R*O*M*E #1

Seeing as how my posts have been kinda text heavy and picture light, I'll let the pics do most of the talking about the Rome portion of our sojourn to Italy this past August...in no particular order... Oh the Trevi Fountain... so beautiful. It is absolutely huge. And randomly placed; you turn the corner of a little alley way, and there it is.

These are all the nice people that shared the view with us. Other than the Sistine Chapel, this was one of the most crowded places of the whole trip. I especially like the guy in the left hand corner. He looks like his name should be Guido, and is your stereotypical Italian guy, puffin' away in 100 degree weather.
Us. We found the guy with the best looking camera in that mass of people and ask him to take our picture. He was from Australia and very nice. What the picture doesn't really convey is just how hot and humid it was. Our backs were completely drenched. My bermuda shorts were clinging to my body. Even in the shade, standing absolutely still, there was constant dripping. That night, there was a ring of salt around my head from the evaporated sweat. I don't think that's ever happened to me before. It is easy to understand why people liked the toga - the less clothes the better! Luckily, there was this right around the corner:
Ohhh, gelato. I'm drooling just thinking about it now. This was one of the things that made that Mediterranean heat bearable.
My lemon is on the left, Joe's cream is on the right. NOTHING is as refreshing. And unfortunately, nothing here matches it. Sadness.

These two are of the outside of the Pantheon, which is one of the oldest buildings in Rome. It was a temple to one of the gods before Constantine converted it into a church.
The inside shot.
Little street performer who was around the back. She really added a lot to the atmosphere. It was very, very nice to be walking around little side streets hand in hand with my honey to the wafting sounds of accordion music.
The Piazza Navona...full of art, people and cafes.
Joe was obsessed with the massive doors on the majority of buildings in the city. They were wood and iron with really ornate knockers (ha ha - sorry, Joe & his dad's juvenile senses of humor are starting to rub off on me), nobs, key holes, spikes, you name it they had it.
A shot of the River Tiber one night as we headed back to our tiny hotel, that was close to the Vatican & St. Peter's Basilica, which you can see the dome of.
I am really lucky that the Colosseum is not a woman, because if it were, Joe would probably leave me for it. I know that this was his favorite thing that we saw in the whole trip. We spent a lot of time here during the day and the very final night of the whole trip. It is SO OLD. It was built around 80 A.D. It is just hard to wrap your mind around the fact of something so ancient, and big and is still here. There's the whole technical aspect as to how did they really construct that with only manual labor? How did they really make the arena flood with water for mock sea ship battles? Listening to the audio guide also made me think about just what an evil place it really was. For the opening ceremony of the Colosseum they killed something like 10,000 people and 20,000 animals.

When I saw this view of the arena, it made me think of Hadassah, from the Mark of the Lion Series by Francine Rivers, and what happened to her there. Many were murdered for their faith there.

It really gets you thinking about the early church. I mean, you're walking the streets that Paul walked. And Peter. And the Caesars. And the great artists like da Vinci and Michelangelo. It makes you feel very small and insignificant.
Well, tune in to the next installment of Rome, where Joe & I got separated at the Vatican for about an hour. True story.
Shouldn't I get a gold star for uploading all these pictures?

Have No Fear...

Hello kids!

No, I didn't die. Or buy a house yet.

I've been fighting the good fight against a nasty sinus infection, an army of ants that wanted to dominate my kitchen, family birthdays/anniversaries, and life in general. You know, the never ending cycle of laundry, work, grocery shopping, blah, blah, blah. Blogging was pretty low on the totem-pole of what to tackle.

But tomorrow we look at a house. I'm not holding my breath, but who knows?

I went to a birthday party today for Joe's Grandma K who celebrated her 90th birthday and is a total example of a life well lived. It must be a great feeling to look around at a house full of 25 people who call you mom, grandma and great-grandma knowing that you are the matriarch of all that fun, loud, lovingness.

I only have to work 2 days this week! I cannot tell you how psyched that makes me...I am excited to celebrate Thanksgiving with all it's tradition-y goodness.

I ordered my very own Candace Clutch and it should be arriving soon!!!

I also ordered a book to help me learn the ins and outs of my camera. I don't want to be one of those suckers who thinks that just because they have a pricey camera means their photos are awesome and call themselves a photographer. I really want to learn to document people, places, and experiences well.

So I'll try to get back on track with the blogging. I don't want Debbie worrying about me anymore (though it was very sweet). I think the people who signed up to do NaBloPoMo are insane, though I do enjoying reading the fruits of their labors...

Tomorrow the goal is after the house look-see to post about Rome. I know, I know, two months late. But Joe asked if I was ever going to write about it. And when he requests something for this little ho-hum blog of mine, that I'm not sure he always thinks is the greatest thing (why do you want to share things with complete strangers?), I think I should capitulate.

Nightie-night!

