Books of 2011

Because I am 99% certain that I will not finish the book that I am currently reading by tomorrow night at midnight, I think it is safe to post my books completed in 2011 list.

	Title	Author	Date Completed	No. of Pages
1	Dead Until Dark	Harris, Charlaine	01.01.11	292
2	Lick Your Neighbor	Genoa, Chris	01.07.11	304
3	A Gate At the Stairs	Moore, Lorrie	01.14.11	322
4	An Object of Beauty	Martin, Steve	01.19.11	295
5	HELP! A Bear Is Eating Me	Hansen, Mykle	01.20.11	132
6	Bad Mother	Waldman, Ayelet	01.25.11	224
7	When I Stop Talking, You’ll Know I’m Dead: Useful Stories from a Persuasive Man	Weintraub, Jerry	01.27.11	304
8	Betrayal	Alvtegen, Karin	02.13.11	304
9	Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix*	Rowling, J.K.	02.18.11	870
10	Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Sausages	Holt, Tom	02.18.11	378
11	Mr. Funny Pants	Showalter, Michael	03.05.11	288
12	Stalking Susan	Kramer, Julie	03.16.11	240
13	Half Baked	Stevenson, Alexa	03.20.11	304
14	Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince*	Rowling, J.K.	03.22.11	652
15	Missing	Alvtegen, Karin	03.25.11	289
16	Missing Mark	Kramer, Julie	03.30.11	288
17	Two Kisses for Maddy	Logelin, Matt	04.05.11	256
18	One of Our Thursdays is Missing	Fforde, Jasper	04.15.11	362
19	I Drink For a Reason	Cross, David	04.22.11	236
20	The Imperfectionists	Rachman, Tom	04.30.11	269
21	Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows*	Rowling, J.K.	05.06.11	759
22	Heart of the Matter	Giffin, Emily	05.10.11	352
23	Shame	Alvtegen, Karin	05.14.11	343
24	The Interview	Leigh, James	05.21.11	228
25	Shadow	Alvtegen, Karin	06.05.11	320
26	Who Will Run the Frog Hospital?	Moore, Lorrie	06.09.11	160
27	Hater	Moody, Douglas	06.09.11	244
28	Strange Bedpersons	Crusie, Jennifer	06.11.11	256
29	The Unfortunate Miss Fortunes	Crusie, Jennifer	06.23.11	384
30	The Mysterious Benedict Society	Stewart, Trenton Lee	06.24.11	485
31	Certain Girls	Weiner, Jennifer	06.27.11	386
32	Best Friends Forever	Weiner, Jennifer	07.02.11	368
33	What the Lady Wants	Crusie, Jennifer	07.04.11	256
34	Maybe Next Time	Crusie, Jennifer	07.08.11	342
35	The No Cry Sleep Solution	Pantley, Elizabeth	07.10.11	208
36	Travels in the Scriptorium	Auster, Paul	07.10.11	160
37	Gunn’s Golden Rules	Gunn, Tim	07.17.11	255
38	Baby Led Weaning	Rapley, Gill	07.18.11	226
39	Room	Donoghue, Emma	07.21.11	321
40	Great House	Krause, Nicole	08.02.11	291
41	Everything Matters!	Currie Jr., Ron	08.12.11	302
42	The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey	Stewart, Trenton Lee	08.21.11	440
43	A Game of Thrones	Martin, George R. R.	09.05.11	807
44	The Redbreast	Nesbo, Jo	09.13.11	368
45	Nemesis	Nesbo, Jo	09.20.11	478
46	The Devil’s Star	Nesbo, Jo	09.30.11	368
47	The Hunger Games	Collins, Suzanne	10.04.11	374
48	Catching Fire	Collins, Suzanne	10.08.11	391
49	The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner’s Dilemma	Stewart, Trenton Lee	10.08.11	391
50	Mockingjay	Collins, Suzanne	10.10.11	391
51	The Redeemer	Nesbo, Jo	10.21.11	561
52	Red Hook Road	Waldman, Ayelet	10.30.11	373
53	The Search for WondLa	DiTerlizzi, Tony	11.13.11	468
54	Little, Big	Crowley, John	11.25.11	538
55	The Invention of Hugo Cabret	Selznick, Brian	11.27.11	533
56	The Snowman	Nesbo, Jo	12.04.11	400
57	The Leopard	Nesbo, Jo	12.17.11	624
			TOTAL:	20760

57 books.  Not too shabby!

Well.

We done bought a house!

