contract....or not?

news from our lives:

Last Wednesday, 8/6, Chris & I were thisclose to making an offer on a house. We decided to look at 2 others first and then look at "the house" one more time. We ended up really liking one of the other houses, so we actually decided to make an offer on that one rather than the one we orignally planned to make an offer on that night.

The time crunch with this whole house thing is that I DO NOT want Gracie to have to start school at one school and then have to switch to another one. She had to do that last year, and I felt so bad for her. She did GREAT, and I know she would again, but I don't want her to have to do it. School starts the 25th, so if we can get a contract before then I plan to take that to register her. I'll have to drive about 30 minutes one way to get her to school until we actually move in, but I'd be willing to do it.

So, we made an offer on the house Wednesday evening. Whoo hoo....or so we thought. We had already made plans to go to San Antonio over the weekend, so we went ahead and left early Friday morning and headed to Sea World. While there, we got a call from our realtor saying that the people had another offer and were trying to decide. ugh So, a little later we got another call saying that they had decided to go with the other offer. I was sad and stressed about having to start the search over, but I figured it just wasn't the house God meant for us to have. Well, a couple of hours later I noticed on Chris's phone that the realtor had called & left a message so I called her back. She said that it wasn't over yet. The sellers were frustrated with the person making the other offer and we could submit another offer. So, we verbally submitted the offer and were told shortly afterwards that we got the house! Whoo hoo again....or so we thought.

All of this happened Friday. Our realtor faxed some things to us in S.A. that we signed and faxed back to her. We didn't hear anything about the sellers signing the contract Saturday, but we knew our realtor was busy, so we didn't think too much about it. Sunday morning we got an email from her saying that the listing agent had contacted her and said that he now thinks the first contract may still be valid. WHAT?!?!? We had been told that WE had the house but now the listing agent is saying that the other person may have it. What kind of realtor are you to tell one person they have the house without knowing for 100% sure that someone else doesn't already have a contract on it?!?!

So, by this point we're beyond frustrated! The whole thing from the beginning has been more than a bit strange. They hadn't even countered on our first offer-had just taken the other one-then come back to us-then hesitated again. We were wondering if the sellers had signed both contracts which would have been illegal we would think. The realtor emailed us saying that neither contract had been signed??? I'm really not sure what the deal was.

We finally found out that apparently what happened was that the "buyer" had made an offer but hadn't actually signed everything??? This "buyer" also happened to be a real estate agent himself. The bozo took the contract to the title company himself and tried to get it executed rather than letting the listing agent do it. He also made at least one change to the contract without the seller's approval!!!!! So, the sellers had decided they were frustrated with him and the listing agent came back to our agent to see if we wanted to make another offer so we had and were told we had the house. However, then the agent thought the other contract might be valid so he & the sellers halted on signing our contract to make sure they weren't signing 2 contracts and possibly committing a serious crime. Yeah, good move!

So, Monday was full of waiting to hear about the other contract. We had told our agent we wanted to withdraw our offer and get all of our money back, but she hadn't withdrawn the offer which we were kind of glad about b/c I'd spent hours online looking at houses Sunday night and just nothing was really impressing me near what we wanted to pay. Finally, Monday evening, we hear that they had decided to go with the other offer. WHAT?!?! I was so upset. I shed quite a few tears and wanted to beat someone up. HA! We just didn't (and still don't) understand why they ever offered the house to us and told us we had it when there was another contract on the house. We are seriously thinking of filing an ethics complaint against the listing agent over everything that happened.

So that night I was upset. Thankfully, Cindy & I had already planned on going to the movies. PERFECT night for a girls' night! We went to watch the "Sisterhood" movie and spent lots of time talking-it was a good "1st Houston girls' night!"

Here's the "BEST" part of this whole saga. Chris & I had decided to make an offer on a different house-the house that we'd originally been planning to make an offer on in the first place. I had made a list of some other houses to go look at, but I just didn't really like any of them that much and Chris really didn't like them, so we'd said to forget looking at those. So.......the next morning Chris gets a call from our realtor and guess what?!?! THE BUYER BACKED OUT! HA! Yes, after all of that.....making us wait to see if his contract was valid.......him making illegal changes to the contract.......him getting the contract over us........he BACKS OUT!

So, of course the agent wants to come back to US to see if we're still interested. We said, "No thank you" and made an offer on the other house! *sheesh* We just really didn't feel like we could trust them. I mean, we didn't have the house, then we did have the house, then we might not have the house, then we didn't have the house, then we were offered another chance. We could only take so much and just felt really nervous about dealing with the listing agent and the sellers too, so we walked away. It was hard to do because we liked the house, but we just let it go.

We went to the realtor's office Tuesday afternoon and signed an offer on the other house. The one we'd liked from the second we saw it and had originally planned to make an offer on! It is really beautiful and has so many things we like. We love the area it's in and the neighborhood is so pretty (same neighborhood as the other one but not right by each other). The girls will each have their own room which Gracie is thrilled about and the house has a great playset that is staying in the backyard! Gracie & Katie are happy about that. We are too because that means we don't have to go buy one and Chris doesn't have to put it together! It's within walking distance to the elementary school with sidewalks pretty much the entire way. We'll have access to fun stuff like pools, etc.

I JUST NOW got a call from Chris saying that we are now 'executed' meaning that both of us have signed the contract and it is OFFICIAL!!!!!!! Whoo hoo for real this time!!!!!!!! *whew* Now I can take papers to Gracie's new school and register her. We plan to close the 28th and Gracie starts school the 25th so I won't have too many days of driving her a long way. The sellers are actually going to lease it from us for 3 days, so we won't take possession until the 1st which is Labor Day. I hate the thought of the actual process of moving but am so looking forward to being settled into a home! I may NEVER move again!

