After 3 weeks of feeling like I didn't matter and no response to my letter, the head of HR (who also has been a friend of mine for over 10 years), asked to speak with me about my letter. So, we had a chat and I told her how I felt. I ended up crying, but it wasn't a big deal since she is a friend. She took my concerns very seriously and said all the stuff my boss should have said about how much they value me, etc.
So, another 10 days went by and finally my boss asked to speak with me. So, this was a full month after our first meeting. He said they may not have been fair to me to put this new role on me at this point when I am not working a full load and am trying to balance my home life and work life. And, it was a huge jump in responsibility.
So, he has offered me a new position - Senior Project Coordinator. It is still a promotion from where I was before, but is a step back from being a full PM. I will still do a lot of the same actual work that I am doing now, but there will be someone else actually managing the projects. This is more of a stepping stone to being a full PM where I can slowly ease into that instead of it all being dropped on me at once.
This new position comes with an 11% raise! YAY! So, as a result of Friday's meeting, I was offered a position that is less responsibility and a lot less stress, for more money. Sounds good to me! I am thrilled with the raise - it comes into effect on Monday!
I am hoping this will make me happy with my job again. I am still considering other options, but I will stay at least until I have another mat leave. Then I'll have a year off to make some decisions about my career path. I'm not closing the door on my current company just because of a few bad months, but I am not sure I want to work outside the home 4 days per week after we have 2 kids.
Tuesday, November 08, 2011
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Feeling lost
So, as you all know, I got a big promotion in May. Well, it came with a tiny little raise which I didn't think even came close to reflecting the increase in responsibility and stress. So, right away, I went to my boss and told him I wasn't happy with the raise and he said we could do an informal mid-year review in October and if I was doing well in my new role, he would "bump me up" at that time.
So, from May until October, I worked my butt off to 'prove myself' in my new position. I took phone calls from clients on my days off, made sales phone calls in the evenings to get more work, worked extra hours, dealt with difficult clients, etc. One client in particular has made me cry at work twice in the last month. Not cool. I obviously need to develop a thicker skin. My new position has been so stressful - the only thing keeping me going in my job was looking forward to my big raise in October.
Well, the big meeting arrived last week. I was so excited for months; I couldn't wait to see what all my hard work had gotten me. Well, my boss gave me a raise in the amount of: big fat ZERO! He said there wasn't a problem with my performance, just that he doesn't think I've had enough time to prove myself yet. I was LIVID! So, naturally, I went into the bathroom at work and cried. So upset. I felt hurt and betrayed. I've been at the company for almost 8 years now; this made me feel so under-appreciated and under-valued.
I took the long weekend to calm down and decided to write my boss a letter explaining that had I been told at the outset that I'd need to work in the new position for a year before getting a substantial raise, I would have considered declining the promotion. In the spirit of compromise, I am willing to wait until January 1st, but I expect to be told now what the anticipated increase in salary will be so I can decide if I want to continue on that path or request to be returned to my former position. I just gave him the letter yesterday, so no response yet.
Honestly, my old job was so much less stress. If I'm not going to get a raise, it's just not worth it to me. Especially since we're probably going to have another baby soon. My number one priority is with my family, not my career.
This whole situation has made me re-evaluate what I want to do with my life though. Maybe project management at an engineering company isn't for me. Too much stress at this point in my life. I want to be in a job that I feel appreciated and that doesn't make me cry. I have been with the company for almost 8 years, and I have cried 4 times in total over my job and all 4 times have been in the last month. A sure sign that things are going downhill for me - fast. I need to get out of there.
Perfect time to have another baby, I think :) Then I'll have a year off to give me some time to think about my options and come up with a plan. We were originally thinking we'd have our kids 3 years apart and our girl is 2 years and 8 months now, so I guess we better get started ;)
So, from May until October, I worked my butt off to 'prove myself' in my new position. I took phone calls from clients on my days off, made sales phone calls in the evenings to get more work, worked extra hours, dealt with difficult clients, etc. One client in particular has made me cry at work twice in the last month. Not cool. I obviously need to develop a thicker skin. My new position has been so stressful - the only thing keeping me going in my job was looking forward to my big raise in October.
Well, the big meeting arrived last week. I was so excited for months; I couldn't wait to see what all my hard work had gotten me. Well, my boss gave me a raise in the amount of: big fat ZERO! He said there wasn't a problem with my performance, just that he doesn't think I've had enough time to prove myself yet. I was LIVID! So, naturally, I went into the bathroom at work and cried. So upset. I felt hurt and betrayed. I've been at the company for almost 8 years now; this made me feel so under-appreciated and under-valued.
