This American Life

I've been neglectful of this blog. I suppose I could blame it on all of the things going on in our household or my laziness or my writer's block. When it comes down to it, I think it is a combination of all these things.

The month of June has been a month were we were not sure which way was up. We began the process of refinancing our home. I imagine this is usually a fairly simple process. Truly, it was simple until the day of closing. I got a phone call 3 hours before we were to close saying we had to bring a sizable check to close (oh, and it had to be certified). There wasn't enough time to sell my kidney so we had to put the closing on hold. There was also the part where the mortgage consultant told me it was my fault for the mix-up. That threw me over the edge and I called another financing company to see what they could do for us.

It turns out there is a discrepancy on the value of our home. The second lender could not finance us since the equity in our house is not enough to cover the new loan. Strange since the first lender had a drastically higher appraisal (second lender wants to take first lender's appraisal to the board for fraud...we're hoping they wait until we sign the papers to get our loan in order...another story).

Then there is the little incident of Justin getting offered a new job with a professional theatre company. The experience would be wonderful (bonus), the pay was much higher (extra bonus) and his hours would be 9 to 5 (not many nights or weekends). The downside was there was not vacation time for the first year (they would work with him) and he would have to pay more for benefits (and they would have been significantly limited in comparison to what he has now)...oh and throw in that he would be working in St. Paul adding 20 minutes to his commute. He went to his boss and they did some offer/counteroffer work and he has decided to stay at his current job. The package they offered him is as good (if not better) than that of the other company. We celebrated by purchasing a gas grill. Unfortunately the grill doesn't arrive until Wednesday or Saturday of this coming week. Once it arrives we're having a grill-fest in our backyard.

I'm off to visit my southern family. Let's see just how crazy crazy can get.

See you in a few days.