! :)
Thats all for now... I cant sleep since Ive been sleeping most of the day, so I figured I'd vent a little...
I'm slowly recovering now. I was so congested and my throat was so swollen that I could barely talk. I of course had to miss work too, so I'm hoping to pick up shifts after my crazy busy week of classes this week. If I dont make up those days, I can pretty much kiss my honeymoon goodbye, because I wont have enough PTO. :( Ugh.
For those of you who havent heard yet, we didnt end up getting our "perfect" house. Another couple put an offer on it, and offered the full asking price. We were shocked, and are still quite bummed about it. Since then we've looked at many more houses and just cant find anything that compares. Now Derek keeps looking further and further out of town...which is not at all what I had in mind. I know it wasnt meant to be, and it just means something better will come out of it... hopefully we'll see what that is very soon!
School is busy as always, and I missed class this week too so I'm trying to play catch up. Pretty difficult when you're not feeling well and you have only a few short days to put together a huge 20-30 minute presentation. Hopefully Ill feel 100% better in the morning and it will all go smoothly. One can only hope.
I got a wonderful surprise in the mail yesterday. Dereks brother and sister in law knew I'd been stressed out the past couple of weeks, so they sent me a gift certificate for an entire day at the spa! It literally includes everything you would go to a spa for: 30 minute full body massage, pedicure, manicure, 30 minute facial, along with getting my hair colored and styled, and my makeup done!! Holy cow! Talk about a day of pampering. Hopefully Derek and I can have a date night or something after. Im definitely looking forward to that! I guess having a massage therapist in the family will come in handy! :)
Thats all for now... I cant sleep since Ive been sleeping most of the day, so I figured I'd vent a little...
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Stressed
Yikes. Just when I think my life is settling down, I realize I have even more things to do! I cant keep up!
As school is winding down for the trimester, the papers and presentations are increasing, and my stress level is through the roof! After a very long weekend of work, all I wanted to do on Monday was sleep! Luckily I had exciting things to do, like meet my mom at Mestads to try on my wedding dress for the first time! :) So I was actually able to wake up early. But then I had to sit in class for 4 hours, and then the day was over. Now today I have the entire day off of work and school...and as I was looking at my schedule, I realized that I have very limited time the next week to get my presentation done...so I need to do it TODAY. I have rewritten it a couple of times already because I dont really know what shes really expecting us to do...and I'm ready to throw my computer out the window. I would much rather write a paper any day...Or even take a test for that matter!
We only have 3 more weeks of classes, and then I'll finally have a break. But too bad we have deadlines for the wedding coming up this week too and have to get the DJ our song list, the videographer needs our photos and song choices for our slide show and we still need to find someone to sing for the wedding and make our cake! Oh, and we need passports too for our honeymoon.
Not to mention the fact that Derek and I are working different shifts right now, so when I actually have time get some of the wedding stuff done, he needs to sleep.
I wish I could just hire someone to do this crap for me. This is so frustrating. I cant believe I CHOSE to do all of this at once....
As school is winding down for the trimester, the papers and presentations are increasing, and my stress level is through the roof! After a very long weekend of work, all I wanted to do on Monday was sleep! Luckily I had exciting things to do, like meet my mom at Mestads to try on my wedding dress for the first time! :) So I was actually able to wake up early. But then I had to sit in class for 4 hours, and then the day was over. Now today I have the entire day off of work and school...and as I was looking at my schedule, I realized that I have very limited time the next week to get my presentation done...so I need to do it TODAY. I have rewritten it a couple of times already because I dont really know what shes really expecting us to do...and I'm ready to throw my computer out the window. I would much rather write a paper any day...Or even take a test for that matter!
We only have 3 more weeks of classes, and then I'll finally have a break. But too bad we have deadlines for the wedding coming up this week too and have to get the DJ our song list, the videographer needs our photos and song choices for our slide show and we still need to find someone to sing for the wedding and make our cake! Oh, and we need passports too for our honeymoon.
Not to mention the fact that Derek and I are working different shifts right now, so when I actually have time get some of the wedding stuff done, he needs to sleep.
I wish I could just hire someone to do this crap for me. This is so frustrating. I cant believe I CHOSE to do all of this at once....
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Pre-approved!!
About 2 hours after filling out the pre-approval form, I woke up to a phone call from the loan officer telling us we've been pre-approved to buy a house! Woo hoo! Unfortunately, with our joined incomes we make too much to get 100% financing, so we'll have to pay a bit of a down payment. Hopefully coming up with the money wont be a problem. Its really hard to tell at this point how much we'll have available once everything is finally paid off for the wedding. I feel like I work on our budget non-stop just to make sure we save every dime possible! I wish I was that organized when it came to everything else!
