Under Contract!!!

After a bit of negotiation, we have officially gone under contract for our house.  We are now waiting for the inspection, which has been scheduled in a couple days, and also for their FHA appraisal.

We were a bit leery to accept the offer in the beginning because of some of the stories that we'd heard concerning FHA appraisers, who can be very nit-picky at times.  If you're not familiar, FHA is federal insurance on a mortgage.  FHA looks out for themselves by making sure that the house appraises for the price that the buyer has agreed to pay, and as I said, can be super nit-picky.  The biggest issue is that FHA requires that anything they say needs to be done (like paint chipping on the exterior or interior) has to be completed before settlement for them to go through with the loan, unlike with a conventional mortgage, where items can be negotiated, and money can be given at the settlement table for items to be completed.  We can still negotiate the items with the buyer as to who pays for what, but in the end, it still must be completed before settlement

In the end, we decided to accept the offer because if FHA comes back with a long list of items, we can either say, we'll pay for a couple, and they can pay for some, or there's too much that FHA says needs to be done, and the deal can be done.  We're hoping that there won't be much, if anything that needs to be done.  So now we must wait for inspection to be done, and for the appraisal to be set up.  We are supposed to have the completed mortgage package by next Friday, which would be awesome because then we'd be able to put in an offer on a house.  Until we're in the "waiting for settlement" stage, we're stuck "looking but not touching" houses on the market.  

We're even more anxious now, because a house just went on the market, and we went to see it yesterday.  Both my husband and I got that "I'm home" feeling from it.  It had a gorgeous property, a nice big driveway, a big garage, and plenty of space for us to live in!  The best part is, it's a vacant property, and if all goes well with inspections, we'll be going to settlement on our house in the beginning of September, so we could potentially get a settlement date right around ours to move into this house!  So fingers crossed that everything works out for us :-)

The decision to move

I mentioned in my first post about having our house up for sale.  We made the decision to move from our current home for several reasons.  

One reason is that we would like to move out of the town in which my husband works.  He is a police officer, and we currently live in town.  We'd like to move out of town to help remove some of the potential awkwardness of dad being an embarrassment at school at some point, or the potential for him to have a run-in with either a friend of the girls, or *GASP* one of the girls themselves!  That would not be much fun at all.

Another reason is that we're considering the possibility of expanding our family, and we'll need more space than we currently have.  We are currently in a 3 bedroom house, and are still considering 3 bedroom houses (although 4 would be more ideal), with the possibility of putting an edition on to the house at some point to create another bedroom.  We'd thought of doing that to our current house, but we've decided that it would be best to move out of the town that we currently reside in.

Nursemaid's Elbow

I have 2 children, both girls, both under the age of 4.  They are a lot of fun, and are definitely bundles of energy.  They're also very independent and free-spirited, so getting them to cooperate is an accomplishment to say the least hehe!  

So how does this relate to nursemaid's elbow you may ask?  Or, you might be scratching your head at nursemaid's elbow in general.  I'll first explain what nursemaid's elbow is, and then I will explain how it relates to my spirited children.

Nursemaid's elbow is a common ailment that young children, especially those between the ages of 1-4, suffer from.  Not only is the age range key here, but for some reason, girls seem to suffer from it more often then boys, and it tends to be the left arm most of the time (due to many right-handed parents holding their child's left hand).  It's usually caused from an over-extention of the arm, and causes the elbow to dislocate due to weak and underdeveloped ligaments in the elbow.  It's painful at the time, but relatively easy to fix -so easy that I have now been shown how to fix it at home instead of traipsing to the doctors office if it happens again - but I'm getting ahead of myself.

Now that you know a little bit about nursemaid's elbow, I'll explain how it relates to my energetic children, or in this case, my energetic 17 month old.  Last week, I had dropped my 3 year old off at day camp, and went to Target to get a few items.  When we got there, I decided since I was only getting a couple small things, that instead of wrestling my young daughter into a cart, and having her scream in protest for being held captive and forced to sit, that I would allow her to walk around.

We had been walking, and I was allowing her free reign, as it was early on a Monday morning, so there weren't that many other patrons in the store.  Unfortunately, my free-spirited 17 month old decided to take full advantage of her free reign, and began running away from me every chance that she got.  