We are under a purchase agreement and everything is signed and ready to go.  Crazy.

A lot has happened since I last updated.  Obviously.  We did the following:
12/13: talked to our realtor
12/17: went out and looked at houses (cut short by a sick Rowan who was headachey and nauseous due to what turned out to be strep throat!)
12/18: switched mortgage people
12/21: got turned down by one mortgage person AND pre-approved by the new one — within an hour of each other (the first person was bad at her job and did not seem to understand the idea of a seller paying closing costs and the new guy is AMAZING and not only understands the market but has all kinds of ideas about how we can pay off the mortgage more quickly, which is great)
12/22: looked at houses again and made an offer that night
12/23: countered and figured everything out
12/26: had an inspection and signed the final counter-offer

Today, we got the finalized purchase agreement contract and everything is moving forward.  We will close on 2/16.

We have this tendency to…..move rather quickly once we make up our minds to do something.  Both Steve and I are that way.  Though, I must say that this moved more quickly than I thought it would.  Not that that is bad, just that we now have a lot to do in the coming days/weeks.

The house is in the neighborhood that we want and it probably doubles our usable square footage.  It’s a nice 4 bedroom rambler in excellent condition.  Hardwood floors upstairs, finished basement with brand new carpet in the basement.  Tons of storage.  A nice kitchen.  A fenced in yard.  A brand new roof.  We’re incredibly excited.

So, this process has kind of overtaken everything else these last few weeks.  It has been a roller coaster, especially considering the nightmare of the first (bad) mortgage person.  She made me feel like we were completely incapable of doing this even though, as Steve said, we have the three C’s – credit, capability (to pay), and character – that banks look for.  She really irritated me and I am glad we’ve moved ahead with this other guy.  So long, lady!

Christmas was really nice, as well, though again, it was kind of overshadowed by the house process.  Everything is overshadowed by that.

Here are some pictures, since I can’t think of anything else to say (plus, I need to stop my lunch hour and get back to work):

Living room of new house

Kitchen/into dining room. I do not like the linoleum floor, but that is something that can easily be replaced. Steve knows how to lay tile!

Bathroom.

Rowan’s room. The room that stood out to me on the online listing that made me say, “OH, I WANT THAT HOUSE!”

And then we went ahead and GOT THAT HOUSE.

Downstairs family room. The basement also has a bedroom (that will be used as a playroom), a finished office, a second bathroom, and a huge room that looks like it can be used as a closet for all our off-season clothes.

I love the expressions on everyone’s faces here. So funny.

Dad and the grandkids!

Family!

Little girl.

on houses

First, things are moving incredibly quickly on our house hunt.  Steve and I are the kind of people who, well, once we decide to do something, we just DO it.  We were having some issues with the mortgage person who we initially talked to, and thought that maybe we couldn’t  move ahead.  There was some drama last week and some me getting mad at Steve because I was going on the information that was given to me (by someone who, it seems, didn’t quite know what they were doing).  Anyhow, that has all resolved.  We looked at houses on Saturday and are looking again tomorrow night.  We talked to a NEW mortgage guy and got pre-approved for what we want to spend and if everything looks good to us tomorrow, we will MAYBE be making an offer.

Crazy.

Second.  Have you ever noticed that some bloggers have REALLY nice houses?  I read a lot of blogs, because, well, I am like a little voyeur and feel like if people put their lives out there then it is okay for me to read it.  I also am the kind of person who likes to look in windows when I am riding in a car at night and people have their lights on and blinds open.  What?  That is normal, right? Anyhow, bloggers like Dooce.  Her house is amazing!  Blogging must be really really lucrative for those people.  Good for them.  But, it makes me a little teeny bit jealous.  We’ll just be happy to get a little lot of something to call home in Minneapolis.

 

 

Well.

Things are pretty much back to normal on the sick baby front.  No more lumpy neck.  No more waking up in the night, howling.  So, that is good.  Things are also pretty much back to “normal” (whatever that means) in every other front.  We are so boring.

Boring is probably okay.  Whenever I wish things were more interesting, it seems like BAD THINGS HAPPEN.  So, I will take the status quo.

We met a new little friend for Katja this weekend!  Our friends Coral and Abby had their daughter on 11/29 and we got to meet her on Saturday.  She is just perfect and adorable.  It was fun to get to hold a new baby again, though I had forgotten how new babies scare me because they aren’t as “sturdy” as older babies.  This is why I usually don’t like to hold newborns, except my own.

