House hunting Week #2

We found a house!!!!

http://www.edinarealty.com/MN/Little-Canada/55117/homes-for-sale/566-Allen-Avenue-57683075Check out the link for more detailed info.
What we love:
1) Huge deck
2) Huge living room
3) Huge deck and yard
4) Huge basement family room (that can be divided to make a 4th bedroom in the future)
5) Huge bedrooms
6) Move in ready
7) Huge 2-car garage
8) Good, safe neighborhood
9) Roseville school district
10) 2000 sq. ft.

This is the first house Troy and I both love. :) We're going to make an offer next week! Keep your fingers crossed!

Happy Easter everyone!

House hunting, Week #1

Dear hubby and I went to look at 7 houses this weekend with our realtor. It was a lot of fun, but I haven't felt like I've found THE ONE. Troy was about ready to jump and make an offer on this one, listed at $149,900. He absolutely loved this house!! Mostly because it is 2,200 square feet, which is by far the biggest house we've seen so far. Me, I wasn't really feeling it, because 1) I don't like houses on slopes, 2) It has a flat garage roof, which is just totally idiotic in MN because you will spend your whole winter clearing snow off the roof, 3) I'm not too fond of the city of Maplewood, which is not as good as Roseville. So, no go.

We looked at two short sales, which were extremely disappointing. Houses were in very poor shape, and also the realtor said its a long and frustrating process to purchase a short sale because it depends on bank approval which could take months.

Got a call from the mortgage broker today we said we are qualified to purchase up to $200k or even $220k. But then Troy and I decided that we'll still stick with our lower budget of about $150k so we can have more extra money to have fun and future kids AND most importantly so we don't get foreclosed. Looking at several of the foreclosed houses really scared the heck out of us - what a horrible horrible thing to have to go through!

House hunting is fun. :))

House hunting fun!

Going to look at some houses tomorrow! Here's some more on the list:

These 2 are listed at about the same price, $160k. They are in Falcon Heights, 3 bed, 2 bath. In good neighborhoods with finished basements, but no guest bedroom. :(

Love the exterior of the first house!! Dunno what this style is called, but I love it!

House hunting fun

My coworker Sara introduced me to her cousin Jason who is a realtor. So, we are currently semi-seriously looking for houses. I say semi-seriously because although I enjoy looking at listings online, we have yet to take any steps to get pre-approved for a mortgage.

My my my, do I feel old and RESPONSIBLE. First getting married, and now.. buying a house?!

Here's our wish list: (I didn't want to have super high expectations, but the realtor says in today's market we can have everything on our list and more ;))

1. At least 3 bedroom, preferably 4
2. At least 2 bathrooms
3. 2 car garage
4. Finished basement (for Troy's man cave)
5. Livable condition, no major repairs needed
6. Good school district
7. Not-too-ugly exterior
8. Obviously, GOOD AND SAFE NEIGHBORHOOD

Anyway, Jason already sent me a list of 6 houses in Roseville, which is my preferred suburb.

I like the exterior of this house. I think it looks very homey and cute! Listed for $134,900, which is an awesome price! I don't like that it is in the St. Paul school district. This one is listed for $149,900. It has a huge private yard and huge basement, and is in the Roseville school district. I don't like the exterior quite as much though, kinda squarish and boring. Guess that can be updated though.Those are the only two worth considering so far. He sent us lots of houses in Maplewood, but in my opinion that is a less desirable suburb, so who wants to live there.

Online house shopping is fun. ;)

Almost spring

Springtime! Springtime! Oh glorious sun!!!!!!! :)

It's been pretty nice and sunny these two weeks! Oooh do I love the SUN. Maybe now I can finally get some REAL sunshine instead of having to take vitamin D pills!

Unfortunately springtime means lots of pollen which means ALLERGIES, which suck. I was sniffling all of last weekend and had a horrible sore throat. I feel much better now though.

New news.. I quit my job today. I never really thought this day would come, but alas, my job has really been really going downhill since the start of this year. I have to be at FIVE different locations and all the traveling just plain sucks. It is hard to leave Capernaum because its a great company and the people are great and everyone was soooooooo sad today when I told them. My boss was really sad and sorry that I'm leaving, but I said I would still work for them part-time so its not like I'm leaving completely.

SO, I start new job in 2 weeks. I'm praying and hoping that its the right decision and the new place will be a great fit for me. I've heard good things about the place from everyone so keeping my fingers crossed. I am excited and nervous at the same time. :P

Sooo... I'm going to start working about 45 hours (40 hours at new job + 5 at old job), which will be tiring but then extra money will be VERY NICE. :) Poor Troy has been picking up some extra night shifts too cos he gets paid A LOT for OT. It will be nice to be able to afford some furniture for our house, maybe a dog. ;) Best time to make money is when you're childless, right?