I was able to regain control of the situation though, and managed to convince her to hold my hand, of which I used my right hand (can you see where this is going?), and we began making our way towards the check-out.  Right before we made it to one of the open check out lanes (which were of course on the opposite end of the store), she tripped, and I was unable to let go of her hand in time.  I felt a small click,  and she let out a small cry, but after less than a minute, got up, and began trekking on as if nothing happened.  We got into line, and the cashier began ringing up my items, when I noticed that my little 17 month old was holding her left arm close to her body, and propping it up with her right hand.  I knew something wasn't right.  I quickly finished my transaction, scooped her up, practically flew to the car, put her in, and began dialing my husband.  

My husband is a police officer, so I sort of wanted his opinion as he has a little bit more first aid training than I do.  He told me to call the pediatrician (which had been my first inclination) and then to call him back.  So I did where they advised me to take her to the ER.  I called him back, and in the meantime, he had called the chief of the ambulance company, who asked me to stop by so he could have a look.  After we'd met up with him, he couldn't ascertain if the injury was to her elbow or shoulder (we'd ruled out wrist, which had been my initial thought).  So we drove to the emergency room to have her looked at.  My husband left work so that he could go pick up our other daughter from camp, and then waited to hear from me.

If you have to go to the emergency room, I highly recommend trying to go mid-morning on a weekday.  I was in and out of there in 2 hours, which is something!  (I know, you're thinking, "it's the EMERGENCY ROOM, you don't plan your trip there!", but I'm just saying!).  Anyway, I checked in, and was called back within 5 minutes.  They assessed her, took her vitals, and then took us back to a room.  A nurse and physicians assistant came in almost instantly, Children's Motrin was administered, and the PA took a look at her arm, then rotated it, said, "I felt it click", and then it was over.  

I was then instructed to hop on the bed with her, and we were wheeled for an xray, both to make sure that it had been set back, and to make sure that there wasn't any fractures or anything.  I sat with her during the xray, holding her arm in the correct position for the technician, then we were wheeled back to the ER room.  They left us in for a bit, and during that time, she began using her arm again, playing with the toys that I'd brought, or the toys that they had in the room.  After about an hour, they came in, were pleased that she was using her arm, said the xrays look good, and would be back with discharge papers/instructions and we would be able to go home.

Fast forward 1 week and 1 day.  The hubby had the girls out with him at the shoe store.  He was looking for a new pair of running shoes.  He said that the girls were being cute, holding hands and walking around.  But they started getting a bit silly, and began running down the isle, and turned the corner, out of his sight.  He began following, and as he came to the end, saw our little one down on the ground.  He left the store immediately, came home, and said, "She did it again".  I held her wrist and turned her arm a bit to see if I could establish where the pain was coming from.

I called the doctor's office and told them what happened and asked that either she been seen in the office or if I could be walked through how to put her arm back in place over the phone.  I have a friend who's daughter has popped her elbow a few times, and was walked through it over the phone.  They gave me an appointment for a couple of hours later.  In the meantime, our wild woman of a 17 month old began to slowly use her arm again, first just to pick up her sippy cup with both hands, then she began rolling around on the ground, grabbing her feet above her head, and sealed the deal my rolling on to her belly, and pushing herself up to a standing position using both arms.  We decided to take her in anyway, just to make sure that everything looked/felt ok.

I took her over to the doctor's, and they said that she looked good, and that I must have inadvertently popped her arm back in.  Then, they showed me how to maneuver her arm in case it would happen again, saving me both a trip to the office and a copay.

A new chapter in my journey

There's a lot going on in my life at the moment.  I have an awesome husband who works quite a bit, but enables me to be a stay-at-home-mom.  Therefore, I spend a lot of time alone with our two children both under the age of 4, whom keep me super busy.  I stay at home with them, so we rush off to various activities; school, play groups, and daily errands.  We have two cats (which are "vacationing" at my mom's until further notice), and a super sweet 2 year old boxer/shepherd/rottweiler mix.

We're also trying to sell our house, so there is a constant shuffle of clean, collect children and dog, fight with dog to get him in the car, drive over to my mom's house.  There we get to see the kitties, who are "vacationing" as I've said until we sell our house and move into a new house (which we also don't have).

I've also decided that I'm done struggling with my weight.  I'm still stuck with baby weight from both girls, and have been trying off and on to get rid of it through several failed attempts and diet and exercise.  But, I'm fed up.  I've never been super skinny, but I wasn't really overweight until I hit college, which began a downward spiral of too much junk food, not enough exercise, too much drinking, and not enough exercise.

I'm trying to make some easy to live with, but good for me changes, such as drinking more water, eating better, and at some point I'll figure out some exercise that I actually enjoy.