I Have Writer's Cramp!

FINALLY!! I can officially say that I have refinanced my house! All of the paperwork was signed tonight and come January my payment will be much much lower! I have no mortgage payment in December but ended up using the money I had put aside for it to pay the prepaid costs that are collected such as property taxes, insurance and interest.

I am looking forward to that lower mortgage payment in January 2013! This is definitely one good way to start off the year! Maybe I will make a New Years Resolution to save more money but spending money on running stuff doesn't count, right?

Three Things Thursday

1. I was so excited to find out that my Caramel Brulee Latte as well as the other holiday drinks have returned to Starbucks for the holiday season! I knew they were coming soon because everyone has been posting about the return of the holiday cups! Now I have to be even more careful with a bowl full of Halloween candy at home and Caramel Brulee Lattes at Starbucks! Life is full of tough choices!

2.I have not had any shin pain at all this week. Normally I can feel the pain just by touching my shin but it his not there. I ran 5.5 miles on Monday and I am planning on running another 7 miles this weekend to give my shin a test run. I have decided to go with a size 8-1/2 in the Mizunos since bigger is better than smaller, right? I am praying for a great run with no pain afterwards.  My marathon training is three weeks off schedule and I am not sure what is going to happen if I don't catch up soon. Worst case scenario is that I run the half marathon instead.

3. I am sure you are all tired of hearing about my home refinancing issues but I will update you anyway. The new closing date for my loan has been rescheduled to November 19th. It better happens this time since Christmas is right around the corner and I don't want to be stressing out over this in the month of December.

What is your favorite holiday drink from Starbucks?

Some Things Go As Planned and Some Just Don't!

So much for being all excited about refinancing last week. Everything was set to go and I had an appointment for the Notary to come to my house on Friday at 4:00 p.m. to sign all of the paperwork and then I get a call at 1:30 p.m. It was not good news. I have to postpone the closing until mid November due to some weird FHA rules that would end up costing me an extra month of interest charges from my current lender. Apparently, the lender must collect 30 days worth of interest and my title would not record until November 2nd which throws me into another month.

I had the choice to pay the additional $1500 of interest charges to close right away or I could hold postpone it until mid November and avoid paying the additional money. No brainer, right? So now I have to make my November payment and the new closing date will be in mid-November. I will end up not having to make a mortgage payment in December versus November so it is going to come out about the same. I also have to take the cashier's check back to the bank since the closing costs will not be the same amount next month. I feel like I wasted a big part of my Friday but life could be worse! On a positive note, my new monthly payment is going to be $468 lower which is much better than I thought. I was thinking I would save around $300-325 a month so that is BIG plus. All I know is that I will so glad when this all said and done!

The remainder of my Friday was spent running errands, bathing dogs, doing laundry and eating my favorite salad BBQ Chicken Salad from CPK.  I bought a full size salad to eat for lunch and dinner! I think I earned it after stressing myself out on over this whole refinancing dilemma. This salad is my favorite and I also love the fat free balsamic vinagrette dressing.

I also planned on running on this morning and I was hoping to get at least 6 miles in since I had only put in 2 miles earlier in the week. I have also been thinking about changing back to Mizunos. As much as I love my Nike's I am wondering if they are part of my problem. They just don't feel as comfortable anymore so I ended up buying another pair of Mizunos. I have ran in Mizunos before so they are not new to my feet but I didn't want to put too many miles on them for the initial run. 

My run did go as planned! I ran 6.30 miles in my Mizunos at a 9:30 pace. It was slower than I would have wanted it to be but that was the comfortable pace. My feet felt much better in the Mizunos so I might switch back to them for a while. Slower paced runs are going to have to work for now because the shin pain is still there.  I think it's better but it's definitely a problem and affects my ability to run the pace and distance that I would like to.

Today we are going Halloween costume shopping for my son. I am not sure what he is going to dress up as but he always wants some crazy scary costume. I also have to get busy making my costume for work this week. I saw this cute idea on the Internet and I hope that nobody shows up dressed in the same costume!

Do your kids dress up for Halloween? What are they going to be this year? 

My son goes to a private school and they do not allow the students to dress up.  They have a fall festival instead which is more like a carnival with games and food. He does dress up at home and we take him out trick or treating in our neighborhood.

Does your employer celebrate Halloween and encourage you to dress up?

We fund raise for a charity every year and have a lunch with raffles.  They do give away prizes for the best costumes so I am hoping to grab a prize this year!

Three Things Thursday

1. I am very happy to say that my loan is all approved!! My payment is actually going to be about $320.00 cheaper a month and that is great news for me. I love saving money! I don't make my first payment until December 1st which means no mortgage payment in November! Since I don't have a payment in November, I will use that money to cover some of my prepaid costs like taxes and insurance. A notary will be coming to my house tomorrow so I can sign my life away!

2.  I can't believe that it is almost Thanksgiving and then Christmas is right around the corner.  Christmas is 60 days away to be exact! Several of my co-workers have mentioned that they have already started Christmas shopping! I have had some people tell me that they shop year round so that they don't have to beat the crowds during the holiday season. The shopping bug doesn't officially hit me until the day after Thanksgiving AKA BLACK FRIDAY! I am a big Black Friday shopper! The crowds are crazy and the lines are ridiculously long but I love it for some reason. I think it is a sign for me that Christmas is almost here.

3. My sister and her family will be flying in from South Carolina to stay with us for Christmas so we are going to have a full house! This is probably the only time of the year where we actually occupy every single square foot of the house! We have two empty bedrooms in our house that we don't use so when my sister visits the space is filled. It's going to be a busy week!

So are you a Black Friday shopper?

Have you already started your Christmas shopping? If not, when do you officially start?

