Will my luck run out?

Today I had to take my computer to the Apple store again to be fixed because it wasn't recognizing the battery and in turn wouldn't charge. Luck has it, it was the last day of my warranty. I know, I about died when I found out that it expires tomorrow. We had an appointment on Thursday, but we were to tired to drive to Keystone after driving back from Ohio. After the guy replaced the battery he asked if I wanted to purchase the extended warranty. I asked if the battery died again if it would be replaced since it had already happened and he said no, since the computer would be out of warranty. He even said that even though this battery issue is a known issue in MacBooks that if I had brought it in tomorrow it wouldn't have been covered. After thinking about it, and knowing that I have already taken the laptop there twice in a year we went ahead and threw down the $200.00 for the 2 year extended warranty. We figure that it will either guarantee that it won't break for two years and if it does then we are covered. It was an expense we didn't want to have right now with all the house things we would like to buy, but I am hoping to some day soon figure out a way to use this laptop to make some extra income. So know I sit here and wonder if my luck will run out since I found my necklace and was able to get my computer fixed on the last day of its warranty!

My Christmas Miracle

Last Sunday my family and I went to tour an old house in Akron, The Stan Hywet Hall. It was all decorated in Babes in Toyland and even the girl's enjoyed it. Later that night we were in the car headed to a movie when I went to check on my diamond necklace, mind you I NEVER wear this necklace, but thought that I would for the holiday. Well, when I went to reach for it, it was gone. At first Tom thought I was joking until I showed him my neck, at which point he realized I wasn't joking. I ran in the house to tell my mom and we started looking, but nothing. We then called Stan Hywet but they were to busy to look for it. We went to the movie and all I could think about was the necklace and what if it was really gone. Tom had given it to me last year for Christmas and I couldn't imagine if it was gone. The next day we tore the house apart and my car and my mom's but no luck. I couldn't give up hope, but the chances of it being found were dwindling. Stan Hywet was closed until Dec. 26, but promptly at 10:00 I called to see if they had found it. No one had turned it in, but the lady said they would look for it. Within 5 minutes they called me back, and low and behold they had found it! I could not believe it, they actually had it, chain and all. The chain was broken, but they had the diamond. That afternoon I went to get it and I just wanted to scream, I was so happy. No one could actually believe that they had found it and that I had it back, especially since so many people had toured the house after we left, but I have it and I couldn't be happier. So there you go, again! Christmas Miracles do happen.

Merry Christmas

Just wanted to wish everyone out there in Blogger world a Merry Christmas. I hope everyone had a great day and I will write more about our doings and comings and goings in a while.

Flushing $20.00

Today I literally almost flushed a $20.00 bill. I don't think I have ever stuck my hand, willingly, as fast as I did when I saw that thing almost going down. I had totally forgotten that it was in my back pocket and I guess it had fallen out... I am glad I turned around before it was to late or I would have been REALLY angry with myself! Lesson learned? Don't keep money you want in your back pocket if your jeans are lose!

Inspiration

I am currently watching the Biggest Loser season finale and I think I have FINALLY found the inspiration I need to successfully lose weight. I mean honestly, I have NO excuses as to why I cannot lose weight. The point is, I am not motivated. As I sit here and watch these individuals who have lost 50, 60 and some even more than 100 pounds and range in ages from their 20's to their 60's I have realized that the only thing stopping me is myself and that I just need to do it. Stop eating junk, start running and just DO IT. As a lot of you know I am training for the mini in May. Well, I say I am training, but I am not seriously training yet and I need to. So I am done. I am done making excuses for myself. I am done sitting around when I could be running or lifting weights or doing something that will help me lose. I am done saying I am training, I AM training. So if you are like me and you need some motivation check out the BLC web page and see some before and after pictures, it is really amazing!

Three Strikes and I'm out

Tonight I was about as clumsy as a person can be and I wanted to lock myself in my room. First, I dropped our huge wood cutting board on the brand new hardwoods in the kitchen. Oh yes I took a huge chunk out of one of the boards...a nice new ding for ya. I guess I was glad I did it and not an installer or one of the girls or even Tom, because the only person I can be mad at is myself. Then I was trying to throw the tv remote onto the couch and instead completely hit Tom square in the face. At that point I almost went upstairs. Then I was trying to give Maddie some tylenol and wouldn't you know it a huge drop went straight into her eye. My family for ever has called me Grace, but that side isn't always present. Tonight it was present in full form and I was so mad at myself, especially for damaging the new floor. Luckily Tom was very kind about it and didn't yell or anything. So chalk one up for Grace, I hope she is gone in the morning!