Its crazy how much my life has changed in the past year. Starting a career, starting another degree, planning a wedding, buying a house. I sometimes feel like I grew up really fast, but I'm okay with that. A lot of people my age are out partying all the time, and thats just not a part of my life anymore. Although I couldve started my career much earlier if I didnt take a break from the nursing program, Im glad it worked out the way it did. I needed that time to have fun and I was not ready for all of this responsibility at that point in my life. I'm so excited for the future. Although I dont have a lot of time to do many fun things right now, I know it will all be worth it in the end. Sometimes growing up fast isnt such a bad thing.
Its crazy how much my life has changed in the past year. Starting a career, starting another degree, planning a wedding, buying a house. I sometimes feel like I grew up really fast, but I'm okay with that. A lot of people my age are out partying all the time, and thats just not a part of my life anymore. Although I couldve started my career much earlier if I didnt take a break from the nursing program, Im glad it worked out the way it did. I needed that time to have fun and I was not ready for all of this responsibility at that point in my life. I'm so excited for the future. Although I dont have a lot of time to do many fun things right now, I know it will all be worth it in the end. Sometimes growing up fast isnt such a bad thing.
Friday, February 13, 2009
My head is spinning
I feel like I cant catch up with life these days. I'm barely sleeping because I keep myself awake thinking about everything I need to do. Ive worked the past 2 overnights, and then today I also had 4 hours of class...so that equals no sleep. I wish I could just go to sleep after work this morning and just sleep for an entire day! Ha.
Aside from my lack of sleep.. I have some really exciting news.
Derek and I are taking another big step in our relationship, and hoping to buy our first house! We made an appointment to walk through the house in Byron that we absolutely love, and we are in the process of getting pre-approved for a loan! I'm nervous, but excited at the same time. We have looked at a ton of houses online and this one is by far the best we've found. Derek and I both want the same things in our first house, which is great! I actually worked with someone last night that lives across the street from this house! She said its a great neighborhood and very kid friendly. We've driven by the house a couple of times, and it always seems like a pretty quiet neighborhood. We're trying not to get our hopes up just in case we're not able to get it...but its pretty hard when you find a house with everything you like.
We have also had to make some changes in our wedding party...3 months before the wedding. Jason called to tell me he is going to be deployed at the end of April. He had been overseas a few years ago but has not had to go back in the years I've known him. Now couldnt be a worse time either because he is expecting to be a dad in September :(. He is pretty upset/worried about it, and I'm really bummed that one of my closest friends wont even be able to be at my wedding. I could not imagine my life completely changing with one phone call like that and having to pick up my life and fight for the country. Needless to say, he doesnt have a choice.
And we will more than likely need to choose another groomsman as well. Dereks friend Andrew was chosen to play Arena football in Iowa (basically a step down from the NFL)..which has always been a dream of his. He just moved down there and will know very soon if he'll be able to make it to our wedding. This also bums Derek out quite a bit...since he and Andrew are best friends.
Ugh. Luckily, Derek has a lot of close friends, so the decision shouldnt be too difficult. But still.
Thats all for now...
Aside from my lack of sleep.. I have some really exciting news.
Derek and I are taking another big step in our relationship, and hoping to buy our first house! We made an appointment to walk through the house in Byron that we absolutely love, and we are in the process of getting pre-approved for a loan! I'm nervous, but excited at the same time. We have looked at a ton of houses online and this one is by far the best we've found. Derek and I both want the same things in our first house, which is great! I actually worked with someone last night that lives across the street from this house! She said its a great neighborhood and very kid friendly. We've driven by the house a couple of times, and it always seems like a pretty quiet neighborhood. We're trying not to get our hopes up just in case we're not able to get it...but its pretty hard when you find a house with everything you like.
We have also had to make some changes in our wedding party...3 months before the wedding. Jason called to tell me he is going to be deployed at the end of April. He had been overseas a few years ago but has not had to go back in the years I've known him. Now couldnt be a worse time either because he is expecting to be a dad in September :(. He is pretty upset/worried about it, and I'm really bummed that one of my closest friends wont even be able to be at my wedding. I could not imagine my life completely changing with one phone call like that and having to pick up my life and fight for the country. Needless to say, he doesnt have a choice.
And we will more than likely need to choose another groomsman as well. Dereks friend Andrew was chosen to play Arena football in Iowa (basically a step down from the NFL)..which has always been a dream of his. He just moved down there and will know very soon if he'll be able to make it to our wedding. This also bums Derek out quite a bit...since he and Andrew are best friends.
