SOLD!

We did it! We just bought our first house! Today was closing today and what a perfect day it was.  My mom sent me a text in the morning, "What a beautiful day to buy a house!".  I have been excited this whole time, but I put a cap on my excitement and didn't let myself get past a certain level until we actually CLOSED on OUR house.  After we signed those papers, Matt and I walked out of the title company and looked at each other with huge grins and hugs...we own a house!

beautiful backyard on a beautiful day :)

We started out the morning by doing a final walk-through of the house.  The sellers were actually there; they wanted to show us how to use a couple things and to just be around for questions.  It was awesome to have them there. We thought of so many questions and they had an answer for every one.  They are such sweet people.  Especially once we discovered they had left us a bottle of champagne and toasting glasses in the fridge to celebrate :).

After the walk-through, we had an hour to waste before our closing appointment.  We made our way over to Einstein Bagels and had some yummy breakfast.  Then, we met all met up at the title company.  The whole closing process went so smoothly.  Everyone was happy and it went so quick.  The sellers surprised us by having all of the keys and garage door openers there and ready for us after closing.  We originally thought we would get them 2 days after closing, but that was such a nice surprise!  After we closed, we drove over to the house and just walked around realizing this was now our house.  What an amazing feeling.  

The next step is painting and starting the packing process.  It feels so good to know that this time we are packing will be the last time for a long while.  

Meet the newest homeowners on the block...

moving along

Things are still moving along with the house.  We are scheduled to close on Tuesday! I thought I'd be more antsy, but work has been keeping me busy and my mind off of it.  I'd be driving myself crazy if I didn't have work to distract me.  

We are heading up to Michigan City this weekend to be with family.  Memorial Day weekend up at the lake has become a great tradition.  Beach bonfires, cookouts, family...I love being up there.  Sometimes I miss living there, I loved being a walk away from the beach.  I am ready for some Redamak's, Oink's ice cream, and sand between my toes.

Jax officially loves the bank. Like I said in the last post, we ran through the drive through to deposit a check last week and the sweet lady sent back 2 treats for him.  I had to run there today to get our check for closing and the minute I pulled in, he got all excited.  I had to actually go in this time so he was probably going crazy in the car.  The lady recognized me and gave me a treat for him this time too.  I think I've started something...

I wish Matt would hurry and get home.  I hate that he gets home so late from work.  Even though I work every 3rd weekend, I still look forward to weekends like I work a M-F job.  Probably just because that is when Matt is home, but it's a bummer when it's my weekend to work.  I'm already ready to have a job with no weekends or holidays...good luck with that :).

 I am starting to feel like I need to plan something for this summer or plan a trip sometime soon. A friend at work is sending me her summer bucket list.  I decided I need something specific to look forward to now that I am working so much overtime...a light at the end of the tunnel I guess.  One good thing about Matt's job switch is that he is able to do things in the summer now, so I need to hop on the planning.

Here are some pictures as of lately...

My boys

Ashley's baby shower! Baby Hill will be here SO soon!!

A sneak peek of our backyard :)

Morning walk

Matt snapped this of Jax sleeping right in my neck...I obviously didn't mind.

Ok so this post was just a bunch of random nonsense...but it's an update I guess :)

sunny Monday

It is amazing how sunshine and 75 degrees can make you smile.  After a long 3 day weekend of work, I am so thankful to have this sun-shiney day off!

Jax and I went on a walk this morning and the whole time I was thinking about how amazing this summer will be in our NEW HOUSE! I was imagining laying out in the backyard and being able to let the dog be out there with me and run around and play.  I called to tell Matt this and went on and on about how I'd have a big water bowl out there for him and how I'd have the stereo blasting and how I'd have a huge glass of water with a lemon on tap and how much I would LOVE this summer at the house.  Or just this summer in general.  Spring and Summer make me so happy (well of course my fav Fall does too) but it is what I love about Indiana. I love having 4 seasons.  It just makes the Spring and Summer so glorious.  Something to look forward too, what I have been waiting a year for.  This Summer will be extra special.

