Do you ever get in a mood where literally every little thing irritates you, no matter how big or small? I'm in that mood today. I can hardly contain myself it seems. It all comes down to this process of buying the house and the irritation I have over every little hoop. Unfortunately, because a lot of people in the past were not responsible with their mortgages and the mortgage industry itself ran amok, L, and I are having to deal with all sorts of different options to try and buy this house. This is despite the fact that we're actually putting 5% down on the house, both have awesome credit scores, both have very established accounts and responsible payment histories, and oh yeah - no revolving debt. Yet, every day now we're receiving emails and calls from our mortgage broker about new rules from lenders in order to get a loan, and we constantly have to fax information over to her to satisfy these ludacris requirements. It's friggin' ridiculous, and it's enough to have completely dissolved my excitement over even getting the house in the first place. I should add that the whole negotiation process with the sellers in the beginning was ridiculous, too, and we almost walked away before they agreed to give in on something for which we absolutely wouldn't budge in the inspection. So, we were already annoyed over that. Now the loan process just adds on to that initial bad taste we had in our mouths over the negotiation process.
L. and I talked for awhile about everything tonight, and God love him, he tried to calm me down. But when I get into this highly irritated state, there's really no pulling me out of it. When our realtor emailed tonight to let us know that the sellers can't meet this weekend so that we can look over the fixes, learn about how a few of the things work, etc. I about lost it. I feel like we've been trying to work along with everyone this whole time and we keep coming up against a wall and then another wall. And when I get to this point, then I'm just done trying to work with anyone on it. At this point, it's my way or the highway. So, L. may have to go to the house sometime during the week to take a look at things on his own because I already have something going every night after work next week, and we have a family wedding next weekend for which we need to pitch in and do a lot of work.
I tried to take some of my aggression out during my squash game tonight with J., but it only helped temporarily. At this point, I can only hope that my excitement returns after we close on the house. Because as it is now, I'm completely pissed off by the whole process and I'm really regretting the whole thing. Ugh!
Friday, June 20, 2008
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Life update and 20/20 recap
Time for another life update. The rollercoaster continues. As I posted last time, we got the house and decided to rent out both of our existing places. This has turned out to be a lot of work. I finally found a property management company that I like, so I met with them this week and they came by today to take some pictures of my place. They're going to do some research about how much other places in the area are renting for, and they'll let me know a good figure to start with. I have a preliminary idea based on their visit today, but they want to be sure.
In the midst of all of this, I got some very bad news about one of my Grandpa M. He had been having some heart problems recently, and they're still trying to figure out what's going on there. He has fainting spells, but it appears that one part of his heart beats too fast while another part beats too slowly. It's very odd. But on top of that, they found out that he has lung cancer. He's in the 10% of lung cancer patients who have never smoked. It was quite a blow. They found something in his pancreas, so they're trying to figure out whether it's cancer, and if so whether the cancer actually started in his lungs or his pancreas. Needless to say, this is all not good news. He's in the hospital now in Spokane under watch for his heart problems. His cancer doctor returns next week and he's supposed to start chemo, but we're not sure how that's all going to happen with these fainting spells and his heart issues. I'm praying that they can figure out what's going on with his heart so that he can start chemo and get better. But I must admit that the diagnosis doesn't look good.
So, I've definitely had a full plate with these issues in addition to work. The product I'm documenting is in ship mode now, so we're all extremely busy getting it ready for prime time and as always, there are last-minute issues to attend to.
This doesn't really help matters when there is a lot going on in both my professional and my personal life. As such, I've really fallen off track with my diet. The sucky part is that I now know better. But I still make bad choices when I get into an emotional state. It's really incredible how powerful emotions are sometimes. When I weighed in last Thursday, I was up almost 6 pounds from my last weigh in, but I had an idea that was skewed a little bit by water weight from the carbs, sodium, and the point I was at in my monthly cycle. That turned out to be true. I'm now only up about two pounds. But it's still not a good thing, and I don't want it to become a pattern.
My dietician gave me a plan to help get me back on track, and I've been trying to adhere to it, but I don't always. Sometimes I'm better than others. I kept up on the exercise, which is good. At least that is something that I haven't fallen off on except for a bit this week since I've been sick and having some allergy troubles plus just plain exhausted. But, I'm on the upswing, so I'll be back in the gym with my trainer on Friday.
