Have you ever felt like you could just collapse on the floor in a huge blubbering pile? Like nothing in the world will ever go your way again? As if you need to take out a white flag and wave it for everyone to see and call a truce? The endless barrage of hardships and difficulties are just too much to bear!
I don't know what has been going on the last 5 years so that nothing will ever go our way, but I am at my wits' end. It just seems like it's one thing after another. As soon as we start to see the clouds breaking up, more clouds roll right in to take their place. It's just one never ending storm after another. I feel empty and hopeless. I am truly at a loss and no one will help us. I feel like I am in a bottomless pit of quicksand from which there is no escape. I have a feeling that the depression is trying to move back in and take back over my life, but I don't want it to.
I am usually a pretty optimistic person. I know it is always darkest before the dawn, really I do. I have made many batches of lemonade out of my pile of lemons, and some earrings, lemon bars, lemon sherbet, lemon bread, lemon meringue pie, lemon drops, lemon chicken, lemon poppy seed muffins, and lovely scented soaps too. But I am running out of things to make with these lemons and I would really like to get something else instead. Did you know that we have had 10 qualifying hardships within the last 5 years? I am sure I could find even more than that too if I tried. Sad. Pathetic. Unnatural.
Why does no one see my pain? Why will no one reach out a helping hand? Why does everyone think my business is none of their business? Even when I ask for help, no one will help. They won't see my need, it's like they put blinders on, plug their ears and sing a merry tune until I have talked so much I can't talk anymore. They change what I tell them to ease their guilt and so that they are able to do their worst to me. I am sick of it.
Bad service, rising expenses, job transfers, job losses, botched rentals, home sale staging, deaths, depression, short sale, foreclosure, credit clampdowns, home repairs, credit counseling, stress, illness, refinancing, medical debt, loan modifications, I could go on and on. All the while I always try to do the right thing and take care of my debts at the expense of our family and our life. It's sickening really. Why won't it stop? Why do these things keep happening to me? I need to put an end to this vicious cycle.
Everyone has a plan, and everyone tells me what to do when they can't help me. When I tell them I've tried that already, they simply tell me that I must have done it wrong or that I need to do X as well. They tell me someone else will help and pretend to act incredulous and disgusted when I tell them that didn't work either.
Can't anyone just listen, support a person, and help them out? Why does everyone feel the need to require documentation of everything even though I have never told any lies about my situation? Why can't we prepare for something bad that is going to happen when we know in advance it will happen simply because it has yet to happen?
Yeah, I know I have a lot of questions. Why can't anyone answer any of them? Doesn't anyone else have these kinds of questions too? Hasn't this kind of thing been happening all over the world? Why is no one willing to help a person simply to be helpful, not just because a law says they have to?
Apparently no business, no government program, and no job performance bonus is going to get us out of this mess. Only God can and only God will. How do I give this all up for him to deal with when all I do is worry about tomorrow? How do I give it all up into God's hands? I want to give up.
Thank you for stopping by to chat with me. Please leave me a message, I'd love to hear your thoughts! Cindy
Do NOT Copy
Showing posts with label A Day in the Life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label A Day in the Life. Show all posts
Obama's Loan Modifications Are a Joke
As many of you may know, I have been attempting to get a loan modification for over a year. We meet all of the qualifications for the federal loan modification. We have gone through the modification process twice. They send you tons of paper work to fill out to see if you qualify. You send them a hardship letter as well. The bank then comes up with a payment for you based on the information that you provide along with documentation to prove that you aren't just making something up. You are also required to meet with a credit counseling agency to make sure that you can afford to pay your bills.
After you have went through that circus, you have to jump through a bunch of hoops out of fear that you won't be modified if you don't follow the instructions to a t. The requirements that my bank told me to follow included purposely skipping one payment and then paying ONLY the modified amount to a special address with pre-printed coupons that they send me. I was supposed to keep sending my modified payments to that address until the modification process was completed. They require you to keep your information updated and I was just recently told that I should be faxing updated information in to the bank every month even though they don't even ask for an update. Sounds like an awfully expensive requirement if you ask me...
The first time it took at least six months for them to complete the process even though we were given a three month trial period. Somewhere along the way my information got changed from what we actually make monthly to what we make yearly divided by 12. Yeah, of course we wouldn't need a modification if we brought that home every month. Are they that big of block heads that they can't get it through their thick skulls that we don't get huge bonuses every month? I mean, don't they do the very same thing with their employees? Hello!!!!!!!
So we went through the whole process a second time and prequalified again. This time our payment was even lower than the first time. This time the bank was asking for about $6 less in the payment, but I kept paying the first amount anyway. After the "trial" payment period was completed it went in to negotiations. Again, my income was modified even though we sent in documentation of our income on June 25, 2010. I was then informed that we did not qualify for the federal loan modification, but the bank would review my information to modify my loan. The bank decided that based on information we provided we could not afford our home and we either needed to sell our home in a short sale or give them a deed in lieu of foreclosure. What??????
I am now so confused and frustrated that it's not even funny. Time is running out. My husband is getting a bonus this week which would allow us to pay the money to the bank, but we were hoping that amount would have been modified into my loan (since it's interest charges mostly anyway) and I would use the money to pay off the credit card bills we racked up when we fixed up the car my mother in law loaned my husband for his now much longer commute. These bills add to the hardship anyway, so wouldn't it make sense to be able to get rid of these?
The day before my birthday we got several letters from the bank informing us that if we didn't pay all of the "missed" payments within one month, they would begin foreclosure. Nice gift, huh?
I have called and talked to them twice since then. They said they would only accept full payments from now on and would accelerate my foreclosure if I did not jump to do what they want me to do.
Is this really the way the federal loan modification was meant to work? What a joke. Total waste of our hard earned income paid to a government that is supposed to help make our lives easier. I would have been better off if I would have ignored the modification process in the first place!
Hmm, and I wonder why I'm battling depression and hypothyroidism and can't loose a single ounce of weight no matter what I do.
What have your experiences with loan modification been like?
Thank you for stopping by to chat with me. Please leave me a message, I'd love to hear your thoughts! Cindy
After you have went through that circus, you have to jump through a bunch of hoops out of fear that you won't be modified if you don't follow the instructions to a t. The requirements that my bank told me to follow included purposely skipping one payment and then paying ONLY the modified amount to a special address with pre-printed coupons that they send me. I was supposed to keep sending my modified payments to that address until the modification process was completed. They require you to keep your information updated and I was just recently told that I should be faxing updated information in to the bank every month even though they don't even ask for an update. Sounds like an awfully expensive requirement if you ask me...