I treated the dog to ride in the car this afternoon.  All you have to do is say, "Do you want to go for a ride?" and he is running to the door.  We ran through the drive-through at the bank and the super nice lady sent back 2 dog treats in the cylinder thingy for Jax.  He was in heaven.  Between the sun roof open, the sun shining on him, and a dog treat, this dog was so happy.  I used a coupon and we ran through Mike's car wash afterwards.

Tonight, I have my 3rd team teaching for BodyPump.  This class is notoriously huge: 50-60+ ppl and I would be lying if I said I wasn't a little nervous.  I'm also super pumped (no pun intended) too.

Things are moving right along with the house.  We are waiting back on a couple little things with the seller's and the inspection, but our loan has been approved and we cleared to close! We will do our final walk-through on Tuesday the 31st and close afterwards at 10 am! AH! This has happened so quickly. We can't wait to get in there, paint, shop for necessities (and some not-so-necessities) and make it our home.

On another note, could you please pray for a friend and her family? Her husband was deployed yesterday.  They have two super sweet and adorable kiddos and a strong momma who will need your prayers to get through this next year.  They, her soldier, and his company are in our thoughts!

Have a great sunny Monday!

house update

The past couple of weeks have been crazy dealing with closing on our house by the end of this month. I am either on the phone or emailing either our realtor or lender every single day it seems like.  I'm not sure how it happened, but I have been the main person dealing with all of this house stuff (everything from all contact with the realtor to getting all of banking and lending worked out).  It works since I have days off during the week and Matt works crazy and long hours.  I always thought it'd be him dealing with everything buying-a-house-related, but surprisingly I have done it.  It has really taught me a lot about the whole process and has also taught me I can do more than I think I can. Matt has told me a lot how proud he is of me for doing all of this. I just love him :).

I think I have been afraid to talk about/blog about anything dealing with the house because I am trying not to get my hopes up too high in case something doesn't work out and I get heart-broken.  I thought I was jinxing it by blogging about it.  Oh well, hopefully it still works out :).

  Anyways, the week before last we had our inspection (which I was SO nervous for since I had heard some horror stories).  He found a couple things that we decided we wanted the seller's to fix before they moved out.  Not anything HUGE, but just some nuisances that would be better handled before we moved in.  We were supposed to know by tomorrow if and what they are fixing, but they asked for an extension since a contractor pushed back their appointment so at least they are really working towards getting stuff fixed for us. YAY! Hopefully.

We had a wrench thrown in the situation yesterday morning when our realtor called to say the appraiser had done the appraisal and the house came back as less than what we were paying.  That could be REALLY good or REALLY bad news.  It meant either the seller's dropped the price to the appraisal price (YAY) OR they said no to selling at all. I was biting my nails all morning.  I got a call at 11 am saying that the seller's were offering to sell at the appraisal price. Yes! We still wanted them to help at least a little with the closing costs AND we wanted to keep the hot tub so I told our realtor that we wanted to counter back that way.  She said she was going into a meeting and would call the listing agent when she was out to tell them our counter. Strangest thing happened.  As she got out of her meeting and went to call the listing agent, she noticed she had a voicemail from her.  The seller's ended up changing their mind after looking at the appraisal and offered us EXACTLY what our counter was going to be before we even said a WORD!  I was so ecstatic! She said, "This is so meant to be your house."

So now we are getting into the house for a decent amount less than what we were previously planning AND it sounds like they are working towards fixing at least a couple things we wanted.  Today is the 18th which means we could be closing on our new house in 12 days.  WOW.

team teaching

I have finally started my team teachings for BodyPump! I had to wait until our gym launched the new release that I trained on before I did my 4 team teaches.  After I am done with these, I will teach a whole class on my own, film it, send it in to Les Mills for certification, and wait and see!

I did my first team teaching this past Sunday at my gym with one of my FAVORITE instructors.  I actually thought I wouldn't have a chance to teach with her, but it worked out on Sunday.  It was so fun to be there, especially with her, but I was SO. NERVOUS. There were 50 people in that class. HUGE. There were only 2 benches left that weren't in use.  In other words, it was almost a packed class.  I did the 2nd half of the class and got less nervous as it went on.  I think I was more nervous because she is such a good instructor that I felt like I had huge shoes to fill by following her.  But it was so much fun.

