WDW, here I come! (again)

I'm happy to say I have an in-person interview scheduled at DRC tomorrow morning! My phone interview this morning went great! I was nervous but very excited, and I think the excitement came thru in my voice. :) (All Cast Members are perky, remember? Wonder if my old stage name, Elke, is still available???) Anyway, it's been just a few days over a year that I've been gone, and I'm ready to go back. Let the magic-making begin!!!

It's a done deed!!!

We closed this morning on the old house!!! What a good feeling. We thought this day would never come, and now it's a done deed. Done, in the past, finito. year of hard, back-breaking, blood-sweat-and-tears work, finally comes to fruition. It truly is the OLD house now!!!

We moved into a condo last Sunday, it's nice and cozy and now we can finally focus on unpacking. Since we moved here, we've been focusing on cleaning up the old house, so we still have many boxes around and situating to do. We have a wonderful landlord, he just bought the place like 2 weeks ago, and is very flexible with our timeline. Great price, too - much cheaper than most comparable apartments. The only downside - it's on the 3rd floor. What a bee-otch that was to move! Our thigh muscles were burning like crazy! But maybe it will make us lose a few pounds...LOL.

The new house (I know, we have such great terminalogy these days, and that's how we think - old house, condo, new house - LOL) is in permitting. We have a few additional papers to sign tomorrow, and I hope they have a "sold" sign on the lot so I can get a pic. Should be breaking ground in 6 weeks or so, and done (hopefully) by June 30th.

Since moving, our email addresses are not working - if you need me, text and/or facebook me. Our phone number stayed the same. :)

We are golden!

Appraisal went through fine...buyer's loan is in underwriting...closing date is set for 2/19! Can't wait!!! I think we have an apartment that will work, too... all such great news, especially on a lovely Friday!!!

House Hunting has begun!

We are looking for a new place to live! So far all the workings with the sale of our home are going well, in fact might happen as early as the first week in Feb. So... we are looking at apartments, houses, townhomes, everything. Saw two this morning - one in Cheval (amazing) and another, closer to Manda's school (not so amazing). We want to rent until we find/build a new house to buy. Keep your fingers crossed for us!

2010 hit the ground running...

What a start to this new year!
We spent a lot of New Year's day at Michael's parents - had to eat some black eyed peas, rice, pork roast and (yuck) collard greens. We need good luck!
Sat 1/2 we went to a wedding for a friend of the family no one thought would ever get married. It was just the right mix of casual and elegant.

Steve & I left on Sunday 1/3 for FSU, and started out with a flat tire before we even left town. A few hours later, after learning which places are not open on Sunday afternoon and/or close early and/or don't carry Scion tire sizes, we took off. Arrived in Tally 10:45 pm.