The first time it took at least six months for them to complete the process even though we were given a three month trial period. Somewhere along the way my information got changed from what we actually make monthly to what we make yearly divided by 12. Yeah, of course we wouldn't need a modification if we brought that home every month. Are they that big of block heads that they can't get it through their thick skulls that we don't get huge bonuses every month? I mean, don't they do the very same thing with their employees? Hello!!!!!!!
So we went through the whole process a second time and prequalified again. This time our payment was even lower than the first time. This time the bank was asking for about $6 less in the payment, but I kept paying the first amount anyway. After the "trial" payment period was completed it went in to negotiations. Again, my income was modified even though we sent in documentation of our income on June 25, 2010. I was then informed that we did not qualify for the federal loan modification, but the bank would review my information to modify my loan. The bank decided that based on information we provided we could not afford our home and we either needed to sell our home in a short sale or give them a deed in lieu of foreclosure. What??????
I am now so confused and frustrated that it's not even funny. Time is running out. My husband is getting a bonus this week which would allow us to pay the money to the bank, but we were hoping that amount would have been modified into my loan (since it's interest charges mostly anyway) and I would use the money to pay off the credit card bills we racked up when we fixed up the car my mother in law loaned my husband for his now much longer commute. These bills add to the hardship anyway, so wouldn't it make sense to be able to get rid of these?
The day before my birthday we got several letters from the bank informing us that if we didn't pay all of the "missed" payments within one month, they would begin foreclosure. Nice gift, huh?
I have called and talked to them twice since then. They said they would only accept full payments from now on and would accelerate my foreclosure if I did not jump to do what they want me to do.
Is this really the way the federal loan modification was meant to work? What a joke. Total waste of our hard earned income paid to a government that is supposed to help make our lives easier. I would have been better off if I would have ignored the modification process in the first place!
Hmm, and I wonder why I'm battling depression and hypothyroidism and can't loose a single ounce of weight no matter what I do.
What have your experiences with loan modification been like?
Thank you for stopping by to chat with me. Please leave me a message, I'd love to hear your thoughts! Cindy
Things That Make you go Hmmm
Recently I shared with you all of the reasons and motivations behind our having to move away from our dream home, now we seem to have come to the conclusion that we won't end up being able to move no matter what. There are several influencing factors behind coming to this decision. It's really a very frustrating situation for us! Could you please pray that things work out for us?
There are lots of stress factors working against us moving right now. My husband found an oddity in my left breast the other day. It has my stomach tied up in knots since my mom had breast cancer a few years ago. I will be making an appointment tomorrow. I'm SO nervous!
Add to that the fact that our house has been on the market for almost a month and we had our first showing yesterday. While I haven't yet heard any feed back on this showing, I don't think people are going to be knocking down our door offering us large sums of money for our little piece of heaven on earth. Isn't the first month supposed to be the most active time for buyers looking at a house? Apparently no one is looking in this price point.
We were super excited about moving closer to hubby's work so we would once again have more family time together. His commute adds a two hour drive to his work day which is already long and is scheduled to get even longer very soon. Two hours is much longer than the 1/2 hour total drive he used to have. My husband and I found many nice homes in the new town we intended to move to, I mean there were at least 4 of them we could see ourselves in. They were all a bit less expensive than the home we currently live in so we assumed they were well within our price range, right? I mean if we can come up with a bigger mortgage we should have no problem coming up with a little less...
That is not the case though! No bank is willing to lend us money to buy one of these homes. With our recent forced foreclosure and ensuing credit card debt there is no chance we can get a mortgage with less than 20 % down through an in house loan at a local credit union. We built up that credit card debt trying to do the right thing and sell our house instead of just letting it go immediately like so many other people did. We rented it out for way less than our mortgage and ended up getting taken advantage of and got into an even bigger hole than we started in. Our so-called friend, who was one of two people living there, trashed the place and we had to spend even more money to fix it back up to the way it looked when we moved away in the first place. After a couple more months of trying to sell it we had to stop. We had placed ads to rent it out but didn't even get one phone call on three month long ad runs.
So, even though our debts are getting paid off, and paid in a timely fashion, the foreclosure totally messed everything up! Our credit cards all lowered our credit limits to less than 10% of our previous limits causing us to look like we spend over our credit limit routinely. (This totally messes with our credit report even more than the foreclosure.) That is SO wrong! We never had any problems with paying any of them on time, so I why did they feel the need to pull our credit reports anyway? (This also drives down our score because we've had too many inquiries on our report. I didn't ask for any more credit than I already had!) Some of them decided to close our accounts all together because they don't like seeing the foreclosure. (Further affecting our credit scores.)
So, because of this foreclosure we went from very low credit risk to one of the highest risk brackets. How can a score dive so far so fast?
We will only get about $14,000 out of our current house if we do get offered the full asking price (which is extremely doubtful). That amount will buy us about 1/2 of the home we currently own if it needs to be a 20% down payment. We NEED to have 20% down because we are such a high risk. We'd have to buy a total fixer upper. Not to mention the fact that I'd have to start all over again with my gardens!
Having put so much time and effort into this house, we really aren't feeling up to putting all of our efforts into fixing up another home at this point. I'm finally seeing an end to the to do list here and moving would just add SO much more work for me to do.
Is that list long enough for you? It's making my head ache just to think about it all.
Thank you for stopping by to chat with me. Please leave me a message, I'd love to hear your thoughts!
Cindy
There are lots of stress factors working against us moving right now. My husband found an oddity in my left breast the other day. It has my stomach tied up in knots since my mom had breast cancer a few years ago. I will be making an appointment tomorrow. I'm SO nervous!
Add to that the fact that our house has been on the market for almost a month and we had our first showing yesterday. While I haven't yet heard any feed back on this showing, I don't think people are going to be knocking down our door offering us large sums of money for our little piece of heaven on earth. Isn't the first month supposed to be the most active time for buyers looking at a house? Apparently no one is looking in this price point.
We were super excited about moving closer to hubby's work so we would once again have more family time together. His commute adds a two hour drive to his work day which is already long and is scheduled to get even longer very soon. Two hours is much longer than the 1/2 hour total drive he used to have. My husband and I found many nice homes in the new town we intended to move to, I mean there were at least 4 of them we could see ourselves in. They were all a bit less expensive than the home we currently live in so we assumed they were well within our price range, right? I mean if we can come up with a bigger mortgage we should have no problem coming up with a little less...
