Layla

I'm just titling this post "Layla" because I want it to be all about her. I'm so proud of her and how she has handled all the recent chaos in our lives with showing the house and with so many trips to Plymouth to see the new house, meet with the bank, etc. We've been doing our best to keep things as normal as possible around here, with "fun time" at night after school and all that jazz, but weekends have been slightly busy with constant cleaning and staging. And it has to be odd to a 4 year old to constantly be marching strange, unfamiliar families through your house, from top to bottom. Although, I think Layla kind of likes doing that and is very proud when we get to her room and her play room. She even made a friend during one of the showings recently, with the daughter of the family we chose to be our tenants.

Yes, our tenants. We've found a wonderful, kind, honest family to rent from us and have finalized everything as of Sunday. If all goes as planned with closing on the new house, we'll likely move mid-late May and the neighbors we've known for 7 years in Hartford will have a new family to get to know and love (and smother with questions, cookies, and inquisitions). ;)

Below are just a few random pictures from the last month or so of "fun time" with Layla. Since we're pinching pennies these days in anticipation of closing costs for the refinance, moving expenses, items we'll need for the new house, new baby, you name it, most of our "fun time" is spent doing things that are free. But, still fun. Over Jake's spring break, we plan to hit up Blue Harbor resort for some water park fun - Layla is very excited. Mom is too, although I'll be dodging the camera at all costs. No one needs to see this in a maternity suit, that's for sure.

Oh, and before you start looking at the pictures, I thought I'd also share a few of Layla's recent "funnies":

L: "Mom, I feel crushed like a paper ball."
M: "I'm sorry to hear that honey." (Because she says it all the time lately.)
L: "Mom! When I say that you're supposed to tell me to come get some snuggles!"

Last night, when dad called to give his ETA, Layla asked if she could talk to him. Here's how it went:

L:What's up dad? I heard you want to wrestle me when you get home."
D: "Oh yeah? I'd be up for that."
L: "Yep. Right away. Don't even stop to go potty before you come to the living room to wrestle."

When putting Layla to bed last night, I told her to do her best with sleeping all night and that mommy was pooped so if she needed anything, she should ask daddy.

L: "But mommy, do you know why I always wake you up and not daddy?"
M: "Why?"
L: "Because you work from home three days a week and you always rub my back."

 My future accountant ... Working hard and creating receipts for me.

 Last week at dance class. She had just woken up from a nap and was NOT happy about being in class. She didn't really participate until the last 15 min of class.

 Adorable morning picture... She had just woken up and wanted to send daddy a "Happy Birthday" text message and picture.

 Dress rehearsal for dance. Fancy!!

 I just love this pose. She was feeling very fancy and was very excited to have daddy at rehearsal!

 When are we going to start??? (She has a tattoo on her face from a recent Valentine's Day party, btw.)

 Pooped after helping daddy shovel the deck.

 Suuuper pooped.

 Happy Valentine's Day!!

 Picture of my three babies, left to right - Layla, baby Sherman #2, and Hudson. :)

Making Valentine's Day cupcakes!!

Next up for the Sherman's: Finish home refinance, close on new house, start packing, baby arrival prep, belly pics, spring break. Whew.

House of Cards

Jake referred to our current situation with us buying the new house, renting our existing house, refinancing the existing house, having a baby and moving, as a "house of cards" last night. I thought it was the perfect analogy.

As usual, whenever something "big" happens for us, about two to three other big things just to happen to be taking place at the same time. And for us, it hasn't been easy things like winning the lottery and watching our bank account overflow, while winning a new car and having all of our debt cleared by winning some random sweepstakes. It's more so a barrage of big events happening all at once because we've worked our faces off to make the events happen, and they just so happen to be occurring, finally, all at once.

Needless to say, we're busy as shit and our heads are spinning. I honestly haven't really had a clue as to what day it is in weeks. At work, I had a pretty big campaign launch yesterday and someone mentioned it to me and it caught me totally off guard. "Shit! That did launch today didn't it!?" Glad I had all my ducks in a row for that launch in advance, and that the only thing I dropped the ball on was actually remembering that it was live.

So, the latest in our house of cards has been making our refinance on the Hartford house happen, and finding renters. Let's start with the refinance. Thankfully, we're working with Wells Fargo, and our mortgage guy is the same guy we worked with to buy the Hartford house 7 years ago, and, is someone I worked with about 8 years ago. So, he's "cool" and is someone I can be very frank with. Let's just say a few of our conversations have included some "hurry up" messages from me (poor guy). What needs to happen is this:  we need to complete the refi on the Hartford house before we complete the financing on the new house. That way, we won't have to bring anything to closing on the new house, since our current mortgage payment on what will eventually be referred to as our "income property" will go down. We haven't been given a firm date on when that refinance needs to be complete, thankfully. It's only been said that it needs to happen "asap". Uh, okay. So, once that happens, we'll finalize the financing on the new home, and from there, the seller has asked that she be given 60 days until we formally close. She has renters in the house and wants to give them ample time to vacate. So, as far as the refinance goes, we're in "hurry up and wait" mode now, and are at the mercy of the lovely processing folks at Wells.

