Done deal.

Shiz. That was a process! Yesterday turned out to be more hectic than we thought. We were scheduled to close at 1:00 and we didn't leave till almost 3:30. Apparently, it is supposed to go a lot smoother than that but they didn't have all the paper work ready so we ended up waiting for awhile. It was kind of a hot mess and we spent a few hours running around like crazy after we were done signing trying to get some last minutes things together that came up. We did the final walk through today and we should have the keys either Monday or Tuesday. We are both super excited and very pleased with the final numbers and our new payment.

I feel so blessed that this has all worked out the way it has. I really feel like there was an extra hand in everything working for us. I feel blessed that we get to do this together and finally get to start living in OUR home and settle down. That's a good feeling.

Nate on the way to sign the papers. Doesn't he look so excited!?

Waiting at the title company.

Signing all those papers. Poor Nate had to sign with his middle initial which he is not used to. We were both really nervous and tried really hard to mess up. Luckily our realtor was there with us guiding us through. She was great. Everyone laughed at us cause I wanted a picture but I thought it was important. Probably won't take a picture when we buy the next house but this was kind of a big deal for us.

another great day in the Garrard house!

A few of you already know, but most of you don't.

WE GOT THE HOUSE!

Yup, this scary, fast ride took us by surprise and now we're leaving in a few minutes to go sign for the house. We got the calls from tboth the realtor and the money man that we've been waiting for wednesday afternoon. Neither of us can believe how fast this has come and I think we're both still realizing how exciting it is that we'll be out of here in the next couple weeks and have some room to stretch out some. Now we're to the point that I've been absolutely dreading and have to pack up, thin out, throw out, and give away all our....... STUFF. I swung by the mall the other night to see if I could score us some head start packing boxes. I ended up with a stash of boxes from the Samsonite store that ended up being about 8 *nice* packing up boxes; good and big. We're really making an effort to try to get rid of the unneccessary stuff that you know you don't need but hate to get rid of so much. We've both come across a few stuff boxes that we're going to have to sacrifice at least some of to the move. Then, once we've cleared out of here, we get to clean up. Stoked.

And so here we are.
(And if something bad happens when we go to sign, it'll suffice to say that today wasn't another great day in the Garrard house.)

Delicious!

I wanted to try something new for dinner tonight so this is what I made.

Try it. It was fantastic.

I doubled the sauce and would recommend you doing the same. I used greek flat bread instead of a pita.

mmmmmm! Scrumptious!

Little guy Gussy

It's been awhile since I have posted any pics of Gus.
He is getting so big and is learning so much everyday. He has 3 teeth. The two on the bottom and then one on top. I wish the other top one would come in because he looks silly with just one big tooth one top.
He is crawling all over and pulling himself up to things. I caught him the other day trying to climb up the stairs. It is just a matter of time before he is going to be able to climb them. I dread that day.
He is eating regular food. He wasn't so keen on the baby food so we just starting giving him what we were eating and he loves it. He especially loves chicken noodle soup, cut up pears, PB and jam sandwiches and cheese

He is learning to give loves and it is so cute. I love that little guy so so much!

We had crepes for breakfast the other day and we gave one to him. It had Nutella on it and he went to town. He loved it!

His first cookie

This is how I found him the other day. We were packing Zoee to go to Utah and I guess he wanted to go too.

He is such a handsome boy!

I took Gus to Costco yesterday and didn't want to haul his carseat in so I just took him and put him in the basket. I wasn't sure how he would do but he loved it. He looked so cute holding onto the cart.

going private

ok. I guess it's time we put our blog to private.

It's actually a policy for the police department and the more we think about it, the more we realize that it is probably better.

So we will be going private on Monday night. Please leave your email address if you want to be able to access our blog.

I wish we didn't have to but it is probably more safe for us. Thanks.

house pics!

first view from the entry.



kitchen/dining area. Wish I'd gotten a better picture of the kitchen though.



still in the entry, looking right you have 2 bedrooms and the main bathroom.






We're thinking these will be Zoee's and Gus' rooms:







Back to the entry, looking to your left (as you come in) is the laundry room (leading to the garage), guest room/office(?) and master bedroom:









and the master bedroom and bathroom:





Just to the left of where I took this picture is the bathroom:







Almost forgot, the backyard:







K, so the inspection went really well. The guy kept talking about how clean the house was (there's a young couple renting it our right now and we all decided that they're just really clean and organized themselves) and was really impressed with how NICE the house was and how well taken care of it has been, especially considering that it is a short sale and being rented out. That was a really comforting thing to hear. He didn't find anything major, only a missing battery in a smoke detector, some caulk in a shower that could be replaced, and potential for the pressure valve on some water pipe outside for the sprinklers; nothing serious, but pretty common actually, he said. The A/C unit on the house was pretty heavy duty he says. Apparently it'll handle up to a 2500 sq/ft house, ours is only 1800. Oh! and we found out the other day that the fridge, washer and dryer, patio furniture, lawn mower and weed-eater are all supposed to be left for us! The fridge is super nice and the washer and dryer are front loaders, not cheap from what I could tell. Gus loved the house. He even blessed it with his very own fart. It reeked so bad we swore he'd pooped; so he's comfortable enough in the house already. (We know that us Garrards have a comfort thing about being able to do business with comfort and in our own territory.) We paid more attention to things this time around and we both agree that the neighborhood is pretty nice and the area is really nice. The upgrades are areal nice and we're just really blessed to have this opportunity.
We're super excited about all this happening. Things still aren't final, but we're feeling optimistic about it happening. We're just praying that things don't fall apart on us at this point.
But we both really really like this house. We hope it'll become our home.

Oh Goodness!

Our realtor called last night with a counter offer from the bank.

After much contemplating and discussing, we have decided to do it. We made a pros and cons list last night and talked a lot and both feel like this is the best thing for us. We feel like it is too good to pass up and must be meant to be because of how it all happened.

The process is happening a lot faster than we expected but it is good. We will officially be home owners as of October 1st 2008.

Growing up is scary.