Christmas APPROACHING !!!!!

Christmas IS really around the corner. I can't believe how fast it is approaching until our first Christmas Party at my FIL's place last night. With the gift exchanging and the delicious meal that my Step MIL served, it hit me with "Wow, just 4 more days and it's Christmas !!!" And we have not even complete our Christmas shopping yet... guess it's going to be another mad rush this weekend. Thank Goodness during our 1st round of Christmas shopping, Paul didn't misbehave and protest to the shopping list that Sommer gave us or it'll really be blood all over the mall. I hope on our 2nd round of Christmas shopping, he'll be well behave too.

1st Christmas party came and went in a flash and it was a great party ! With hosts and invited guests such as my FIL, my step MIL, my step sister (who is my Step MIL's daughter), my step MIL's mother, Kristie's family (my ex-SIL) which includes her current husband, Kristie's 3 beautiful girls. I must admit when I saw her 3 yr old running around, I do have the sudden urge to have one myself. Hmmm... need to erase such thought for now. Anyway back to the guest list, then we have the always fun-loving Sommer and her superb funny husband - Pete and our family, it is impossible to spoilt a fun party. Yah, I reckon some of you are confused by the guest list by now hahaha

Another great party that I am looking forward to is the Christmas Eve party at Sommer's place. One thing for certain, Sommer never disappoint me when she's throwing a party. She always have the theme, the deco and the food all incredibly plan and set-up. I mean gosh, she had proved her party throwing skills during the Halloween Party and I am still spell bound by the deco and the food she prepared. Yah, I am super excited about this party. I remember the last Christmas Party she threw and it was splendid. I didn't pay too much attention to the deco or the food then cause it was my first Christmas Party with Paul's family and I'm still wrapped up and a wee bit of intimidated with everyone's presence. So this time I'll definately pay more attention to everything that's happening around me. Oh, my MIL have arrive safely in Florida from her drive from North Carolina. I am very glad and relief that she arrived safely.

Oh, Paul is off on Sat, Sun, Mon and Tues. That is 4 solid days straight for us to spend with each other. I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing but I am wishing on my pinkie toe that we'll not slaughter and rip off each other's neck during this period.

UPDATE ON HOUSE - Many of you have wrote to me pertaining to the status of the house. Well, due to some reasons, we have changed our Mortage Company from the Builder's own to our Realtor's Mortage Office. As we just swap the company on Monday and with the holiday season approaching, we're most likely to hear from them in 2 weeks time. So meantime we're still praying and waiting. Pray for us too.....

Incase I never get the opportunity to update my blog during this period, I hereby wish everyone a MERRY MERRY CHRISTMAS !!!! Loads of Love and Kisses from my family to yours =) CHEERSSSSSSSS !!!!!!!!!!

I'm back...

Hi Folks,

Apologies for not updating my blogs for the past couple of days. There have been some major turbulance and intense hickup during this period but thanks to Sommer, the wave had died down.... and she have saved the dreadful situation.

Anyway, back to now.... Yes, we're still waiting on the status of the house but because we have some issue with the builder's mortage division, we have decided to change and apply mortage with our Realtor's company instead. So now the ball is on our Realtor's court and hopefully we can hear some of his progress by coming Monday.

Another on the "To-do-list" is the Chrismas shopping. Yah, I admit I or we have been rather sluggish with this project. Honestly, it's not a project/mission that I look forward to especially my shopping buddy, consultant and reassurance buddy is my husband - Paul. His answer and solution for gifts to all ages and all sexes are breakdown as follows :-

For Man = T-shirts or Shorts
For Woman = Home Decoration items or Candles
For Teenagers = again, T-shirts

Seriously, I even wonder if he had even heard or been exposed to the term of "Catering to individual needs".

Again, my saviour, my SIL - Sommer had saved my day and gave me a superb and detailed list of every individual family member's preference and likes. Yes, NO MORE running around in the mall like a headless chicken, NO MORE wondering and self questioning of "Would they like it ? Would they use it ? or Why the hell did I even buy this for them to begin with ?"

Hopefully, my stubborn/rebellious husband will stick to the list or I assure you, there'll be blood splattering all over the mall and the News Headline would read "Wife break Husband's neck in Mall with her own bare hands".

Regardless, have a splendid weekend & May the force be with us or rather Me ! =)

Mondayyyyyyy

IT'S OVER !!! Nagara Falls had stopped flowing after 2 days of mad dash. YES, I do get lucky once in a while.

It's Monday, the beginning of another week of waiting for the Mortage Office and I wonder how much longer it's going to take. Strange as it seems, the Sales Office advised us that we can look forward to move in either by last week of Dec 07 or 1st week of Jan 08 and already we're on 2nd week of Dec and I can't help but wonder "Hmm... it's just going to another week to get all these waiting to be done and over with ????!!!"

