I'm BACK!!!

OK.....so we are officially in our new home and I no longer have any excuse for not updating this thing!! Can't promise pictures this time around, but I'll get some up soon~

We moved in to our house on the 2nd of October, after an incredibly emotional closing.....to make a long story short the sellers did not want to sell their house, so were clearly upset. Our luck has been the absolute worst with this whole thing, but when it came down too it, as much as it broke my heart to feel as if I was ripping this house away from them, I had to put my family first and for once say...."business is business"! Since we had to be out of our rental, we were literally homeless, so even though a part of me felt awful, I also had a strong desire to protect and provide for my family, even if it meant hurting someone in the process. So, we are in, we own it, and IT'S OURS!!!

We LOVE it!!! It took me a few days to feel worthy of such an amazing home.....I think that frugal side of me, kept holding me back. But, I know this is a home that we will be in until the boys graduate. We will NEVER do that whole thing again, I SWEAR!! So, I'm thrilled that we found a house that we will never grow out of and will have sooo much fun in making life long memories with our boys!!!

The house is a 5 bedroom, 4 1/2 bath, 4450 sqft on almost 5 acres. We got an AMAZING deal (which, I'm sure had more to do with the seller's remorse than any attachment they may have had), but we also gave them an amazing deal too...$9000 under asking price. There is plenty of room for the boys to ride snowmachines, 4-wheelers, bikes, play soccer/hockey/football.....and everything possible boys love to do!! And mom loves her new kitchen sooooooooo much!! I can't tell you how much I've missed cooking. For some reason cooking in this kitchen just brings me pure joy!!!

We are getting new carpet in a few weeks and after that and all the final "touches" we will for sure have a house warming party, so be prepared!! I've attached a small picture of the front of the house, for some reason I can't make it bigger???

Selling a House = NO FUN AT ALL!!

===NOTE THIS WAS WRITTEN ABOUT A MONTH AGO (i've calmed myself since then)===

To say I'm exhausted is an understatement!! I can't even comprehend what has happened to us in the last month. All I know is that I need to somehow try and find peace about it or I'll seriously loose it!!
Our house has been on the market since April 1st. We have known we wanted to sell and find a 4 bedroom for a few years, but finally decided to jump on trying to sell while the interest rates were so low. We received a full price offer within 3 weeks and were thrilled beyond belief!! Then 5 days later, they backed out, and because of some silly clause in the contract we did not get to keep their earnest money either. We quickly put it back on the market, but it sat for the next two months with hardly a showing. Finally, we knew we needed to pull it off the market and try and sell it FSBO in order to drop the price quite a bit. The DAY I took it off the market a man knocked on my door wanting information about the house for his brother who wanted to move to the neighborhood from Anchorage. God had truly answered our prayers!! The brother and his wife came out the following night and looked at the house...they seemed very interested and told me they would get back to me. A week later they called to say they'd like to make an offer on the house. Everything seemed great, until I got a random phone call the next day from a real estate agent saying she had an offer to submit for my home. Confused, I called the couple to find out if it was them or if not to tell them that another offer was coming in. Apparently, while the couple was getting their financing from the lender and agent just "happened" to be there and convinced them they desperately needed to be represented since it's dangerous to not have a real estate agent. GIVE ME A BREAK!! But the buyer assured me they would be paying her commissions. Whatever I thought.....little did I know what I was getting myself into~ I received a phone call from the agent wanting to submit the offer.....she explained right away that she was going to ask me to pay half of the commissions.....I immediately stopped her and told that wouldn't be happening.....she was not happy.....and to make a long story short has been all about "HER commission" since that moment!!! Move forward a few weeks and we now find out our appraisal was coming in $20,000 low!! WHAT??? After much emotion, panicking, and screaming, we were able to get the appraisal back up, but it was still $8500 low. We new this for a few days, so we had settled and were prepared to have to lower our price to appraisal price. But, the agent, who so desperately wanted this deal to fall through so she could sell them another house with more commission was going to surprise the hell out of us a week before closing!! She sent me an email (no phone call just email) that the buyers were terminating the agreement because the appraisal was low.....WTF??? (pardon my acronyms) Why the hell would they do that, since it benefits them to have the appraisal come in lower? I immediately called the agent begging for an explanation, since we had literally talked two days prior knowing it was coming in low and she told me the buyers were hoping that we would come down in price and still sell (well obviously we would have too!!). She gave no explanation other than "the value just isn't there, sorry your appraisal came in low".......furious that she could give me no valid explanation I suddenly remembered her comment that she could always show them another house and sell it making full commission which she'd love to be getting??? I knew exactly what she was doing.....screwing us and lying to the buyers so she could sell them a different house. What a nightmare!!! I called her broker the next morning to share my disbelief in how unprofessional this agent had been since the beginning. He agreed and was very apologetic that we had been through so much. But, we knew there was nothing that could be done at this point.....whatever she had said about us or the house was done and the buyers wanted to move on. We (well I) cried and screamed for two days and then finally knew we too had to move on. I was heartbroken, but knew that God would take care of us always no matter what home we were in.
Then low and behold two days later my phone rings and it's the agent.....apparently after showing the buyers 10 different homes they decide they want to stick with ours. The offer of course was lower than we expected and yet they still wanted to close on time (on Thursday and it was Friday night I received the call), so less than a week. We quickly decided that we needed to just go ahead and sell this house. Corey was leaving on a business trip on Tuesday so we had to bust our butts off Sat, Sun, and Monday to get as much done as we could. Most of the heavy items were moved out by Monday and the clothes and small things were left for me to finish. Thankfully, my parents were there to help (I have no idea what I would have done without them!!) and we literally pushed until literal exhaustion had set in to get moved out by Thursday, our closing day. Low and behold on Wed I get a call from the title company that we will not be able to close on Thursday since the lender is not ready. Surprise, Surprise...not only did we have to deal with the agent from hell, but they just so happened to have the lender from hell who I called on almost a daily basis to keep on track. She always assured me that when "she" did things they got done on time........YEAH RIGHT, now look where we were.....late on closing with no date in sight? Friday turned into Monday, then a screaming match on how poor customer service was turned into Wed, and finally Thursday!! All while, Corey and I are still paying the mortgage, utilities, etc and get punished for the lender's inadequacy!!
The sad things about this whole deal is that the buyers are good people, nice people, people that if these two woman had never been involved would have been awesome to work with.....but instead I get the nightmare from hell, because two woman "best friends at that" were conspiring together to get the most commission they can possibly get and screw the screaming crazy lady (AKA ME) as much as they could.
I've now come to the conclusion that God led us on this bumpy path to reassure that He is in control and that I need to release my control and find peace and comfort knowing that ultimately He will take care of us. That's hard to do, especially when I LOVE being the screaming, raging, crazy lady who expects nothing but the best in customer service!! I'm a little nuts in that department what can I say?
Bottom line and moral to this story.....don't ever use Anchorage Realtor A****a G**b**n and also stay away from Bank of America/Country Wide Mortgage!!!