Here we go again

So wouldn't you know it. We finally get into the new house and Natalie and I are both sick again. I heard that once you had children you should be prepared to be sick a lot more and I never believed it, until now. I used to be a totally healthy person who was rarely sick, but this is my second cold in the last 6 months, Natalie's too, meaning it is only a matter of time until Maddie gets it and possibly Tom as well. At least a majority of the stuff is put away and we aren't walking around boxes so I don't feel total pressure to keep work and I am allowing myself some breaks so that I can recover faster. If you are a parent and find yourself getting sick more now as well, can you give me some pointers on how you try to keep the germs to a minimum and from spreading?!

As Promised

Our House!
The Kitchen
The Family Room & our Christmas Tree
The Girl's Room

Here are some Pictures of the house...it is still a little bit in disarray, but we are getting there!

The Closing Story

Well, we are in and almost settled. It will be a while before we are truly, completely at home, but things are getting there! As promised here is the closing and move in story. When we walked into closing the title company wasn't there, (Arbor does their closings at their models). A little late the man finally got there. He then got out his papers and said okay let's get started. First, you know about the lien on your property right? Lien, what lien we ask...we had nooooooo idea. Apparently, Arbor had fired a plumber and hadn't paid him, he in turn put a lien on all the properties he had done work on. Arbor then turned around and sued him. Well, of course Arbor didn't tell us any of this, especially the part about the lien. The title guy then proceeds to tell us that we have 2 choice, to not close, which almost made me puke or to close with the lien on the title. After about 30-45 minutes of explanation of how the title would be cleaned and what it all meant we decided to go ahead and close. Let me state for the record I have never been so mad in my life. It was like the final stake in the coffin that Arbor had ONCE again withheld information from us...SHOCKER! But we closed and got our keys and that night we moved our bed and the girl's beds into the new house. The house has a few imperfections as all houses will, even though some of them are annoying, we will survive! Saturday, after a looooong night of very little sleep, the girls were just not adjusting well we got up to start the real move. I stayed at the house with the girls, my mom, sister and Aunt. We started getting things organized and waited for the appliances. at 8:30 the appliances arrived, much to my surprise, but HHGregg was wonderful. I have never really liked them, but they were on time, courteous and installed everything really quickly. Then Tom called to let me know that that he and the movers were on their way...WHAT, it was only 9:30 am. Well, by 11:30 everything was moved in. We went with 2 Men and A Truck and they were fabulous! On time, very very fast and very polite...I highly recommend if you are looking for a mover! The rest of the weekend was spent on packing and organizing. So we are settling in and I will post pictures tomorrow...gotta find the camera still :-) Also, a very special THANK YOU to Tom's parents, my Mom, Sister and Aunt. We couldn't have done it without you guys...THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!

Ho HO HO

Well, our Christmas Miracle arrived early this year on Friday and we were finally able to close on our house! I will post more tomorrow once we have internet there about the full details. We almost didn't close again and to tell you about the weekend, but I wanted to let all you devoted readers out there that we are finally in our house! So look for more tomorrow!

Nothing can ever go smoothly

Today at 3:00ish I called the title company to get the amount we had to bring to closing tomorrow, wouldn't you know it was almost $1200.00 more than we were anticipating! Now I am running around scrambling trying to see why it is so much more and see why Arbor didn't pay more of the closing costs they said they would pay. This whole thing has been such a headache. You can expect a post completely bashing Arbor down the road, but we have to get through this first. I hope that our broker is able to get to the bottom of this fiasco or we will have to pull money out of our savings to pay the additional closing costs, something we were not prepared to do at all. Oh well I guess, if we get those keys tomorrow it will be fine, but this is one more loop to jump through that of course we weren't expecting. Tune in tomorrow to see if the deal goes through or not!

Going MIA

This week I may be a little hit and miss on my entries with the upcoming move, need to pack etc. So please forgive me if I fail to enter anything thoughtful or worthwhile...wait do I ever post anything that is truly worth while? Anyway, if I am MIA don't fret I will return!