I took the long weekend to calm down and decided to write my boss a letter explaining that had I been told at the outset that I'd need to work in the new position for a year before getting a substantial raise, I would have considered declining the promotion. In the spirit of compromise, I am willing to wait until January 1st, but I expect to be told now what the anticipated increase in salary will be so I can decide if I want to continue on that path or request to be returned to my former position. I just gave him the letter yesterday, so no response yet.
Honestly, my old job was so much less stress. If I'm not going to get a raise, it's just not worth it to me. Especially since we're probably going to have another baby soon. My number one priority is with my family, not my career.
This whole situation has made me re-evaluate what I want to do with my life though. Maybe project management at an engineering company isn't for me. Too much stress at this point in my life. I want to be in a job that I feel appreciated and that doesn't make me cry. I have been with the company for almost 8 years, and I have cried 4 times in total over my job and all 4 times have been in the last month. A sure sign that things are going downhill for me - fast. I need to get out of there.
Perfect time to have another baby, I think :) Then I'll have a year off to give me some time to think about my options and come up with a plan. We were originally thinking we'd have our kids 3 years apart and our girl is 2 years and 8 months now, so I guess we better get started ;)
Monday, August 08, 2011
Enjoying the summer
I'm having a great summer so far. I went to Las Vegas last week with nej and lj and it was an absolute blast! The Grand Canyon was amazing and Vegas was loads of fun. The shopping down there was pretty fab as well.
Things are moving slowly on the law suit front. An "Order Giving Directions" was filed which is basically an action plan on what is going to happen and by when. Right now, we are in the stage where we have to gather all the documents we have that we would be willing to produce and list them in an Affidavit. This is so that neither party can all of a sudden have a handwritten document from Oma once the case has already started. We have to lay it all on the table so everyone knows what evidence is out there. The lawyers are also gathering all Oma's medical and legal files. So, once all that is gathered, we will need to meet with our lawyer again so he can advise us on how to proceed. So far, all the evidence has been on our side. I can't imagine what evidence my uncle has, but we'll soon find out if he has any.
Julie is 2.5 years old now - crazy! She is so amazing - she's talking in complete sentences and I'm blown away by all she knows. At this rate, it won't be long before she's reading ;) She still hasn't taken much of an interest in potty training. I have a week of holidays at the end of the month, so I'm going to take a few solid days and just concentrate on potty training. We may even try just having her naked in the house and drinking lots of fluid and see what happens. I have a whole stash of stickers for her as rewards. I sure hope this works!
Things are moving slowly on the law suit front. An "Order Giving Directions" was filed which is basically an action plan on what is going to happen and by when. Right now, we are in the stage where we have to gather all the documents we have that we would be willing to produce and list them in an Affidavit. This is so that neither party can all of a sudden have a handwritten document from Oma once the case has already started. We have to lay it all on the table so everyone knows what evidence is out there. The lawyers are also gathering all Oma's medical and legal files. So, once all that is gathered, we will need to meet with our lawyer again so he can advise us on how to proceed. So far, all the evidence has been on our side. I can't imagine what evidence my uncle has, but we'll soon find out if he has any.
Julie is 2.5 years old now - crazy! She is so amazing - she's talking in complete sentences and I'm blown away by all she knows. At this rate, it won't be long before she's reading ;) She still hasn't taken much of an interest in potty training. I have a week of holidays at the end of the month, so I'm going to take a few solid days and just concentrate on potty training. We may even try just having her naked in the house and drinking lots of fluid and see what happens. I have a whole stash of stickers for her as rewards. I sure hope this works!
Friday, June 10, 2011
A promotion for me!
We had our annual performance reviews last month and I am being promoted to a full-fledged Project Manager. I was doing some PM work before my mat leave and then when I returned from mat leave, I didn’t do any PM work. I think they were a little hesitant to give me any projects to manage until they saw how my return to work 3 days a week (and now 4 days a week) was going to work. Well, I have obviously proved myself because my boss wants to make me a PM again only this time they are making it official by giving me that title (my job title has never been PM before).
So, naturally, I was expecting a huge raise. Well, turns out my raise is decent, but not nearly what I was expecting. It is higher than the company average raise, but I was honestly expecting maybe twice what I got. Our company does raises once per year each April (our reviews were late this year, but the raises were retroactive to April). So, as soon as I got the letter with my salary adjustment, I went to talk to my boss and told him I was expecting more given my increase in responsibility. The raise I got was more what I would have expected if I was staying in the same job, not with the promotion. He gave me lots of manager-speak and what we negotiated to is that in early October, we’ll do an informal appraisal to see how I’m doing with my projects and I’ll get another raise then if merited. So, I’m okay with that. Better than having to wait a whole other year for another raise! And at least he knows I am being proactive with my career, so it didn’t hurt to ask. And if I get another raise in October and then another one next April, that would be awesome.