A Jonah Week

If you ever read the Anne books, you know that Anne's term "a Jonah day" is code for a really, really sucky day. Because let's face it, getting swallowed by a fish is pretty bad. Well, I dub this week "Jonah week". Let's just say work was not a happy place to be. Which is really rare for me. Normally it's pretty routine and placid and although I definitely don't see myself being there for years to come, I enjoy the people I work with and for. Right now, some coworkers are having major life issues at home and just because of proximity/typical office stress stuff that normally wouldn't phase them, but is totally triggering them, I get to bear the brunt of it. Just being rude, icy, nitpicky about my work which in turn makes me defensive, and in general not like their normal selves...I hate it! The worst thing is, the problems that they're dealing with are things that I've never had to face, and so mostly all I can do is listen and pray for them - I have absolutely no advice to give, and any words of comfort I think to say seem pretty hollow.
TGIF!!!
Now that I'm cozy in my sweats and curled up here at home, some of it seems really silly, and I don't know why I let it bother me. But I hate the tension, and feeling like I've done something wrong...even when I haven't, and thinking that someone is unhappy with me, even though I know perfectly well that I don't have anything to do with the root of the problem. Ack!
Well, I have two days to recover. Focus on other things...like getting my booty in gear and cranking out the remaining things I have to do for the fall boutique at church...and coming up with a Halloween costume, 'cause we're going to a party on Halloween night. I don't know if it's just the week I've had, or that I don't feel in too Halloween-y a mood right now, but my creative juices are not flowing - any suggestions as to what I should be?

Sorry Charlie

The house is a no go. The short version is they got another offer for the exact asking price, and they took it.

The longer version is that on this past Monday while at work, I got a call from the realtor who was a "sub" for ours while he was out of town, saying that he hadn't seen anything new on the market that would interest us, he wanted to let us know that he hadn't forgotten about us, and oh, by the way he had talked to the seller's realtor and he was going to be presenting the sellers 2 offers in 15 minutes.

WHAT???????? This is the point where shock took over and my mind went numb and I was pretty much useless.

"But I thought we were waiting for them to counter our offer, or at the very least respond with a yes or no....and what about getting the mom evaluated? Are they raising the asking price? I don't understand...", I sputtered. The agent said that it was highly unusual that they never got back to us and basically let it fizzle out. And no, they weren't raising the asking price, they just wanted to get one that would be a lot closer. And did we want him to call the selling agent and tell him we were still interested and he could throw ours into the pot with the other 2? At this point, I told him to call Joe and get his opinion as to what we should do. This is where it got sticky.

Joe, bless him had gotten off work at his regular time in the morning, but had to stick around for traffic court...so he was tired, and hungry, and did I mention tired?? That is not the most winning combo. So he called me after talking to the sub agent dude, and it went something like this. Keep in mind that neither of us had any paperwork with our chicken-scratch figures, Joe was really fatigued, and I was in shock in an office, because basically at this point we had 10 minutes to decide what the deuce we were going to do with a LARGE sum of money and our future.

Joe: Do you think we should go for it?
Kate: I don't know.
Joe: If they don't get the mom evaluated, what's the worst that could happen to us legally? I mean, if they don't like it after it's done and sold to us and then they realize she wasn't in her right mind, I guess they could take it away from us and then we'd be back in the same position, right?
Kate: I don't know.
Joe: Even if they said yes to our higher offer, we'll still have to work with these people on all the inspections/negotiations...is this really the type of people we want to deal with?
Kate: I don't know.
Joe: Do you recall any of the figures as to what our mortgage payments would be if we put down an offer of X amount? I mean, I recall that we qualified for X amount, but just because we qualified for that, doesn't mean we can actually afford it...
Kate: I don't know. (See how helpful I can be at very crucial moments in life?)
Joe: OK. Let's do it.
Kate: Really?
Joe: I don't know, what do you think?
Kate: I don't know.
Joe: Forget it! We're not doing this. It just doesn't feel right, and I don't have any peace about this situation at all...let's just hold tight and see what they do with these new offers.
Kate: OK.

And there you have it. I was a little mopey throughout the rest of the day, but I'm over it now. It was nice to finally have a definitive answer, even if it was the one I didn't really want. I'm sure that we'll be back out there this next week, scoping out houses, so definitely keep us in your prayers that the right one will pop up, and I will keep all of you in the loop.

***Chris, I'm surprised at you! Where do you think I learned my repertoire of moves to entice Joe with? I know, I know, Joe is a lucky man. And it's all due to Showgirls. Don't knock it till you've tried it!

What the frap???

So.

I walk out to my car this morning to go to the party store and Safeway to pick up a few things for the big birthday-palooza that we were having with Joe's family to celebrate all the fall birthdays (5 in total). I got in my car, started backing up, and noticed something funny looking about the windshield wipers. They looked a lot smaller. Infact, they looked a lot like two metal rods, no acutal wiper part seemed to be attached. So I put in it park, hopped out, took off my sunglasses thinking maybe my eyes were playing tricks on me...and nope. They weren't. Someone stole my windshield wipers.