That is not the case though! No bank is willing to lend us money to buy one of these homes. With our recent forced foreclosure and ensuing credit card debt there is no chance we can get a mortgage with less than 20 % down through an in house loan at a local credit union. We built up that credit card debt trying to do the right thing and sell our house instead of just letting it go immediately like so many other people did. We rented it out for way less than our mortgage and ended up getting taken advantage of and got into an even bigger hole than we started in. Our so-called friend, who was one of two people living there, trashed the place and we had to spend even more money to fix it back up to the way it looked when we moved away in the first place. After a couple more months of trying to sell it we had to stop. We had placed ads to rent it out but didn't even get one phone call on three month long ad runs.
So, even though our debts are getting paid off, and paid in a timely fashion, the foreclosure totally messed everything up! Our credit cards all lowered our credit limits to less than 10% of our previous limits causing us to look like we spend over our credit limit routinely. (This totally messes with our credit report even more than the foreclosure.) That is SO wrong! We never had any problems with paying any of them on time, so I why did they feel the need to pull our credit reports anyway? (This also drives down our score because we've had too many inquiries on our report. I didn't ask for any more credit than I already had!) Some of them decided to close our accounts all together because they don't like seeing the foreclosure. (Further affecting our credit scores.)
So, because of this foreclosure we went from very low credit risk to one of the highest risk brackets. How can a score dive so far so fast?
We will only get about $14,000 out of our current house if we do get offered the full asking price (which is extremely doubtful). That amount will buy us about 1/2 of the home we currently own if it needs to be a 20% down payment. We NEED to have 20% down because we are such a high risk. We'd have to buy a total fixer upper. Not to mention the fact that I'd have to start all over again with my gardens!
Having put so much time and effort into this house, we really aren't feeling up to putting all of our efforts into fixing up another home at this point. I'm finally seeing an end to the to do list here and moving would just add SO much more work for me to do.
Is that list long enough for you? It's making my head ache just to think about it all.
Thank you for stopping by to chat with me. Please leave me a message, I'd love to hear your thoughts!
Cindy
Christmas from a Cat's Perspective
My name is Speedy, and I have a few complaints I'd like to lodge about the upcoming holiday that the kids are all abuzz about.
Firstly, I am not sure whose idea it was to have this crazy holiday called Christmas right in the middle of prime lap sitting and cat entertaining season. I have an owner who likes to sit on the couch and pet me all day when it's too cold and snowy to go out in the garden, it's not like she has anything else to do. Sometimes she likes to entertain me with yarn and a metal hook or thread and small metal needles. Personally, I'd be much happier if she just got rid of those pesky metal pieces when she wants to play with me, but she seems to prefer using metal stuff for some reason. I assume they must be some sort of counterweights or something. Anyway, this whole Christmas business takes her away from our favorite spot to sit together and she is entirely too busy for our scheduled dates on the couch.
Take, for example, this morning. We were having a nice time watching the news when all of a sudden, she rudely discomforted me when got up and started to make a lot of noise in the kitchen. I waited and waited for her to come back like she usually does, but she didn't! Curious to see what she was up to, I wandered over and started sniffing around. She wouldn't even let me climb on the counter, she kept yelling at me to get off. Boy, was she crabby! I decided to lay by her feet instead, but she just wouldn't stay still. It was very hard to keep up with her. I began to drift off into a nice nap when it suddenly sounded like it was raining in the kitchen. I wonder what that metal rattle was all about.
Startled by the unexpectedness of this experience, I opened one eye to find treats raining down from above. Black, crumbly pieces of sweet tasting goodies were falling on the floor. Boy, did they smell good! I got up, but she wouldn't even let me eat them. Party pooper!
My second complaint has to do with this weird tree that looks like it's made of pine needles, but it's not. It doesn't smell or taste like pine, but somehow I keep forgetting that. I like to play with the nice toys she set up for my sister and I to play with a couple of weeks ago that hang from this tree. Why else would someone put things that dangle from branches of a tree up?
Some of my favorite toys are the ones she made with a string of white pearls that I can rip right off of the bigger, red beaded part of the ornament. So far I have managed to dismantle 4 of these, what fun! I also tried playing with a yellow bear that was playing a drum once, but he ended up being no fun at all. She yelled at me for playing in my new playground too. What is it about this holiday that makes her so darn grumpy anyway?
Then there are these fun paper wrapped boxes that sit under the weird tree too. I like to chew on the neatly folded corners to see if I can get some of that clear sticky stuff off of them. I don't know what her problem is, they open them too...
My final complaint is all of the screeching she likes to do while listening to the radio. I mean she does this occasionally during the rest of the year, but this time of year she screeches along with almost all of the songs that she hears. It's exhausting, I tell you. It's almost enough to make me want to pack my bags and move out!
Thank you for stopping by to chat with me. Please leave me a message, I'd love to hear your thoughts!
Cindy
Firstly, I am not sure whose idea it was to have this crazy holiday called Christmas right in the middle of prime lap sitting and cat entertaining season. I have an owner who likes to sit on the couch and pet me all day when it's too cold and snowy to go out in the garden, it's not like she has anything else to do. Sometimes she likes to entertain me with yarn and a metal hook or thread and small metal needles. Personally, I'd be much happier if she just got rid of those pesky metal pieces when she wants to play with me, but she seems to prefer using metal stuff for some reason. I assume they must be some sort of counterweights or something. Anyway, this whole Christmas business takes her away from our favorite spot to sit together and she is entirely too busy for our scheduled dates on the couch.
Take, for example, this morning. We were having a nice time watching the news when all of a sudden, she rudely discomforted me when got up and started to make a lot of noise in the kitchen. I waited and waited for her to come back like she usually does, but she didn't! Curious to see what she was up to, I wandered over and started sniffing around. She wouldn't even let me climb on the counter, she kept yelling at me to get off. Boy, was she crabby! I decided to lay by her feet instead, but she just wouldn't stay still. It was very hard to keep up with her. I began to drift off into a nice nap when it suddenly sounded like it was raining in the kitchen. I wonder what that metal rattle was all about.Startled by the unexpectedness of this experience, I opened one eye to find treats raining down from above. Black, crumbly pieces of sweet tasting goodies were falling on the floor. Boy, did they smell good! I got up, but she wouldn't even let me eat them. Party pooper!
