Home, sweet, sweet home.

We're baaa-aaaaack!!!!

And we couldn't be more thrilled. I have had such a great past couple days visiting and seeing lots of my friends that I've missed so very much!

Ok, before my week long hibernation from the world of internet... I left off upset because our housing situation was in shambles. I just knew I was going to be living with my parents for the rest of our lives!! Well, as it turns out… we don’t have to any longer, because WE GOT OUR HOUSE!!! It was a very crazy turn of events, which ended in both our favor and the seller’s.

Here’s how it went down.

Our original closing date was supposed to have been November 5^th. That’s what the previous post was all about. The following weekend, I tried to remain positive. As much as possible, anyway, considering I’m Mrs. Pessimistic. I’ll be honest; I was M-A-D at God (for the record, we’ve since worked things out).  I couldn’t believe He’d allow all the Texas stuff, all the selling of the old house stuff, and then THIS?! And so last minute, too! I was having a good ol’ pity party come Monday when we found out that it was basically, no way, no how. We even went to Broken Arrow and looked at a house that we both liked. Well, sort of. It is the same floor plan as the original one, but needed some major re-doing on the inside. Can I just ask this, who, in their right mind, would leave blue countertops, blue tile in the kitchen AND entry-way, blue tile around the fireplace, ridiculously hideous wallpaper on way high walls, a PINK Jacuzzi tub…BLECH! No WONDER you have to sell your house for less than you paid!!! Yuck. Anyway, we thought, we’d still get it and re-do the things we didn’t like. That is how much we loved this floor plan. On Thursday, we really mulled things over about making an offer, because we didn’t wanna get screwed… AGAIN!! We decided we’d put in offer and see what happened. Derick contacted our realtor at 11 that morning.  At around noon, I got an email from her with an email feed from the sellers, amongst many, MANY other people. She said, “Call me, asap”. What it boiled down to, was that the sellers were relentless (thankfully, now, looking back… wouldn’t it be nice to see ahead?! Oh, what’s that? Duh, trust God! Easier said than done, no thanks to the flesh). They had called the state representative for FEMA and some congressperson; they’d also gotten the lead civil engineer from the City of Broken Arrow involved. This guy had contacted our mortgage company’s flood certification company and gotten it all cleared up. Well, we were not automatically comfortable with just getting the flood certification company to ok it. So, Derick called and spoke with the civil engineer guy who reassured us that FEMA has to make a new map, as the one that our flood certification company was trying to go by was from 1988. Seriously?! So, no flood insurance, and we got the house we loved.

Anyway, I was on my way to take Jake to a doctor’s appointment in Tulsa, when I got the message that it had all been taken care of and we were going to get the house we loved, after all!!!! We moved all our stuff into the garage on Sunday. My mom, dad, aunt, uncle, sister, brother-in-law, and Tana all helped us get everything moved. It was really a fun time, actually. Ok, us ladies and Jake actually went shopping, so I would say we had it a little easier. :) We closed on Monday at 4:30 and were in our new house by 5:30 that evening.

It’s been a whirlwind of a week. I’m slowly but surely getting everything settled. I got Jake’s room almost completely done today. It still needs painting, but we’ll get there. At least he can finally sleep in his own bed!!! He’s been in a pack-n-play for months. I realized that he started sitting, crawling, pulling up, standing and taking steps since we were last a normal family unit under our own roof.

Which, by the way, he took his first steps when he was just shy of 9 months. He took 3 steps in a row. It was the most he took for almost two weeks!  He finally had a breakthrough this week and we are up to 6-7 in a row. And he does it unprompted now, like I don’t have to be holding onto him and then let go kinda thing. He’ll be cruising along holding onto something and I’ll turn around and he’s in the middle of the kitchen toddling away! It’s crazy. I'm not sure I'm ready for all this toddling business...

In other Jake news... At his 9 month appointment, he weighed 21 pounds, 12 ounces (70-90th percentile) and was 29.5 inches long (95th percentile). Solid little guy. He got a Prevnar vaccine and his second flu vaccine. And let me tell you, you’d have thought they took a chunk out of his thigh, the way he acted! He quickly came back to reality when I presented him with a sucker that I happened to have from the last time we visited Jake’s Nena at work. Our friend, Leon, always gets a kick out of giving Jake a sucker. Jake loves them WAY too much and they are WAY too messy!! We usually end up melting down when I take it away in the middle of walmart. But I figured this moment called for a sucker. He deserved it. Crazy kid. After his appointment we went to visit some of my old co-worker friends. Then I met Derick and he took Jake home so that I could have a girl’s weekend with my BFF- Tana. It was a kid-free, husband-free, amazing time. We crafted till we weren’t able to see straight! We taught ourselves to crochet, we made hooded towels, we made tie onesies and shirts, we made little taggy loveys, we shopped, we ate out, we stayed up way too late, we slept in… It was wonderful!!! But it was even more wonderful to get a big ol’ hug around my neck from my sweet baby boy when everyone came up to move us in on Sunday!!

Overall, during my absence from the blogging world, much has happened. Much goodness!

Can you believe Thanksgiving is only 6 days away?!?! WOOHOO!!!

I leave you with one of my most favorite recent pictures. I love it because it so captures the spirit of my hilarious child. We have way too much fun together. What on this earth did I do for entertainment before he came along?? Life must have been incredibly boring. :) He is one silly little monster boy that brings so much joy, laughter and love into our lives.

Rawwwwwwr!!! I'm gonna keel you, green bean!!