2010 is.... SO last year!

It's 3 months in to the new year.  How in the *SQUAWK!* did that happen?!  I realize that I have been sorely neglecting my blog.  It is because I have been sorely busy! (and sometimes lazy).  Shall we do a quick longish re-cap?  Yes, I think that would be appropriate.

November 8th, 2010:
I put in an offer on a home after only being on the LEISURE house-hunt for maybe 6 weeks.  Yikes!  That certainly moved faster than I anticipated!  I only wanted to get the ball rolling; see what was out there.  I wasn't planning to get serious until the summer time, as my condo lease wasn't up until August.  A few things happened to change that timeline:

• All the places my Realtor and I went to look at that were in my price range were SMALL.  Now, I had come to grips with the fact that I wasn't going to get a real house here.  I would need a second income if I were to even come CLOSE to a free-standing house with a yard in this area.  So my expectations going in certainly weren't unreasonable.  And even though these places had 2 bedrooms, 2 baths, kitchen, dining, living room, etc, the floor plans had it all scrunched together.  All the rooms were on top of each other and it just felt cramped.......   Until we came to this one.  This one felt big.  It was big (comparatively).  It looked nice, too.  It also had a second level!  Stairs!  What?!  SCORE!¹
  
  
• I got an email from the property management company for my condo that said that they never sent me the new contract to sign back in August...  Which meant that I was currently living there contract-free!  Excellent news!  That meant I didn't have to worry about  breaking contract and paying a huge fee!  Seemed like fate...
  
  
• Interest rates were LOW.  And typically, come summer-time, the interest rates go up.
   
• I got my sister Julie to drive down to take a look at the place with me to get her opinion and she was all *^THUMBS UP^*

So, I put in an offer.  And just HOURS later, my offer was accepted!  Suddenly, I was going through escrow!  How in the world - who would've thought - what does it mean - Oh my gosh! - This is exciting - **screaming** - 

WAIT. WHAT HAVE I DONE?!?!

Immediately, a feeling of panic crept in to my feelings of elation.  This exciting news came after a full week of sleepless nights and hours upon hours of crunching numbers, finally feeling comfortable with the possibility of putting in an offer.  But now I was filled with doubt.  Did I really figure the numbers right?  Can I really afford to BUY A HOUSE!?!?

And so it began...

Paperwork ~ Paperwork ~ Paperwork ~ Paperwork ~ STRESS ~ Paperwork ~ Paperwork ~ Paperwork ~ Paperwork ~ Paperwork ~ Paperwork


2 weeks later

November 22, 2010:
I flew to St. Louis to spend Thanksgiving week with my brother Todd and his family.  Julie and her family drove in as well!  It was a week full of family, fun, food & festivities!  Never mind all 7 of my nieces and nephews all together!  An Aunt's dream come true.  I was happy to sleep in the same room as best-friend-cousins Brianna (9) and Hannah (12).  I asked them if it was OK that I sleep in there with them: "I don't want you to feel like I'm the adult who will ruin the slumber party."  Their response?  "You're not an adult! You're just Emma!"  Oh, how I LOVED them for that! (I'm a cool Aunt!)  Not only did we celebrate Thanksgiving, but we also celebrated Brianna's 9th birthday.  She and I went out for a special breakfast date, then went shopping for her birthday present.  Another highlight was visiting the new playground that Unlimited Play built in the area.  It was fun to watch all the kids play and to play with them!

Top L-R: Joseph, Me, Hannah, Todd

Bottom L-R: Cassi, Seth, Zach, Brianna

Meanwhile, I was looking over the mock-up loan documents that my loan officer emailed me...  A lot was on my mind, but I was doing my best to be in the moment and enjoy my vacation!  I must have been out of it, though, because I tried to check in for my flight a day early.  I had no idea (until I tried to check in) that I was flying home on the Tuesday instead of Monday.  Which meant that I had to make last-minute changes in plans for my ride to the airport and arranging with work for a work-from-home day.  The extra day at my brother's house meant that I got to participate in their Christmas tradition of going to the store to pick out new Christmas ornaments, then donuts and hot chocolate.  Yay!  It all worked out, but I was getting anxious to get back home so I could start packing...  I had less than 3 weeks before I flew home for Christmas.  Plus I had a 10K I was training for taking place in less than 2 weeks.  My closing date was set for Jan 7 - just 5 days after I returned to VA from my Christmas vacation.

ENTER STRESS
(more)

To add to the drama, I started getting a sore throat while in St. Louis and by the time I got back to Virginia, I was full-on sick.  Seemed like a crappy cold that I could kick in a week's worth of time, but it turned in to a marathon sickness.  I seriously considered NOT running in my first 10K race, as I felt pretty crappy AND the weather called for RAIN RAIN RAIN and more RAIN that day.  I hadn't gone out on a run since I got back from STL due to feeling crappy/exhausted from being sick, packing, and working, so the confidence was definitely lacking.


