...and I yanked it from Sarah!

1) Of the various cultures, ethnicities or nationalities you belong to, which most strongly do you consider yourself?
I am German with French extraction, but I guess I consider myself French. I don't consider myself to be German at all. Which is funny because before being adopted my last name was Barhitte.

2) Is there a culture you cannot claim heritage from but which you feel quite close to?
I'm convinced that I am actually English and Spanish - English because that's what my adoptive family is (on both sides) and Spanish just because I'm pretty sure that's what I really am.

3) What's one language you wish you knew fluently?
Spanish.

4) If you could move anywhere in the world and be guaranteed a job, etc., where would you go?
Florence!

5) If you had a time machine, and could witness any one event without altering or disturbing it, what would you want to see?
Either the birth or the crusifixion of Jesus. I'm not entirely sure which yet.

This is where we're at...

Tomorrow at 9am we meet with the home inspector to do the inspection on the property. I'm so excited! I drove my mom out to see the house yesterday... She didn't really say a whole lot about it, I don't think she was crazy about the neighborhood. There's nothing wrong with it, it's just a road in Rochester, and there happens to be a trailor park across the street. But, we can't see the park, really, and it's hard to say what the place will look like in the spring, because at the moment, it really does look quite bleak. BUT, John and I love the place, and that's what's really important! We've got all kinds of plans for the inside of the house, as far as painting rooms and pulling up a couple of the carpets, but we'll just have to take it 1 room at a time. I'd like to not move some of our furniture, because it will be stuff that we're going to be getting rid of anyway. I'm wondering how we'll manage to get some stuff there. We're going to rent a U-Haul to move our stuff, but we'll also have two cars that will need to get there, so I'm hoping we can recruit my parents to drive over in the U-Haul, and we're going to have to figure out how to get a futon from someone that lives an hour away from Concord. I was hoping to not pick that up until the day we move, but I think we'll have to pick it up a day or two before we close, because otherwise the guy will have to store it longer, and I'd like to be able to get everything in that we're taking. If we're not taking it, then I'd like to get rid of it to have stuff that is replacing it arrive on Saturday... you know what I mean?
I probably sound like I'm rambling, and I am sure that I am, because I am so excited and I have so much stuff to think about with this!!!!
Anyway, I'm going to run now. But everyone please think happy thoughts tomorrow between 9 and 12, that the house passes the inspection!!!!!!!!

Good news!

So yesterday started off great - I happened to switch to the Concord radio station, which I don't listen to all that often anymore, just in time to catch the trivia question for the morning. I happened to know the answer (well, I was able to figure it out, anyway) and so I tried to call, but it was busy. My rule is to try and call in 5 times, and if you don't get through, then oh well. So on the 5th time, I got through, and I was right! Cool! So what did I win, you ask? Two tickets to go see Lifehouse in concert on April 21st!!!! So John and I will be going to that, and that is cool!

Next, we officially put in the offer on that house, which was stressfull, making sure that everything got signed, done, etc. But that was good to get that in. I was so wound up about it last night I couldn't stand it! And, of course, I started checking my e-mail every 5 minutes starting at 8am this morning. Then I got it - the e-mail from our realtor: Congratulations, your offer was accepted!!!! W00P W00P!!!!!!!!! So we're having our home inspection on the 27th at 9am, and after that, we'll be good to go! I'm trying not to get too too excited about it until after the home inspection, because (knock on wood) there could always be a problem that no one is aware of. So everyone think happy thoughts that day that nothing goes wrong! Right now the closing is scheduled for May 19th.

The most frustrating thing at this point is that it's hard to tell if my dad is very excited about the house. My mom is, but like, when I was describing the deck to my dad, he was like "Oh... it's on the front of the house?" And just stuff like that. It's like, I just wanted to say "Hey, Dad - just be excited for us, okay? We know that we like it, it's not like we randomly picked a house that we didn't go look at." But I didn't. I just kind of chalked it up to him probably being tired, because he had a full day meeting today and he didn't get home until close to 7:45 tonight.

Anyway, it's definitely time for bed. American Idol is over now, so it's time to sleep!

This Past Weekend

Saturday I had my scrapbooking party - thanks to everyone who came! It was a lot of fun. Our friends Chris and Kim came down, Chris came because Kim doesn't have her license at the moment and so that John would have someone to hang out with during the party. He had to leave and go to work that night, but Kim stayed over, and that was a ton of fun! John told me yesterday that if we move back to the seacoast, he could totally picture Kim and I becoming really great friends. That was neat to hear! But anyway, I got two pages done on my scrapbook for my grandmother. That was big, because I was having a hard time getting anywhere! Maybe I'll work on it again some more tonight, but I'll have to wait and see how the day plays out.
Yesterday we went over to Rochester to look at some houses. There were a couple that we saw that we really loved, but one of them was on 0.1 acres of land or something like that, and had a back yard that was litterally the size of a postage stamp. Not to mention, it was practically right in downtown Rochester, which we didn't really want, because of how close to the high school it was. But the other house... Well, lets just say we're making an offer! It's on this huge amount of yard, which is nice, and it's got 3 to possibly 4 bedrooms, which is also very appealing, and we like most of the paint colors.... The Pink Room aside :-) You'd have to see it to understand what I mean.
Anyway, we should have a good idea by later today what's going to happen as far as whether or not they will accept our offer. Nikki says a seller has 48 hours to respond to an offer, so I hope we hear sooner than later! Our offer technically won't go in until this afternoon, but I hope the seller's agent will present it to them and they'll say yes right away!
Everyone keep your fingers crossed!