Most of the weekend was kind of a blur.  Rowan and I picked out ornaments on Saturday, after the baby visit, and then she broke one right when we got home.  I was SO tired and crabby and just lost it on her (yelling wise).  Poor Rowan.  We break at least one ornament every year, so I don’t know why I got all bent out of shape.  I did apologize to her, because while I was mad because she shouldn’t have been fiddling with them and we JUST BOUGHT THEM, it was not okay of me to lose my shit like that.  I’m the parent.  PLUS, she comes by this honestly.  My sister’s nickname for me is “M.D. – Master of Disaster”, for my clumsiness and ability to spill/break things/what-have-you.

We did save Saturday (post-yelling) by eating a nice family dinner (roasted pork loin – YUM) and playing Yahtzee together.

Yesterday, I made it to the gym for the first time since before Thanksgiving.  That was…..pretty awful.  I am out of shape.  UGH.  New year’s resolution:  GET BACK INTO THE GYM HABIT.  I wanted to take a walk today during my lunch hour, but that won’t happen now because one of my co-workers went home sick, so I have to provide coverage and then eat a hurried lunch.  Oh well.

Steve and I do want to start getting back to the gym during the week, but it is HARD.  Can’t tonight, because I’m tired.  Can’t tomorrow, because we’re meeting with A REALTOR and I need to make cupcakes for a work thing on Thursday.  Can’t Wednesday, because I will get home from work late (Rowan has after school program, which runs late, which makes me get home late, too) and will be rushing to get things done, PLUS I need to frost the cupcakes.  Can’t Thursday because of the after school program.  Can’t Friday, because I am always too tired on Fridays to do anything.

That sounds like a bunch of excuses, and it IS a bunch of excuses.  But, they’re kind of valid.  I will go both Saturday and Sunday, though, and will hopefully get in another time during the week next week.  I have Friday, the 23rd off, and maybe I will go in that morning.  Maybe?

It is very exciting to be meeting with our realtor on Tuesday.  I have known this woman since I was 16 or something like that.  She used to date my brother’s best friend and she is very good at her job.  There are already houses that I really want, LIKE NOW.  But, I need to keep my expectations in check.  I am very used to just getting my way and having things work out the way that I want them to….and, that may not happen in this process.  I also need to contact the loan person to let her know that we have the money that we need for a down payment, so that we can get our official pre-approval letter.  CRAZY.  And scary.  Yet, people do this all the time, so hard can it really be?  It is maybe more scary to think of the permanence of it all, as when I buy a house, I intend for that to be IT. None of this starter home nonsense.  I just want a home.

I have had too much caffeine today and my mind and fingers are all over the map.

Katja update, and some other things.

I realize that I have not updated since my dramatic posts last week.  My apologies.  I took Katja in to her clinic on Friday for a follow-up and everything looked just fantastic.  Her little swollen lymph node is less swollen, and she seems to be mostly back to her normal, adorable self.

I am so relieved, of course, and so happy that she is doing well.

We went to my aunt’s house on Saturday for our annual gingerbread extravaganza.  Our 14th annual event!  Hard to believe that we have been doing this since 1998, when I was a freshman in college and my cousin Will was a mere 3 months old.  Rowan has been going to these since 2002, and Katja joined this year.  Crazy!  It was really fun, though I didn’t really try as hard as I have in the past.  Having to wrangle a baby will prevent one from being able to decorate to one’s full ability…or, at least that is my excuse.

Yesterday, my aunt texted me (and, I am assuming, all of my family) to let us know that my uncle’s friend was in the ICU. Apparently, he felt crappy on Friday and went in to the doctor, still felt bad on Saturday and went in to Urgent Care, was admitted to the hospital that day and his organs started shutting down!  What the heck!?  He was on life support and later she texted to say that he was being taken off life support after his sister arrived from Las Vegas….  I am not sure if that meant that he was taken off because he was better or taken off because there was nothing more they could do.  How do things like that even happen?  I cannot wrap my brain around that – you’re fine one day and dead the next.

And this is why I worry, you see?  My mortality scares me.

But, but, other than that, things are pretty good.  I only had one minor meltdown yesterday, and that was in relation to money and me stressing about this whole buying a house concept because I think we need x amount of dollars and Steve telling me that I don’t need to worry that much because hopefully we can get closing costs paid for and then we’ll only need y amount.  Which is true.  But, I just want lots of money and we don’t have that.  Does anyone?

Oh, and I guess that I also got a little frustrated when Katja decided to wake up at 9 and play until midnight.  Thankfully, Steve took the night shift and mama got to sleep.