Orientation began at 12:00 Monday, so we wandered around campus in the morning, admiring all the beautiful red brick buildings. While we sipped hot chocolate waiting for it to begin, Michael called and said we had an offer on the house! We talked about a counteroffer, then I had to shift mental gears back to FSU mode - and I have a hard time shifting these gears. Once orientation began, we soon learned there were not only no dorm rooms available, they were not even taking anyone on the waiting list. So once orientation let out at 4:30, we immediately went to the nearest Apartment Seekers and got a list of places that met our criteria - cheap and close. We visited two before office hours ended, and the second was great. After talking to Michael and solidifying our counteroffer, Steve and I had a lovely mother/son dinner at Logan's Roadhouse, my fave place to eat and one of his tops. So proud and excited I'm ready to burst.
Tuesday's orientation began at 9:00 am, with many, many topics addressed that left my head spinning. Talked to Michael many more times during breaks. The end of orientation was to talk to an academic advisor in your "house"/major - his is Physics right now, but he'll be switching to Music once he can audition. The Physics advisor did not like being a "bridge" and told him so. Almost laughed at him - made this mom very angry! We traipsed all the way across campus, on foot, in the cold to also visit the Music advisor. She was worth the trip! She gave him great advice and helped him register for the right classes. At this point I felt like a big bag of mush - I think if someone had looked sideways at me, I would have just broke down and cried. I had switched gears so many times, and had so much info overload, I wasn't sure if I was coming or going. Steve and I continued our cold walk, and ate in one of the dining halls. It was amazing - for those of you who read Harry Potter, it looked just like I imagine the Great Hall to look. Tall, dark, arched ceilings, with lots of ornate molding. Beautiful! After that we went and actually signed the lease at the apartment complex, and it was there Michael called and told me our counteroffer was accepted!!! So excited I did not fall asleep until after 12:30am.
Wednesday Steve actually started 3 of his classes, so I went out and picked up odds and ends for him. He was out by 12, we got a few more things at WalMart then had lunch at Moe's. We headed to the apartment complex to get the keys and move in - but Michael had a 14 page document I needed to sign first. He faxed it to the apartments, I signed, then it took 4 tries to fax it back. 90 minutes or so we sat there, and although the apartment people were extremely nice, they were getting irritated with me. Finally it went through and we got the keys. The apartment is a 4 bedroom, 2 bath place on the 2nd floor. They rent each room individually - his place already had 3 other guys - and he shares a bath with one other guy. We met his roomies - they seemed nice but did not offer to help us as we moved him in - it took us a little over an hour and they just hung out in their rooms. I told Steve it was a big strike one. By this time, it's after 7pm and he had no textbooks and no food. After dropping way too much money at two campus book stores, we made a run to Winn Dixie, where he was hit on by a girl in all three of his classes that day! We got it all put away in his place, and at 10:45 pm, I left my baby there by himself. I knew I'd never sleep, so I just headed home. Between you and me, I shed more than a few tears on that drive. I knew it would be hard for me to leave him there, but just how hard I did not realize until that moment. Long, cold drive home - I arrived at 3am and crawled into bed and cried a few more tears.
Michael worked at home Thursday, and took Manda to school and let me sleep in - I think I slept till noon or so!
I had to jump right back into everything on Friday - I had volunteered to chaperone Manda's fieldtrip to Vigo, so I spent all day with her. It was fun! I've lived here all my life and never knew their hub is in the warehouse area off of Hillsborough and Anderson. Manda had a friend spend the night Friday. Jess has a friend in town from California, so I got to meet her for the first time Friday. They met online years ago when both were beginning high school. Jess went out there to San Diego twice last year, but this is Aly's first visit to Florida. Aly is very nice and they're having a great time together. I missed Steve.
We took down all the Christmas decorations Sat. Met with our realtor about timelines, inspections, etc. She's almost as excited as we are! Our closing date is as of now set for 2/25. We'll begin looking for an apartment once it gets a bit closer. Jess and Aly took Manda and another friend of hers to ice skate (like it wasn't cold enough outside, they had to throw some ice in there too!) and Manda spent the night with her other friend, so Michael and I had a date night - Olive Garden and "Youth in Revolt". Dinner was great, the movie sucked. It was Michael's pick, so I get to razz him about it for awhile. I missed Steve.
Sunday I laid around and did almost nothing - read the paper, caught up on email/blogs, read some in a new steamy romance novel. Then hit the grocery store. I missed Steve.
Monday (yesterday) I finally got all caught up on email, blogs, facebook, etc. Did some laundry, then Manda & I had dentist appointments. I hate the dentist!!! A few more groceries, then picked Manda up a couple new pairs of pants. She's grown like 2 inches in the last month or so, so of couse she's also gained weight. Her uniform pants wouldn't zip after Xmas break! I keep trying to convince her she's not getting fat, she's just growing. I missed Steve.
Michael's work is starting another "Biggest Loser" contest today. He weighs in this afternoon to get a starting weight. I'm doing it again with him, just like last year. He's pretty much kept off the weight he lost last year, but I gained mine back. Missed Steve some more.
Oh, and my Project Life arrived in the middle of all this! I've opened the box but that's about it as this point. Hopefully I'll get going on that later today. :)
Thanks for reading, if you got all the way through my rambling, you deserve a medal!!!

The middle of December already???

How can that be? How can the year be almost over? Where did it go?

Not even half done with my Christmas shopping yet. This week while Manda is in school I hope to finish. She gets out for the holiday break this Friday. Steve is already out, HCC ended last week. He has 3 weeks till classes start at FSU - we'll be there for orientation 1/4, classes start 1/7. What am I going to do without my middle baby, my boy? :(

We're getting close on the house. Today will be the 16th (17th?) showing in 30 days, plus we had an Open House yesterday. I'll feel much better once we get an offer. That's what I want most for Christmas!!!

I joined Facebook last week, and man have I found some old friends. Some I knew from as far back as kindergarten, some from my crazy jr. high days, some old work buddies. I don't know why I put off joining for so long. The only problem is, I mean to spend 15 minutes on there and all of a sudden, 2 hours have passed. ;)

Working on another class for Whim So Doodle - I'm really excited about this one. Something I've been wanting to do for awhile - a family collage. Lots of doodads and findings, lots of symbolism and pix, lots of red, black, white and tan, lots of distressing...right up my alley. Look for it in February, hopefully before V-day.

GA

What a day! Got to the cabin just before midnight last night and crashed. Explored outside the cabin this morning after breakfast, down by the river. It's the Coosawattee River. There's a tiny island just off shore the owners call Goose Island.

The cabin is called Goose Rapids and is just as gorgeous as we remembered.

We took some pix that may or may not end up on a Xmas card.

We decided to traipse out, and ended up at Brasstown Bald, the highest point in Georgia at 4784 feet. We had to park down below in a parking lot then go up 1000 ft via a 6/10 mile trail. Let me tell you, that was some steep shit. I was out of breath after about 90 seconds. The view was totally worth it though. :)

Having a ball, more tomorrow.