The only people that know about this are Travis’ work, Ashley & my brother… until now. My parents and Travis’ mom will be finding this out via the blog, oops. They all knew we wanted a house though, but I think we told them a few months ago that it was not going to happen anytime soon. You guys might remember me hinting to a secret a week or two ago when I posted this on instagram:

At the time, Ashley, Travis & I were the only ones who knew what was happening. During the beginning stages of this process, I was completely swamped and dealing with the loss of my grandmother, but Travis took the reigns in the pre-approval mortgage process and got the ball rolling. We gathered up all of our documents, figured out the amount we wanted to spend, and where we wanted to buy. On Wednesday, we had an appointment with our loan officer to see if we could get pre-approved.

Pre-approved: An evaluation of a potential borrower by a lender that determines whether the borrower qualifies for a loan from the lender, or the maximum amount that the lender would be willing to lend. The pre-approval process involves a thorough look into the income and expenses of the borrower, including a look at the borrower’s credit report and score.

We got fancy badges and all, and met with our loan officer. I was completely nervous the entire time, but the meeting went very smoothly. We had all the paperwork we needed, answered all of her questions, and she told us she see’s no problem in us obtaining a mortgage and that we could actually ask for even more, but we didn’t. We feel 100% comfortable for the amount we asked for. She said she would send our application to the underwriters, and we should receive an answer by Friday morning.

Yesterday we received this… our Pre-Approval letter!

Time to OFFICIALLY start house-hunting! Wish us luck!

Posted on May 19, 2013 - 23 comments
 Filed Under: Goals & Dreams, My Life, Our Home

Remember this park?

Well, I contacted them back on March 29th and after many conversations, it was determined that I had to meet with the Park & Recreation board. Basically I had to get approval from them, and then they would pass it on to the Supervising board and they had the final say. So, on April 16th I agreed to come to the next board meeting to present my plans, which was being held on May 6th. Sometime after agreeing to come to the board meeting, we ended up finding two more parks, which both had two options for a ceremony space. Because of all of the options, I got a little frustrated. I might have even cried a little because of that frustration. There was no clear winner, they were all tied with each other, and they each had their own set of headaches that came along with them. I decided to give myself some time, and re-visit the parks again before the township meeting took place.

Little did I know that on April 22nd when my Grandma went to the emergency room that morning, that it was not going to be “just another emergency room visit“. Instead, we were told that the cancer spread everywhere and there was nothing they could do, but keep her comfortable. She was given weeks to months to live, but the doctor guesstimated that it would go quickly, and be more like two weeks. She made it six days. Since that emergency room visit, I have not had my head on straight. I did not visit those parks again. I did not even think about those parks. Three days after her funeral, and I was still not prepared, or even excited about going to this township meeting, like I was in the very beginning. I didn’t care if they said yes, or no. I didn’t care if I made a complete full of myself in-front of the board. I was numb.

But I went to the meeting last night, with a handout for the meeting that I made a few weeks ago, which outlined our requests:

• Use of stage for a wedding ceremony on May 31, 2014
• Rental of all pavilions within the park so it provides us with less of a crowd and ample
  parking for our guests.
• Permission to have two campers in the parking lot for the wedding party to get ready in.
  They will stay hooked up to the trucks all day, for easy pull-out after the wedding.
• Permission to use one golf cart in the park, which has insurance, for use in escorting
  elderly guests to the stage area.
• Would like to volunteer the week before the wedding. We would like to stain the stage
  and benches, mulch the flower beds, and plant flowers below the stage.
• The day of ceremony we will have chairs delivered and set-up at the stage area,
  and we will also have ceremony music played by a classical/acoustic guitar.

And you know what… the meeting went well. I didn’t burst out crying, I didn’t throw up. I knew exactly what to say and I was not nervous. I forced myself back into reality, and now I feel like I have my head on straight again. I miss my grandmother terribly, but I can’t let that affect me daily. She wouldn’t want me to sit around, being depressed and not accomplishing any of my goals or dreams. She’d want me to get out there and make things happen.

The board said it could be a few months before I hear a decision, but I’m hoping it happens soon, because I think this park is my favorite. I’m not sure how long I can wait for a decision, since the other two parks have processes of approval and deposits that need submitted, but I will keep you all updated on what happens. :)

Posted on May 19, 2013 - 13 comments
 Filed Under: My Life, Wedding

Posted on May 19, 2013 - 18 comments
 Filed Under: My Life