My second complaint has to do with this weird tree that looks like it's made of pine needles, but it's not. It doesn't smell or taste like pine, but somehow I keep forgetting that. I like to play with the nice toys she set up for my sister and I to play with a couple of weeks ago that hang from this tree. Why else would someone put things that dangle from branches of a tree up?
Some of my favorite toys are the ones she made with a string of white pearls that I can rip right off of the bigger, red beaded part of the ornament. So far I have managed to dismantle 4 of these, what fun! I also tried playing with a yellow bear that was playing a drum once, but he ended up being no fun at all. She yelled at me for playing in my new playground too. What is it about this holiday that makes her so darn grumpy anyway?
Then there are these fun paper wrapped boxes that sit under the weird tree too. I like to chew on the neatly folded corners to see if I can get some of that clear sticky stuff off of them. I don't know what her problem is, they open them too...
My final complaint is all of the screeching she likes to do while listening to the radio. I mean she does this occasionally during the rest of the year, but this time of year she screeches along with almost all of the songs that she hears. It's exhausting, I tell you. It's almost enough to make me want to pack my bags and move out!
Thank you for stopping by to chat with me. Please leave me a message, I'd love to hear your thoughts!
Cindy
When It Rains, It Pours
We are finally getting that much needed rain that I complained about all summer, but that's really not exactly why I titled this post. You want me to explain?
My wireless Internet connection has been rather spotty for quite a while now so I haven't been able to visit my regular Internet hangouts as often as I'd like. Well, now my laptop has also crashed. The only computer we have left is running on Windows 98 and I don't have the money to fix it. I'm rather annoyed. As luck would have it, my dsl contract expires on the 15th of this month so I have asked them to cancel our Internet for the time being. I will not be blogging or blog hopping much until I'm back up and running unless I drive all the way into town and visit my local library's computers.
To complicate matters further, the money I could be saving by not having Internet will be getting spent on gas for Cheesehead to drive to a different store. He was "promoted" but the store is 3 times farther from home so I anticipate us loosing money on this deal until we can get a decent price for the house we are currently living in AND qualify for financing for a new house closer to his work. Supposedly he should be getting promoted again soon so I'm going to attempt to have patience and wait to see what happens with that whole mess.
To get my fix of interaction on the Internet I am now resorting to try to figure out how to use my cell phone to access it. So far I have figured out how to access face book and my email. I guess it remains to be seen how proficient I become at using my free phone. Hopefully I'll have it figured out soon! In the mean time could you please pray that we get our issues resolved quickly? Thanks!
Thank you for stopping by to chat with me. Please leave me a message, I'd love to hear your thoughts!
Cindy
My wireless Internet connection has been rather spotty for quite a while now so I haven't been able to visit my regular Internet hangouts as often as I'd like. Well, now my laptop has also crashed. The only computer we have left is running on Windows 98 and I don't have the money to fix it. I'm rather annoyed. As luck would have it, my dsl contract expires on the 15th of this month so I have asked them to cancel our Internet for the time being. I will not be blogging or blog hopping much until I'm back up and running unless I drive all the way into town and visit my local library's computers.
To complicate matters further, the money I could be saving by not having Internet will be getting spent on gas for Cheesehead to drive to a different store. He was "promoted" but the store is 3 times farther from home so I anticipate us loosing money on this deal until we can get a decent price for the house we are currently living in AND qualify for financing for a new house closer to his work. Supposedly he should be getting promoted again soon so I'm going to attempt to have patience and wait to see what happens with that whole mess.
To get my fix of interaction on the Internet I am now resorting to try to figure out how to use my cell phone to access it. So far I have figured out how to access face book and my email. I guess it remains to be seen how proficient I become at using my free phone. Hopefully I'll have it figured out soon! In the mean time could you please pray that we get our issues resolved quickly? Thanks!
Thank you for stopping by to chat with me. Please leave me a message, I'd love to hear your thoughts!
Cindy
Who's Been Hanging Out in Our Yard Now?
While I was taking a stroll through the garden a few days ago, I noticed a few things that were out of place. A few other things just brought a smile to my face.
Take, for example, the bird feeders. They had no bird seed in them since I've been too lazy, er busy to fill them. I wonder what they wanted with those empty feeders? This will just give Cheesehead another excuse to ban my bird feeders from our yard. We're pretty sure that only bears would do this to a poor hapless pole. No smile here!
I also like to check on my recent plantings while I'm out in the garden.
I planted some sprouted garlic cloves in several areas of my garden. Cheesehead wanted me to throw them out because apparently he thinks once they've sprouted they can't be eaten. HUH?
Anyway, I planted them wherever I had some open space. They were coming up very nicely until I noticed some large, gaping holes in my mulch. *Scowl* They even left evidence behind, do you see the scraps that were left behind on our stone ledge? I assume it was the chipmunks this time instead of the squirrels that pestered us earlier this season. Can anyone help me to verify that suspicion?
Speaking of sprouts, we also had a bunch of sprouted potatoes in the basement that Cheesehead also wanted to throw away. I planted those too. They were so big that I had to cut them first.
I realized as I was preparing the potatoes for planting that I wasn't voted class klutz for nothing. I managed to slice my finger which bled profusely. I think next time I should ask someone else to use the sharp implements so I don't injure myself again. The potatoes are still under the sand so the critters must be too busy digging up the garlic cloves to notice them.
A week ago I planted the seeds in my garden. I noticed that I have a couple of spinach sprouts out there. Nothing I can really get a decent picture of though as they are still pretty tiny.
A huge smile spread over my face as I saw all of the perennials coming up. There are only a couple that have yet to poke their sleepy heads out of the ground. I hope they come up soon, I'm worried about my beautiful peonies that we transplanted last fall didn't have enough time to establish themselves in their new home.
The rabbits must have enjoyed nibbling on my tulip leaves too. I didn't think animals liked the leaves, wasn't it bulbs they eat? Hmm, I wonder where that picture went. Must be one of the 12 that didn't turn out and ended up deleted.
Thank you for stopping by to chat with me. Please leave me a message, I'd love to hear your thoughts!
Cindy
Take, for example, the bird feeders. They had no bird seed in them since I've been too lazy, er busy to fill them. I wonder what they wanted with those empty feeders? This will just give Cheesehead another excuse to ban my bird feeders from our yard. We're pretty sure that only bears would do this to a poor hapless pole. No smile here!
I also like to check on my recent plantings while I'm out in the garden.