On to other things…
For those who are curious, the law suit is still on going. We have come to the realization that it will likely take YEARS before it's over. No fun. The next steps are mandatory mediation and then our lawyer gets to examine my uncle and his lawyer gets to examine my mom and I. Both lawyers also get to examine Oma's 2 lawyers (the one she 'fired' because she thought he was working with my uncle and her most recent lawyer), her medical professionals, and the capacity assessor. All that will be completed within the next 9 months, so that takes us to early 2012. Then, if things are not settled by mediation, it will go to trial before a judge, which could take a very long time depending on the schedule of the Court. So, it's going to be a long and expensive road, but we're not giving up - we have to fight for what Oma wanted.
We’ve been in our house for over a month now and we LOVE it! We are in the planning stages of building a deck, so hopefully we’ll have that installed within the next month or so. Still have more unpacking to do (our garage is maybe half full of boxes still).
This weekend I’m going to a ladies retreat. I went for the first time a year and a half ago and I took Julie with me since she was still nursing. Well, she’s not nursing anymore, so I am going without her this time (they only let you bring your child if they are a nursing baby – which makes sense – the whole point of the retreat is to have a little getaway!). This is my first time being away from Julie for more than 1 night. It’s a little ‘trial run’ for Vegas next month when I’ll be away from her for 5 nights! We’ll see how I do! I will of course miss Carlos too ;)
So, naturally, I was expecting a huge raise. Well, turns out my raise is decent, but not nearly what I was expecting. It is higher than the company average raise, but I was honestly expecting maybe twice what I got. Our company does raises once per year each April (our reviews were late this year, but the raises were retroactive to April). So, as soon as I got the letter with my salary adjustment, I went to talk to my boss and told him I was expecting more given my increase in responsibility. The raise I got was more what I would have expected if I was staying in the same job, not with the promotion. He gave me lots of manager-speak and what we negotiated to is that in early October, we’ll do an informal appraisal to see how I’m doing with my projects and I’ll get another raise then if merited. So, I’m okay with that. Better than having to wait a whole other year for another raise! And at least he knows I am being proactive with my career, so it didn’t hurt to ask. And if I get another raise in October and then another one next April, that would be awesome.
On to other things…
For those who are curious, the law suit is still on going. We have come to the realization that it will likely take YEARS before it's over. No fun. The next steps are mandatory mediation and then our lawyer gets to examine my uncle and his lawyer gets to examine my mom and I. Both lawyers also get to examine Oma's 2 lawyers (the one she 'fired' because she thought he was working with my uncle and her most recent lawyer), her medical professionals, and the capacity assessor. All that will be completed within the next 9 months, so that takes us to early 2012. Then, if things are not settled by mediation, it will go to trial before a judge, which could take a very long time depending on the schedule of the Court. So, it's going to be a long and expensive road, but we're not giving up - we have to fight for what Oma wanted.
We’ve been in our house for over a month now and we LOVE it! We are in the planning stages of building a deck, so hopefully we’ll have that installed within the next month or so. Still have more unpacking to do (our garage is maybe half full of boxes still).
This weekend I’m going to a ladies retreat. I went for the first time a year and a half ago and I took Julie with me since she was still nursing. Well, she’s not nursing anymore, so I am going without her this time (they only let you bring your child if they are a nursing baby – which makes sense – the whole point of the retreat is to have a little getaway!). This is my first time being away from Julie for more than 1 night. It’s a little ‘trial run’ for Vegas next month when I’ll be away from her for 5 nights! We’ll see how I do! I will of course miss Carlos too ;)
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Loving the new house!
Our new house rocks! I absolutely LOVE it!
We got the keys just after noon last Monday. We moved several loads of stuff over on Monday afternoon and evening. We stayed at our old house for the last time that Monday night since our furniture wasn't being moved until the following day. We hired movers to move our large furniture and appliances and am I ever glad we did. That would have been way too much to do ourselves! The movers were done just after noon on Tuesday, so we spent the whole afternoon and evening moving more stuff. On the Wednesday morning, our phone/TV/internet was installed, so we had to hang around home while that was being done. For the rest of Wednesday through Friday, we moved more stuff and did some shopping for things we needed to get for the house. On Saturday, we took a bunch of stuff to the landfill and also used my dad's truck to take 2 more loads over to the new house. Then on Sunday, Carlos and his dad got the very last load of stuff. So, it took us an entire 7 days to get all our stuff moved over.
