Happy Birthday finis

Happy Birthday - design by Blackbird Designs

32 count Silkweaver's Purely Primitive

Recommended overdyed floss

I finished up Happy Birthday yesterday. Almost half way! Next up Swan Lake. I really like that one. It's a good thing I'm taking a little break however, I pulled my floss for it last night and was missing a couple. Need to call Drema. :-)

Those of you in the US enjoy your long weekend! I have no plans except to play with the dogs and a little lawn work here at my parents house. I'm hoping to get to the new house at some point on Sunday so I can get a time estimate from one of my brothers on how long the repairs will take. Then I can safely book how much time I need with my realtor as he needs to be there while I'm there.

so close!

I'll finish up Happy Birthday on my way home from work tonight. Yeah! They a new start for me.

I don't mean to sound so negative about the seller (and thanks for the nice supportive comments! you guys are great). But I do see things from such a different side. When the banks were giving away mortgages without proper checks at 110% percent of the hugely inflated property values I walked away. I didn't drink the coolaid. I waited and saved and waited more. And I finally can buy a home the right way. So while I really feel for this family who is loosing their home, where were the people they trusted telling them maybe this was not such a good idea? I'm not responsible for their bad choices. I'm actually part of the solution for them and for the market in general.

But I did hear some hopefully good news - the seller is planning on moving next week and I should be able to get in the house and make the changes I needed to make before the FHA Inspector comes back. Cross your fingers that the place doesn't get trash on the sellers way out. It's always something. :-(

where does the time go?

I'm almost finished with Happy Birthday. As soon as it's off my hoop and ironed, I'm going to put it away for a little bit and start on the three part mystery from With Thy Needle and Thread. I'm all ready to start. But I think it's smart to at least finish the block I'm working from Anniversaries from the Heart.

I'm still working my house in Gurnee and it's been so up and down I can't stand it. Late last week I received notice that Bank of America said my offer was the correct amount and miracle of miracles on Monday they approved my short sale! Not two hours after finishing my happy dance I received a call from my agent. The seller is despondent over losing his house (which by the way he has been living in for three years without making a mortgage payment) and has decided not to make the five fixes that FHA has required before they will approve my loan that he agreed to do five weeks ago (shame on my agent for not getting it in writing). So now I'm back to scrambling. I have asked if the seller will clear out for one weekend day so I can go in and make the fixes myself so I can get my loan. They are small - so small as to be ridiculous - but they must be made. I figure they will cost less than $100 for all five and take only a day. Mostly scraping some pealing paint and some repainting of the outside window trims and deck. One bathtub handle needs to be replaced and two electrical outlets need to be switched to GFI outlets. The fence in the backyard needs a few boards replaced. That is it! But FHA is holding all the cards and I don't have enough money for a down payment to go with a conventional loan. I haven't heard anything yet and once again I'm being held hostage and no idea what is going to happen. I just want a house! How hard can this be? And the reality is I'm helping the seller out by doing the short sale - he is avoiding a foreclosure which will be reflected on his credit for 10 years! The short sale falls off after 3 or 4 years. And he won't be evicted - he can move out in an orderly fashion. If you had small children like he has, what would you do? I just don't get it.

a good weekend

I started to work on Happy Birthday this week. I was totally going to put this aside and work on a WIP but when I went to pull out my stack of WIPs I discovered that I had packed them! And now since I'm not moving best case until mid-July, I think I need to find what box they are in and pull them out. I really need a change for a couple of weeks.

The pugs and I had a great agility trial. Once again our Q (qualifying) rate was low and it totally doesn't really represent how good Clancy and Aoife are doing. Clancy went 1 for 6 for the weekend and it was just really small things keeping us out of the money. His excellent jumpers runs are amazing and he is really into the game. Aoife has only been doing Jumpers for the past few trials because I still can't get her to focus on a standard course and there is no point in paying to have her run around and bark at me but she too is running great, super fast jumper courses.

Here is Aoife poising with her first place Open Jumpers ribbon which was also enough for her Open Jumpers title. She is now in Excellent A Jumpers and is running the same jumpers courses that Clancy is.

Clancy qualified in Excellent B Jumpers on Saturday with an 8th place finish. Good for a pug but not his best time of the weekend. He dropped the triple on Friday and Sunday and either finish would have placed him in at least 6th place which is amazing when it's all said and done for a pug.

Next weekend we have another trial and then I'm taking a bit of a break to save some money for the move. Or at least I'm still hoping I will have a move planned. It's all in the hands of Bank of America at this point. That's the sellers lender. I only gave them 60 days to decide whether or not to approve the short sale to me. My attorney advised 90 days but I didn't want to lose the entire summer in case they ultimately voted against me. The stress is getting to me. I so want to move now! :-) And then I can be really broke but it's a good broke as it's for my house and making it just the way I want it.

Farm House finis

Farm House - design by Blackbird Designs

36 count Silkweavers Purely Primitive

recommended overdyed cotton floss

Another one bites the dust! I so wanted to work on something else (I'm really bored with this color palette) but I didn't have time last night to pull something else together. I should have just grabbed one of my many WIPS but I didn't think of that either until just now. :-)