Beside waiting for the news on the house, I'm also counting down to Feb 08. YESSSSS !!!! My ultimate plan to return back to Singapore in mid Feb 08. Another 2 more months to go and it's back to Singapore soil. I can't believe that I've been in the US for about a yr now... Just last Christmas, I was spending Christmas at Paul's mother's place in North Carolina and now I address her as my MIL. How insane is that ???!!!

Oh, before I even think about Singapore, I'm excited that Christmas is just around the corner. YES !!! Another party at my SIL - Sommer's house is something for me to be excited about cause she always throw some great party with the yummy-licious food that come along. Did I mentioned that my MIL is coming down from North Carolina to be here with all of us ??!! Yah, that'll be double the fun. How weird is it for me to be looking forward to spend time with my SIL and MIL. I know some of my friends hate the thought of even being near their in-laws and the husband's side of the family. But for me, it always promise some good, fun time with them.

Yah, with my behaviour, my insane way of thinking and speech power, my mom still pray that I will get along well with my in-laws and SIL.

My stand is "I rather get whipped for being the person that I am than to be worship for being the person that I'm not".

Friday...

It's been 2 days since the last I heard from the Mortage Lady. I reckon she must have got everything she wanted and needed from us that's why she had stop harrassing us ??!!

CURRENT STATUS OF HOUSE : Not Sure. Still waiting for the process of the documents and approval from the mortage department. Presume she/they're still working on it.

CURRENT MISSION : Still praying. Fingers and toes a little sore and deform from all the crossing but figure it'll all worth it at the end of the day.

CURRENT EMOTION : Still pacing and walking around in circles and wonder when we can hear from the Mortage office.

CURRENT MOOD LEVEL OF GOD'S : Reckon he have "had it" with my praying and want a break and some peace from me and also "speechless" about my questions of "When, How much longer and again When".

It's friday and that means weekend is less than 24hrs away. Something to be excited about cause I can spend some time with Paul, to harrass and torment him for 2 days straight. Something not that exciting - my "Auntie Mary" paid a visit yesterday and she brought along her sister "Auntie Lucy" with her and I mean it's double impact and double intense heavy flow... yah, imagine Nagara Falls in me....

P/S : Tricia, we've used the term "Auntie Mary" our entire life and I realised that we're the constant victims of heavy, double duty, "pipes bursting" type of flow. I like to think that "Auntie Mary" came with her Sister which explains the double impact. But Paul think that "Auntie Mary" brought her entire family with her.

I think we need to come up with a name for "Auntie Mary"'s sister. Somehow the name "Auntie Lucy" popped into my head. Give me a suggestion or some funky name that come to your head hahahaha

PP/S : Yah, all the waiting is making me looooooney !

More,more,more .....

It's Day 4 since we signed the contract for the house and every single day the Mortage office requires new information from us and it's driving us bonkers.

On Monday, they wanted a Cashier's Cheque for USD1500 from us as "good faith" or deposit. Then on Tuesday, they rang us and wanted to talk to our current Landlord and check about our rental history and payments, if we're "problem-free" tenants and if we were ever late on our rent. The biggest relief is despite Paul's face-off with our landlord, they parted peacefully thus I assume she'll give us a good reference. Moreover, since we're buying a new house directly from the Builder, there's no need for a Realtor anyway, thus she's not that sore that we didn't go directly to her for her service. Another plus is that we've never cause any chaos nor trouble for her and we're always on time with our rent and at times even a few days eariler.

When we thought that would be an end to it all, today the Mortage office tracked us down again and wanted Paul's Bank transaction for the past 6 months. I mean, will they ever stop or perhaps make a list of all the necessary items required from us rather than making a daily call and cause us running around in circles ??? INEFFICIENT is the word I used to describe their system. Regardless, Paul submitted a full 12 months of his Bank transaction to them and hopefully it will put them to rest. But NO ! 30 mins late, they wanted a bank statement from me as well since I'm a Co-Owner... arrrggghhhh, this is truly frustrating.

So a few hours ago, I've printed out my financial statement and I am also required to write them a letter informing them I am a Co-Owner and have sufficient funds for the house should we ever require it.

As advised by our Realtor at the current stage now, it's a 99.9% chance that the house is ours. I mean it better be, after everything we've done and the harrasment we've received and the running around we've done. =P

I am super impatient and edgy to close the house now cause of the mortage interest rate. So far, we had paid 3 visits to the Sales Office and each time, the mortage interest rate had plunge. On our first visit, it's 6.75%, on our 2nd visit, it's 6.5% and last Sat, it had hit a bottom low of 6% !!! Even the Sales Officer who worked with the Company for 15 years told us he had never seen it plunge to 6% before.