Now our garage is packed full of boxes. I have the important ones unpacked, but it will take us a few weeks to get the rest unpacked. At least we have everything moved over now! We had a deadline since the first tenant was moving into our old house on the 7th, so I wanted to have most of our stuff out by then.
Today, I took Julie for a walk to the local zoo. It took us 7 minutes to get from our front door to the zoo - not too bad! I think we're going to be going there a lot this summer! It's a free zoo and they also have great playground equipment and have a splash pad in the summer. It's a great place!
We also bought new bikes for Carlos and I and a bike trailer for Julie. So, now we're all set to go for family bike rides this summer! I sold my triathlon bike and we were able to buy Carlos' new bike, my new bike, and Julie's trailer for less than $2 more (including tax) than I sold my bike for. I thought it was neat how that worked out. We got hybrids, so I could easily use that bike if I ever want to do another triathlon since I used a mountain bike for my first 3 anyway.
We got the keys just after noon last Monday. We moved several loads of stuff over on Monday afternoon and evening. We stayed at our old house for the last time that Monday night since our furniture wasn't being moved until the following day. We hired movers to move our large furniture and appliances and am I ever glad we did. That would have been way too much to do ourselves! The movers were done just after noon on Tuesday, so we spent the whole afternoon and evening moving more stuff. On the Wednesday morning, our phone/TV/internet was installed, so we had to hang around home while that was being done. For the rest of Wednesday through Friday, we moved more stuff and did some shopping for things we needed to get for the house. On Saturday, we took a bunch of stuff to the landfill and also used my dad's truck to take 2 more loads over to the new house. Then on Sunday, Carlos and his dad got the very last load of stuff. So, it took us an entire 7 days to get all our stuff moved over.
Now our garage is packed full of boxes. I have the important ones unpacked, but it will take us a few weeks to get the rest unpacked. At least we have everything moved over now! We had a deadline since the first tenant was moving into our old house on the 7th, so I wanted to have most of our stuff out by then.
Today, I took Julie for a walk to the local zoo. It took us 7 minutes to get from our front door to the zoo - not too bad! I think we're going to be going there a lot this summer! It's a free zoo and they also have great playground equipment and have a splash pad in the summer. It's a great place!
We also bought new bikes for Carlos and I and a bike trailer for Julie. So, now we're all set to go for family bike rides this summer! I sold my triathlon bike and we were able to buy Carlos' new bike, my new bike, and Julie's trailer for less than $2 more (including tax) than I sold my bike for. I thought it was neat how that worked out. We got hybrids, so I could easily use that bike if I ever want to do another triathlon since I used a mountain bike for my first 3 anyway.
Monday, April 25, 2011
The Big Egg Hunt was a success!
Our church put on a free Easter egg hunt for our community on Saturday. It was amazing! We were hoping for a few hundred people and we got a few thousand! We had 10,000 Easter eggs and they weren't nearly enough - next year, we'll need 100,000!!!! It was a wonderful event for the community.
Our moving day is getting closer! In one week from right now, we'll have the keys to our new place. It could be as late as 5pm before we get the keys, so we have the movers coming next Tuesday to move our large furniture and appliances. Everything else we'll move ourselves - I imagine it will take us about 20 trips! Good thing the new house is only 7 minutes away from our current house. I am SOOOOO excited!
Our moving day is getting closer! In one week from right now, we'll have the keys to our new place. It could be as late as 5pm before we get the keys, so we have the movers coming next Tuesday to move our large furniture and appliances. Everything else we'll move ourselves - I imagine it will take us about 20 trips! Good thing the new house is only 7 minutes away from our current house. I am SOOOOO excited!
Monday, April 18, 2011
A beautiful service for a beautiful woman
The funeral for my grandmother was on Friday, which would have been her 83rd birthday. We went to the cemetery in the morning for the burial, which was very difficult, I cried the whole time. Then we had the memorial service in the afternoon, which was a lovely tribute to Oma. Close to 50 people came and we shared funny stories about Oma and everyone had a chance to say what Oma meant to them. I burst into tears and couldn't quite get through my speech, but I'm sure people understood. It was a very emotional day and I felt I was near tears all weekend.
Turns out my uncle did show up at both the cemetery and the memorial service, which was fine. We weren't going to uninvite him since we thought he should be able to go to his mother's funeral no matter what else is going on. So, he did come, but didn't say a word to us. Which is fine. We're glad it's overwith so now we don't have to worry about it any more.