Yeah.

What kind of loser does that? This is the third thing that has happened to my cute little car. Let's recap: they've scraped the registration off, they broke in and took clothes from the trunk, DVDs (which I had to pay Blockbuster back for) and my favorite pair of sunglasses, and now they stole my stinking windshield wipers. And it's supposed to rain this week.

I CANNOT wait to be gone from here...

Pending?

I guess that is the best way to describe where we're at with the whole house thingamajig. Here's the scoop...
Remember how I said that the lady who owned the house is in her 80's and now living in a nursing home, and no one is really sure what her whole understanding or frame of reference for this whole process really is? Yes? OK, keep that in mind.
So on the night we wrote up our offer, our realtor Craig took it straight to the seller's realtor, Jon, and he took it to the owner's son and daughter-in-law to discuss and go over. The three of them felt that it was a very solid offer, they could work with us, and they were pleased. And the people rejoice.
The next morning they went and talked to the mom/owner, and as Craig put it, she "went off the deep end", and completely wigged out and started saying that she knew good and well that her house was worth x amount of dollars (about $60,000.00 over what the asking price was that she agreed and signed to), and that everyone was trying to put her through the wringer. Boo!! Hiss!! And there is where it's at. Everyone pretty much thinks that she needs to have her mental competency evaluated, and if she doesn't really understand what is going on, then the family needs to step in and either get power of attorney over her, or something. It stinks because all the sane people think it's great and didn't shoot our offer down, but as of now the only person who legally can do anything is out to lunch (so to speak), and basing her figures on about a year and a half ago. Funny, I thought that the son would be the problem person, since the sale of the home is really going to be his inheritance, I thought for sure that he would be a real stickler for the price and not like our terms, and here it is that she's the one with the issue! I guess technically the offer fell through because they didn't get back to us with a firm answer by the time we had asked them to in the contract. We just had Craig let them know that we are very much still interested in the house, they know what our offer is, and once they hash out all their details they know how to reach us. I guess that's all we can do.
I would really appreciate prayer for contentment and patience. I think because there wasn't a firm answer either way it bugs me, since I didn't hear a "no" I'm still holding out hope. And I guess that anything could happen. It was nice to see a date that we would be out of the apartment by and on to bigger and better things; coming back here to something so tiny each time seems harder and harder. As it happens, our realtor Craig is leaving town and won't be back until the 18th (I think), so not much could really be done on our part until then anyway. Maybe this is just the Lord's way of slowing things down a little, or protecting us from some unseen problem. I just have to TRUST in the Lord's timing and wisdom for our home. Easier said than done!! In the meantime, until we hear from the seller we'll just keep our eyes open for other homes popping up and see what comes next...

Pins & Needles

Today Joe and I did something we've never done before...we made an offer on a house. So now we sit and wait to see if they'll accept our offer.

GULP!!!

I'm sure that they'll come back with a counter offer, and things will go on from there. But it is a weird feeling. To have to love the house enough to be willing to sign up for 30 years of debt and a sizable mortgage each month, and then still be able to walk away and not look back from it if they don't meet our terms or won't come down in the asking price. I've been told numerous times not to get attached to any one particular house...and I've tried not to. But it's hard for me. When I walked in it for the first time, it instantly felt like "home", and I was already trying to mentally place the sofa and loveseat in the living room. It's the right age house for us - the previous owner is now in a retirement home, but she took really good care of it, so it isn't a dump, just a little dated. Which is very much what we wanted to find - something livable now, but with potential to update and put our own twist on, at our own pace, as opposed to a complete fixer-upper where you have to do mucho work just to make it comfortable. It's ready for a young family to give it some life! Is it weird that I really wanted the house to need us? Probably not, since I also believed when I was a kid that my dolls and stuffed animals had feelings. Now you probably think I'm nuts...oh well.

It would be an extreme blessing for us if in fact this house works out; the only reason that we're able to even consider it is because of the dropping prices and very generous grandparents who are eager to help with a down payment. But this is the type of house, that if we had 2 or 3 kids, we could comfortably grow into it and live there for an extremely long time. Nice size back yard, quiet street, great school district, the whole kit 'n caboodle. The great thing is, Joe and I have been on the same page throughout the whole process, and that I attribute to prayer. This is the biggest financial decision we've ever (and might possibly ever?) made.

All that to say, am I excited? YES Will I be disappointed if it doesn't happen? Yeah. But I'll be OK with it. I know that the Lord will provide us with exactly what we need, when we need it. It's just exciting that this process is underway. I think I'm in for a sleepless night tonight though...I can't wait to hear back (hopefully) tomorrow from our agent!!!