Buying a House Sucks and Other News

Well, I haven't "worked out" since I did that plank/burpees workout three days ago. This is the first day I've woken up since then that I didn't have to roll out of bed because my stomach muscles hurt so badly. I have done some active stuff though, for instance spending an hour up in a 100 degree attic yesterday and sweating at least a cup of calories out. It's funny how you can burn calories by doing nothing but being hot. Then I ended up spending lunch and dinner eating 4 pieces of gut-globbing cheesy pizza though--yea me.

This is Tuesday of my last week as an unemployed person, and believe me I am excited about it. I kindof hate being unemployed, because it makes me feel kinda useless to society. On the other hand, it's been great being with the kids so much. I guess I haven't been with them this consistently since they were newborns. We have a nice rhythm going, and they are enjoying Summertime almost as much as kids on Sesame Street. They play outside from the time their neighbor friend gets up (which is shockingly late) 'till we force them to come in at night. We go swimming, they eat popsicles and ice cream, they go visit the strange, single neighborhood grown-up man (just kidding, they don't do that).

So anyway, buying a house sucks. Shew, I don't even know if I want to go into it now. Long story short:

1. in Early June, we found a house we wanted in Charleston
2. some people wanted to buy our house, we went under contract
3. next day we put in an offer on the Charleston house
4. a week later, found out the people can't buy our house- can't get the loan
5. we're still under contract on Charleston house, contingent that our house sells first
6. ..like, within the next week and a half
7. ...which isn't possible
   

So our only hope of getting that house now are to 1. get under contract on our house ASAP, and 2. get the relocation company that owns the Charleston house to give us another month to close on their house, without adding 1.5% to the cost, which is what they want to do. Needless to say, we're working on back-up plans. The main thing is, we really want the kids to start school in the city and district that we'll be living in. We're trying to find out if we can rent a place in Charleston if needs be. Maybe we could even rent the house we plan to own... we'll see. It's all a crazy mess, and one thing we've learned is that real estate agents suck. They are never working for our best interests, only their own. I mean, that's what people do naturally I know, but you expect people to go against their nature a little bit to help you out when you hire them to do it. 

We're hopeful that something is going to work out. I mean, something will definitely work out, but we don't know when or what it'll be. It's a hard place to be, but people are in much harder places than this. We're trusting that God has a great plan for us, and we will be as patient as we can while we wait to see what it is. 

My Life Lately

I really have to learn to write in this "journal" even when there is only mediocre progress to report. One thing I've learned about myself recently: I am very hard on myself. It's hard for me to look at maintaining, getting by, and keeping the kids alive for the day as positive. I feel like I have to go beyond, excel, and make sure the kids had fun and are worn out for the day to be positive. I know the truth, but I have to work on teaching myself to be satisfied.

My progress since last visit (in mid-May):

1. I've continued to maintain my weightloss
2. My kids haven't killed each other or been seriously maimed while I've stayed home to watch them
3. I continue to eat a lot of healthy foods
4. I got a J-O-B!

Haven't done so well on the exercise, which has been getting me a little down in the dumps lately. This is the first year since 2010 that I haven't done any 5k's at all. Last year I didn't do one 'till August, so I still have time, but I'm not sure I really want to. Okay, I do want to be able to run 3.1 miles, and I'd love to do it in a group early on a Saturday morning and whatnot... just not sure I want to run 3x a week for several weeks to get to that point. We'll see. Things are about to change in my life once again as I start my new job, and eventually get moved to a new city. 

Our routine right now is that Bryan gets up early to commute one hour to work, and I stay home with the kids. It's been that way since my previous job ended back in mid-June. Honestly, the prospect of being home with the kids scared the crap out of me, and some days have been pretty hard. Some days have been great though, especially the ones where we do something exciting like go to the pool. The hard days are when I try really hard to get something important done, like work on  contracts and documents having to do with attempting to buy a new house.

The house-buying hasn't gone so great, but not by any fault of ours. We were approved for a bigass loan, which is great, and we got a contract on the house we want to buy, which is great, but what isn't so great is the people who wanted to buy our house didn't get their loan. So now we're stuck. We need the considerable down payment that will come from selling our house in order to buy the next house. No two ways about that, and now we have to wait and see if it's going to still be possible to get the house we really want and currently have locked up in a contract that runs out at the end of this month.

This week I realized that if I continued not to exercise, it was going to continue to wreak havoc on my mood. Two days ago I had an awful day. I loaded around all day and ate really crappy stuff. By the end of the day I was just so done with dealing with anything anymore, and I knew all of it was attributable to the way I felt about myself for not exercising lately. Yesterday I woke up and mowed the grass in the  morning, which is a great workout and makes the yard look great. Subsequently, I had a great day. Felt great, ate well, and even logged my food for the day. Today, I took my own advice and started my day with a workout of plank, mountain climbers, and burpees. I will also incorporate some more activity into the rest of my day, and log my food for the day.

So, that's where I've been lately. I'll be back tomorrow, and let you know how today went.