We're hoping that my uncle saw how many people were there and so many of them expressed how happy Oma was with her living arrangements and they had never seen her more happy than she had been in the last few years. We're hoping that softened his heart a little bit to the law suit, we'll see. I'm not counting on it, but it would be nice!
In happy news - we get the keys to our new house in 2 weeks from today - YAY! We spent the weekend packing. We got a lot done, but there is still so much more to do!
Turns out my uncle did show up at both the cemetery and the memorial service, which was fine. We weren't going to uninvite him since we thought he should be able to go to his mother's funeral no matter what else is going on. So, he did come, but didn't say a word to us. Which is fine. We're glad it's overwith so now we don't have to worry about it any more.
We're hoping that my uncle saw how many people were there and so many of them expressed how happy Oma was with her living arrangements and they had never seen her more happy than she had been in the last few years. We're hoping that softened his heart a little bit to the law suit, we'll see. I'm not counting on it, but it would be nice!
In happy news - we get the keys to our new house in 2 weeks from today - YAY! We spent the weekend packing. We got a lot done, but there is still so much more to do!
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Not much new to report here.
We are really excited about our new house! We move in 5 weeks! We got 3 quotes from moving companies to only move our large items (we want to move everything we possibly can ourselves, but need movers for our large furniture and appliances) and they came back at $1,200, $650, and $400. And all 3 companies did a walk-through of the house and quoted on moving the same items. Strange! Needless to say, we’re going with the cheapest one and we’re hoping to reduce that cost even further by moving even more by ourselves. They only have a 2 hour minimum while the other 2 companies have a 4 hour minimum. Seems like a waste of money just to have our items moved, but then again, I would feel safer having a moving company for things like our appliances, mirrors, and TV since then they are insured.
Right now we’re trying to decide which company to go for phone/tv/internet. Right now we have Bell, but I think we pay way too much for what we get. So, our only other option in our area if we want to have 1 company for all 3 services is Cogeco. According to their online quotes, it looks like we’d be saving at least $75 per month if we switch to them. So, it would be worth it to make the switch.
The situation with my uncle has gone nowhere in the last few weeks. Our lawyer submitted an “Intent to Defend” form on our behalf to my uncle’s lawyer, but it hasn’t gone any further than that. I imagine our lawyer will need to meet with us again in the next couple of weeks to figure out where we’re going from here.
My mom is a ball of stress right now over the whole thing. She is having a really hard time with the whole being sued by her own brother thing on top of missing her mother. Oma’s burial and memorial service is coming up in a couple of weeks, and we don’t know if my uncle will show up. He knows the place and time for both since I told him about that before we were served with papers. We didn’t officially ‘un-invite’ him because we didn’t want to come across as spiteful, but my mom certainly does not want him in her home (she is hosting the memorial service). Not to mention there are several relatives who have told us that they will only come if he is not there (they all have their own beef with him that goes back many years, has nothing to do with the law suit). He also already hosted his own memorial service for Oma since he didn’t like the fact that we wanted to wait until the spring and have it on what would have been her 83rd birthday. So, I have a feeling he will not show up for the memorial service, but he will likely come to the burial. Which my mom is terrified of because she never wants to see him or speak to him again. It could be a very difficult situation to be in. Not to mention Carlos and my dad both want to punch his lights out – nobody needs to end up in jail! I just don’t want there to be a screaming match over Oma’s grave.
Right now we’re trying to decide which company to go for phone/tv/internet. Right now we have Bell, but I think we pay way too much for what we get. So, our only other option in our area if we want to have 1 company for all 3 services is Cogeco. According to their online quotes, it looks like we’d be saving at least $75 per month if we switch to them. So, it would be worth it to make the switch.
The situation with my uncle has gone nowhere in the last few weeks. Our lawyer submitted an “Intent to Defend” form on our behalf to my uncle’s lawyer, but it hasn’t gone any further than that. I imagine our lawyer will need to meet with us again in the next couple of weeks to figure out where we’re going from here.
My mom is a ball of stress right now over the whole thing. She is having a really hard time with the whole being sued by her own brother thing on top of missing her mother. Oma’s burial and memorial service is coming up in a couple of weeks, and we don’t know if my uncle will show up. He knows the place and time for both since I told him about that before we were served with papers. We didn’t officially ‘un-invite’ him because we didn’t want to come across as spiteful, but my mom certainly does not want him in her home (she is hosting the memorial service). Not to mention there are several relatives who have told us that they will only come if he is not there (they all have their own beef with him that goes back many years, has nothing to do with the law suit). He also already hosted his own memorial service for Oma since he didn’t like the fact that we wanted to wait until the spring and have it on what would have been her 83rd birthday. So, I have a feeling he will not show up for the memorial service, but he will likely come to the burial. Which my mom is terrified of because she never wants to see him or speak to him again. It could be a very difficult situation to be in. Not to mention Carlos and my dad both want to punch his lights out – nobody needs to end up in jail! I just don’t want there to be a screaming match over Oma’s grave.