It's the weekend!!!!

I love Saturday mornings. I love waking up early and looking forward to the two whole days of nua-ness I have ahead of me. :)

Yesterday was a productive day. Troy and I met with a financial advisor who was recommended to us by an ex-coworker. Wasn't expecting too much, but he turned out to be quite a good fit for us. I liked that he wasn't too pushy and also explained things in a way that we understood. We are meeting with him again in two weeks and he's going to churn out the numbers for us. Told him we don't know much about investing and don't really care about the details - we just want him to tell us where and how much to put our money so we'll be good for the future! ;)

We were going to see the King's Speech after that, but couldn't find a parking spot!!!! So, decided to skip the movie and head to Fridays for dinner. Guess I can wait till the movie comes out on Netflix. Everyone's been saying the movie is really good and I'm pretty curious. Who knows, might give me some helpful tips for working with my stuttering kiddos!

Oh yeah, I should blog about my medical adventure, just so everyone can laugh at the ridiculously-priced American healthcare. ;)

Urgent Care visit (Saw doctor for 10 mins) - $903
ER visit (8 hours in ER for my CT and MRI scans) - $6169
Visit to family doctor - $144
Visit to Neurologist (who told me nothing I didn't already know) - $759

Total: $7975 to find out I had a migraine and I should get over-the-counter meds if I have another one.

Guess I should be thankful they take my health so seriously? Troy knows someone our age who died because she had an aneurysm and they sent her home without running the tests. All in all, I am thankful that I am fine AND that I have health insurance to pick up most of the tab!! My company just switched to a new insurance plan that has a $1600 out-of-pocket maximum per year and they pay everything else.

Happy weekend everyone!

What an eventful month!

February turned out to be quite a roller coaster of a month!

Now that Troy doesn't work on Fridays and only works every other weekend, we have had so much more time to explore the city together. :) We checked out Comedy Sportz (comedy club in uptown Minneapolis), Chuck E. Cheese (always wanted to go there), and several different restaurants and happy hours. I LOVE HAPPY HOUR.

Had a health scare earlier this month, but turns out all is well. I've been given a clean bill of health by 3 different doctors now, so I think I'm good. They all think my headache was a migraine - I haven't had anymore so far so I'm keeping my fingers crossed its a one-time thing!

It's been snowing non-stop for TWO WHOLE DAYS. Just when you feel kinda hopeful spring is coming... :P Oh Minnesota!

Happy CNY!

Hello! I haven't updated in a while.. lazy.. heh.

So, we had a blast in Tokyo and Singapore! Troy fell in love with wanton mee and keeps asking for it. ;) Sadly I doubt I will be able to create char siew and wantons and noodles that are up to standard! Anyway it was a fun albeit short trip. Hopefully we'll be able to stay longer next time, whenever that is!

Anyway it was hellish coming back to the harsh MN winter!! Winter is not too bad when you ease into it gradually... but going from warm summery weather to blistery cold in one day!!!!! Took me two whole weeks to get back into winter mode and work mode again.

Work's busy busy. I had to take up two more placements, and I am not liking all the travel UGH. Anyway I'm hoping the Edina clinic will fill up and I can switch back to having more time there. All the changes to insurance and funding cutbacks have been quite the pain in the a*s. On the bright side, one of my kiddo's mom brought me flowers and a $15 cariboo gift card today!! :) Sweet parents and kids brighten up my day. :)

It's the 2nd anniversary of our first date next week! Actually we're not even sure when it is exactly, just sometime in Feb. We are not very good with dates, oops. Marriage has been absolutely wonderful so far. :)

Ok I have nothing else to update. Everyone in Singapore kept saying to bring a baby back this year, but I'm pretty sure its a NO on both counts.

Walking in a winter wonderland!

Hello snowy December!!

We had a blizzard on Saturday - 17 inches of snow! Troy and I did the smart thing and stayed home all day, watched Monk and Jeff Dunham on Netflix, played the new games I got him for Christmas, did a puzzle.. :)) All we need is a fireplace.

Love the holiday season! I had so much fun making holiday jars last night for our friends as gifts. I'll have to take a picture.

We fly out on Sunday!!! We'll be in Tokyo 3 days before we fly back to Singapore for about a week. Looking forward to our vacation! And all prepared for the flight with a new book, magazine, DS game, card games... :))

See ya all back in Singapore!

Happy November!

Can't believe its year end already!

It's pretty warm out still. Snowed all of last Saturday but hasn't snowed since.

Life's going good. Troy's lost 22 lbs! :) Flat belly diet is working well. Also our grocery bill has gone down by about half since we started the diet! Crazy I know.

We're looking forward to our trip in Dec. Troy wants to go to the night safari and also have breakfast with the orang utans at the zoo. LOL. Also planning to go to Disneyland in Tokyo - yay! :)