Yep.  107 degrees. 

That's what the temperature was today as I waited for kids in my car, AC blasting.  There's no shortage of gasoline in the world, right?  'Cuz we are burning through it like crazy here.

More pictures in the car.

Huh.  That's weird...

Here is my view for an hour everyday as I sit in the car waiting for Jess to emerge from her high school.  I pick up Lukie first (that white paper on the dashboard signals to the school that Luke is allowed to get in my car), then drive to the high school to get Jess when her school dismisses an hour later.  From there, we three drive to the middle school and wait another 45 minutes for Pep and Adam.

All this driving is seriously cutting into my bonbon-eating time.

Today, a very nice co-worker of Brad's invited us to their house for a Labor Day BBQ.  This same co-worker has a daughter Jessica's age who attends the same high school and has been taking care of Jess at school.  She looked for Jess on the first day and they've been eating lunch together ever since, which everyone knows is the scariest part of being new.  We had a great time at their home today, swimming, riding four-wheelers, and just chatting, but since we just met, I thought it would be awkward to ask them to pose for a photo.  So, no picture of the biggest part of our day.

Instead, I will be documenting the grossest part of our day. 

We've spent a LOT of time in the car this last week, as I drop off and pick up the kids from school everyday.  With the drive time from our hotel, and the fact that each of their three schools dismiss at different times (each an hour apart), I am spending more time in my car than in the hotel.  I have an audiobook to see me through this.

Yesterday, we all grabbed something to eat for breakfast and ate in the car on the way to church (remember: 8:30 a.m.)  Luke grabbed chocolate milk, which of course he spilled all over everything.  After a day of sitting in the hot Texas sun, the remnants of that spill are good and rancid.  Our car stinks so bad!

 

No, you can't see the smell (although I wouldn't be surprised if you could.  It's bad enough that I imagine the smell waves escaping the car whenever a door opens, like in cartoons).  But, you can see that the car is an absolute pig sty.

Our new church house.

So far, our ward has been very warm and welcoming.  There have been a lot of new families move in this summer, so we are just one of many newbies.  The ward is big - it fills up the cultural hall as well as the chapel - so I suppose we may be split soon.  It has been hard to want to dig in and meet a bunch of people and find a place in the ward - without an address yet, we still feel very transitional.  Plus, our ward meets at 8:30 a.m., which is pretty early to want to do anything.  I'm pretty sure the church isn't really true until at least 10:00 a.m.

Brad and I were in serious need of some Homeownerness today, so we went to Home Depot.  You just don't get more Homeownery than Home Depot.

We didn't buy anything, but just walked around looking at lawn-mowers and appliances, and inhaling the scent of fresh lumber.  Home Depot employess kept asking if they could help us with anything, and finally Brad told one of them we were just there to dream.  It was awesome.

Our celebratory lunch at Chipotle.

This morning, we met with a new mortgage company regarding our house.  Yesterday, Wells Fargo FINALLY gave us the results of the appraisal review that was supposed to take 24-48 hours.  I don't know how many hours are in a week, but that is how long it actually took before we heard back from them.  As soon as they called us and told us that they were standing by the appraisal, we hung up the phone and called a new mortgage company.  This company is highly recommended by our real estate agent, who has been in the business for 35ish years and does all the real estating for Mercedes Benz employees.  In other words, he knows his stuff and has an excellent reputation.  We trust that his mortgage guy is good.

So, we met with this mortgage guy, Craig, who actually talked to us (never happened at Wells Fargo) and could answer the detailed questions Brad asked him.  Brad started out in the mortgage industry years ago, so he knows more about the processes and regulations than the average home buyer.  It was beyond frustrating for him to deal with the Wells Fargo flunkies who didn't know the basic lending guidelines for a conventional loan.  So, it was a relief to sit face-to-face with a man who knows the business and was motivated to get this loan done ASAP.

Basically, our loan is ready to go except for a new appraisal.  That will take 5-8 business days, so we are only waiting on that.  As soon as that comes back, our file will be sent to underwriting and we should hopefully close by Sept. 14.

Cross your fingers for us.