My first Coupon Adventure!!!

I so wish I had my computer set up to upload pictures!! As soon as I can I will post a picture of the loot I got tonight at Walgreens!! I had Corey watch the kids tonight so I could run to Walgreens and scoop up the good deals. I'm so excited I can hardly stand it!!!


First, for the newbies, you'll have to excuse my coupon clipping jargon....I just started taking Coupon 101 and it's a whole new language in itself, so pardon me if I use a term you haven't learned yet~ Since Walgreens is new to all of us, I'll start by explaining their Register Rewards program.....every week Walgreens comes out with new products which have Register Rewards if you buy them. Register Rewards is money that is returned to you in the form of a redemption coupon to use at a later purchase. Some only have a few bucks tacked on and some have the entire amount returned to you in Register Rewards. There is usually 3-4 products a week that you basically get for free with RR and many more that have huge discounts.


This being my first week to try this, I decided to just go ahead and get as many RR products as possible (well, that I needed) to see what kind of savings I could get. Ooh, Ooh, and I was also able to print off a 15% off your entire order coupon (Friends/Family Appreciation) from www.alaskacoupondiva.com, so that amounted to extra savings!! Here's my loot for today's shopping trip:

Colgate 360 Toothbrush Reg Price $2.99
15% off coupon $2.54
RR $3.00 (it says it is suppose to be $2.99 you get back, but they actually print you off a $3 coupon!)
Paid: FREE plus got back $.46 (overage)


Men's Zone 6 blade Razor Reg Price $3.99
15 % off coupon 3.39
RR $4.00
Paid: FREE plus got back $.61 (overage)


CareFree Pantiliners Reg Prices $1.99
15% off coupon 1.69
RR $2.00
Paid: FREE plus got back $.31 (overage)


Rembrant Toothpaste Reg Price $4.99
15% off coupon $4.25
RR $5.00
Paid: FREE plus got back $.75 (overage)


Breathe Right Nasal Strips Reg Price $5.99
15% off $5.09
RR $4.00
Paid: $1.09


(2) Kleenex Tissue w/ Lotion (100 count) Reg Price $1.99 each
In store coupon $1.69
15% off $1.44
Manufactured Coupon $.50 X 2
Paid: $.94 each $1.88 total


So my total amount spent tonight was............$.84!!! YeS EIGHTY FOUR CENTS!!! Are you freaking kidding me?? I should note that I actually paid $18.84 out of my pocket, but then received $18 worth of Register Rewards which have to be used by 9/14/09 (two weeks). So my plan is to go back and buy Corey's hunting snacks with the $18 tomorrow. This is an incredible deal if done right and actually I'm kicking myself that I didn't check for Manufacture coupons on these other products before I went!!! I could have received even more cash back!!