Now.......to write about our San Antonio trip-minus the house drama.....

We had told the girls we'd go to Sea World for part of Gracie's birthday gift from us. Last weekend was the weekend for the big trip! Chris & I LOVE San Antonio, so we were just excited to be going there. Ellie (who has been pretty consistently sleeping through the night!) got up a little before 5 (funny how that seems like sleeping through the night, but it really is when you're 6 weeks old!) so I just stayed up after feeding her. Chris & the girls got up soon after that and we left a little before 7:00 to head out.

We got to Sea World around 11:00. Sad for Gracie-she threw up right before we got to the parking lot. Driving up, we saw this huge roller coaster and had been teasing her about riding it. I was saying that I'd probably get sick if I rode it. Literally, like 2 minutes later, she lost it! We felt bad. In our defense, she was in the back of the van and she tends to get car sick, but I think the roller coaster comments put her over the edge! So, she got to change her clothes in the van in the parking lot before going in.

We got all of our stuff together and headed in. Man, it took a lot of stuff to take 3 kids into the park-one of them being 6 1/2 weeks old! We were taking in bathing suits & towels for the water park along with diapers, wipes, etc. We quickly realized that most people-regardless of what kind of shape they're in-just wear their bathing suits all day throughout the park. Some did this modestly, some not so much!!!!!

We enjoyed the sea lion show, drank lots of water, loved the Shamu show, drank lots of water, watched the dolphins & whales, looked at the sharks, drank lots of water, looked at the Clydesdales (at Sea World?), watched 2 Shamu shows,and drank lots of water! I think Chris figured up that he bought around 8 bottles of water by the time the day was over and we drank almost all of them! Chris & the girls enjoyed the water park too. We could have spent more time there I think! It really helped to cool them off while Ellie & I found some shade to sit in. Not quite as cool as the water but better than the direct sun anyway. By the time we did all of that and supported the gift shop, we had spent over 8 hours in the park! A long but fun day! We bought 2 day tickets, so we have 1 more chance to go back before the end of the year which we plan to use when it's a little cooler.

We were all so exhausted that we decided to order a pizza at the hotel through a 'catering service' they had. Because of the slooooow service, we were told we would receive a check for what it cost which is a good thing since they charged us $45 for 1 pizza and 3 20 oz. drinks!!!!! Seriously?!??

Saturday morning we went out to the Riverwalk. We LOVE that place!!!!!!!! Katie didn't so much love it, but she did okay. It was just a little boring to a 4 year old I guess. Gracie was a trooper. I don't think she complained about 1 thing the whole weekend...fought a little with Katie perhaps. We ended up going to Target and getting a sling for me to carry Ellie in. It's hard to have a stroller on the Riverwalk because of the narrow sidewalks and all the stairs, so it worked out much better.

We ate at Casa Rio (YUM) and rode the tour boat and enjoyed the beautiful scenery that is San Antonio. We walked quickly through the Alamo (told Gracie we'd go back later b/c she wanted to spend more time there, but it was so crowded) and then left to go back towards the hotel. We went to North Star mall and walked around a bit then went back to the hotel to rest a bit. We ate dinner at "County Line" where I had a good chopped beef bbq sandwich and some GOOD sweet tea! Sweet tea in Texas-a miracle!

Sunday morning, we went to church where Tracy & her family attend! Too bad they were out of town, but now I know for sure that's where she goes and hopefully we can see each other some other time that we're in town. We then ate where we'd been looking forward to eating ALL WEEKEND-Alamo Cafe! YUUUUUUMMMMM! It is sooooooooooooooo good! The tortillas are AMAZING and the sopapillas sure were good too. Not that that's all we ate......we ate SO MUCH! It was sooooooo worth it to be so full!

As with most kids, the girls loved staying in a hotel!

We then drove back to the concrete jungle that is Houston. San Antonio is just so pretty that it kind of made Houston seem even more....well, 'un-pretty.' That's okay though. :-) That's one of the reasons we like the house so much that we're buying....it has beautiful trees in the front yard and the backyard is so nicely landscaped. We were really wanting a house with trees, and we feel blessed to have found one we like so well. I hope we will make God happy with the life we create while living there. We are excited to start our life in this new suburb too as many people we know from church live there and really like it!

Yesterday was Chris & mine's 14th anniversary!!!!!!!!!!!! I love you, Chris! We didn't really do anything too special with it being in the middle of the week. Plus, we didn't do gifts since we are buying a house. I think that's a pretty good gift for each of us! Chris said, "I bought you a house for our anniversary." I said, "No, you mortgaged a house for me for our anniversary!" HA!

I'm excited that tonight Cindy & I are going to a "Secret Pals" event with ladies from church. I really want to go and try to get to know even more people. I'm not sure to what extent I'll participate in it throughout the year, but I want to go tonight and enjoy spending time with a group of ladies from church!

Little "Ellie Roo" is doing great and growing so much! She did so good on our trip, even though she spent a lot of time in her seat. I love her little chipmunk cheeks and her little fuzzy hair that is coming in on top of her head! I say that she looks like a chia pet! She is pretty much sleeping through the night now 'til around 5 then goes back down, so life is good in that department!

Lots of exciting things will be happening in the next few weeks as we continue the process of buying the house and moving in, etc. My friend Melissa is coming to visit me next month too so I'm waaaaaaaaaaay excited about that! I'll leave this happy picture I took yesterday for your enjoyment!