We are under contract!

We came to an agreement on the house in Windham and we are so so so excited about it!

Our closing is set for February 27th, just 29 days away! It's also our 5 month wedding anniversary. (Oddly enough we came to an agreement on January 27th as well...there must be something around the number 27 and us).

We have our inspections scheduled for Wednesday at 9am and I'm optimistic that they'll be fine.

We were also able to lock in at a 5% rate! The great thing is that if it drops we can adjust it down as well. Our mortgage guy is pretty great especially since the rates did increase later in the afternoon yesterday.

So now we need to pack. I hate packing.

This morning we put in an offer on a house in Windham! This is all moving so quickly. The offer will expire tomorrow at 5pm so hopefully we hear something before then. I'd love to hear something today, but I don't think that will happen.

There is another couple interested in the house, but they haven't put an offer in yet so keep your fingers crossed that they don't because we really want the house!

In other news Pat is working a ton and we hardly saw each other this weekend. Work has been busy for me as well, but at least I sleep at home every night. I know Pat doesn't mind it though.

I didn't cook at all this weekend. I spent most of the weekend at Gram's stressing over the house, but it was good to spend a lot of time there.

I'll update when we hear something - think good thoughts for us!

Yesterday we looked at another house in Windham. This is a nice colonial with a detached two car garage. It also has frontage on a pond, which Mom is just flipping over! Both Pat and I loved it so we'll be putting in another offer today. It was just last Sunday that we put in the last offer!

Keep your fingers crossed for us. We're going to put in a very fair offer, but when I drove by yesterday there was another couple looking at it also so lets just hope that if they do put in an offer that ours is a little better!

House update

It's a no-go. The seller was not interested in negotiating. No big deal, we know there will be something out there. When the house is listed as "seller is motivated" but he only counter-offers at $4k below his listing price...he's not motivated. That's cool, we're not motivated to buy an over-priced house!

Back to the drawing board!

Enchiladas

This was just an Old El Paso kit, but it was pretty good. We made it with Chicken instead of the ground beef and we both really enjoyed it. This picture was taken before it was cooked, but it looked pretty much the same after.

We made it another weekend without going out to eat! Go us!

Slow cooker soup

When I did Weight Watchers back in 2004 this was my staple, I ate it with everything as a side for some substance. It's a zero point soup and it's delicious. Since I like it so much I decided to make it last night.

This is before it all cooks down into a delicious soup. One year I even made a crock pot of this for my Dad for Father's Day. Seriously, it's that good.

10 oz Baby Spinach (I use 12 oz)
1 medium onion, chopped (I don't use the whole onion)
A few carrots, chopped (recipe says two, I use more)
A few stalks of celery, chopped (recipe says two, I use more)
28oz can of diced tomatoes
4 cups vegetable broth (low sodium is best)
2 bay leaves
1 Tbsp dried basil
1 tsp dried oregano
1/s tsp red pepper flakes (I use more)
1 medium garlic clove, minced

Put it all in the slow cooker and cook for 300 minutes on high. Remove bay leaves before serving.

Cowboy Cookies

Last Sunday it was freezing so Pat and I didn't want to get out of the house. I realized I truly am becoming my mother (not a bad thing!) because I decided to bake. When I was little we baked all the time. Mom loves to tell the story of how I made my first banana bread all by myself at age 3 for my Grammy Poland. What a sweet kid I was.

Anyway, since we hadn't been to the grocery store in a week, supplies were low. Then I remembered my Aunt Sue had given me one of those jars full of dry ingredients to make cookies for Christmas. Since all the dry ingredients were prepared for me, I don't really know what's in them (other than flour, brown sugar, chocolate chips, oatmeal and some kind of nuts...walnuts, I think). They were delicious though and certainly didn't last long! I have a feeling Pat will be requesting these again.

Mmmm....I wish I had one right now!

The last hour on a Friday afternoon...

...and I'm practically asleep at my desk. I'm running mortgage numbers and estimations non-stop for our offer on Sunday. Trying to figure out how high we're really willing to go on this house. I know what our initial offer will be, but if they don't accept (which is likely) what will our next step be?

My mind is racing. It's exciting though and I keep thinking about all the exciting things we'd be able to do with the house. We'd finally have some...no...we'd have a lot of space! I get so excited thinking about tearing down all that awful wallpaper (I have a serious hatred of wallpaper). I keep thinking about all the different colors I'd like to paint. It's so exciting!

However, I am REALLY dreading packing up the condo. On January 31, 2003 I closed on that condo so I have lived there a long time. I have accumulated a lot of crap. It is not going to be fun going through it all and I really should make an effort to toss a lot of stuff instead of just bringing it to the new place.

Pat is working tonight until 11pm and he's working in North Conway all day tomorrow. On Sunday we're putting in the offer and then grocery shopping. Not too exciting, but necessary since we didn't shop last weekend.

The good news is that we have not gone out to eat at all! Yay us! My month resolution is sticking so far.

Forty-five more minutes to waste.

Putting in an offer!