Thursday, March 03, 2011
Update on the bad news and good news
My mom and I met with our lawyer this afternoon to tell him 'our side' of the story. Prior to our meeting, he had only read my uncle's 50-page statement of claim, so once he heard our side, he believes we can provide a strong defense. So, we can certainly fight him, but this litigation process will likely be VERY expensive. It's never easy! The next step is our lawyer will inform my uncle's lawyer that we will be preparing a defense so they know we're not just ignoring the papers. Then, we have to gather all the evidence we possibly can about his mistreatment and neglect of Oma and how happy she was with the care she received from my mom. We have tonnes of people willing to testify on our side, so we have a strong case.
In happy news, we had our home inspection yesterday and the house had no major issues. He did find 3 or 4 very minor issues, which are quite easily fixed. I'm sure any house would not be 100% perfect! He did say that for a new build, they did a very good job. He checked all the walls with an infra-red camera to check to make sure the insulation was consistent and that there was no water damage - that was very cool! So, we signed the papers last night, so the house is offically ours! We move in May 2nd - yay! I drove by the house today to see if the 'SOLD' sign was up and it was, so I took a picture :)
In happy news, we had our home inspection yesterday and the house had no major issues. He did find 3 or 4 very minor issues, which are quite easily fixed. I'm sure any house would not be 100% perfect! He did say that for a new build, they did a very good job. He checked all the walls with an infra-red camera to check to make sure the insulation was consistent and that there was no water damage - that was very cool! So, we signed the papers last night, so the house is offically ours! We move in May 2nd - yay! I drove by the house today to see if the 'SOLD' sign was up and it was, so I took a picture :)
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Highs and lows...
As I posted last week, Carlos and I didn't get the house we put the offer in on. We were very disappointed for a few days and then we figured there was a reason we didn't get that house - must mean there is something else in store for us. We went to 2 open houses on the weekend in addition to visiting 4 sales offices for new home builders in the area. Nothing really struck our fancy, so we decided to keep looking.
The last night, a new listing came through and as soon as I saw the pictures, I knew we had to go and see the house. It only came on the market yesterday and I called my agent right away, but by then it was 6:30pm and it was too short notice to the sellers to see it that night. Which sucked because I was supposed to leave at 5:30am this morning to come to Toronto for a conference. Our agent arranged the earliest showing he could which was this morning at 10am. So, I decided to skip the morning sessions at my conference and go see the house. It was PERFECT! We love it even more than the other house we lost last week. We submitted an offer right away and they had until 8pm to respond. They came back with a counter offer which we now have until tomorrow at 8pm to respond to and we are going to accept. So, the house is ours! YAY! Provided that the home inspection comes back okay, we'll be moving in May!
Then, onto BAD news - my mom and I are being sued by my uncle. Just when I was calling her to tell her our good house news, she sounded all upset and told me she had been served with legal papers this afternoon and that my uncle was suing her and me. Since I am out of town, they couldn't serve me with papers, but they tried to deliver them this evening at 9pm. So, I'm sure they will try again tomorrow. I feel absolutely sick. I can't believe he is suing us! Apparently it's a 50 page document, so my mom hasn't read it all, but apparently he is suing saying he has witnesses (some of Oma's friends) saying that she was afraid of my mom. It would be laughable if it wasn't so scary to be sued! He is suing my mom for $500,000 plus $100,000 in punative damages. Not sure what he's suing me for, but I will find out when I "am served".
The last night, a new listing came through and as soon as I saw the pictures, I knew we had to go and see the house. It only came on the market yesterday and I called my agent right away, but by then it was 6:30pm and it was too short notice to the sellers to see it that night. Which sucked because I was supposed to leave at 5:30am this morning to come to Toronto for a conference. Our agent arranged the earliest showing he could which was this morning at 10am. So, I decided to skip the morning sessions at my conference and go see the house. It was PERFECT! We love it even more than the other house we lost last week. We submitted an offer right away and they had until 8pm to respond. They came back with a counter offer which we now have until tomorrow at 8pm to respond to and we are going to accept. So, the house is ours! YAY! Provided that the home inspection comes back okay, we'll be moving in May!