THEN, this morning I did my 2nd team teach.  At 6 am! That is just unheard of.  I have never gotten up that early to work out, let alone doing BodyPump.  Plus, it was at the Fishers gym, so I got up bright and early and left the house at 510 am to make sure I had enough time to get there, get set up, and get ready.  Needless to say, I just woke up from a nap about an hour ago. Back to bed it was for me when I got home. Remind me never to live in Fishers.  69 traffic is horrendous.  Anyways, this morning actually went REALLY well. I woke up quicker than I thought and I actually did the first half of the class this time.  I think it was a mixture of not knowing anyone in the class and the class being under 50 people that made me feel more comfortable up there.  It was so super awesome. I have gotten really good feedback and I can't wait to start teaching on my own.  I was surprised how much fun doing BodyPump at 6 am was...or maybe it was just the people in the class that were rockin.

My next class is next Monday and then I wait until June 2nd to do it again.  I am planning on filming that weekend after just in case I need to do it again.  I love it!

hot. dog.

 This dog has been HOT.  Last week, we lived through 2 days of no AC at the house.  Which makes me laugh because we were dying in here at 85 degrees, but a few of my friends said they didn't even turn their air on.  Maybe this place just heats up abnormally.  On Tuesday, I took Jax on 3 long walks.  He could not get comfortable in the house and I needed to get outside into the sunshine.  About 3/4 of the way through each walk, he would start panting.  Which made me laugh pretty hard because I have never seen him do that (we got him in October so he hasn't been in hot weather).  Once we got inside he went straight for his water bowl and downed the whole thing.  Then, his photo shoot began...

He could not stop panting and could not get comfy.  He kept laying with his legs all the way behind him and rolling around.

And trying to cool off under the dining room chairs.

I am so HOT! He looks like he is smiling here :)

Please fix the AC!

Then, on his 3rd walk the AC was fixed but I took him on another one anyways.  On the way to the front door he plopped himself down in the grass.  So much so that he had his front legs folded under him. 

He wouldn't get up and I kept trying to drag him...no luck.

My poor hot dog.  It's all better now that the weather has cooled off a little and we have sufficient cooling at this house. 

get me out of this condo

Good thing we looked to buy a house and not this silly condo we are living in.  I swear more thing have acted up/needed fixed in this short 10 months than any other place I've ever lived.  

Next on that list? The AC! So the weather finally decides to be nice and warm up.  Like really warm up.  The past couple of days have been in the 80s.  I normally would not have turned on the AC yet, but when I got home from work yesterday the house was 78 degrees.  TOO HOT.  So on it went.  I heard it turn on and felt air blowing from the vents so I didn't think anything of it.

I went to bed and got woken up at 11 pm by Matt once he got home from work.  He informed me that the AC must not be working because the house was still 78/79 degrees after 5 hours of being on.  We opened all the windows and brought out the trusty desk fan.  This morning I woke up for work hoping it'd be cooler, but it wasn't. Still 78. Dang!

I called our landlord and she said she'd find someone to come out tomorrow.  Thank goodness because when I got home from work tonight, the house was 86 degrees! The poor poor doggie.  After his dinner and walk, he did his usual play around/chew on his bone.  He was chewing away when he suddenly stopped, looked at me, and started panting with his tongue hanging out.  That's when you know the house is too hot.  Ever since then, he has been laying on the floor all sprawled out and staring at me like I need to hurry and fix it.  Working on it, Jax!

Until it's fixed, I will enjoy this warm weather before Spring trys to take it away.

house whirlwind!

We have been in a house whirlwind for the past week.  We started off the week by looking at 3 more houses (we actually went inside to look at about 8 houses), and by Wednesday we were really starting to lean towards our favorite house we had seen the week before.  We kept catching ourselves talking about it- where we would put our stuff, how we'd love to let Jax out in the yard, and how we hoped they'd leave the hot tub.  I called our realtor and told her we were really thinking about this house.  She recommended we go back and look at it again and make sure we still liked it.  So on Thursday we went back.

By Thursday night, we were feeling very strongly about buying this house.  I was super nervous and anxious-this is a huge purchase!  I kept questioning if this was the right house, right location, and if we could imagine raising kids in this house.

