House Closing and Valentines Day

Valentines Day - February 14, 2013

What a day. 

I've never really loved Valentines Day. When I was younger, I pretty much despised it. However, I am a proponent of celebrating all things David - and Valentines is just one more opportunity to do that. This Valentines was even more special than most because we were finally able to close on the loan for our house! Can I get a hip-hip-hooray? More details on that in a minute. 

Things actually started the night before, when David presented me with this beautiful pile:

He said that I could open one of the presents that night and I was so excited. I'm not a super patient person, and I have major difficulty waiting to open presents when they are right under my nose and tempting me. So the fact that he was letting me open one the night  before was wonderful! We sat down and he handed me the folded piece of paper - "How do I love you? Let me count the ways." Oh, so sweet! But then I realized that was all. That was what he was talking about when he said I could start opening my presents. Torture! I was so mad. Realizing that he was going to be in big trouble for teasing me like that - he quickly decided to come up with a present for me and after a few minutes of rummaging around in his parents basement returned bearing my favorite ice cream from their freezer. Lucky for him, the Chocolate Bordeaux Cherry was just the thing to keep me from dying over my unopened presents. 

(He really is so sweet and good to me. He surprised me with the new Young House Love book, which I have really wanted but never would have bought for myself. A few other things including notepads and well... a house... made for the perfect Valentines for me. His notes were all so sweet- he knows exactly how to make me feel special.) 

I decided that two could play at the teasing game, so I also let him see his little stack of gifts. Our budget was  teeny-tiny, but I still managed to come up with a few things that I hoped would make him smile. 

(His packages contained a list of reasons that I love him, some dollars for retirement or whatever else he wants to use them for, a valentine stating "No Penalty for Holding", a six-punch pass for a 10 minute back rub, some of his favorite See's chocolates, and a keychain with our picture on it.) 

I mentioned above that I'd never really been a fan of Valentines Day. Commercialism and all that. However, this day has come to be very special for David and I for a completely different reason. On February 14, 2008 - David saw me walking around on campus at Utah State. We ended up crossing paths and chatted for a minute. During this conversation I dramatically revealed that because I had no boyfriend I had been asked to work for friend because I obviously didn't have plans anyway. I was a little disgruntled. David found out when and where I would be working. He then went home, made a pan of brownies with the intent of giving them to me later than evening, and then showed up at the Sci-Tech computer lab where I was working. He never actually made it to sit down at a computer, rather he stood by my desk and talked to me through my whole shift. On the way home I invited him to come and hang out with me and my roommates. He said that he had to run and get something first and he would be right over. (Our apartments were just across the street from each other, Pineview and Old Farm.) He picked up his brownies, came over to my apartment, and we had a great night laughing and playing with my roommates. He asked me out for that weekend and we were pretty much inseparable from there on out. (I can't resist adding that it was almost two years later that I learned that he had actually made the brownies for me. I had thought that some girls must have brought them to him and that he was just regifting them to me. I didn't mind, although, I did think it was funny and felt bad for the poor girls who were obviously trying to win his affection. So silly.)

The moral of this story is that we just happened to meet up on Valentines Day in 2008. We had said hello to each other in our Institute class, and David had even asked me out, but we had never really had a full conversation up to this point. That night, 1828 days ago, was the night that I first started falling in love with Mr. David Scott Peaden. This marks our sixth Valentines together.  It's just so random that not only did we first start dating on Valentines - but we also closed on our house exactly five years later- to the day. Such a coincidence. It almost makes waiting for the extra two weeks to close worth it. Okay, back to the story:

We woke up bright and early. And by that I mean, I had fallen asleep in the room where Lydia was sleeping when I had gotten up to get her in the night so I woke up to David touching my hand. When I realized he was already dressed I jumped up thinking that I was late. Gratefully, I still had time to get all ready before we had to leave at 7:45 to head to our closing. I'm glad that David let me sleep in for a couple of extra minutes because I was tired! We made sure we had all of our papers, kissed our little Lydia goodbye and left her in the care of her Grandma Peaden. 

We headed to Surety Title where the closing was to happen. We were SO excited and kept making jokes about what a great Valentines present this was going to be. There were also some "Hey, I was thinking - lets buy a house today" jokes, and some - "You know, I was thinking maybe we should start looking for a house - hey, that one is for sale, should we stop and walk through it?' jokes. The joke that kept repeating over the whole day was David's when he said "Happy Valentines Day - I'm buying you a house! Guess that means I'm covered for the next 30 years." To which I would always reply - "Yep! But in 30 years I expect a gift to top this one, so you better start thinking." Haha. We are so funny. 