I planted some sprouted garlic cloves in several areas of my garden. Cheesehead wanted me to throw them out because apparently he thinks once they've sprouted they can't be eaten. HUH?
Anyway, I planted them wherever I had some open space. They were coming up very nicely until I noticed some large, gaping holes in my mulch. *Scowl* They even left evidence behind, do you see the scraps that were left behind on our stone ledge? I assume it was the chipmunks this time instead of the squirrels that pestered us earlier this season. Can anyone help me to verify that suspicion?
Speaking of sprouts, we also had a bunch of sprouted potatoes in the basement that Cheesehead also wanted to throw away. I planted those too. They were so big that I had to cut them first.
I realized as I was preparing the potatoes for planting that I wasn't voted class klutz for nothing. I managed to slice my finger which bled profusely. I think next time I should ask someone else to use the sharp implements so I don't injure myself again. The potatoes are still under the sand so the critters must be too busy digging up the garlic cloves to notice them.
A week ago I planted the seeds in my garden. I noticed that I have a couple of spinach sprouts out there. Nothing I can really get a decent picture of though as they are still pretty tiny.
A huge smile spread over my face as I saw all of the perennials coming up. There are only a couple that have yet to poke their sleepy heads out of the ground. I hope they come up soon, I'm worried about my beautiful peonies that we transplanted last fall didn't have enough time to establish themselves in their new home.
The rabbits must have enjoyed nibbling on my tulip leaves too. I didn't think animals liked the leaves, wasn't it bulbs they eat? Hmm, I wonder where that picture went. Must be one of the 12 that didn't turn out and ended up deleted.
Thank you for stopping by to chat with me. Please leave me a message, I'd love to hear your thoughts!
Cindy
The Banking Industry is A Sham
I am so annoyed with this supposed bail out of the banking system. With all of the money that is being put into the industry by tax payers, it is meant to stop the down slide of our economy, isn't it? It is supposed to help "risky" loans who are current in their payments get lower interest rates, isn't it? It is aimed at loans backed by Fannie May and Freddie Mac, true? Well, I am all of those things. My bank said I may qualify. I was SO happy!
I applied for it. Not wanting Cheesehead's bonuses added into the mix since they can't really be counted on in this economy, I reported our true monthly income to them. We have been able to make the payments for the last almost three years, but I would like to be able to free up a little bit of our money to spend on feeding my family healthier foods as well as attacking our outstanding debts more aggressively.
What did the bank finally come back with after not applying my January payment to my account while it was under review? They said we only qualify for forbearance because our debt to income ratio is too high to be able to give me a lower rate outright. Duh. Why am I trying to get a lower house payment?
The outcome? I called the bank at least once a month while my loan was under review. The bankers advised me not to pay the February or March payments because they would be held in a separate account and also not be applied towards my loan because my loan was under review. Because my payments were not applied to my loan, I was also reported as not paying my loan in a timely manner thus causing two credit cards to cancel my accounts. This will decrease my credit score even more. I also got a letter from the bank saying they would access my late fees to my escrow account. What late fees? I was TOLD not to pay by several of their bankers who further advised me that I should take the money I would use to pay my mortgage to pay down my other debts.
On first glance forbearance seemed like a good option. It reduced my required payment by 1/2 for a six month period so I could pay down my other debts to be reconsidered for loan modification later. Great right? I thought so too until I got the agreement. The last payment was to pay back the other half of each of the skipped six month payments.
I called the bank with my concerns. They said not to worry about that because it could be refinanced into my modified loan at the end. But we weren't guaranteed a modification after we were done with the process and if we did not repay the amount at the end of the period the bank could proceed with foreclosure proceedings.
I don't know about you, but I've believed what bankers have said in the past and it never seems to work out quite as well as they assure me it will. Maybe I should try to have more faith, but I felt really unsettled that forbearance was my only option. I should be willing to let the bank take my house if they decide I don't qualify for loan modification? In an industry teaming with greed and looking out for their own bottom line I just couldn't bring myself to do as they advised.
If I believed that the banks would come through and do the right thing in the end I might attempt it. Somehow I think that doing what's right isn't something they really care about. Can God really block off their greed and force them to do the right thing? In my heart I want to trust that God can make them do the right thing but with Cheesehead not having the faith that I do and so many other financial disasters the bankers have advised us into. I'm sure you can understand my trepidation. I'd need Cheesehead to be behind my decision and I wasn't 100% ready to commit to that plan either.
Am I right to have complaint? Just what are we giving all of those taxes to?
I have been paying my payment every month, just because they think I owe too much money to others shouldn't disqualify me from a modification. It would free up money currently used to pay them so I could pay others. I'm sure that's part of the problem. I've been paying my bills so why should they cut me a break? They can make even more money off of me so why lend a hand to someone who's drowning?
Maybe I should have declared bankruptcy to wipe out those other debts. I'm being punished for taking the high road and trying not to contribute to the economic disaster that so many other people are using to get out of debt? I know many people who have just given up paying things because "everyone else is doing it" and they want to use their money for something else. That's just WRONG!!!!!
I can afford to pay my bills and I will do my best to pay them all off. I just wish I could find a reasonable person to deal with at my bank.
I am going to pray that my husband's bonus this summer is enough to pay off the car we plan on giving to MIL once it's paid off. I think that would also reduce our debt to income ratio enough to get us qualified for loan modification. Maybe I should be so specific? I'll try to put this in God's hands and he'll have to clear the way to make his plan work.
If you have something better or more insightful to pray about for our situation, please do!
Thank you for stopping by to chat with me. Please leave me a message, I'd love to hear your thoughts!
Cindy
I applied for it. Not wanting Cheesehead's bonuses added into the mix since they can't really be counted on in this economy, I reported our true monthly income to them. We have been able to make the payments for the last almost three years, but I would like to be able to free up a little bit of our money to spend on feeding my family healthier foods as well as attacking our outstanding debts more aggressively.
What did the bank finally come back with after not applying my January payment to my account while it was under review? They said we only qualify for forbearance because our debt to income ratio is too high to be able to give me a lower rate outright. Duh. Why am I trying to get a lower house payment?
The outcome? I called the bank at least once a month while my loan was under review. The bankers advised me not to pay the February or March payments because they would be held in a separate account and also not be applied towards my loan because my loan was under review. Because my payments were not applied to my loan, I was also reported as not paying my loan in a timely manner thus causing two credit cards to cancel my accounts. This will decrease my credit score even more. I also got a letter from the bank saying they would access my late fees to my escrow account. What late fees? I was TOLD not to pay by several of their bankers who further advised me that I should take the money I would use to pay my mortgage to pay down my other debts.
