Time to remind myself to breathe. Nothing like those last minute events that can cause a home loan to go belly up and disturb the delicate balance of my psyche. Keep in mind, I have utilities being turned on tomorrow and Friday and movers coming on Friday to move us out of our old house into the new one. I suppose if I learned a lesson it would be that you should not schedule a move so close to closing, even though the realtor told me to get utilities turned on on closing day.

None of this was my fault. So what happened was the bank did their final underwriting a couple of days ago. Apparently the appraiser of the new house put in his opinion on why the price was above listing, because we had the seller pay closing costs. While true, the mortgage company didn't like that. So this whole thing was holding us up. From what I heard it went to the VP and then the CEO of the mortgage company for verification with Fannie Mae. Finally they contacted the appraiser and he said he would sign a form saying it was just an opinion or something like that. All the while my mortgage broker is speaking to me in terms of having a baby. From yesterday's "There's been an emergency" to "Well, she is halfway pregnant". Today it was "There was an emergency but we are delivering it a different way." So now I have been given the go ahead to schedule closing for tomorrow. Thank God. I think we are going to have this baby. I call it an H-Section.

So there I am. 90% sure we will be able to close tomorrow. Talk about hectic and stressful. In the meantime we are in the middle of packing and to top it off we had a showing today while the house is messy. Also, I lovingly got pulled over by the cops yesterday. Luckily it was an officer I actually knew. He helped Holly when her purse was stolen. I talked about how I always sponsored the policemans softball game and how I get noticed for wearing their shirt. He actually gave me a warning on the speed, but a ticket for needing inspection. So as a result I am not driving the car till we get it inspected. Instead I am carpooling with my wife, which means I have to get up at like 6AM. I suppose it was inevitable. Carpooling! Who would have thought that was possible?

Well, so things are really happening. We have been packing nonstop. Tomorrow afternoon we start the closing process. We will then become owners of a gorgeous 3000 sq foot smart house with a heated pool, waterfall, and attached hot tub. That is going to be so much fun, not just for us, but for our family and friends. We have a nice guest room for anyone who wants to visit. Of course we still have yet to hear back from our counteroffer on our current house. My guess is they didn't accept it. I am glad we are moving because that will make it easy for showings to take place.

So as I pack I find things like old pictures and stuff I have had for quite a while. Memories of high school, college and these past 10 years come flooding back. Good times. Now I am going to have new memories of Brennon playing in our house and growing up. He is all better from his health scare last week and is cute as ever. He has started to grab things and he just loves standing up. The book said he could probably stand for like 2 seconds, but he is standing for like 2 minutes as I hold his hands. That seems to be his favorite position. I think this kid might just skip crawling and go straight to walking. Then I am going to have to run to catch him.

So it kind of feels like a fresh start moving into a new home. Holly and I are going to be eating at home almost all of the time, especially since we still haven't sold our old place. We are going to go for the Glycemic Index diet since I have pre-diabetes. We are also going to use our home to exercise, since we have a treadmill and a pool. Princess Leia also comes back to live with us. She has been vacationing over at Holly's moms house for over a month now. I can barely remember what she looks like. Our stress levels should be lower. This week it will be high of course. Tomorrow we start buying a house. Thursday we get the keys. Friday I am taking off work as we will be moving in. We will be getting FIOS internet turned on and new furniture will be arriving as well. By Sunday things should be calmer as everything will be in place. Too bad this weekend is going to be cold and rainy. I was hoping to have a soak. Its very refreshing.

Ah, so as the era of my old house comes to a close I think of all of the good times I've had at that house. There were alot of them. I remember first getting the house. There I was, it was February of 2003. I decided that I did not like living in apartments and I had too much stuff to take up my apartment. Every winter I would go out looking for houses. Finally I walked into this place and I thought to myself, this house has style. There was this huge living room with a loft for my music equipment and a future band to play there. There were 3 bedrooms. One guest, one office and a big master. Then I went into the bathroom and noticed the skylight in the shower. I thought to myself, cool, I've never had a skylight. I even liked the small backyard because it was easy to maintain. I then started the ball rolling and got into my new house for very little down. The first weekend when the house was empty I laid on the floor of the master bedroom. It was then when I got a call from mom, worried that the space shuttle had just gone down on my new house. It didn't.

It started off easy. I was able to use my furniture from my apartment. I then created the ultimate bachelor pad. I would always add to the house. Over the years I had many parties. My band would come over to practice alot. We got a little too wild some nights and played till 6 in the morning. Finally a neighbor called the cops and I had to talk myself out of 2 tickets. Luckily I was able to. Then as a result I soundproofed the office and moved the band room in there. That still didn't work. Finally I gave up practicing there. I hosted parties for my Sunday School class. I eventually got a projector for the living room and now it was the ultimate movie pad as well. We all had fun.

