A Veteran's Day Surprise!

Lora thought my silence might have meant I was busy moving into my new house. I thought that was funny. No blog post for something like four days and that was silence. I had to giggle a little at that thought. I really am a Chatty Cathy. So much for disguising my true identity...blew the cover myself! But honestly, I had been a little splotchy with posting, skipping a few days in between, so I see her point.

Just to get everyone up to speed, we:

1. signed our contract on our house July 15,
2. pulled into Michigan on August 1 and have been living in a two-bedroom corporate apartment with four children sharing a bedroom,
3. had our original closing moved from October 30 to somewhere between October 7-10,
4. found out in September that there might be a small delay because VA had not approved our phase of the subdivision, even though it usually only took them six weeks and it had been eight weeks,
5. were unable to give 30 days notice on our corporate apartment since we did not know when we were closing,
6. had to pay extra money twice to extend and lock in our loan rate, which already extended 15 days past the October 7-10 closing date,
7. found out the builder's office only sent the paperwork in to VA in September to have the subdivision approved and it was their fault we were having to pay all this extra money,
8. found out that said builder refused to pay our extra costs because the contract says we are responsible for paying for the costs in obtaining our mortgage (I could get on my bandwagon about normal costs versus costs because of negligence of others, but I won't),
9. found out that the packet was actually overnighted to VA on October 20,
10. have been in this apartment even though our house has been finished since the beginning of October,
11. and have been working on, quite frankly, a very stinky attitude.

Because really, after what happened to Heather's family, I felt about an inch tall. This was an inconvenience for me and my family, and I have been mighty complainy about it, especially to my husband, and I've just used a word that isn't one I think. But it fits what I've been. I have struggled with this something awful and I still don't think I have the right attitude. And I really didn't know how to post an update without sounding like the whiner I am, so now I'm whining anyway, but good news follows...

Today, we found out that the subdivision approval is completed and we will be closing on Friday afternoon at 4:00 p.m. EST!!! I get to have Thanksgiving in my new house in my new kitchen and cook my own turkey in my new oven. I AM SO EXCITED! Honestly, I was worried we weren't going to be in the house in time for Christmas, and we hadn't been able to put up a tree for the last two years because our military quarters were so small that with all six of us there just wasn't room. And of course there wouldn't be room in this apartment, so I was getting a little nuts. I shouldn't have been, and knew it, but for some reason we were made to wait until now for our house. It was the last thing we expected today, being a federal holiday. We can only assume that they found out late yesterday, because VA had to be closed today, so Hubby had a great Veteran's Day surprise!