We Got a House!!!!!

I am SOOOOOOO excited!!!

So yesterday, while eating at the CNN center (which is awesome in itself), D sent me a message that there were papers we needed to sign that if we didn't send back in the afternoon, the owners wouldn't even look at the offer.

The email from our realtor asked if I could get access to a printer, and a scanner to print, sign, and email back some documents. My first reaction "Obviously not, I am coaching a team in a facility with 1150 teams and 160 courts. Where will I find a printer?"

Lucky for me, some of our team is staying right beside our playing facility. So, a parent took me to their business center, and after about 1 hr of waiting, the paperwork came through. I signed it, sent it back, and was told that we would hear back tomorrow. I then turned off my phone, because I was on like 20% battery and we hadn't started our pool yet.

We played an awesome set of matches, including an 8:30 PM match that we took to 3 sets, losing 15-13. It was one of the best matches we have played all season. I then turned my phone back on, and got a text from D:

"We own a house"

I screamed "Oh My Gosh!!!!!" inside the facility. People stared. It was great!

So today, after we finish our matches, I then have to get somewhere to print, sign, and send back more paperwork. It's awesome!

Our crazy life strikes again

So once in a whole I am reminded that life is never predictable. Today was one of those days.

This morning, I packed up my car for a day at work and a 3 day tournament in Atlanta. The plan: our realtor was going to meet me at work during lunch to sign paperwork for the offer we wanted to put in on a house, which he would then take to D in the afternoon. About an hour before lunch, I got an email from our realtor confirming said plan. When I confirmed with him my lunchtime, he let me know he and D were talking and they would update me later. GREAT.

New plan: D would sign papers today; I would sign them when I got back into town on Monday. (The offer would go in with just his name it first.) It was not a problem, and everything was once again ready to go for our Atlanta tournament.

So I planned on meeting my fellow coaches at 4 & heading to Atlanta. I was about 5 minutes from work when D called with plan #3.  Yes, THREE. There is an open house on the house we want to bury scheduled for Saturday (booooooo) and our offer must have both signatures in order for it to be valid. If not, they could accept another person's offer while I am in Atlanta!  That definitely was not an option.

Result: I met the coaches at park & ride 1. We drove to park & ride 2, where D & the realtor were waiting for us. I signed all the paperwork while it was blank & left, using the hood of our realtor's car as a table.  It was probably the sketchiest and most informal paper signing ever.  D and the realtor went somewhere else & completed the offer.  I got a text message from him somewhere around the NC line about how much we offered.

New plan: wait to hear back from the owners, while currently staying 4 states away.  Good news: we should hear back sometime tomorrow!

Like I said, life is never predictable, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

Friday Update:  No offer yet, but here's a pick of the house!

Mid-March Update

Dear Blog-readers (whoever you may be),

I apologize for the length between postings. I would love to tell you that it's because of how amazing and exciting my life has been, but it's more attributed to my lack of remembering I post. So here's a quick update:

1. The Wedding
We have decided to go on a cruise & get married on a gorgeous island while there. My parents & his parents are the only guests. We booked our rooms this week and I am in talks with the wedding people now. Now I just need to get that wedding dress altered! Our passports came in this week, so I feel very official now.

2. The House
That beautiful house We put an offer on was not meant for us. 4 offers came in and they accepted someone else's. That's ok though, we are working with a realtor friend of D's family and are hoping to find something just as wonderful for me to post about soon.

3. Grad School
My Masters program continues to be super non challenging, but time consuming. I think the point I am at right now, the issue is simply I already know what we are being taught. That's really not all that big of a deal. Hopefully it remains on the easy side!

4. Volleyball
Wow, since my last update we have done some fairly awesome things. This includes winning a day tournament and coming in 5th of 90 teams in a dividing that combines our age group with the group ahead of us! We were pumped. Today we have another day tournament to play, and our goal is to go undefeated. I'll let you know how that turns out!

5. Job Search
Is currently just in the search and apply phase. This includes applications to coach, teach, ITRT, and completely non education positions. So far: 1 interview completed with no information, 1 interview scheduled for next month, and no word back yet from the others.

6. My Weekend
I had the opportunity to spend the weekend with my beautiful nephews and niece. I love them dearly. Here's a pic of them all on the slide with my mom! It's tough to see, but with 3us see 5 noone is ever still.

