Flying solo

The Big D has taken over my house. E checked in last Wednesday morning, and they told him he would be on a plane later that day. 18 hours later he arrived in Japan. I have been dealing with all the house drama, and little kid drama. Meeghan has decided that she must start throwing temper tantrums and will only eat dairy. I was happy today because she ate two bites of pasta and some salsa before throwing her lunch on the floor. Meeghan is a daddy's girl and I know she misses him. Yesterday she was confusing the thunder with the sound of the garage. She would run to the kitchen yelling, "Daddy!" and waiting for him to walk through the door. Hannah doesn't seem to care much. She says she misses him, but she told me we can do stuff without him so it is fine. She is a bit more obnoxious than normal, but nothing too out of the ordinary. We have been able to Skype with him a few times, and I think that is helping. Thank goodness he will be home this summer so it is a short deployment. He lucked out joining his squadron when they are at the end of the deployment.

The house situation is slowly moving along. The inspection has been completed. My financing was almost turned down because we didn't have enough to cover closing. I was freaking out because I thought the seller agreed to pay closing costs. My agent said she was going to put that in the contract and forgot. She said since it was her mistake she was going to cover closing (or most of it) with her commission. I feel bad because I should have caught it when I was signing the paperwork. We didn't sign until after the deal had been made, and so I don't know if that would have changed anything. Lesson learned. Ask to see a hard copy before a digital copy is sent. My agent is doing all digital copies and e-signatures which did make it difficult to read because it kept sending me to the signature box, but I am guessing I could have forced it allow me to read it. Either way, I think we will be okay.

Whirlwind

It has been a crazy week. A week ago we were pre-approved for a mortgage loan. We quickly found an agent, looked online, and then looked at homes. We saw nine houses one day, and three the next. By Friday night we made an offer on a house. They accepted the offer Saturday night, and now we are waiting on inspection. It wasn't exactly what we wanted, but it had more pros than cons and it was the right price. We saw a beautiful house that I fell in love with, but it was at the very top of our budget so we ruled it out. We are moving to the other side of the river here in Jacksonville so life will be different. We don't usually leave our little slice of suburbia, but by moving across the river I think we will be able to explore more of the city.

The other news is E checked in this morning and was told he should be leaving some time this week. His orders said he didn't need to check in until June, but he decided to do it now because he didn't want to take leave just to sit around the house. Since they weren't expecting his this soon they did not have a flight scheduled. I guess they will take care of that, and then he will be on his way to Japan. He should be back before we have to leave the rental so he can help with the moving. I am feeling a bit stressed knowing that I will be going through the inspection and closing process alone again. I bought a house in 2009 while he was in Iraq. I sold the house while he was at OCS. I am assuming that when we decide to sell this new house he will be away somewhere. There are benefits to a military lifestyle, but some days it is very hard for me to see it.

So, now I start to purge our stuff so I don't shuffle it to the next house. I still need to get rid of all the baby stuff. I was going to take it to a consignment store and donate other stuff, but we have been considered a garage sale. Decisions, decisions.

A jumbled post

I had every intention of sitting down this past weekend to write about my feelings on Mother's Day. It never happened. Somehow the weekend slipped away from me. I don't really celebrate Mother's Day, but I wanted to write about my mom. Hopefully soon I can sit down to write about what life has been like the past ten years since she passed away.

In other news, this past weekend was a bit hectic. E finished his FRS training which means he enters the fleet next week. His assigned squadron is currently on deployment in Japan, but are scheduled to come home this summer. We know nothing about what will happen to him so we are planning on him leaving. He could leave as early as Tuesday, or maybe not even go at all. He checks into the squadron on Monday so I am hoping they will tell him something.