I think the best memories of the house are of the parties I had. From a bachelor party to Sunday School parties to Brian's Birthday Barbeque Bashes, everyone always had a good time. Then there are obviously the memories of proposing, getting married and making a baby room for Brennon. I always felt that the house was perfect for me. It had enough space for a single guy and even a family and the open floor plan made me feel like a king. I think that is why our new house is going to be open as well. Goodbye house, it was fun while it lasted. Now my new place, well, let's just say the fun has just begun.

Ok, now I am starting to get excited. We are a week away from closing. I am talking to the seller, the loan people, the underwriters, our realtor, the movers, the electric people, the gas people, the water people, and verizon to get FIOS installed. All we have is a couple of hurdles to go and it will all be done. We start the closing on next Wednesday afternoon. On Thursday is our official closing day and I am taking Friday off to get us all moved in. Our new house is going to be fun. I can't wait to move, especially with all of these showings at our current place. Of course this weekend we will be packing and probably have showings during it.

More good news. We got an offer on the house! Things are still in negotiations and as long as they can meet in the middle we should accept. The closing date for that will be the end of February, right when we make the first payment on our new house. You know, I have to say my prayers have been for these deals to go through. I can see them being answered. It is like these big weights being lifted off my shoulders. I'd say let this be a testimony to faith. I've always felt that God has my back. Like He's watching and making sure I don't get into trouble. With my easygoing personality alot of things can go wrong that I let slide. Even with the mom situation she is doing better now and things are becoming routine. There is a science to the power of prayer and having faith that they will be answered. I think there have even been studies conducted proving it.

So I stopped by mom's place last night. Mom now has some more stories. After a while her old stories started to become a little repetitive. Now she talks about how at mealtime mom keeps the senile people in a flowing conversation. She's says the same people always ask her name. "What's your name again?" "Linda" "Isn't there a song about your name?" "Yes, it goes like this," - sings an old song about Linda. Then all of the old people sing along with her. Mom says most of them are senile. She is having fun with it. I told her it is like she is helping them. Mom is in better spirits and now can keep a real conversation going. I think I will enjoy having her close by. I just have to figure out what that song is about Linda the old fogies are singing.

So this weekend was a long weekend. I think the economy would pick up it we had a three day weekend every week. On Friday it was date night so Holly's mom came over and watched Brennon while we went out to On the Border and then to the Galleria. That evening we got notified of 3 showings on Saturday. So we cleaned the whole house. I am surprised it gets messy in just a couple of days. Saturday we get a call saying they moved the showing to earlier in the day. So we have an hour to get out of the house. Holly took Brennon for a walk. I had to go back to Wichita Falls. This time I had to get some more of mom's stuff. The house was dark and dreary when I got there. It was kinda spooky. I was able to cancel moms cable and get her equipment. I also got her walker. Apparently her physical therapist says her balance is off, so instead of buying one I found one in her van. I also grabbed some nick nacks mom wanted at her place.

Saturday night I got another call saying we had showings for the house at 9:30,12:30 and 2 on Sunday. So that was our queue to go to Church and Sunday School. We went and dropped Brennon off at the nursery. Now that I look back I can see how kids spread things around in a nursery. Anyways, I decided to Tivo the big game and Holly and I went to the mall to eat. When we finally got home we were exhausted just from all of the weekend work. I watched the game for 45 minutes. In my world the Cowboys won and are going to the Superbowl. They do every year. My sister was happy since they live in Minnesota. Sunday afternoon I visited mom and got her phone working. Sunday evening I took Holly's mom to see Avatar in 3D. I still say that movie is the Star Wars of this generation. It is so good and is a movie that you can watch over and over again and see something new. The beginning of the 2010s reminds me of the beginning of the 80s. Even music does. I heard on SNL a band called the Ting Tings. Their song sounded like "Hey Mickey" from the early 80s. All that is left is for parachute pants, jams and mullets to come back in style.

So Monday morning we awake to a doorbell and then someone walk in to our house. Apparently somebody was doing a showing and I was still in bed. Holly told them to come back in a half an hour and we scrambled again to get out of the house. Today there is an official second showing so keep your fingers crossed. Now all this time Brennon is getting cranky. During lunch we drove by the new house and I chatted with the current owner about our move in and what I need to know to operate the smart home. He is a nice guy. When we got back to the house Brennon had a fever of 101.5. So I had to go to my doctors appointment for my lab results and Brennon went to his doctor. My doctor gave me good news and bad news. The good news is I don't have diabetes. The bad news is I have insulin resistence and pre-diabetes. Time to kick up the exercise. Brennon was also diagnosed with a contagious virus, after getting blood taken and a catheter to check him. He was wailing alot. He slept 2 hours at a time last night. I am tired. Holly is staying home with the baby and she is tired. And that's my weekend... I need a vacation.