December 12, 2010:
Race day came and I got up early.  I put on my little Christmas running outfit, popped some meds and headed in to the city.  I got there early and sat in my car for a good 40 minutes before I stepped out in to the cold rainy morning and made my way to the start area.  It was soggy and muddy and cold.  There were a few times that the rain came down pretty good while I waited for the race to start and I put up my umbrella.  It was windy.  I was exhausted already, but was determined to do this.  A lot of fun, festive Christmas outfits were spotted, including a huge snowman, multiple Santas, Elves, Reindeer, lots of Red & Green, and even those running with working Christmas lights.  It was a fun atmosphere.

It was finally time to make our way to the start line and there were a ton of people to shove through as we were corralled on to the pavement.  I didn't even get inside the fence before the starting horn blew.  But that helped move the crowd along so it was easier to get in place.  I had my Christmas playlist ready to go and I was amping myself up to be excited and get some energy.  Mannheim Steamrollers blared through my ears as I crossed over the start line.  The rain had stopped for the moment, and I enjoyed checking out all the other runners' Christmas outfits.  There was even a guy who "ran" the race as Santa while juggling 5 balls the entire time.  Before I even got to mile 2, the first "elite" runner was coming back.  WHOA!  That is just crazy.  I still had at least 4.5 miles to go and this dude was practically done.  That made me tired.

And that was probably the secondary theme of this race for me; TIRED.  My head was heavy.  My legs were heavy.  My eyelids were heavy.  I could feel my heart beating exceptionally fast and hard.  I had to slow to a walk by the time I got to mile 4, and I wasn't even running that fast to begin with.  The last 2.2 miles I hardly ran more than 2 minutes at a time.  Bottom line, I was STRUGGLING.  And there were periods of solid rain.  I was wet & cold & tired, but at the same time my head felt very hot.  Finally we came around a bend and I could see the finish line off in the distance.  I decided to run the rest of the way.  And when it seemed like it wasn't that far away, I really dug down deep and sprinted.  Except I really had nothing in the tank!  I sprinted and ran hard, but that finish line was not getting any closer!  By the time I finally crossed, I was ready to puke, pass out and drop to the pavement.  I shakily made my way over to get some snacks and commanded my body not to collapse.  I felt better after I ate a bagel, then I listened to my shoes jingle as I made my way back to my car.  Wow.  The race was a bit brutal.  I'm not gonna lie.

BUT!  At least I could add a 10K to my list of completed races!







Left: Obviously struggling to keep my legs moving






Right:  This is about the time where I realized I might vomit

This is after the race. I could have lied about the whole race and told everybody I dominated it and felt on top of the world.  And by this picture (without the previous 2), it just might be believable.  Mostly I'm happy to be done running here.

6 Days Later

December 18, 2010:

Woke up super early (like 4AM) and my sister drove me to the airport to catch my flight home to WA.  The flight certainly didn't make me feel any better.  In fact, it seemed to make me feel worse; my ears were ringing and I had a stuffy headache.  I slept the entire flight to my layover in St Louis, then woke up a bit to take pics with Santa and walk to my next gate.

The exuberant energy that Santa demanded from me (ha!) wore me out and I ended up sleeping for 90% of my next flight.  Finally I landed in Seattle!!  Home Sweet Home.  I was so happy to see my parents and hang out at home.  I had the next week completely free (true vacation) and I decided that I wasn't going to think or stress out about anything I needed to do back in VA to prepare to close and move to my new house.  I was just going to enjoy my time off mentally, physically and emotionally.  And oh, how I NEEDED that break!  I still fought being sick; one day I'd feel perfectly normal and the next I'd be knocked out.

The second week had me working remotely, which meant that with the time difference, I was rolling out of bed and logging in to my computer, ready to work by 6AM.  That was TOUGH.  This week also had me focused back on my to-do list for my new house.  I hammered some stuff out and tried my best to do everything I could while across the country to be prepared for the big day.

I failed at taking pictures while home.  The only pic I took was of the Christmas tree!

A lot of fun was had by hanging out with family, meeting up with some old High School friends I hadn't seen in 12 or so years (yes, 12!!), other close friends, more family, more fun, games, food, FAMILY!  The time came all too soon for me to head back to VA and back to reality.  The new year had come, and with it came a new house and home, new responsibilities, new excitement, (new grill!), and a new routine to get used to.  The first month of this new year flew by in a blur of activity and somewhere in there I even celebrated by 29th birthday!

Truly the most crazy few months of my life.

More details of my new home in another post.

I am a Home-Owner!  Holy CRAP!

From Dad's camera on Christmas morning:

It is a tradition in our family to take a hallway pic before we see the surprises from Santa.

Love our Christmas socks!

¹ When I was around 12-13 years old, I was sitting in a girls-only church class and we wrote down qualities we wanted our future husbands to have.  In addition to "nice" "funny" "handsome" "loving" etc, I wrote down that I wanted my future husband to give me a house that had 2 stories.  I had never lived in a 2 story house and I LOVED the idea of going up and down stairs.  Ha.  Just goes to show that you don't have to rely on others to get what you want! :)