Finally.... We're (Empty) Homeowners!

Well, our long national nightmare is over.

We closed on our house on Wednesday after a long and arduous battle with the not-so-fine folks down at USAA Mortgage Dept in San Antonio. They seemed hell bent on keeping us out of this house, but we persevered---not w/o a few battle scars.

They tried all the tricks in the book. They refused to answer our calls/emails, paired us with an incompetent mortgage processor, refused to answer our calls/emails, fired said mortgage processor and didn't bother to inform us (we found out via a telephone extension that no longer worked 4 days prior to our closing date), refused to answer our calls/emails, sent ALL of our paperwork to the wrong title company (in Pennsylvania) on the day of our closing, refused to answer our calls/emails, missed our closing date, refused to answer our calls/emails, missed the day AFTER our closing date, refused to answer our calls/emails, missed the day AFTER the day AFTER our closing date, refused to answer our calls/emails while the semi's w/ our household goods sat idling at our curbside waiting to unload, nearly missed the day AFTER the day AFTER the day AFTER our closing date, etc......they suck.

Anyways, we're homeowners. We're over it. We're happy.

Our house will be empty until next Friday, so an extra 10 days here on Ratsville Lane. USAA took full responsibility for all the screw ups. They requested we submit them a bill for all of the charges we incurred. The charge for the movers showing up and not unloading was $660 alone. They seem like they're just going to pay whatever we submit and forget the whole thing happened. That's what happens when I let the pitbull (JoAnna) off the leash and tell her to "Attack!"

We have tons of extra room so everyone is welcome to come visit.....2 hours to Tahoe, 90 mins to San Fran. Our new address is 985 Tiburon Way Plumas Lake, CA 95961.

Baby on Board!

Big news: we're going to be parents! We are expecting a new bundle of joy this summer---June 4th to be exact. We couldn't be more excited.....or anxious or alot of other things, but most of all thankful. We are 11 weeks along, almost done with the 1st trimester already.

So far our journey has had its ups and downs...good days and bad days both. Jo has been a trooper  throughout---even ponying up to do a 8.9 mile hike yesterday. She has already been busy stockpiling baby clothes, baby books, baby toys, etc. Finding bargains is somewhat of a game to begin for her--so now its like she has a whole new challenge on her hands. She works Craigslist pretty hard....she's well known at the Latin flea market and of course she has drug (or is it dragged?) me along to a ton of rummage sales.



(Jo thinks the baby looks like a squirrel)



We only had the opportunity to tell Kelsey, Mom and Jager in person so we did so last weekend. We picked them up from the Sac airport and brought them by the new house (we close this Friday by the way) to check it out. Part way through Jo, Jager and I snuck into one of the spare bedrooms. Jager held the ultrasound in his hands and when Mom and Kelsey walked in he said "Pam, this is going to be the baby's room."......followed by 5 seconds of silence and bewilderment on their faces....followed by Jager repeating his line....followed by hugs and congratulations.

It will be an exciting road ahead for us. And Jo will have a sympathetic ear to turn to in Kelsey--they're due 5 weeks before us...that'll be fun.