OWNED!

Well, it's official. WE OWN A HOME! Tim did the final walk through yesterday and everything was beautiful as expected. The seller actually left us a couple of notes - one welcoming us and hoping that we loved our new home, and one telling us about the birds that nest in the bird house (she also left us some seed for them.)

Today escrow funded and we closed the loan. The place belongs to us, and we make our first mortgage payment in December (until then, I am going to throw money around like it's water, of course.) I had been texting with Tim and our realtor while at work (more on that later) and Tim called me at 5 to say that Rita had called and we were all official. I burst into tears, and then my boss goes, "look! She's crying! We should take a picture of this!" Thanks, Anja. Very comforting. Then apparently I looked weird in her cell phone photo, so she told me I looked demented.

Today has been a stressful and fun day all around. Our Gala is tomorrow, so I've been at work late every day this week, running around like a chicken with my head cut off. We spent today in a conference room at the Hilton putting together our gift bags. We got a lot of really fabulous donations to include, so we were there at 6am setting up so that when the volunteers arrived, we could just send them around the room, stuffing bag after bag (mercifully, I was able to make a deal where I didn't come in until 7, but I had to show up with everyone's coffee order. I also made carrot cake muffins before packing up the bones of the kitchen - yes I am insane.) My job all day was the break down the boxes, which in the beginning wasn't that much, but by the end, I was buried in cardboard, because they unpacked things way faster than I could cut and smash. My arms are also covered with angry red welts from getting scratched by the cardboard. I look like I self-mutilate. We had some down time after 2pm, and that was when I began frantically texting everyone involved in the closing process to see how it was going. And then I got the happiest call in the world as we were getting ready to pack up our stuff and escape for the day.

We are pretty good to go for Saturday. I will probably pack the rest of my pretties tonight and my clothes, and then I have a list of things for Tim to get done when he gets up here tomorrow night. I am feeling much less frantic than I was earlier in the week. I've had a pizza and a beer, and now I am off to fill out change of address forms online! Also, I will be going to bed at 8pm, most likely. Because I am one tired little homeowner!