Then, onto BAD news - my mom and I are being sued by my uncle. Just when I was calling her to tell her our good house news, she sounded all upset and told me she had been served with legal papers this afternoon and that my uncle was suing her and me. Since I am out of town, they couldn't serve me with papers, but they tried to deliver them this evening at 9pm. So, I'm sure they will try again tomorrow. I feel absolutely sick. I can't believe he is suing us! Apparently it's a 50 page document, so my mom hasn't read it all, but apparently he is suing saying he has witnesses (some of Oma's friends) saying that she was afraid of my mom. It would be laughable if it wasn't so scary to be sued! He is suing my mom for $500,000 plus $100,000 in punative damages. Not sure what he's suing me for, but I will find out when I "am served".
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
The suspense is killing me!
Carlos and I put an offer in on a house yesterday, which was accepted. The only issue is the house already had an accepted offer on it which was conditional on the sale of their home. So, because the seller accepted our offer, the first people who submitted the offer have 48 hours to either remove all their conditions or walk away. The clock started ticking on that yesterday at 4:30pm, so we will know either way by tomorrow at 4:30pm. Could be earlier if they made their decision before then, but I suspect it will be close to the deadline when we hear.
Carlos and I have been thinking about moving for the last several months. We love our house, but it is not the best location (surrounded by student rentals). Think loud parties and broken beer bottles on the front lawn. Now that we have Julie, we want to move to a nice, quiet family-friendly street. But, I’m not willing to move until we find the perfect house – has to have absolutely everything on our checklist, otherwise I am happy to stay where we are until we find that.
So, since October, I have been checking listings on mls.ca almost every day to see what’s out there and we have gone to maybe 5 or 6 open houses. Every house we’ve seen, I left thinking “Nice house, but not the house for us”. Until we went to the open house on Sunday – we both fell in love with the house! It’s on a nice, quiet street with a cul-de-sac on one side (i.e. no through traffic), in our preferred end of town, 2 story, 3 bed, 2.5 bath, double attached garage, unfinished basement that could easily be converted to more bedrooms or a large rec room. It also has a fully fenced in yard (which isn’t huge, but larger than some of the other houses we’ve seen!), nice kitchen, gas fireplace in the great room, main floor laundry, and the list goes on!
This house only went on the market a week ago and the first day it was on the market, they got an offer and accepted it. However, that offer was conditional on the sale of their house and their house didn’t even go on the market until today. So, they have until tomorrow at 4:30pm to either remove the conditions to their offer or walk away. I am doubtful they would be able to sell their house in 1.5 days, but you never know, it could happen. Or they could decide to ‘risk it’ and just hope their house sells in time before the closing date. But, that is very risky, so I’m hoping they would just walk away from the deal!
Either way, in 25 hours, I will know if we get this house or not. If we do, then I already have a home inspection scheduled for Friday afternoon. It is a 4 year old house, so not likely to be anything major wrong with it, but you never know with the builders these days…. So, spending the money on a home inspection is worth every penny in my opinion!
Carlos and I have been thinking about moving for the last several months. We love our house, but it is not the best location (surrounded by student rentals). Think loud parties and broken beer bottles on the front lawn. Now that we have Julie, we want to move to a nice, quiet family-friendly street. But, I’m not willing to move until we find the perfect house – has to have absolutely everything on our checklist, otherwise I am happy to stay where we are until we find that.
So, since October, I have been checking listings on mls.ca almost every day to see what’s out there and we have gone to maybe 5 or 6 open houses. Every house we’ve seen, I left thinking “Nice house, but not the house for us”. Until we went to the open house on Sunday – we both fell in love with the house! It’s on a nice, quiet street with a cul-de-sac on one side (i.e. no through traffic), in our preferred end of town, 2 story, 3 bed, 2.5 bath, double attached garage, unfinished basement that could easily be converted to more bedrooms or a large rec room. It also has a fully fenced in yard (which isn’t huge, but larger than some of the other houses we’ve seen!), nice kitchen, gas fireplace in the great room, main floor laundry, and the list goes on!
This house only went on the market a week ago and the first day it was on the market, they got an offer and accepted it. However, that offer was conditional on the sale of their house and their house didn’t even go on the market until today. So, they have until tomorrow at 4:30pm to either remove the conditions to their offer or walk away. I am doubtful they would be able to sell their house in 1.5 days, but you never know, it could happen. Or they could decide to ‘risk it’ and just hope their house sells in time before the closing date. But, that is very risky, so I’m hoping they would just walk away from the deal!