Due to the success of Motivium Consulting on website creation and Windows programming projects I am now committed to working in my spare time, especially with two mortgages looming over my head. My going rate is $50 an hour. That is cheap considering I was used to charging $70-80 an hour back in the day. I figure because of the economy and competition I would make my rate more competitive. So what skills can I offer for such an amount? How about complete website design from inception to delivery to maintenance. I can automate anything on a Windows machine. I can work with ASP.Net, Community Server, DotNetNuke and other portals as well. I can work with multiple databases including SQL Server 2000,2005 and 2008. I can work with Oracle 9i and above and MySQL. I can work with networking and can setup IIS and setup websites to work on the internet. I can even help with search engine optimization(SEO) for websites.

I specialize in conversions. Meaning I can convert old asp projects to asp.net. I can convert VB6 projects to C#. I can convert C++ projects to C#. I can work with COM Interop to tie into legacy applications including mainframe components. I can convert Java and Java Beans projects to Microsoft technologies. And when I say conversions I mean the heavy stuff as well. Hundreds of thousands of lines of code. I have worked with hundreds of templates and forms. I can work with automating Adobe PDF files form generation. I can create web widgets and anything that deals with AJAX. I also have experience with Google Maps API for GIS and most of Google's APIs. Also, I have experience in the mobile world. I created an iPhone Web App for RideSearch. I created PocketPC applications as well. I even created Palm Pilot applications in C back in the day. I also created my own language for older cell phones that translated the device profile into the appropriate WML.

As far as my experience goes, how about 10 years contracting to major corporations. IBM, Nokia, Wyse, AT&T, CSC, Lockheed Martin and Boy Scouts of America to name a few. I have been at some places over and over again because they like my work. My own consulting company, Motivium Consulting created RideSearch.com over the past 3 years. It is one of the top carpooling sites in the nation. I used Community Server to create that social network. So basically what I am saying is that I am well qualified and am available for around 15 hours a week. If anyone knows anyone who needs a website let them know. My email is brian@ridesearch.com

So now things are calming down a bit. Thank goodness. I am glad the major mom move is over with. I am going back to Wichita on Saturday though to do some final things. Mom's house is going to take a while to sell I am sure. It needs new carpet, new paint, new doors, new ceiling fans, a new kitchen and new bathrooms. Of course, there is no money for such things. I am thinking maybe do our best to get it looking presentable like new carpet and new paint and then sell it as is. Houses in Wichita Falls are way cheap anyways. I am sure if we did remodel the whole thing we'd end up lowering the price anyways. So is it really worth it? Its actually almost paid off. Maybe pay it off and over the years get it fixed up. We have time.

Brennon is getting bigger. I gave him a bath and put him to bed last night. I wish I had more time with him, cause when I come home from work he goes to bed by 7:30. His head is getting longer and he is starting to get some teeth. This means he wails more. But he is still cute even when he wails. I knew there was a reason God made babies so cute. The iPhone has helped put him to sleep. Both Holly and I use an app called "Ambiance". Brennon listens to other babies laugh and that calms him. He also listens to thunderstorms to fall asleep. There are some baby songs on YouTube I play on my iPhone as well. Last night I played one for him and he watched it. But the second it ended he started crying again so I had to keep repeating it.

I think all of this stress got to me. I could feel my blood pressure and my plantar fasciitis has been aggravated from all the moving and walking. I still worry about moms health some and she sees a doctor next week, but at least I don't worry about her safety. Mom has been good about the move and hasn't really complained much. She even seems to be getting better. Her skin is clearing up with the baths and her long term memory is better. Her short term memory is still bad though. Add in the showings of our house and the loan process for our new house and we have paperwork galore. Sometimes you just have to sit back and let God take the helm, as long as we fill out the paperwork for it.

So we moved mom into Prestonwood Court in Plano this weekend. Talk about a chore and a half. First many thanks to Melinda for getting all of the papers ready and taking care of mom most of the time. Mom's MRI was normal thank goodness but Melidna seems to think there is some beginning stage Alzhiemers or dementia. On Friday evening Grant stopped by after his show and slept on the couch. Saturday morning we took his trailer back to his house and picked up Halley to help us pack things. Then we set off towards Wichita. We arrived at 3PM. Now that I look back I can't believe how fast we all went. I had Jeff come in and help us load the trailer. We took all of the valuables out of the house and moms bed and tv. By 7:30PM we were finished. That house is very gross. When we removed the pictures from the wall we could see white behind them. I think years of Robbie smoking in there turned the white paint yellow. I don't know if we should renovate the place or not. Maybe new carpet and paint, or maybe sell it as is for cheap.