Happy Weekend Everyone!!!!

Super Exciting Friday!!

So yesterday, D & I both took the day off.  I had an appointment scheduled, so we just made a day of getting some errands done.

We ended up 30 minutes away getting our passports done.  We decided to take a cruise for our wedding instead of having a big traditional wedding.  We're really excited.  As soon as I get more details, I'll pass them on!

Then, as we were headed back to Salem, D was on our new favorite iPhone app "Trulia" (which we would not have known about without our awesome friends B & H) and saw a house he wanted to drive by.  Turns out, we really liked it, so he put in a call to the listing agent.

The agent came by & let us in.  We were instantly in LOVE.  We hemmed and hawed for a few minutes, (all the while another couple was wandering around too) and finally decided to call D's Dad.  My future in-laws met us back at D's apartment, and we headed back to look at the house.  After a quick inspection more than an hour of going through every detail, we spent some time deciding how much we really love it.  It was hard to believe that we were seriously considering putting in an offer on the FIRST house we had seen as a couple, on the day we received our pre-approval from the bank.

Let me just say here that D & I are very grateful that both of our dad's are willing to crawl in, over, and around every house we have looked at over the past few years so that we know exactly what we are getting ourselves into.

We met the realtor back at his office & put in an OFFER!!!!  We're pretty sure there's going to be multiple offers, so we aren't getting our hopes up too high. (Read: I already have renovation projects in mind, and last night we went to Lowe's looking at appliances.)

Hopefully we'll hear something from the agent in the next 48 hours!

Capitol Hill Classic 2012

So this was a crazy busy weekend!

We started out for DC on Friday afternoon, expecting on only have 10 players on Saturday instead of 11.  One of our girls was playing basketball this weekend.  About an hour into the drive, we learned that she would, in fact, be there Saturday.  We had a great first pool, going 3-0.

Then, I was able to walk around DC on an absolutely GORGEOUS day with a fellow coach and a player.  Here/'s a great shot I got of the Washington Monument.

On Sunday, we worked really hard, and ended up 1-2 on the #1 net.  We ended up in a 3 way tie for 2nd place, which placed us in 4th.  Not quite the showing we were hoping for, but still not bad.  At that point, I and a family that lives in the school district I teach in left for home.  We expected to end the tournament down 1 coach and 1 player, because I didn't have the day to take off & M had softball tryouts Monday afternoon.  The kicker was that the snow was accumulating quickly at home.  We're talking inches here!  We kept checking with everyone, and the roads were fine, despite getting several inches of snow, so we took off.

About an hour after leaving DC, we stopped for dinner, still monitoring our text messages.  We had already gotten our food, when M got a text message that our county was officially closed.  After some contemplation, we decided that we would turn back, and be with the team for the 3rd day of the tournament.

In the morning, D sent me a pic of his yard, all covered in snow.

We ended up losing our first match, to a team we lost to a few weeks ago.  We definitely showed improvement, and were tied at 11-11 in set 3, before losing 15-11.

When we got back, unfortunately most of the snow was gone.  Here's the same area D texted me, only after about 11 hours.

And here's D's dog, enjoying himself in the remnants.

So it was a great weekend; we expected to play down a player on Saturday & Monday, but were able to go full force all 3 days!

Sunny, 55, and a chance of snow???

I just want to say, the weather is crazy right now. I am spending the weekend with our 15 Nationals team in DC for the Capitol Hill Classic. We spent time after our pool today (which we won btw) walking around DC...in just sweatshirts...in February.

Tomorrow, I and one of our players will be returning home because we have school-where they are expecting 3-7 inches of snow. This is crazy.

But here we are at the DC WWI Memorial, enjoying the beautiful night! And here's also a pic of the new Matin Luther King, Jr Memorial. It was beautiful.

Happy Presidents' Weekend!

Love these girls!!!

This is way awesome and pretty moving.  

The design was incredible

...well...except that quote they messed up...

Happy Valentine's Day!

We decided NOT to spend money for Valentine's Presents this year, since we are trying to plan a wedding & buy a house. Here's what I was surprised with!

And I think that if we do register for gifts, a vase is a must have!