On first glance forbearance seemed like a good option. It reduced my required payment by 1/2 for a six month period so I could pay down my other debts to be reconsidered for loan modification later. Great right? I thought so too until I got the agreement. The last payment was to pay back the other half of each of the skipped six month payments.
I called the bank with my concerns. They said not to worry about that because it could be refinanced into my modified loan at the end. But we weren't guaranteed a modification after we were done with the process and if we did not repay the amount at the end of the period the bank could proceed with foreclosure proceedings.
I don't know about you, but I've believed what bankers have said in the past and it never seems to work out quite as well as they assure me it will. Maybe I should try to have more faith, but I felt really unsettled that forbearance was my only option. I should be willing to let the bank take my house if they decide I don't qualify for loan modification? In an industry teaming with greed and looking out for their own bottom line I just couldn't bring myself to do as they advised.
If I believed that the banks would come through and do the right thing in the end I might attempt it. Somehow I think that doing what's right isn't something they really care about. Can God really block off their greed and force them to do the right thing? In my heart I want to trust that God can make them do the right thing but with Cheesehead not having the faith that I do and so many other financial disasters the bankers have advised us into. I'm sure you can understand my trepidation. I'd need Cheesehead to be behind my decision and I wasn't 100% ready to commit to that plan either.
Am I right to have complaint? Just what are we giving all of those taxes to?
I have been paying my payment every month, just because they think I owe too much money to others shouldn't disqualify me from a modification. It would free up money currently used to pay them so I could pay others. I'm sure that's part of the problem. I've been paying my bills so why should they cut me a break? They can make even more money off of me so why lend a hand to someone who's drowning?
Maybe I should have declared bankruptcy to wipe out those other debts. I'm being punished for taking the high road and trying not to contribute to the economic disaster that so many other people are using to get out of debt? I know many people who have just given up paying things because "everyone else is doing it" and they want to use their money for something else. That's just WRONG!!!!!
I can afford to pay my bills and I will do my best to pay them all off. I just wish I could find a reasonable person to deal with at my bank.
I am going to pray that my husband's bonus this summer is enough to pay off the car we plan on giving to MIL once it's paid off. I think that would also reduce our debt to income ratio enough to get us qualified for loan modification. Maybe I should be so specific? I'll try to put this in God's hands and he'll have to clear the way to make his plan work.
If you have something better or more insightful to pray about for our situation, please do!
Thank you for stopping by to chat with me. Please leave me a message, I'd love to hear your thoughts!
Cindy
Getting My Hands Dirty
Looking at all of the snow still out in my yard is making me miserable. There was some bare ground showing through just a couple of weeks ago, but a cold snap and a fresh snowfall took care of that. Nothing but snow and ice outside as far as the eye can see.
I looked outside wistfully dreaming of the blueberry patch that I long to plant up here in the wooded area near the road. The snow is just as deep in that spot today as it was on the day I took the picture. I need a gardening fix that looking at the snow just won't give me.
Attempting to console myself, I went to the yet to be finished craft/garden area to place soil in the pots I bought a few years ago. I know it will be a while before I should start seeds inside if I know what's good for me, but I need to feel and smell some nice fresh dirt. Just scooping a little dirt won't hurt anybody, will it?
This little tray reminded my of the fiasco that occured a few years ago. I amused myself with remembering the last time I tried to start plants as I scooped the soil into each little cell.
I was a fairly young mom with a toddler that was barely 2 who had an older brother that was 5. I don't know what I was thinking trying to start seeds for the first time with two children who were so young. I suppose it was the mom in me who wanted her children to grow up with the joy of eating fresh vegetables right out of the garden. We didn't have the money to buy many 6 packs of seedlings from the nursery, but I just KNEW I could raise my own seedings just as well as anyone else. I was determined to save loads of money and get some seedlings out of the deal too.
We had this great raised bed in the back yard that was in full sun. It was the perfect spot for my soon to be vegetable garden. I just HAD to get going so I'd have lots of plants to put in my garden. It had been pretty weedy the summer before, but I was going to make it my pet project this year. (You'll have to take my word for it since I can't access my older pictures right now. It was BAD!!!! I don't know what in the world I was thinking.)
I'm sure that may have worked out okay if I hadn't been suffering from depression and the stress of just leaving a job that I enjoyed, but I guess I wasn't really thinking very clearly.
I had this wonderful table top greenhouse that Cheesehead bought me, some top soil, and some seed starting cells and I was ready to plant. I'm sure I set it up WAY too early and did NO research at all before plunging head first into my seed starting adventure. I just got busy. In retrospect I suppose I just didn't feel like I had the time to be reading when I should just get out there and start doing. Little kids don't like to listen to educational books about how to start seeds. All I had time to read was books written for kids to kids at that period in my life. I stressed about everything and had to have my children in my sight at all times too. I probably dove the poor things absolutely crazy with my constant hovering and worrying about them.
I even got a great grow light to go inside of my tiny little green house. Apparently I wasn't thinking clearly as it hung so low inside the greenhouse that It was actually touching the plattic tray. That's how the poor tray got deformed, the light actually melted it. Ooops!
Since I was so inexperienced I also over watered the poor seedlings to death. I wanted it to be nice and moist in the green house. It didn't occur to me that I didn't need to water the flats every day since all of my outdoor hanging baskets needed water every day. I went on watering and waiting for my seeds to sprout.
I didn't think to check the soil or anything either prior to watering. Life was too busy to check for little details like if they NEEDED to be watered or not, I was worried that son might do something to Peanut while I wasn't looking. The poor things were so wet that once I noticed how wet it was inside, the towel under the greenhouse was soaked with water and there was a layer of white mold on every soil surface in the green house. There went that experiment.
That will not happen to me again. This time I am reading every book on vegetable gardening that the library has to offer as well as doing some internet research. Okay, so maybe it's overkill but my vegetable garden WILL succeed! I will be observant and do things right this time. I think I will have to measure my green house and see if I can fit some low profile flourescent lights inside to give my plants the light they need until it's time for them to be put outside.
After the trays were all filled with their lovely dirt and the air packed out of them, I headed upstairs to see if I could find the seeds I had bought when they were on sale at Menards. I can't plant them yet up here, but I'll have everything ready when the time comes.