 

So I took everyone to iHop afterwards and told Holly to record the game since she was at home with the baby. Melinda, mom and I got home around 11:15pm and I was able to fast forward every play and saw us anhilate the Eagles again. Minnesota better watch out, Dallas is going to beat them. George took the stuff to his place. On Sunday we just kind of prepared for the movein on Monday. During all of this we had 4 showings of our house. So on Sunday we had to leave the house and do something. I think we ended up at Olive Garden. Some feedback was that our house was on their favorites list. One person wanted us to tile the bathroom and put in a tub. So the main realtor lady calls me up and asks me if I will do that. I am like, I have put too much money into this house already. They should take it or leave it. So who knows.

 

Monday we took mom to her new home. I must say, if I was old I would want to live there. There is a saltwater pool, daily activities, a theater room, a pool table and a video conferencing room. Mom has one of the best rooms there. The place is 3 stories high and mom is on the first floor right near the dining room. We ate there for lunch and dinner. I think it is good, however mom noticed that their portion sizes are slightly small. I think though that is what normal people are supposed to eat. Mom is realatively submissive now so she has accepted it. Really, she is in a much better place. She is close to me and Holly and Brennon and she has people waiting on her. Melinda made a comment that it is like mom is going to college. We packed her up and made sure she is ok. My worries about mom are almost over. Thank God. Now onto the houses.

So this weekend is going to be hectic. I am glad I had a bit of a respite yesterday when it got so cold they let me work from home. My mom had an MRI done yesterday. My sister is going to find out the results. Melinda is in the thick of it right now. She is in Wichita Falls and is trying to take care of business, packing boxes, and helping mom. Apparently we have found out that mom's neighbor has also been stealing cash from her. What kind of person does that? This time it is Melinda who is mad. I have a feeling there could be a warrant in the future. I wrote the whole thing off last year when I went through all of the trouble of getting a case done, talking to the credit card companies and documenting a years worth of charges only to have mom say,"I don't want to press charges." and the card companies say it was mom's fault her identity was stolen. This time since we have power of attorney we will press charges, that is, if the Wichita Police Investigators decide to return our calls.

So instead of movers we are going to be doing the moving all ourselves. I guess cause of the money issue, but moving beds and chairs and tables is not going to be fun. My brother Grant is taking his 16 foot trailer and we are going to pack up her belongings. The one thing I am glad of, and this is important, is that mom's quality of life is going to increase going into assisted living and not decrease. She is going to get 3 meals a day and be waited upon hand and foot. There are nurses there to make sure she is taking the right medicine. I think mom's condition will improve with more socialization. Her new place is a place near our church called Prestonwood Court. It is a nice place with a saltwater pool, daily activities and people she can socialize with. There is even a bottle collector there assigned to be her "companion."

So mom is going to live 25 minutes away from me. No more driving to Wichita Falls! My sister and I are going to handle all of her financial and medical needs and Holly, Brennon and I are going to visit often. I will take Monday off to help unload the trailer and get mom setup as a new Plano resident. My current worries are her medical issues as Melinda thinks there is a possibility of endometrial cancer and beginning alzheimers. Mom just doesn't know what is going on and that is sad. When Melinda told mom she would have to go to assisted living mom said "no way" and then a moment later said,"well we've got to pick up my stuff." So I am glad that mom is no longer fighting this. I am glad Melinda is here to handle her hygene stuff and I am glad I have family and friends I can count on during all of this. If I had to do it all I would surely not do it all and who knows what would happen as a result. In the grand scheme of things it is not about me or my sister or inconviences and stress. It is about making sure that someone we love is happy, safe and cared for. Considering growing up she made sure we were happy, safe and cared for it is our duty to do such a thing in return.

So this week mom is picking out her new place. I think I may be getting a UHaul for Saturday to go to Wichita Falls and pick up her favorite stuff. If anyone is going to Wichita I may need some help loading stuff. If selling our existing home is hard I can't imagine how hard it will be to sell hers. This afternoon we have a showing. Whenever a showing happens we scramble to clean up. When you have 5 people living in a house messes get made rather easily. Luckily we all pitch in and get it cleaned quickly. I think when we move out at the end of the month we will move everything so we don't have to worry about cleaning. That will be nice. I can't wait for this month to be over.