Either way, in 25 hours, I will know if we get this house or not. If we do, then I already have a home inspection scheduled for Friday afternoon. It is a 4 year old house, so not likely to be anything major wrong with it, but you never know with the builders these days…. So, spending the money on a home inspection is worth every penny in my opinion!
Tuesday, February 01, 2011
Oma's promotion to heaven
It has been a long time since I have posted anything. I will try to post more often. So much has happened in the last several weeks!
First off, we had a great time in Florida after Christmas. Very relaxing, saw a couple of alligators (one was 4 houses down in a little park and the other was in our backyard). Went to Disney world where Julie got to meet Mickey and Minnie. It was really cute, she was carrying around a Mickey sticker and as soon as she got to meet him, she handed him the sticker like it was some sort of currency ;) We also did lots of shopping and had 4 beach days at various local beaches. We had great weather – some days were as high as 30 degrees! Made it difficult to come back to the cold!
That’s the good news.
The bad news is that my Oma passed away on Jan 21st. As I mentioned before, she suffered a stroke on Dec. 18th and just when we thought things were looking good and they were talking about rehab, she complication after complication. Just when they’d get one thing under control, something else would come up. She had an irregular heart rate that they needed to stabilize with medication, she developed aspiration pneumonia, then jaundice.
We found out on January 15th that the jaundice was caused by advanced cancer and there was nothing they could do and they were moving their focus to palliative care and just keeping her comfortable for however many days she had left. The doctors were amazed that she hadn’t been in pain for the last several months given how advanced the cancer was.
On the Monday, January 17th, the hospital called the family in at 4:30am thinking the end was near, at that point they told us hours, and we were all at the hospital by 5am. We spent 4 days at the hospital round the clock and she passed away just after midnight on the 21st. She had a semi-private room with the other bed empty, so my mom was able to stay in the hospital overnight and slept holding Oma’s hand. We gave Oma the most beautiful sendoff to heaven and it was such a peaceful and beautiful experience. I didn’t know death could be like that! We will all miss Oma terribly, but we know we’ll see her again someday in heaven. Oma always said she wanted to live long enough to see Julie walk, and she lived 6 months longer than that. I am so glad we had a girl and named her middle name (Erika) after Oma. Julie still asks for Oma every day and while Oma was in the hospital for 5 weeks, I said “Oma’s not home right now”, but now when Julie asks, I say “Oma lives in heaven with Jesus”.
I can't believe Julie turns 2 on Monday! The time has flown by! She is talking in full sentences now!
First off, we had a great time in Florida after Christmas. Very relaxing, saw a couple of alligators (one was 4 houses down in a little park and the other was in our backyard). Went to Disney world where Julie got to meet Mickey and Minnie. It was really cute, she was carrying around a Mickey sticker and as soon as she got to meet him, she handed him the sticker like it was some sort of currency ;) We also did lots of shopping and had 4 beach days at various local beaches. We had great weather – some days were as high as 30 degrees! Made it difficult to come back to the cold!
That’s the good news.
The bad news is that my Oma passed away on Jan 21st. As I mentioned before, she suffered a stroke on Dec. 18th and just when we thought things were looking good and they were talking about rehab, she complication after complication. Just when they’d get one thing under control, something else would come up. She had an irregular heart rate that they needed to stabilize with medication, she developed aspiration pneumonia, then jaundice.
We found out on January 15th that the jaundice was caused by advanced cancer and there was nothing they could do and they were moving their focus to palliative care and just keeping her comfortable for however many days she had left. The doctors were amazed that she hadn’t been in pain for the last several months given how advanced the cancer was.
On the Monday, January 17th, the hospital called the family in at 4:30am thinking the end was near, at that point they told us hours, and we were all at the hospital by 5am. We spent 4 days at the hospital round the clock and she passed away just after midnight on the 21st. She had a semi-private room with the other bed empty, so my mom was able to stay in the hospital overnight and slept holding Oma’s hand. We gave Oma the most beautiful sendoff to heaven and it was such a peaceful and beautiful experience. I didn’t know death could be like that! We will all miss Oma terribly, but we know we’ll see her again someday in heaven. Oma always said she wanted to live long enough to see Julie walk, and she lived 6 months longer than that. I am so glad we had a girl and named her middle name (Erika) after Oma. Julie still asks for Oma every day and while Oma was in the hospital for 5 weeks, I said “Oma’s not home right now”, but now when Julie asks, I say “Oma lives in heaven with Jesus”.
I can't believe Julie turns 2 on Monday! The time has flown by! She is talking in full sentences now!
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