Guess who I found sunning herself on the kitchen table. Speedy! Here I had told you that Sweetie was the naughty one. She's also sunning herself, but in an appropriate location. Silly cat, get off the table.
I think I'll paint some popsicle sticks for plant labeling this weekend with Peanut. More on that "crazy" project in another post. (Another lesson learned from the last experiment.)
Thank you for stopping by to chat with me. Please leave me a message, I'd love to hear your thoughts!
Cindy
I looked outside wistfully dreaming of the blueberry patch that I long to plant up here in the wooded area near the road. The snow is just as deep in that spot today as it was on the day I took the picture. I need a gardening fix that looking at the snow just won't give me.
Attempting to console myself, I went to the yet to be finished craft/garden area to place soil in the pots I bought a few years ago. I know it will be a while before I should start seeds inside if I know what's good for me, but I need to feel and smell some nice fresh dirt. Just scooping a little dirt won't hurt anybody, will it?
This little tray reminded my of the fiasco that occured a few years ago. I amused myself with remembering the last time I tried to start plants as I scooped the soil into each little cell.
I was a fairly young mom with a toddler that was barely 2 who had an older brother that was 5. I don't know what I was thinking trying to start seeds for the first time with two children who were so young. I suppose it was the mom in me who wanted her children to grow up with the joy of eating fresh vegetables right out of the garden. We didn't have the money to buy many 6 packs of seedlings from the nursery, but I just KNEW I could raise my own seedings just as well as anyone else. I was determined to save loads of money and get some seedlings out of the deal too.
We had this great raised bed in the back yard that was in full sun. It was the perfect spot for my soon to be vegetable garden. I just HAD to get going so I'd have lots of plants to put in my garden. It had been pretty weedy the summer before, but I was going to make it my pet project this year. (You'll have to take my word for it since I can't access my older pictures right now. It was BAD!!!! I don't know what in the world I was thinking.)
I'm sure that may have worked out okay if I hadn't been suffering from depression and the stress of just leaving a job that I enjoyed, but I guess I wasn't really thinking very clearly.
I had this wonderful table top greenhouse that Cheesehead bought me, some top soil, and some seed starting cells and I was ready to plant. I'm sure I set it up WAY too early and did NO research at all before plunging head first into my seed starting adventure. I just got busy. In retrospect I suppose I just didn't feel like I had the time to be reading when I should just get out there and start doing. Little kids don't like to listen to educational books about how to start seeds. All I had time to read was books written for kids to kids at that period in my life. I stressed about everything and had to have my children in my sight at all times too. I probably dove the poor things absolutely crazy with my constant hovering and worrying about them.
I even got a great grow light to go inside of my tiny little green house. Apparently I wasn't thinking clearly as it hung so low inside the greenhouse that It was actually touching the plattic tray. That's how the poor tray got deformed, the light actually melted it. Ooops!
Since I was so inexperienced I also over watered the poor seedlings to death. I wanted it to be nice and moist in the green house. It didn't occur to me that I didn't need to water the flats every day since all of my outdoor hanging baskets needed water every day. I went on watering and waiting for my seeds to sprout.
I didn't think to check the soil or anything either prior to watering. Life was too busy to check for little details like if they NEEDED to be watered or not, I was worried that son might do something to Peanut while I wasn't looking. The poor things were so wet that once I noticed how wet it was inside, the towel under the greenhouse was soaked with water and there was a layer of white mold on every soil surface in the green house. There went that experiment.
That will not happen to me again. This time I am reading every book on vegetable gardening that the library has to offer as well as doing some internet research. Okay, so maybe it's overkill but my vegetable garden WILL succeed! I will be observant and do things right this time. I think I will have to measure my green house and see if I can fit some low profile flourescent lights inside to give my plants the light they need until it's time for them to be put outside.
After the trays were all filled with their lovely dirt and the air packed out of them, I headed upstairs to see if I could find the seeds I had bought when they were on sale at Menards. I can't plant them yet up here, but I'll have everything ready when the time comes.
Guess who I found sunning herself on the kitchen table. Speedy! Here I had told you that Sweetie was the naughty one. She's also sunning herself, but in an appropriate location. Silly cat, get off the table.
I think I'll paint some popsicle sticks for plant labeling this weekend with Peanut. More on that "crazy" project in another post. (Another lesson learned from the last experiment.)
Thank you for stopping by to chat with me. Please leave me a message, I'd love to hear your thoughts!
Cindy
There's No Lye and That's No Lie!
Attempting to live a more organic and natural life style, I have been researching how to make our own soap. The process doesn't look too difficult and I've already got my tallow made for the pioneer recipe of soap I was going to try making first. I got really motivated to get going on this after reading the book "What's In This Stuff?" and seeing all of the chemical effects that may be tied to using conventional cleaners and preservative laden foods. (More on the book during a different post.)
My tallow was actually finished before Christmas and looks to be quite satisfactory, but I've never done this before so I can't be completely sure. It was made from strained meat fats which I have saved after cooking turkey, hamburger, bacon, chicken,... Any meat really. I saved those fats in a covered bucket in the fridge until it was ready to be made into tallow. The fats were chopped up into small pieces and boiled together with water and it now sits in the fridge waiting to be made into soap.
Attempting to keep the costs of the project down, I was going to make my own lye. All that's needed to make lye are wood ashes and water. How do I know? We had an incident at church a few years ago and a fun song was written to rib our pastor and elders about it after the fact. (I'll tell you that story at a later date.)
I live in the woods, so I have plenty of wood laying around to burn. Since we live mostly among pine trees there are many pine branches that we have gathered over that last couple of years. I am assuming that may be why the lye didn't turn out. After doing some research I found out that soft wood such as pine should NOT be used to make lye. I wish I had known that before I wasted my time.
After my attempt to make my own lye failed miserably, I decided that I would just buy some from a store to get my project on track.
I went to town planning to buy some lye. First I looked at hubby's regional large retail store. No luck. I trudged back to the van through the slushy melting snow in the parking lot thinking I'd find some on my next stop for sure. My next stop was a large national chain store in town. There was none to be found there either. I checked the craft department, cleaning supplies, and plumbing. My third stop was a locally owned hardware store who also didn't carry it. Off I went to check the organic store that I know of in town. I was sure I'd find it this time. Wonderful scents assailed my nostrils as I wandered around the store. Nope, none there. Grrr! I also checked the local grocery store in town. It was suggested by one of the many people I asked that I try a feed store in town, but I didn't bother. I may make a phone call later. I was too annoyed to continue my search.