The biggest thing that I'm trying to remind myself is that this is how life is sometimes. I'm not perfect, and I can't expect to be perfect. I've struggled with emotional eating all of my life, and I will continue to do so for the rest of my life. However, this time I do have the support of the people around me to get back on the horse (even if I have to do it over and over again until I stay on), and I am likely making somewhat better choices than I would have in the past. My hope is that in the next week or so, things will even out a little bit all around and I can refocus on my health goals. But right now, there are too many things competing for my attention and I'm just burned out. So, the most I can do is keep exercising, because that does really make me feel better, and I can try to make better diet choices and not beat myself up when I give in on something right now. I know that I'm not going let myself balloon back up, and two pounds gained is still 44 pounds down, which is nothing to sneeze at. So as long as I can maintain here a little bit, I can pick it up with renewed vigor soon. C'est la vie!
In the midst of all of this, I got some very bad news about one of my Grandpa M. He had been having some heart problems recently, and they're still trying to figure out what's going on there. He has fainting spells, but it appears that one part of his heart beats too fast while another part beats too slowly. It's very odd. But on top of that, they found out that he has lung cancer. He's in the 10% of lung cancer patients who have never smoked. It was quite a blow. They found something in his pancreas, so they're trying to figure out whether it's cancer, and if so whether the cancer actually started in his lungs or his pancreas. Needless to say, this is all not good news. He's in the hospital now in Spokane under watch for his heart problems. His cancer doctor returns next week and he's supposed to start chemo, but we're not sure how that's all going to happen with these fainting spells and his heart issues. I'm praying that they can figure out what's going on with his heart so that he can start chemo and get better. But I must admit that the diagnosis doesn't look good.
So, I've definitely had a full plate with these issues in addition to work. The product I'm documenting is in ship mode now, so we're all extremely busy getting it ready for prime time and as always, there are last-minute issues to attend to.
This doesn't really help matters when there is a lot going on in both my professional and my personal life. As such, I've really fallen off track with my diet. The sucky part is that I now know better. But I still make bad choices when I get into an emotional state. It's really incredible how powerful emotions are sometimes. When I weighed in last Thursday, I was up almost 6 pounds from my last weigh in, but I had an idea that was skewed a little bit by water weight from the carbs, sodium, and the point I was at in my monthly cycle. That turned out to be true. I'm now only up about two pounds. But it's still not a good thing, and I don't want it to become a pattern.
My dietician gave me a plan to help get me back on track, and I've been trying to adhere to it, but I don't always. Sometimes I'm better than others. I kept up on the exercise, which is good. At least that is something that I haven't fallen off on except for a bit this week since I've been sick and having some allergy troubles plus just plain exhausted. But, I'm on the upswing, so I'll be back in the gym with my trainer on Friday.
The biggest thing that I'm trying to remind myself is that this is how life is sometimes. I'm not perfect, and I can't expect to be perfect. I've struggled with emotional eating all of my life, and I will continue to do so for the rest of my life. However, this time I do have the support of the people around me to get back on the horse (even if I have to do it over and over again until I stay on), and I am likely making somewhat better choices than I would have in the past. My hope is that in the next week or so, things will even out a little bit all around and I can refocus on my health goals. But right now, there are too many things competing for my attention and I'm just burned out. So, the most I can do is keep exercising, because that does really make me feel better, and I can try to make better diet choices and not beat myself up when I give in on something right now. I know that I'm not going let myself balloon back up, and two pounds gained is still 44 pounds down, which is nothing to sneeze at. So as long as I can maintain here a little bit, I can pick it up with renewed vigor soon. C'est la vie!
Sunday, June 08, 2008
The house
So, we ended up getting the house. We're really excited about it, and now we have a ton to do before the end of the month when we get it.
Here are some details about it:
2-story, built in 1984
3 bedrooms
2.5 bathrooms, including a remodeled powder room downstairs and a remodeled master bathroom upstairs
Huge, well planned and maintained yard
Living room and family room
Open kitchen with dining room
I put pictures up on my Flickr page.
I've already lined up professional movers to move all of my stuff. I live on the third floor of a quaint condo building that has no elevator. After everyone suffered getting my stuff moved in (and that was even without all of the furniture that I have now), I decided that it would be well worth the money to pay professionals to move my stuff to Bothell. We're going to move L.'s stuff, mostly because he doesn't have a ton of things and we're putting some things up on Craigslist to practically give away so that someone takes them and we don't have to move them. It will be a busy month ahead for us!