I'm officially addicted!! I love Walgreens and will now make this my Sunday ritual after the weekly ad comes out!! Then I plan on using my RR's to buy the Health/Beauty/Bath things I need for the week!! I've honestly never budgeted how much we spend each week in groceries, but now I want to know, so that this challenge will be that much more interesting!!


I'm off to Target tomorrow to double up my coupons and get a whole bunch of things at crazy prices!!! Until then....get your bum to Walgreens and get some deals, especially if you need a toothbrush, razor, toothpaste, or panty liners!!!

Coupon Craziness!!

Ok, so most of you that know me know that I am in constant need for a good deal...it's in my blood. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE a good deal and even blush when I get something for free!! I've been known many times to buy an item "just cause it's such a good deal" and then have absolutely no need for it!! I just can't pass up a good deal.


Anyways.......I have a friend in Spokane who got me started on clipping coupons again. Although, I have always clipped coupons, this is the first time I've actually strived to pay nothing or nearly nothing for an item!! It can be done...crazy as it seems, but oh yes, it can be done!

There was an article in the local Eagle River Alaska Star paper about a wonderful gal who started a blog about her coupon clipping! I'm secretly jealous and soooo envious of her ability to save, so I've become a stalker along with a few other ladies from our glorious state! Take a look and try not to drool......trust me you too will soon become addicted.


My next goal is to find someone in the lower 48 who will mail me their Sunday inserts every week!! (paying them of course)

http://www.alaskasbestgrocerydeals.blogspot.com


http://alaskanbargainhunter.blogspot.com


http://www.alaskacoupondiva.com

The Pioneer Woman

A friend of mine, Anne, has started an incredible blog that she updates DAILY (yes, she's even more crazy than me!). I love checking for the latest Seneca daily adventure and looking at pictures of her ADORABLE children!! Then I came upon her website favorites and one of them was www.thepioneerwoman.com.

This woman (Anne too, but now referring to PW) is incredible!! If you are ever in the need to have all the memories of falling in love with your husband come flooding back to your mind or if you just love a good love story, then you have to read her Love Story titled "Black heels to Tractor Wheels" It's hilarious in so many ways and makes you want to stay on the computer all 10 hours to read the whole thing in one night (ok, well it took me two nights). She is an incredible writer and has a way of making all of the emotions that a woman feels come to life in her story. I laughed, cried and smiled with every entry!
It gave me a renewed love for Corey and brought all those feelings I felt when we first fell in love back and warmed me all over!! I even ran to bed and snuggled him making sure I told him just how much I loved him. Seeing that it was 3am, he rolled over and asked "Are you wearing rain gear to bed?"....I laughed and squeezed him tighter.....I am absolutely in PASSIONATE LOVE with my husband and am thankful for him everyday.....rain gear delusions and all!

Alaska Airlines Picnic

I decided to take the kids to the annual Alaska Airlines Summer Picnic. It was a beautiful day out, a little windy but since it was so hot was nice to feel the breeze. The boys had such a good time. They had games, petting zoo, face painting, food, climbing wall, prizes and more!! It was nice to get together with some of the girls from work and chat. I don't' work too often and rarely with all of the girls, so it's nice to catch up. Thankfully, Mimi came along to help wrestle and chase kids!! We had a great time and were all sunned out ready for naps when we got to the car. Actually, Boden fell asleep riding the horse.....and it was only about a 30 second ride!! He was soo tired~ Bradyen and I both did the potato sack race. I did not win, but Brady was way out in front and then looked back and decided to wait for the rest of them......letting the girls win!! I'm not sure he even understood it was a race, he just wanted to be next to the other kids not in front! Thankfully they all got prizes!!

Miss Birchwood's Outstanding Teen, My Niece Krystina!!

My beautiful niece Krystina, who is the Miss Birchwood's Outstanding Teen 2009!! She was in the local Bear Paw parade wearing the gown that I pick out and bought for her!! Love it!! She's riding with one of the little princesses part of the Miss Alaska program.

She use to ride with me in the parades 8-9 years ago when I was competing!! I threw in a couple pictures so you can see how much she's changed!! I can't believe she is going to be 18 next month!!! Where has time gone!! I'm so incredibly proud of her!!