Next, let's talk about finding renters. As many of you know, we've posted our rental ad on Craigslist. We have raised the rent by about $300 since the last time we went through this process and at first I thought that may have weeded out the "riff raff" in terms of the responders we were getting. I suppose, in a way, it has, but what we're seeing now is a good number of people who can afford to pay what we're asking (which, by the way, is likely more than it would be if someone just bought the home and paid the monthly mortgage, but apparently that's impossible for most these days) but these people have also botched their credit in some way, shape, or form. Foreclosures due to the market, loss of biz due to the market, etc. Really, not something we're judging people for at this time. I can honestly see  how things like that can happen to people and believe that everyone deserves a 2nd chance. However, that doesn't mean the people who are coming forward as interested potential renters aren't CRAZY. We've had some doozies come through this door - let's just say that. I'll save the stories for in person conversations for fear that some of these said crazy people track down my blog and read it. I wouldn't be surprised if one morning I walk out of my house and find one of them standing there, staring at me and asking why I said the things I did about them on  my blog. Then, they'd proceed to get down on their knees and beg for this house (no joke, everyone is pretty much begging for us to "pick them"). Very bizarre, to say the least. The good news is I think we'll be able to lock in renters before the 11th hour. The bad news is, that we are continuing to show and show and show the house, in an effort to find what seems like the most trustworthy, non-crazy, person.

The last time I asked for prayers, good juju, and positive energy on facebook, it worked. That same afternoon we received word that the seller of the home we had an offer in on, accepted our counter offer. So, I'm asking for more of the same - this time that our refinance goes through quickly, and that we find some truly honest, trustworthy, renters.

The next time I ask for your help will be when it's time to have the baby, then close on the house, then move.

Oh house of cards - please stay standing.

Counter offer is in...

It's been about a week since my last post - thanks Nan for the Facebook nudge to remind me to stay on top of this bad cat. ;) Since then, Jake completed the long anticipated Plymouth High School / Lakeshore Tech College Science and Tech Center Grand Opening. The event was uber impressive, with over 500 attendees from the community, local businesses, sponsors, state representatives, LTC execs, and I'm sure a slew of other important people that I'm neglecting to mention. But this isn't my acceptance / thank you speech, so I'll just leave it at that and hope the detail I've provided has served its purpose.

I was so proud of Jake and all the work he did to get make the Grand Opening a success. He's been working non-stop to help with this renovation since he was hired back in 2010, and despite my medical emergency, right at the start of his new career with PHS, he continued on while supporting me and helping me through recovery. It's been a long haul, and next on the agenda for the Sherman's is buying a house so that poor Jake can join us for dinner more than once a week and see Layla off to school in the a.m.'s.

With that said, we're now in the thick of it with the home buying process and have submitted an offer on a home in Greenbush (just outside of Plymouth). The seller has provided her counter offer, and we will be countering that offer tomorrow.

If you ask me, home offers should be handled like mediation - schedule a time where seller and buyer are available, get them into the same office where a mediator walks back and forth from the room the sellers are in to the room the owners are in, with offers and counter offers. I suppose, process as it stands today allows both parties ample time to "mull over" offers, but I'd rather hammer it all out in one day and call it done. The waiting game is excruciating and the response time that's given out of courtesy for people to review and contemplate offers only makes people second guess the numbers (depending on how you look at it, I suppose that could be a good or a bad thing).

In any event, the agency, coincidentally who employs both our buyer's agent and the selling agent (the owner of the agency) is working their tail off to make us all come to an agreement and close the deal. I'm thankful for that, and am now just hoping and praying that all our stars align over the next few days to make this happen.

If you have time, say a little prayer for us... Specifically, here's what we need to happen:

1) Seller to accept our latest counter offer
2) Seller to be on board with closing date of June
3) Financing to be approved (it pretty much is already, we just need to finalize and keep it within reason so the bank doesn't throw more money than we can afford at us)
4) Refinance on existing home to be approved (the same bank is working on a refi for us, to lower our payment which will help with #5)
5) Find a renter for our Hartford home (if our refi comes through, we'll be able to list the house at a more affordable monthly rent that might help us bring renters in)

So yeah, just a few important items that all need to fall perfectly into please. Need I explain why we need some prayers? ;)

Baby #2 Growing Strong

We had another ultrasound early last week (to monitor my alien fibroid) and got another look at stubborn baby girl. This time around, she wasn't as stubborn as she was at the 20 week ultrasound. We actually got a few shots of her profile and could see clear as day that she is in fact a GIRL. :)

All measurements came back normal, and the tech estimated that firecracker (that's what I'm calling her these days) was weighing in at about 2lbs. That's about where Layla was at the same time during my pregnancy with her, so I'd guess we're looking at another 8+ lb baby. We shall see.

Layla's still pretty excited about being a big sister. Lately, her interest is focusing on where the baby will sleep (she really wants to share a room with her) and where she'll go to school. She has also told me on a few occasions that she'd be willing to change diapers - even poopy ones. We'll see about that.