On top of all the deployment talk, the property manager called to say that we need to supervise our dogs at all times while they are in the yard because they are destroying the property. If they find any more holes, they will ask us to get rid of them according to the pet addendum. It is true that Rowdy dug around the foundation which the insurance company didn't like. We have fixed it, but then the property manager had his "handymen" fix it as well. They undid all we did so Rowdy dug a small hole again, and they saw it. His workers showed up unannounced and walked right into my backyard. (This is not the first time they have done that.) We fired back saying  you need to give us 12 hours notice that is stated in the lease. After that hole is when they warned us. It was a tiny hole that she had dug that morning, and I hadn't been able to get out to fill it. Basically, we have had it. We were going to live here until early 2015, but we decided to get the heck out of the house. We weren't happy about the condition of the house when we moved in, and I can see that they are out for money. We decided to apply for a mortgage loan again. We tried last summer before moving here, but E's credit was too low. He never thought to apply jointly with me. My credit score is higher, but I have no income. This time we decided to try jointly, and we were approved. Yay! It was a relief. We know we can find a house since we aren't too picky. We have about 8 weeks to find a house, close, and move. This could all take place while E is gone, but I have bought and sold a house while he has been away so I think I can handle it. We have already narrowed down our search to nine homes. Let's hope we can look at them this week and start this process.

Catching up (picture heavy)

We don't really celebrate Easter, but I do let Hannah color eggs and then she hunts for them. We took the girls to two egg hunts and then they had one at home. I don't have much to say about the day so I will let the pictures say it for me.

Oh, we also took a day trip to the Magic Kingdom and guess who we finally met?

We finally met the elusive Anna and Elsa. You can now use a fastpass to meet them which is what we did. We did not wait 3.5 hours. We waited about 10 minutes. Elsa was very sweet to Hannah. They were discussing what it is like to be a big sister. We also ate lunch at Be Our Guest (also used a fastpass). I loved it. I can't wait to eat dinner there in June. 

Mother vs Daughter

Things around here have been tough. I feel like I am failing every day. Yesterday, I almost walked out of the house because I couldn't take it. I didn't because I had to watch the girls, but I was done with everything. Hannah and I are having a tough time. She is very stubborn. She is very opinionated. We are butting heads constantly, and I have no clue how to stop it. I have tried talking to her, I have tried giving her options, time out, yelling, taking away privileges, and even bribery. It feels like I am banging my head against a brick wall every day with her. I cried last night after I put her to bed because I was relieved I wouldn't have to deal with her attitude for another 10 hours. I am ashamed to admit it, but I was glad she was in bed. I was glad I didn't have to fight with her anymore. Getting her to do anything turns into an ordeal. Even eating a meal is tiresome. I know this is pretty normal for her age, but I feel like other moms know how to handle these situations perfectly while I am frazzled beyond belief. A few weeks ago as we were leaving the dentist, she ran away from me. She stayed on the sidewalk, thankfully, but she would not stop. I was holding Meeghan so I couldn't really run. I had to walk briskly while yelling for her to stop. Out of sheer frustration, I told her I was going to leave and she could stay at the office. It was then that she stopped and came back to me. I have been told that after they turn four, their behavior does get better. I hope it is true. Although I have another one that has definitely entered the terrible twos so I get to do this all over again. Despite her attitude and behavior, she did melt my heart last night when she thanked me for doing all the laundry in the house. Deep down inside my sweet girl still exists. I can't wait to see her again.

Let's Do This!

Today was the day that passholders can register early for the Disney World Marathon weekend. At noon, you could start registering. E and I decided to wait until his orders came through just in case the Navy changed its mind about his squadron. He came home at 12:05 with orders in his hand. I quickly jumped on the computer. E is registered to do the Goofy Challenge (half marathon Saturday and full marathon on Sunday.) I am terrified to say I am registered for the full marathon. My hand was shaking as I hit submit, and then I about crapped myself when I saw the amount of money we owed for the races. Then I went back to shaking because let's face it, 26.2 miles is a very long distance. Even though I am so scared to run those miles, I have found myself checking into the local marathons. We'll see in 9 months if I want to do another one.

Do I dare?

Now that I know (or most likely know) that E will be home next January, I started considering registering for the Disney World Marathon. I told myself that I would never run a marathon. Never. Although a few weeks ago I started thinking about it. I know that I wouldn't be able to train for one with E gone. I just don't have the support system here to put in the long runs needed to train. However, if he is going to be home I don't have that excuse. He is definitely going to do it. He wants redemption after this year's fiasco. I go back and forth over registering. One day I tell myself to go for it. I need to do at least one just to try it. Disney is great because there are so many distractions, and people are there to have fun. Then the next day I tell myself there is no way in hell I want to run that many miles. Of course this all depends on orders which still haven't been cut. Early registration for annual passholders is Wednesday. Hopefully I have it all figured out by then.