Switching topics I haven't talked about my weight during fat season. Surprisingly, I have stayed the same, around 272. I have put a plan in motion that will have little weight loss over a long time and will add up. See I was reading a study that said that the best overall weight loss happens over a long period of time. The 80/20 rule applies. So that is my new tailored diet - 80% of my meals will be low fat, low calorie meals - basically anything that a "normal" person would regard as healthy. 20% of meals I won't care what I eat. Now I was thinking how this can apply to the number of meals. So I really decided to make it a 84/16 diet - which is 1 fatty meal out of every 6, or 1 fatty meal every two days. For instance I can go to Chilis and have a bacon burger once every two days. Now I know I am not going to lose a ton of weight, but it is better than a fatty meal every day and it is easy to do.

The easiest diet ever: 1 meal can be unhealthy out of 2 days.
Healthy Breakfast: 1 Bologna Sandwich with wheat toast and glass of V8 juice
Healthy Lunch: Chicken Noodle Soup or Topz healthy burger or Subway sandwich or Baked Chicken Sandwich, Diet Coke
Healthy Dinner: Lean Quisine or a serving of whatever we have at home - watch portion sizes, Diet Sprite

The problem of course has always been the weekends. I could do that diet every day, but when a weekend hits the temptation to order pizza every night and go out to eat at lunch is greater. Doing the math I can see that I will have a choice of either Saturday night or Friday night as my one unhealthy night. The other one I have to eat healthy. I think I can do this. Also, whenever we do get the house I will be taking advantage of our heated pool and will go swimming alot. I predict this year I will lose at least 50 pounds. Any takers on a bet?

So, the good news is that mom has accepted she is going to be living somewhere else. I'd like to thank Melinda for breaking the news to her after she got her lab results. She did not like it, but accepted it rather quickly. Right now her labs are mostly normal. She has a little UTI so she is now on antibiotics. On Thursday they go back to Wichita to get her good stuff and do a brain scan on mom. Melinda would like to see the MRI. She could probably go in there and tell all of the other doctors what they are looking at.

It may be that mom has a new place to live by this weekend. I know mom loves her stuff, but as I look at things in perspective, it is really the living room that mom lives in. The rest of the house is never looked at or used. Melinda has been assisted living home shopping these past couple of days. In Dallas it is highly competitive and they all have openings available. The new place will be close to me and Holly. That will mean we can visit more often and take mom to church with us. I think she would like that. Right now mom does not want to go home. I think she loves the attention we are giving her so that has made this transition easier than expected.

Now we have to think about things like finances and medical bills for her. I think she also gets a little something for being the widow of a veteran. Selling her house is going to be a chore and selling some of her bottles will also be a chore. There is so much stuff to do. I think though a majority of stuff we can do after we move to our new home. I only allow 2 to 3 stressful events at a time to happen. Otherwise I just kind of ignore things. So that's the mom situation. I can see the forest through the trees. By this weekend mom may be in a new place, if not our home is her home.

So this weekend me, Melinda and Holly went and saw Avatar in 3D. I must say it was extremely good and I would see it again. I'd give it 5 out of 5 stars. It was the 3D combined with the incredible special effects that pulled me in. All of the glowing neon reminded me of when I was a kid and put glow paint on my ceiling. People would sleep over and at night the ceiling would light up in weird patterns. It still glows, even through the paint. I predict new owners will think that there are ghosts in the house.

On another note, mom is still living with us. Melinda is checking out the places to live this week. It is really sad to think mom cannot take care of herself. It is like all of a sudden we have to be responsible for everything, finances, medicine, housing, food. I think if mom didn't have diabetes or confusion she wouldn't need medical care. Unfortunately there have been times when she would check her blood sugar and it was high and then she would have more sugar. If there weren't medical and hygene care I wouldn't mind mom living with us, even though the TV would be stuck on CBS and NBC all of the time.

In the house world our realtor told us to lower the price, so we are, from 169,950 to 164,900. She also said the big screen is distracting to people who want to visualize their stuff in our house. So we are going to get put the projector away, cancel the tv service and rearrange our furniture in a better looking fashion. That means until we move out no more tv. I think mom might then see it as a good thing to go to assisted living where there is TV. We have until March 1st and then we will have to pay for two mortgages. Ack. Time to live off of ramen noodles. The good news is that our offer was made on the new house and we are still set for a January 28th closing date. All it has to do is go through underwriting. That would suck if it failed in that last step. Once this month is over I will be glad a lot of trials of life are over. As Annie says, "tomorrow, tomorrow, there's always tomorrow. tommorow is only a day away." Ack, I can't believe I just quoted Annie, must be a side effect all of the women living with me...