We were the first to arrive and got started with signing all of the papers. Our Agent arrived a little while later. Honestly, everyone always complains about how many papers there are to sign but it really wasn't too bad. Maybe it's because David and I have been filling out so much Paperwork for Box Home Loans over the last few weeks that it just wasn't much more to add to the pile. We also had attended a home buying seminar where most of the documents were explained, so we knew pretty much what we were going to see. My very favorite paper was the one where you had to sign for each name you have ever been known by. Shantel Peaden, Shantel E Peaden, Shantel Elise Peaden, Shantel Elise Walker, etc.... I don't know why, but I thought it was so fun. I'm glad that we had our agent, TJ, with us because he was awesome at explaining things if we had a question - and I felt much more comfortable with him there making sure everything was the way it was supposed to be. I was surprised that there wasn't a representative from McArthur or Box in attendance, but it all went smoothly and worked out in the end. (I should also note that there was a little survey to complete about our experience with Box Home loans where I spent several minutes writing under the section of "What could we have done better?" After I was finished I asked the lady "They can't not fund our loan after they read this right?" She assured me that the loan would be funded and I happily handed over all of my... suggestions.)

After we closed, we headed to Mountain America to make a wire money transfer for our down payment. It's such a weird feeling to be sending so much money out into the abyss and not even getting anything for it. (At least not immediately.) Hopefully it feels more real once we have the keys and are moving in. 

We finished a little earlier than planned, so we decided to celebrate by stopping to eat some little breakfast sandwiches and hashbrowns. 

We were so excited! We couldn't stop talking about how much we love our house and how wonderful it was going to be to live there. There were still several periodic jokes about closing on our house on Valentines. It's just such a unique day. For someone else it would be cool, but for us, the coincidence that it was on the anniversary of the day we first started dating was just so crazy. 

Unfortunately, David still had to go to work. (Boo to that darn busy season.) So he headed out and after a while Lydia, Sue, and I decided to make sugar cookies to celebrate. Lydia is still too small to really understand anything about Valentines - but I still wanted to do something kind of fun and festive with her. (Want this secret family recipe? You can find it our our food blog: Sugar Cookies.)

Lydia was so funny about the cookies, she just wasn't sure what to think of them. She wanted to be held for much of the time that I was cutting them out and baking them - and so while I did most of that one-handed she just stared at them like she was trying to figure it out. Later when I sat her down to take her picture, she enjoyed sticking her fingers right into the frosting. Luckily I got to her before the frosting made it to her mouth, but she did enjoy a tiny piece of frostingless cookie. It was my present to her. 

 

Speaking of Valentines Gifts for Lydia, David's mom picked up these little socks for her to wear. They are super cute, and you better bet she is still going to wear them after today. 

 I tried to take some pictures of her in her cute red and white outfit for Valentines, and much crying ensued:  

 It may be awful of me, but sometimes I think that she is so cute when she is crying that I can't help but smile. Her little face is just so expressive! Also, she has just recently started making this face when she is mad/sad:

So funny. 

(Although, not as funny when Lydia's Aunt Wendy came to visit and Lydia was not happy about it. I think it's because when I heard the door open I said "Lydia, do you hear that? Who could that be? Who is it?" Which is what I say when David comes home. She was so excited, and when she realized it wasn't her dad she was crestfallen and started crying crying crying. She warmed up after a little big and played with her cousin Aubrey (Who brought Lydia a Valentine with the express instructions that David could eat the candy because Lydia wasn't big enough.) Even after that though, if Wendy would try to talk to Lydia she was start tearing up and want me to hold her because she was so upset. It was so sad but also kind of funny. Poor Wendy! I'm sure next time Lydia will give her lots of loves to make up for it.)

Finally, Grandma came over and started making funny noises behind the camera and we got a few good shots: 

 

 We did a pretty simple dinner of Hawaiian Haystacks. Lydia loved the crushed pineapple and rice/gravy. Our pediatrician gave us the go-ahead to eat small pieces of table food and said that we don't have to wait between introducing new foods. Hallelujah! We have been loving this new food freedom - Lydia especially has been enjoying the transition. 

Overall it was a fantastic Valentines Day. We made the biggest purchase of our life, we celebrated our sixth Valentines day, and mostly we just enjoyed our life together. 

Happy Valentines Day to you!