Drywall!

We have drywall at last. The new house is in the way to and from Emma's school, so I've turned complete stalker and can't help driving by at least once a day. I walk through the bedrooms dreaming of filling them with kids. I've done this once before, when we built a four bedroom house seven years ago. We never got to fill them up so hopefully this time we'll be able to. They should give us a firm closing date in the next week - the sales agent is now saying early November - so we're getting to where we need to think about packing for real. AND a closing date that soon means we're closer to in vitro time.

Anyway, here are some more photos.

The fireplace

Now that I know we're moving into a place of our own I'm really getting excited. Here's a peek of the gas fireplace.....I pulled back the cardboard and found logs!

Here comes the sun

Finally underwriting approval is IN.

Now I can shop! And pack! And shop! 

Big relief, seriously. We had two short sales three years ago right before Chad deployed (rental house that went south and then our primary residence WAY far away from child care while he was gone) so it hasn't been an easy process to convince an underwriter to give us another mortgage. Thank you, Veteran's Administration. Now I can allow myself to get excited about my new fireplace at Christmas time. And about all the room we'll have for in vitro babies, a process that will be attempted in about two-three months when we move. If we can't have another baby that way we've decided to adopt.

Lots of finally.

I'm not going to lie, the last few years have been really tough on our little family.

It seemed that every time we've started to pick ourselves up, another problem reared up. Two foot surgeries. A deployment to Iraq. Discovering Chad's back is trashed. Emma's dad completely disappearing from her life for absolutely no reason that I can figure out. A few big health scares, some of which we're still working through. But today I finally took my RNC-NIC test, the big certification exam for NICU nurses. And I'll get my BSN next June. And we'll finally get a home of our own again, and not be at the mercy of whatever crappy (or currently, completely awesome) landlord we happen to be renting a house from. I'm not trying to sound ungrateful, because I'm vividly aware that it could be so much worse. Chad and I have a strong marriage. We're best friends, and I know a lot of couples who can't claim that. He's a FABULOUS daddy to Emma. (What step dad saves his GI bill for his stepdaughter to use for college? An awesome one!) We still have jobs, we're financially stable. But it's been hard, especially with the in vitro thing. Seems like every time we got ready to do it a deployment or a foot surgery or ANOTHER foot surgery got in the way. It's hard to want a child with your spouse so desperately every day, especially when you're in the line of work that I am, and not be able to have one. People really take for granted their ability to get pregnant, and I never realized it until I couldn't get pregnant myself. And I don't want to hear any BS about how I should be satisfied because I already have one. It doesn't take away the pain of not being able to share a pregnancy and a newborn with the one spouse who truly deserves it.

So anyway, I think some good things are finally starting to happen to us, and I'm thrilled that the sun is finally shining.

Prepare to be amazed at this post

So the house is coming along.

Ok, it's not. They are still covering the whole stupid thing with styrofoam.

Plus Julio was there, apparently.

Still waiting to hear from underwriting.

Head Meets Wall

I was just about to sit down and write out an entry detailing how wonderful and funny age twelve is, with random British accents in the Sonic drive-through and mature jokes about Darwin....

but as I opened up the browser Tweenzilla flung her body on the floor to the right of me with much weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth (can't take all the Mormon out of the girl now, can we) because she doesn't GET her math homework and how could her math teacher EXPECT her to do all of THIIIIIIIIS WAAAAAAH. She was shrieking right into my ear and it was all I could do not to give her a big wet willy. Because I'm just as mature as she is, I guess.

Sigh.

So anyway, age twelve is a blast.

At least her feet are still adorable.

The house is coming along. I think. We're having typical issues with the mortgage company, things you would probably expect in this kind of economy. Requests for paperwork from eight years ago (I shit you not), and me having to practically process the loan myself since our processor doesn't know anything about VA loans. I have pulled up underwriting guidelines and today finally got a big HUD mess fixed that the processor claimed she could do nothing about. Unfortunately for her, I used to do this kind of thing for a living before I took a job where I leave work every day with someone else's bodily fluids splashed all over me. They started wrapping the house in styrofoam today (is this why my utility bills are like a million dollars in the summer? shouldn't we be using something more effective than Big Gulp containers to wrap our homes in when we live in the desert?) so I think we'll be closing in the next 45-60 days. I haven't started packing yet, because I'm still a little nervous about a last-minute "just kidding, no house for you" e-mail, but I'm feeling better about it. May just start packing up the jeans I have hanging in the closet that haven't fit me since I gave birth to Tweenzilla.

Here's the garage today.

 

 



I have one week left of the current RN-BSN class that I'm taking, some Ethical Something-or-other in Health Care class, and then I have a whole two weeks off, which I am very excited about because I will need that time to study for the most horrible test imaginable, the RNC exam for NICU nurses. It's a test that certifies me as an "expert" in my field and is supposed to be some kind of honorable thing to take, but since I'm completely overwhelmed with the material and have so much left to study, I'm wondering why I did this to myself, especially since passing it doesn't equate to extra pay. Being a nurse also means constantly trying to keep up with all the info around you, and working toward bettering your profession, but I question why that has to mean memorizing 936 pages of the following:

Wish me luck.

DSC_0025

DSC_0025, originally uploaded by Corn Child.

Bailey Boy

DSC_0042, originally uploaded by Corn Child.

Hibiscus is Sulcata crack.