Talk about a major flashback...

So this morning I woke up early, which I didn't really want to do, but the cats were driving me nuts. So I got up, did a couple of things on the computer and then went to the TV to begin channel surfing. Now, what happened next, only one person on my friends list will have a TRUE appreciation for what I saw, but there she was, as big as my TV screen could make her: Raquel. She was back and she was on channel 6. I had found my true love of high school Spanish right in my own living room. Destinos was on TV. I was so excited about it, I sat through the next 45 minutes (an episode and a half) of it, just because I could! I was so excited! Sarah M., I KNOW you would be excited about that too. All I could do when I was watching it was think about my high school Spanish teacher and how badly we all used to rag on him about all kinds of stuff (namely his studder - "Okay, translate this: Yo.... yo.....yo..... yo yo yo...." and Aaron going "Okay, I... I.... I.... I I I...." - and the fact that he thougt he was the next Fransisco Franco).

What make it even WEIRDER though is that I had a dream about him JUST LAST NIGHT! Of course, in my dream he had shaved his beard and was dressed in drag doing seminars all over the country about the importance of being bilingual when working with children. I told him (because I didn't really recognize him) that he reminded me of my high school Spanish teacher, and he said "Did you go to ConVal?" and I was like "Yeah" and he was like "well, that's because I WAS your high school Spanish teacher!" He went on to tell me that he never moved to Florida because he got to involved with doing these trainings. Okay, tell me that wasn't a nightmare. It was crazy... so first my dream of señor Morey up there talking away in Spanish and then finding Destinos on tv.

Anyway... On the house front: We made an offer on that house in New Durham that we really liked. Unfortunately, the builder refused to come down in price at all, and even though we could afford the mortgage payments on that house, it wouldn't have been comfortable. So we're going to look at some houses in Rochester tomorrow. We would have gone today, but I am having my scrapbooking party at 11:30 so that wouldn't really work out. But as of right now we're meeting to see three of them, and one of them is the one we're most excited about seeing. So we'll see what happens! Keep your fingers crossed for us!

Anyway, I guess that's about it from here... My job is still going well - I'm working on some pretty hard cases right now, which is kind of frustrating, but I was able to get rid of the one that was weighing on me the most, which is huge. But there isn't much other news. Hopefully I'll be able to do a better update this week!

Another borning update

There really isn't too much going on right now... home sick from work today - woo hoo! I hate being sick - especially when you don't really know what's going on with you. It feels like a flu, but not really. I don't know. So I took my first official sick day from work. I've actually got to call my supervisor when I finish this post so I can talk to her about some meetings I had scheduled today that need to be rescheduled.
So anyway, John and I are going to look at few more houses this coming weekend, which is REALLY exciting, because we're pretty sure we're going to find something. I can't wait! There's two places I'm REALLY excited about seeing, one in New Durham and one in Farmington. There's also a nice cape in Alton that we're excited about seeing. I hope they look as nice in real life as they do on the internet! I'm just waiting to hear back from the realter. It was ironic this morning that on Good Morning America, they had a segment about how to save thousands of dollars in closing costs. I took some notes, so hopefully we'll be able to save a little money there too.
I wish I had some more exciting stuff to talk about, but I really don't, unless anyone wants to hear about how yucky I feel right now, which I doubt. I feel like I should have a fever, but every time I take my temp, it comes back saying my temp is like... 94.5 or 95.5. And like... I'm insatiably hungry, but nothing tastes good. It's driving me nuts!
Okay, enough about that... I'll post again sometime after John and I go look at houses this weekend. Who knows, maybe we'll be able to say that we put in an offer!