Here she is... making her debut on The Sherman Life blog:

Grocery shopping - worst task EVER

Grocery shopping. It's that necessary evil that we all have to do, regardless of how much it sucks goat balls. For as long as I can remember, I have HATED grocery shopping. I hate every last part of it. The idiots in the parking lot, the constant "beep, beep, beep" of the registers, the dirty floors, the dumb asses who act as if they've been abducted by aliens and planted unknowingly into a grocery store - completely unaware of how they got there or what they should do next, the prices, the smell, that empty spot on the shelf for the ONE thing you really need, oh, and the fact that my husband REFUSES to go.

This is what you get with my blog people - pure, unadulterated, honesty. So I'm not going to sugar coat things or bull shit you by telling you that my awesomely wonderful husband who makes me laugh on a daily basis and works his ass off REALLY pisses me off when it comes to grocery shopping and cooking. His brain is set on "that stuff is a woman's job" and I may need to pursue shock therapy to alter his thought process. In the mean time, I continue to do the dreaded task because if I don't, I shit you not, Jake wouldn't say a thing (I guess I can give him a plus one for never complaining when the refrigerator is bare and for never asking me to add something to the list). He'd just eat pb&j or apples with peanut butter for the rest of his life. If I want to provide the baby growing in my womb and the 4-year old that lives with us with some nutrients, it's on me to get my pregnant ass to the store, brave the idiots, and make the meals. I'm OVER it, but I'll continue to do it for the reasons previously mentioned. I also plan to invest in a taser gun and once I have it, I promise you Jake will be making more trips to the store.

One last thing about the grocery store that I have been wanting to solicit thoughts about for some time - What the HELL is up with Walmart greeters? Seriously? I mean come on. Seriously? Are they flipping necessary?? God bless us everyone, they are so creepy! As if I want some (excuse the generalization, but let's be honest) geriatric weirdo giving me weird eyes from the time the sliding doors open until I've walked past them and then suddenly hearing a booming, "Hello!" Which, let me say, is sometimes rattling and confusing - they often times wait until you've passed and then rattle off their battle cry, which makes me think someone is near me that actually knows me and wants to talk to me. Not the case. Just a geriatric doing their job. The other highly annoying part is if you walk past one of these drones to go put your cart away and then come back in for one reason or another (to go to the Redbox kiosk, or maybe get your husband from the line - insert loud, booming, laugh, as if he'd actually be in a store), only to leave through the same door. The robots will say "Hello!" to you again, even though they know you're just putting your damn cart away. And, they'll say, "Bye now!" over and over and over no matter how many times you've gone out and come back.

Walmart - save yourself some overhead and can the robots. Use that money to clean the floors and put a white noise machine in so I don't have to listen to the "beep, beep, beep".

Thanks.

Conversation #3 with Layla: Booger Machine

Good Lord, I remembered conversation #3 (see post below)! It just came to me out of nowhere! Looks like my short-term memory might be getting better (1 year and 3 months after brain surgery).

Here's the story, followed by the conversation:

Recently, I dug out Layla's Vick's humidifier for her room. She's been sporting the sexy winter boogers that are usually a cross between dust, pebbles and blood. Poor thing. When I put the humidifier in her room, she was naturally curious.
Layla: "What is that thing, mommy?"
Me: "It's a booger machine."
Layla: "A booger machine?"
Me: "Yes, in the winter your boogers get dry and hard and they get stuck, so this machine will help to melt your boogers or will make them go away so mommy doesn't have to try to get your icky boogs out for you."
Layla: "Oh! That's great!"

Since then, she's been very enthusiastic about turning the booger machine on every night before bed. Just a few days ago, she said to me, "Mommy, I told Miss Christy (teacher) that she should really get a booger machine for her room. I told her it'll help melt her boogers and make her nose feel better."

When I asked what Miss Christy said to that, Layla said, "She said she'd look into it."

I might have to explain to Miss Christy that a booger machine is a humidifier.

Conversations with Layla

1. While a rerun of Glee played on t.v. (Madonna episode, so yes, very fitting for a 4-year old), "Like a Prayer" grabbed Layla's attention. She stared at the t.v. for a minute or two and said, "Mama, are they singing a blessing?" My response: "Um, yeah, I suppose you could call it a blessing." Amen Madonna. Amen.

2. Layla likes it when I swaddle her stuffed animals in her blankets. She asked me this morning to wrap her Hudson animal (like I need to explain this, but it's her stuffed puppy that looks just like Hudson). As I was wrapping it:
  Layla: "No mom, wrap his whole body."
  Me: "Don't you want me to leave his head out so he can breath?"
  Layla: "No mom! He's not real! He's a stuffed animal!"
Jeez. So much for using my imagination. I didn't realize she was 14 already.

3. Pregnancy brain has captured this loving, hystarical memory. It's gone. I only remember reminding myself that there were 3 funny stories I wanted to share. Shit the bed. Let's see how long it takes for that final converation to resurface - and man, it was a good one too (is it ironic that I remember it was really good and funny, but don't remember a thing about the conversation itself?).