Ugh. Luckily, Derek has a lot of close friends, so the decision shouldnt be too difficult. But still.
Thats all for now...
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Feeling motivated today!
It's been quite a while since I've had time to update this!
I could start every one of these by saying the past few days have been crazy, but I'm assuming at this point anyone who reads this already knows I'm busy 99.9% of the time!
I was excited that our wedding invitations arrived in the mail yesterday, and with tons of extras that we didnt pay for! YES! I debated on a few things because they were a bit spendy, and although we decided not to spend the money to get a lot of the "extras," they arrived anyway! :) What a nice surprise! ...I think it really hit Derek and I now that the wedding will be here very soon!
Today is my day off, so I decided it was a good idea to get up at 6am! Crazy is the only way to describe that! Its now almost 10am and I've done all of my laundry, cleaned or organized our room, made a bunch of phone calls, finished a paper and started on another one, and now I just have to work on my part of our group project, and then I plan to get all of my scrapbook stuff organized and ready for our scrapbook weekend! Productive days like these are the BEST!! After today, I definitely wont feel so bad about having to work all weekend.
I got my taxes done last night...and I was surprised by how much I'm getting back. And it couldnt be better timing! It will be nice to know that I have the money available for the wedding, and wont have to continue to work overtime to pay for things. I also plan to pay my credit card off, which will be a huge relief! Derek had the great idea that he is going to pay for our honeymoon with his tax refund, since I've been paying for most of the wedding stuff up until now. Hes been so great..checking every day to get the best deals on everything and calling the travel agency asking questions. He managed to find us a great deal on our caribbean cruise, and we'll be spending half the price of what is advertised online! He wasnt kidding when he told me he would take care of the honeymoon and I wouldnt have to worry! :) Yay! I'm SO excited! I could really use a vacation right now!
After I got my taxes done last night, Derek and I went to see Marley & Me. We hadnt been to a movie in quite a while and I've really been wanting to see that one. I was already warned that I would cry my eyes out, but wanted to see it anyway. It was such a cute and very sad movie. You could see how the movie was going to end before it actually started, but it was still worth it. I definitely recommend it!
That is all of the exciting news I have. Keeping busy writing 2 papers a week, working on group projects, presentations, etc. Work has been good, but VERY busy lately. Hopefully the rest of the day will be just as productive.
I could start every one of these by saying the past few days have been crazy, but I'm assuming at this point anyone who reads this already knows I'm busy 99.9% of the time!
I was excited that our wedding invitations arrived in the mail yesterday, and with tons of extras that we didnt pay for! YES! I debated on a few things because they were a bit spendy, and although we decided not to spend the money to get a lot of the "extras," they arrived anyway! :) What a nice surprise! ...I think it really hit Derek and I now that the wedding will be here very soon!
Today is my day off, so I decided it was a good idea to get up at 6am! Crazy is the only way to describe that! Its now almost 10am and I've done all of my laundry, cleaned or organized our room, made a bunch of phone calls, finished a paper and started on another one, and now I just have to work on my part of our group project, and then I plan to get all of my scrapbook stuff organized and ready for our scrapbook weekend! Productive days like these are the BEST!! After today, I definitely wont feel so bad about having to work all weekend.
I got my taxes done last night...and I was surprised by how much I'm getting back. And it couldnt be better timing! It will be nice to know that I have the money available for the wedding, and wont have to continue to work overtime to pay for things. I also plan to pay my credit card off, which will be a huge relief! Derek had the great idea that he is going to pay for our honeymoon with his tax refund, since I've been paying for most of the wedding stuff up until now. Hes been so great..checking every day to get the best deals on everything and calling the travel agency asking questions. He managed to find us a great deal on our caribbean cruise, and we'll be spending half the price of what is advertised online! He wasnt kidding when he told me he would take care of the honeymoon and I wouldnt have to worry! :) Yay! I'm SO excited! I could really use a vacation right now!
After I got my taxes done last night, Derek and I went to see Marley & Me. We hadnt been to a movie in quite a while and I've really been wanting to see that one. I was already warned that I would cry my eyes out, but wanted to see it anyway. It was such a cute and very sad movie. You could see how the movie was going to end before it actually started, but it was still worth it. I definitely recommend it!
That is all of the exciting news I have. Keeping busy writing 2 papers a week, working on group projects, presentations, etc. Work has been good, but VERY busy lately. Hopefully the rest of the day will be just as productive.
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