Apparently the mortage interest rate used to changes weekly but due to the current slum of the property prices and the drastic decrease on property demands, the interest rate changes on daily basis. If we can log in at 6%, we would be estastic but if it slip to the 5% range, I am certain that Paul would be smiling in his sleep and throw in a few giggles as well.... But before we can get that far, I just hope the Mortage office will put an end to their request for documents and start working fast !!!

I've read on the Financial/Property News that currently all Builders are aiming to close their inventory/new houses by end of Dec to boost their final sales quota for the entire year. Thus they are doing everything in their power to reduce the cost of the houses to attract more buyers. Should the buying trend increase, that will indirectly lead to a demand in mortage loan which will also push a rise on the mortage interest. Well, it's kind of a chain reaction ... *sigh*

Reckon there's nothing much we can do now but to pray that the Mortage Office speed up their process and hopefully we can have a very low and good interest rate ! =)

Face Off

For the purchasing of our new house, we've jumped all the hurdle that came our way and now it's the Mortage Office's turn to process the necessary documentations. As advised, we'll hear something from them by end of this week. Yes, I'm still keeping my fingers and toes crossed until the Closing Date.

The next dragon to slaughter is our Bitchy landlord. Some of you may have read about my downpour on her bitch comments and "mean-ness" when I informed her 60 days in advance to my lease due and gave her advance notice that there's a possibility that we'll be leaving 1 month earlier than our lease due. But all she had for me was sacarstic comments and remarks. Thus yesterday Paul paid her a visit in her office and give it to her hardcore. Hahahahahaah

Conclusion : She'll let us out eariler than our lease due with no penalty wooohoooo ! Again, I discovered the advantage and benefits of having a husband -"Volunteering" him to do all the dirty work ! Hahahah Paul's victory is a good news for us and our Realtor. Despite the fact that our Realtor is inefficient but he is still sweet in his own way. After knowing about my encounter with our landlord, he volunteered to pay for our Feb's rent if our bitchy landlord doesn't allow us to end our lease eariler, very sweet of him huh.

For now, it's back to the waiting game...I can't wait for this to be over and done with !

I've WON the Battle !!!

Groundhog Day is finally OVER !!! Yes, we finally signed the contract for the house today ! Yippieeeeee !!!!! I can't even begin to describe and express my relief. I said it right, not excitement but 100% relief.

After weeks and weeks of countless and numberous prep talk, counselling sessions, confidence boost, encouragement, reasurrance, evulating and listing the benefits of being a homeowner, analysing the property trend and its market supply, emphasizing the importance of owning an asset, the roller coaster ride with Paul is finally OVER !!!

Since the day we began our house hunt, I have been battling with him and I need to point out, it's a NON STOP battle, so much so that yesterday I decided to simply throw in the towel and admit defeat as it appears to be a losing battle and I am totally drained and exhausted from reasoning facts and truth to this Alien from Mars (that's what I like to call him when I can't drill sense into him). Just when I was about to declare the withdrawl of my troops and switch into my meditation mode, Paul miraculously woke up from his idea or I would rather call it "coma" and arrange for the realtor to have the house contract signed today.

I know that some of you folks have been praying very hard for us to get this house and all the additional strength for me to fight this battle with Paul. So I hereby THANK YOU for your praying and prayers. =)

Yes, Phase 1 - signing the contract for the house is over and that's step one closer towards the end of the tunnel. Now we're marching to Phase 2 - Submitting our Mortage Loan Application which we're shooting for next week. After the submission of the Loan Application, we will sit back, cross our fingers and toes for approximately 3-4 weeks before all the paperwork is processed, done and approval notice is given.

Roughly during this period, we will also be advised of the Closing Date, giving us the concrete date when this ordeal is over and keys be handed over to us. That's when we can pop the champage and announced that we are proud owners of our first home which hopefully we can call it heaven.

Well, as advised by the Sales Office, if everything runs smoothly as planned, we'll be expected to move our happy butt into our new place by last week of Dec 07 or 1st week of Jan 08.

For now, I'm STILL keeping my fingers crossed until the day we get our keys.

P/S : To my Support Pillars: My blood sisters - Tricia and Cecilia, my sister by marriage - Sommer and my MIL, I hereby express my utmost and sincere gratitude to all of you for willingly allowing me to rob your ears of peace and quiet by letting me download all my frustration, anger and praying with me and for me during this rough roller coaster ride. Without you gals as my target board for my frustration bullets and anger roars, seriously, I don't think I can get this far. So here's all the hugs and kisses that I have and can give all of you ! **** HUGGIES AND KISSES**** WOOOHOOOOO !!!!!!!!