Here are some details about it:
2-story, built in 1984
3 bedrooms
2.5 bathrooms, including a remodeled powder room downstairs and a remodeled master bathroom upstairs
Huge, well planned and maintained yard
Living room and family room
Open kitchen with dining room
I put pictures up on my Flickr page.
I've already lined up professional movers to move all of my stuff. I live on the third floor of a quaint condo building that has no elevator. After everyone suffered getting my stuff moved in (and that was even without all of the furniture that I have now), I decided that it would be well worth the money to pay professionals to move my stuff to Bothell. We're going to move L.'s stuff, mostly because he doesn't have a ton of things and we're putting some things up on Craigslist to practically give away so that someone takes them and we don't have to move them. It will be a busy month ahead for us!
Friday, June 06, 2008
Clever commercial
I fell in love with this commercial the other night when I first saw it. Enjoy!
According to information, no birds were harmed in the filming of this.
According to information, no birds were harmed in the filming of this.
Thursday, June 05, 2008
Life update and 20/20 recap
It's been an interesting couple of weeks. On Memorial Day weekend, L. and I went out with L.'s realtor to look at some potential houses between L.'s and my work places. We ended up finding a really nice house, and making an offer on it. However, we've gone back and forth a few times now with the sellers but I think we may have finally come to an agreement. It's been an emotional rollercoaster. Even though the wedding is only about four months away now, and we've been planning to move in together for some time, it's still a big step and we're finally taking it.
Aside from trying to figure out all of the decisions that come along with house offers, we've been trying to figure out what to do with my condo and L.'s townhouse. We already knew that we were going to rent out L.'s townhouse, but we just weren't sure when that would happen. If the sellers accept our counteroffer from tonight, we'll at least know when we have our new house and that will give L. the timeline to work with his property management company to get some folks in as renters.
My condo wasn't such a sure thing, though. Although it's a great place, and about the best location one could ever ask for, there are a few complications. First, there's an upcoming assessment on the building to replace siding and windows. This is fine, considering the building is 25 years old and it's definitely time for that kind of maintenance. That happens for all houses, not just condos. So, I wasn't really bothered by it except I wasn't sure whether we could take the financial hit in addition to losing money each month for mortgage and homeowners dues. It was all just adding up kind of quickly. But, L. called his CPA today to talk about how much of those expenses we can write off if we decide to rent the place, and it turns out that we can write off the mortgage interest (as usual) and also the HO dues (since they're an expense of renting and we won't be able to charge enough in rent to cover even all of the mortgage payment). So, that kind of tipped everything in favor of renting the place out. The other factor tipping it in that direction is that selling kind of sucks right now, and it may make more sense to hold onto this place for awhile and try to ride out the sinking economy, or at least to reap the benefit of having all of the updated work done on the place if we decide to sell later on. We'll see. Now I just need to call a few property management companies and figure out which one to use to manage my condo. Fingers crossed that it will all work out and I'll get a good renter in here. I'm kind of excited that I can hold onto my place, since I worked so hard to get it and it's one of the things that I'm really proud I was able to do on my own in the wake of my divorce and all of that ensuing mess.
I'm finishing up my final week phase 1 of the 20/20 program. As of weigh in last week, I'd lost 46 pounds. I don't really anticipate losing anything this week, because I have definitely not been on plan with my diet. Not that I've been eating crazily out of control or anything, but I'm definitely not adhering to the optimal percentages of protein, carbs, and fat that make my body run and burn calories so well. Also, I'm sure that I'm not eating between 1200-1400 calories. I'm more in the 1800-2000 range, which would be fine if I weren't still trying to lose weight. The problem is that my stomach has felt like it's been in knots for almost a week due to all of the stress with the house stuff and trying to figure out stuff for my condo. So, I gave in to crackers and gingerale several times to help out with some of that. And yesterday, I did have fries and a McFlurry. I gave into my stress eating, which probably isn't the best thing but it's what I did. As long as I don't do that all the time, it should be OK. Thankfully, I'm feeling quite a bit better tonight, so I'm hopeful that I can get back on track with things soon. I'm happy that I'm at least not going overboard with anything, but it's not optimal and I don't want to waste a bunch of time on my program not eating better. I think now that things have calmed down a little bit and we won't be running around so much after work to make appointments with realtors, etc. things should go back to a little more of a normal schedule. Like my nutritionist and trainer said, right now it's kind of life happening. And there has to be room in everyone's lives for that to happen here and there. So, I'm trying not to stress out about that on top of everything else.