houses, houses, houses

Today John and I go to look at our first series of houses, which is really exciting! We're going to look at two in Northwood and a few in New Durham and possibly one in Rochester today. I'm really excited, but at the same time, I'm really nervous! I think part of what makes me nervous is that we're not quite at the place of being able to make an offer on a house, but I don't want to get out there today and see one that I LOVE and we can't make an offer on it. We're also meeting with the guy that did our mortgage pre-approval to talk to him about the process and some of the "unexpected expenses" of buying a house. John keeps reminding me that we're not quite in the place, financially, to make an offer yet, and I have to be okay with that. It's hard to think that we may end up having to pass up the house of our dreams! Hopefully next weekend, though, we're going to look at some in Alton, and there is one there that we both really like that we're pretty optimistic about.
So I guess that's where we stand about that now... Last night I laid in bed and I was telling John that for some reason I was really upset but I couldn't put my finger on why. And I was, too, I wasn't just saying that. I still haven't quite been able to put my finger on what it was/is. I started noticing it when I was at work yesterday and I was talking to Cheryl about the differences between the Rochester and Portsmouth D.O.'s, and I discovered that I really, really missed the Rochester office. There's just something about the way they do it there that I loved and that I missed. So part of me keeps hoping that a position opens up over there at some point and I can transfer. And I think the other part of it is that I'm at this point at my job where I don't know if I'm going to like this job as much as I had thought/hoped. It's not that I don't love it now, it's just that I don't see myself doing it forever, and I find that frustrating. I don't really know what I do see myself doing though, which makes it even harder.
I think some of the other part of that feeling came from being nervous about the house hunting. Nervous and frustrated. I'm one of those people that I want it all, and I want it all now. And I think some of it is that I keep getting this feeling from John that he just isn't interested in buying a house now. Interested in looking, yeah, but not so much in buying. That's hard for me. Mostly because I really haven't been very happy here in Concord. I mean, who's to say that when we get a house, I won't be "not happy" there either (double negative, I know, sorry!) and that would be MUCH harder to get out of than an apartment with a lease. But I think my unhappiness has stemmed from 1) apartment living - I'm kinda tired of it! I'm tired of the neighbors, I'm tired of not having a space that I feel is MINE, I'm tired of being terrified that the cats will rip up the carpet, or that the oil that keeps coming off of John's desk chair has stained the carpet in the living room... At least if it were our own home, it wouldn't matter. 2) Lack of friends/acquaintances in the area - I know there aren't a lot of my friends left on the seacoast, but there are more over there than there are here. (Sorry Sarah L.) Not to mention the fact that I'd actually be able to have a social relationship with people from work - I've passed up the last two get-togethers after work because my drive is a little over an hour to get home and I don't want to be out super late, since I have to get up so early for the same reason.
Okay, I'm done ranting and raving. I'm kind of hungry, so I think I'll go make some hot chocolate, eat something and see what's on TV or pop in a movie or something. How am I doing today? Thanks for asking!

A life more fulfilled

My friend Liz started talking about this in her MySpace blog the other day, but I think it warrants having more than one person write about it, because it's such a valid thing:
Why is it that people (as a whole) spend a lot of time worrying about what they don't have instead of what they do have? How come everyone has to be like "well, I'm not good enough, because my car is a 2003 Hyundai and my co-worker drives a brand new 2006 Nissan"? Okay, I don't feel that way about my co-workers Nissan, because I'm not really a Nissan fan (sorry to all of you Nissan owners out there). But something along those lines. Instead of looking at all of the things other people have, people need to be able to sit back and say "Wow... I have a roof over my head, I have food on the table, I have clothes that fit and look nice..."
I am starting to run into situations at work that have made me much more aware of what I have. Yesterday, I interviewed a woman who has 4 kids. Every time I've seen the oldest daughter, which is 4 times now, she's been wearing the same teeshirt. Now, it could just be the way the days have happened to fall, but it kind of makes me wonder. We have clients who are homeless, we have clients who are jobless, we have clients who have been abused in every way you can think of, we have clients that are victims of domestic violence... I could go on for quite a while. In my case, I have to say that I am exceptionally grateful, because I have a home, a good job, I had a loving family as a child, I have a wonderful husband.
When I was little (and I'm going to sound like I'm stealing this from Liz), I had parents who read to me, I had three square meals a day, and snacks in the afternoon, I was given all of these opportunities, like being able to horseback ride, go skiing, play sports through out my entire childhood, right through senior year in college... (This part I AM stealing from Liz) I was able to go to the doctors for a physical once a year (and able to go when I was sick too!), I had regular dentist appointments. I got cake and presents every year on my birthday.
Like I keep repeating in my posts over and over again, God doesn't give us more than we can handle. I guess this goes back to my post about why do some people get such crap dealt to them, while others end up with such great circumstances? I, for one, need to be more grateful for the circumstances that I have, rather than constantly trying to compare my life with someone elses.


Okay - off the heavy topic now. I guess it's funny that I'm about to write about this, because of what I just wrote, but John and I got preapproved for a mortgage yesterday, which was happy. Saturday we're going to do a marathon viewing of some houses, two in Northwood and three in New Durham. I'm really excited about going - I don't even think John knows how excited I am about the whole thing! I've seen a couple that, in pictures, I REALLY like, so I'm hoping I like them just as much when we get there. I was talking to my friend Theresa the other night, and I was telling her that, although it may sound stupid, I'll know when it's the right house when I can picture myself running and sliding down the hallway in my socks. I know, crazy right? Anyway, so that's really exciting.
Thursday I start line dancing with Sarah L. That should be fun too - I'm just hoping the weather doesn't get all bad and they cancel the class. Of course, I'm also slated to be in a training tomorrow here in Concord, so if the weather gets bad, I'm still going to have to drive to the office if they cancel that, then I'm the one who gets screwed.

Alright, that's all for now. I'll keep y'all posted on the house hunt!