We decided on Friday that we wanted to make an offer.  I had to work on Friday, so our realtor set up a time for us to meet on Saturday morning.  We decided on our price point and went through the purchase agreement.  We signed our names, wrote our first check of many, and headed home (after we stopped at McDonald's for a celebratory Egg McMuffin).

We had put on the agreement that they had to get back to us by Sunday night at 5 pm.  We decided to just let it go in our minds and enjoy our weekend.  My friend from work, Amber, got married on Saturday.  It was an absolutely beautiful wedding, awesome party with great friends, and it was a perfect distraction to the house.

I got an email from our realtor at 9 pm that night that they had offered a counter and to call her Sunday morning once we were up and running.  We met a couple friends for breakfast, talked and laughed about ridiculous moments from the reception and hotel the night before, and then made our way back to Indy. We had to hurry home to get the house cleaned and ready for our moms!  I called our realtor and she talked with us about their counter.  Good thing it was a 3 hour drive back to Indy, it was a great time for Matt and I to talk about what we wanted to do.  We decided on another counter-offer back to them and sent it that afternoon at 3 pm. Our realtor had told us that the listing agent was busy all day and was going to be busy all day on Monday too, so they wouldn't get back to us until 5 on Monday.  We were not very keen on waiting on her to have time, so we sent back that we needed their answer by noon Monday.

Matt and I got everything ready and we had both of our Moms and my Grandma and Joe over for a Mother's Day cookout! Matt, the chef, got everything prepared and we had a fantastic dinner!  It was so great to get to spend our day with the moms in our lives to celebrate their special day.  In the middle of dinner, I got a phone call from our realtor.  I answered and she explained that they had already offered a counter back and would love to get everything wrapped up that night.  Their counter offer was exactly what we were hoping they would do, so at 9:30 pm after everyone left, we called to accept!  It was such a cool moment.  We have a house!

We are so in love with our first home.  It is on the northeast side of Indy, close to anything and everything! It will be about a 15-20 min drive to work for me and a little further for Matt.  It has 4 bedrooms and 2.5 baths; on just about a 1/2 acre lot (it's an older neighborhood so the lots are bigger and the houses aren't so close together); a brand new roof, siding, windows, hardwood floors and carpeting; a big completely fenced in back yard with a big deck, firepit area, and HOT TUB! The hot tub was a bargaining point with the sellers and we ended up getting it included with the house.The yard has a perfect spot for me to finally have a garden! We are SO excited to let Jax run around in his new yard! He will be in heaven.  We are already planning our first summer party :). We also love that we can do a couple upgrades in the house.  We are already getting ideas to update the kitchen and master bath/closet.

It is going to be a very busy rest of the month, we are trying to get our bank to close by the end of this month.  We still have our condo until the end of July, so are going to do any painting we want to do and move in slowly.  I am going in to the broker this afternoon to take all of our documents and they are hopefully we can get closed by May 31st! I'm praying everything else works out smoothly...yay!

day off

Finally! A day off! I feel like all I have been doing is working.  Just picking up 1 extra day a week really wears me out after awhile.   

I was so exhausted from my 3 day weekend of work, but I got up and went to BodyPump this morning.  After I got home and showered, the exhaustion must have hit me because I passed out on the bed for an hour. I then woke up to Jax sleeping on my arm.

I decided I had to at least get something checked off my "to-do" list even though the rain made me want to just stay in my pj's all day.  Luckily, my sweet hubby got some of the housework done last night before I got home, so that was already checked off :).  I took Jax for a ride and we picked up his heartworm meds, went to the bank, to the drug store, and then I decided to treat him to a visit at Petsmart to get some new toys and bones.

Tomorrow, we are going to check out some more houses.  I am starting to get a little anxious about the whole process.  I get worried that we won't find something in time or that we will find something we love but it gets taken first.  I just want something perfect to come up, but it hasn't yet. Patience, Jamie, patience.

2 weeks from now marks Launch Day for BodyPump which means I can start my team teaching then! It seems like so long ago that I went through training so I hope everything stays fresh.  I plan on dragging Matt back to the gym sometime this weekend so we can practice and film one more time. Yay!