Three Things Thursday

1. I received notice on Monday that my loan was approved but contingent upon me providing them with 10,000 documents.  There seemed to be some issue with the bank doubting that I actually live in the house I am refinancing. The truth is that I am currently renting out the condo that I used to live in  but my driver's license still has that old address on it.  I did change my address with the DMV but it didn't make sense to pay $30 for a new license with my current address on it since it doesn't expire for another four years. Not to mention that $30 could be used towards a race entry, right? Anyway, I provided  the 10,000 documents they requested and they cleared me so now I am just waiting for the final audit and a closing date. I can't wait to see that mortgage payment go down!

2. My performance evaluation seemed to go pretty well.  My boss prefers that I do most of the talking which includes what I have done, what I am doing and what I have planned for the future. My raise is retroactive and it was due back in September so I will have a little extra plus a raise on my next paycheck. I am excited but I promise to control myself which means I will not visit the Lululemon website nor will I open the emails they send me every Tuesday morning!

3. Exercising has not been going so well due to my decreased energy level. I came down with what I thought was allergies on Monday and it just progressed into this horrible sneezing and runny nose mess which I am now calling a cold. I am still confused as to whether or not I am sick or not but I have been doing my best to avoid people so that I don't get them sick! I haven't been sleeping so well at night so I am pretty beat by the end of the day. I had zero energy on the elliptical on Tuesday and thought about quitting a thousand times but hung in there.  If I take my body to the gym I am going to try to best to make it worth it! This cold also stopped me from attending a get-together with a fellow blogger/daily miler that I have really been wanting to meet because she is the sweetest, most humble and not to mention speediest thing ever! I hope I have another opportunity to meet up with her really soon!

Have you had the chance to meet a fellow blogger or Daily Miler? 

I have only met one blogger/daily miler and she is the nicest lady in the world! I have meet some others from Daily Mile who I run with on a regular basis. I feel like I know lot of bloggers since we communicate often and know all about each other's lives!

Three Things Thursday

 1. I finally heard back on my home appraisal and it was not as great as I wanted it to be.  I am still going to move forward with it even though I am going to have to come up with some extra cash at closing to make up for the small difference between the new loan amount and the current loan amount. I can't have two mortgages so I have to pay the difference to get my current one down to zero. It is not a bad thing since it's actually paying my mortgage down and I will owe a little bit less. I will be glad when I see that lower mortgage payment!

2. I almost gave in and went for a trial run on the treadmill last night before my spin class. I even brought my running shoes with me which I usually leave at home so I don't get crazy and actually run. I was thinking about it all day and but resisted the urge. I wasn't really in the mood to be in the saddle last night but I forced myself to go anyway. I think I kept my eye on the clock the whole time and couldn't wait for the class to be over.  Not good..I know.

3. Today I have my annual performance evaluation at work. I think it is going to go well but I get nervous anyway. Sitting one on one with my boss for an hour and listening to what he really thinks of my performance makes me a little nervous. The good news is that I will get a raise if all goes well! I have to admit that I have a great job and I feel really lucky to be in the position that I am in. Sometimes I feel like I don't really deserve the job that I have so I am thankful for it everyday. So once I get the house refinanced and my new raise kicks in, I will have more money to spend on races, Lululemon running skirts and a vacation.  Just Kidding! I am a little smarter than that. I am actually looking forward to stashing more money away for a rainy day or paying a little extra on my mortgage every month. You never know what life is going to deal you at any given time!

  

Are you a saver or a spender? 

I have my moments but I think I am "financially smart" for the most part.  I definitely know my limits. I use my credit cards for everything because I like to see my reward points build up and then I use them to get extras like my Starbucks cards. My rule is that I have to pay my credit cards off monthly and if I cannot then I am over spending and cannot afford it!

September was a Busy One!

September was a busy month for races but not for running in general. I ran the Disneyland Half Marathon and earned a PR!  I also did a family fun run, the Color Me Rad 5K and then I ran the Girls on the Go 10K. I am still dealing with the pain in my right shin and even though my x-rays came back clean, I am still determined to get to the root cause of this pain. I know myself and I know that it is not right. My doctor seems to think that it is just shin splints but I am not convinced of that so I am not ready to let this go yet. My mileage for September was horrible due to my shin issue so I am a little disappointed. I am considering an MRI at this point since the pain always subsides but returns the day after a run of any distance.

The Long Beach Half Marathon is coming up this Sunday and I am not sure if I am going to run it or not. I really need to get this shin issue under control and maybe take some time off.  I really want to run it to stay on track for my Beach Cities Challenge medal but at this point not irritating my shin any further is more important to me. I am feeling really bummed, I can't lie, since all of the big marathons are coming up and everyone seems to be tapering and preparing to run them. 

Other than running, I made the decision to refinance my house last week. I can save over $300.00 a month and there are no fees associated with the loan. I bought the house two years ago as a short sale and pretty much every room had to be redone/upgraded. The house was kind of a mess inside when I bought it but I loved the floor plan. Just to give you an idea of what it looked like then and what it looks like now, this is a before and after of my son's bathroom:

The loan company ordered a full appraisal before they can decide whether or not I have enough equity to proceed with the refinancing process.  The appraisal company called me on Friday evening and told me that they were coming on Sunday at 9:30 a.m.  What?  I spent much of my Saturday cleaning and moving things around to make the house more presentable.  I did things like clear the counters and hid put things away that would make the house look neater. I felt like I was doing an "Open House." Most of the things we put away belong to my dogs like their beds, food bowls, and toys. I should know by Thursday if I have enough equity to proceed so I am keeping my fingers crossed. Worst case, I lose the appraisal fee but I will know the true value of my home.

 How was your September? Do you have any big races coming up?