We are going to be putting in an offer on the house in Gorham on Sunday. I personally wish it could be sooner, but this was the first time all our schedules worked out. After that it's a waiting game to see what the seller wants to do. I hope he truly is motivated, as his listing states.

I am really itching to get out and use my new snowshoes, but it has just been too cold. Speaking of the cold, I really don't enjoy it at all...but I accept it. I know that since I live in Maine there are just times that it's going to be cold here. So what I can't understand is why everyone else seems to be complaining about it. Aren't they just as used to it? The only thing I will complain about is that our house seems to be cold! The furnace is running but it just doesn't seem to be keeping up with the cold.

The last change that is happening this month is we're switching insurance companies and finally getting on the same policy. This will save us quite a bit each year, so that's good news!

Now I must get back to work.

Last night we made tacos. No pictures because, come on, who doesn't know what tacos look like? I have no idea what we'll have tonight and this is where we run into trouble.

"What do you want for dinner?"
"I don't care, what do you want?"
"I don't know, that's why I asked you."
"How about Cole Farms"
"Ok"

And off we go, to spend money on unhealthy food. Our options tonight (if we don't hit up a store) are pasta, cereal, pancakes, soup or lean cuisines. All acceptable in my book!

We don't have much planned this weekend. Hopefully we can work some more around the house. I know Pat is working the overnight Friday night at Cumberland, but hopefully he'll have an easy night and we can do stuff on Saturday. We'll definitely be making another trip to the grocery store - we're both loving the deals and actually having food in the house! I also need to get all the remaining information off my old laptop and onto my new one. I hope this works, there is only 30 minutes of battery life remaining on the old one! Yikes!

I love reading about what other people are cooking and eating! However, I'm not very good in the kitchen. But, when I got home from work last night Pat was napping on the couch after a 28 hour shift and I thought it was the perfect time to get started on dinner!

I found a recipe for tuna pomodoro from http://www.eatingwell.com/ that looked pretty decent and we even had all the ingredients in the house!

Here's what it looked like while cooking. Both Pat and I agreed that we would have this again. I'd probably make it a little spicier if it were just for me since I like it spicy. I think this would also be very good with chicken.

Makes 4 servings, about 1 cup each
ACTIVE TIME: 25 minutes
TOTAL TIME: 25 minutes
EASE OF PREPARATION: Easy

8 ounces whole-wheat spaghetti
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon minced garlic
2 anchovies, minced (optional) - we omittied
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper, or to taste
1 28-ounce can diced tomatoes
1 6-ounce can chunk light tuna, drained and flaked
2 tablespoons thinly sliced fresh basil

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Cook spaghetti, stirring occasionally, until just tender, 9 to 11 minutes or according to package directions. Drain.

2. Meanwhile, heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add garlic and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add anchovies (if using) and crushed red pepper and cook for 30 seconds more. Add tomatoes, reduce heat to medium and cook, stirring occasionally, for 8 minutes. Stir in tuna and cook until it is incorporated into the sauce and heated through, 2 minutes more. Divide the spaghetti evenly among 4 plates, top with sauce and garnish with basil. Serve hot.

It's a small world afterall...

About two hours after I posted yesterday about the ROW I got an email from a very helpful person at the water district offering up whatever information I wanted to know about the ROW. While this was very convenient, it was also a little freaky!

When I was younger my Mom always told me never to put anything in writing that I didn't want someone to know. It was a good lesson! It's not that I didn't want anyone to know about this blog, it's just weird how people might stumble on it.

So...if I don't know you in real life, how did you find me? I'm curious, but I'm sure nobody will answer.

Cooking at home

In an effort to eat more at home we went grocery shopping this weekend to stock up. We now have a really stocked kitchen and this is totally rare for us.

We also made it a whole weekend without going out to eat. At the pace we had been going this was a huge accomplishment. We've changed our mindset into having dinners out be special occasions and not just every night. My resolution for January is to not buy food at a restaurant or convenience store. This means cooking at home and bringing meals to work. Not only will we save money, I might even drop a couple of pounds!

We're also thinking of moving forward with the house in Gorham. We had both sets of parents look at it on Thursday and both thought it would be good if we could get it for a really good deal.

The one thing I am still curious about is that it has a Portland Water District right of way on the property. Essentially the lines that feed Portland water from Sebago Lake run under the property. I won't lie - this does concern me. What if a pipe bursts? That's a whole ton of water that would essentially flood the whole neighborhood. I also want to find out what the ROW gives them access to and what we can do (if anything) with the affected land. We'd love to have a pond out back, which would be so easy since the land is pretty wet. But can we?

So we'll see! I'm kind of dragging my feet on talking to a mortgage broker because I want to see how our 2008 taxes look. Soon enough we'll have all the information to be able to make an informed decision on this.

Happy 2009!

2008 was an awesome year for us and we're looking forward to a great 2009 as well! We're interested in buying a house in Gorham and if that happens we can perhaps start trying for a baby! So many exciting things on the horizon!

Here's to a wonderful 2009!