So, next week, I'll go in for updated lab tests to see how everything like cholesterol, etc. pan out after being on the program. In a few weeks, I'll go in for my updated fitness tests to see the difference between starting and now. Should be interesting to see the difference. And I start phase 2 on Friday, but I hired my trainer for that extra day a week so that I can still workout with him three days a week and keep my level of exercise and challenge up. That will be really key in losing these last 20 pounds. I definitely have it in for those last fat cells...
Aside from trying to figure out all of the decisions that come along with house offers, we've been trying to figure out what to do with my condo and L.'s townhouse. We already knew that we were going to rent out L.'s townhouse, but we just weren't sure when that would happen. If the sellers accept our counteroffer from tonight, we'll at least know when we have our new house and that will give L. the timeline to work with his property management company to get some folks in as renters.
My condo wasn't such a sure thing, though. Although it's a great place, and about the best location one could ever ask for, there are a few complications. First, there's an upcoming assessment on the building to replace siding and windows. This is fine, considering the building is 25 years old and it's definitely time for that kind of maintenance. That happens for all houses, not just condos. So, I wasn't really bothered by it except I wasn't sure whether we could take the financial hit in addition to losing money each month for mortgage and homeowners dues. It was all just adding up kind of quickly. But, L. called his CPA today to talk about how much of those expenses we can write off if we decide to rent the place, and it turns out that we can write off the mortgage interest (as usual) and also the HO dues (since they're an expense of renting and we won't be able to charge enough in rent to cover even all of the mortgage payment). So, that kind of tipped everything in favor of renting the place out. The other factor tipping it in that direction is that selling kind of sucks right now, and it may make more sense to hold onto this place for awhile and try to ride out the sinking economy, or at least to reap the benefit of having all of the updated work done on the place if we decide to sell later on. We'll see. Now I just need to call a few property management companies and figure out which one to use to manage my condo. Fingers crossed that it will all work out and I'll get a good renter in here. I'm kind of excited that I can hold onto my place, since I worked so hard to get it and it's one of the things that I'm really proud I was able to do on my own in the wake of my divorce and all of that ensuing mess.
I'm finishing up my final week phase 1 of the 20/20 program. As of weigh in last week, I'd lost 46 pounds. I don't really anticipate losing anything this week, because I have definitely not been on plan with my diet. Not that I've been eating crazily out of control or anything, but I'm definitely not adhering to the optimal percentages of protein, carbs, and fat that make my body run and burn calories so well. Also, I'm sure that I'm not eating between 1200-1400 calories. I'm more in the 1800-2000 range, which would be fine if I weren't still trying to lose weight. The problem is that my stomach has felt like it's been in knots for almost a week due to all of the stress with the house stuff and trying to figure out stuff for my condo. So, I gave in to crackers and gingerale several times to help out with some of that. And yesterday, I did have fries and a McFlurry. I gave into my stress eating, which probably isn't the best thing but it's what I did. As long as I don't do that all the time, it should be OK. Thankfully, I'm feeling quite a bit better tonight, so I'm hopeful that I can get back on track with things soon. I'm happy that I'm at least not going overboard with anything, but it's not optimal and I don't want to waste a bunch of time on my program not eating better. I think now that things have calmed down a little bit and we won't be running around so much after work to make appointments with realtors, etc. things should go back to a little more of a normal schedule. Like my nutritionist and trainer said, right now it's kind of life happening. And there has to be room in everyone's lives for that to happen here and there. So, I'm trying not to stress out about that on top of everything else.
So, next week, I'll go in for updated lab tests to see how everything like cholesterol, etc. pan out after being on the program. In a few weeks, I'll go in for my updated fitness tests to see the difference between starting and now. Should be interesting to see the difference. And I start phase 2 on Friday, but I hired my trainer for that extra day a week so that I can still workout with him three days a week and keep my level of exercise and challenge up. That will be really key in losing these last 20 pounds. I definitely have it in for those last fat cells...
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