All I want to do is make some stinking soap for Pete's sake! It's not like that activity is illegal or anything. All those stupid meth manufacturers have made people afraid to even sell things that can be used to make meth. That really throws a monkey wrench into the ability of the rest of us to be able to get our hands on lye that is not mixed into a drain cleaner. Somehow I don't think it would be advisable to use drain cleaner in an organic soap....
I was filled in on how to make meth by several experts when I sat on a jury once (yet another thing I'll share sometime), but I just don't understand why someone would want to make something like that. It could really ruin a person's life in more ways than one. (Crafter's lives too though I'm sure that kind of thing isn't taken into consideration when those decisions were made.)
After all of my attempts to hunt down lye failed, I tried to console myself with some shopping at Goodwill. Apparently everyone else had the same idea. I didn't find anything to buy today, though there was an interesting looking organic cookbook for 49 cents.
Back to the drawing board. I'll get that soap made yet! Maybe I'll see if I can scrounge some hard wood ash from someone who has a wood burning stove or fireplace. I suppose I'll have to ask around. Failing that I guess I could try to check the craft stores in Wausau next time I head down that way. SIGH!
Thank you for stopping by. Please leave me a message. I'd love to hear your thoughts!
Cindy
My tallow was actually finished before Christmas and looks to be quite satisfactory, but I've never done this before so I can't be completely sure. It was made from strained meat fats which I have saved after cooking turkey, hamburger, bacon, chicken,... Any meat really. I saved those fats in a covered bucket in the fridge until it was ready to be made into tallow. The fats were chopped up into small pieces and boiled together with water and it now sits in the fridge waiting to be made into soap.
Attempting to keep the costs of the project down, I was going to make my own lye. All that's needed to make lye are wood ashes and water. How do I know? We had an incident at church a few years ago and a fun song was written to rib our pastor and elders about it after the fact. (I'll tell you that story at a later date.)
I live in the woods, so I have plenty of wood laying around to burn. Since we live mostly among pine trees there are many pine branches that we have gathered over that last couple of years. I am assuming that may be why the lye didn't turn out. After doing some research I found out that soft wood such as pine should NOT be used to make lye. I wish I had known that before I wasted my time.
After my attempt to make my own lye failed miserably, I decided that I would just buy some from a store to get my project on track.
I went to town planning to buy some lye. First I looked at hubby's regional large retail store. No luck. I trudged back to the van through the slushy melting snow in the parking lot thinking I'd find some on my next stop for sure. My next stop was a large national chain store in town. There was none to be found there either. I checked the craft department, cleaning supplies, and plumbing. My third stop was a locally owned hardware store who also didn't carry it. Off I went to check the organic store that I know of in town. I was sure I'd find it this time. Wonderful scents assailed my nostrils as I wandered around the store. Nope, none there. Grrr! I also checked the local grocery store in town. It was suggested by one of the many people I asked that I try a feed store in town, but I didn't bother. I may make a phone call later. I was too annoyed to continue my search.
All I want to do is make some stinking soap for Pete's sake! It's not like that activity is illegal or anything. All those stupid meth manufacturers have made people afraid to even sell things that can be used to make meth. That really throws a monkey wrench into the ability of the rest of us to be able to get our hands on lye that is not mixed into a drain cleaner. Somehow I don't think it would be advisable to use drain cleaner in an organic soap....
I was filled in on how to make meth by several experts when I sat on a jury once (yet another thing I'll share sometime), but I just don't understand why someone would want to make something like that. It could really ruin a person's life in more ways than one. (Crafter's lives too though I'm sure that kind of thing isn't taken into consideration when those decisions were made.)
After all of my attempts to hunt down lye failed, I tried to console myself with some shopping at Goodwill. Apparently everyone else had the same idea. I didn't find anything to buy today, though there was an interesting looking organic cookbook for 49 cents.
Back to the drawing board. I'll get that soap made yet! Maybe I'll see if I can scrounge some hard wood ash from someone who has a wood burning stove or fireplace. I suppose I'll have to ask around. Failing that I guess I could try to check the craft stores in Wausau next time I head down that way. SIGH!
Thank you for stopping by. Please leave me a message. I'd love to hear your thoughts!
Cindy
Cheesehead's Turn!
Okay, this new year is starting out pretty darn badly! Cheesehead is feeling those kidney stones that his wellness exam urine sample told us that he had now. Of course the doctor had said he wouldn't write a prescription for any meds without an ultrasound of the kidney stones when they're passing. Oh, and we can't schedule an ultrasound until they make their presence known. HUH? (Wasn't that what the tests already TOLD us?)
So, we had to wait until they pass to get anything. Guess what? Middle of the night---AGAIN! Cheesehead refused to go to the doctor before the kids got up and were sent off to school though, so I'm waiting until they eat theit breakfast. Son will catch his bus in about 1/2 and hour and Peanut's comes in just over an hour.
It doesn't look like I'll be making the usual rounds to everyone's blogs AGAIN, I'm taking him in the second Peanut steps on the bus. Since the clinic doesn't open until 8 or 9 I guess that makes our third trip to the ER. They're going to start thinking that we work there at this rate! I don't think the insurance is going to be too happy with us, but I'm not making him wait several hours longer to meet with his regular doctor who already knows he has kidney stones.
At least none of the rest of us have gotten Peanut's strep yet, although I think I'd rather have Strep than a kidney stone....
Thank you for stopping by. Please leave me a message. I'd love to hear your thoughts!
Cindy
So, we had to wait until they pass to get anything. Guess what? Middle of the night---AGAIN! Cheesehead refused to go to the doctor before the kids got up and were sent off to school though, so I'm waiting until they eat theit breakfast. Son will catch his bus in about 1/2 and hour and Peanut's comes in just over an hour.
It doesn't look like I'll be making the usual rounds to everyone's blogs AGAIN, I'm taking him in the second Peanut steps on the bus. Since the clinic doesn't open until 8 or 9 I guess that makes our third trip to the ER. They're going to start thinking that we work there at this rate! I don't think the insurance is going to be too happy with us, but I'm not making him wait several hours longer to meet with his regular doctor who already knows he has kidney stones.
At least none of the rest of us have gotten Peanut's strep yet, although I think I'd rather have Strep than a kidney stone....
Thank you for stopping by. Please leave me a message. I'd love to hear your thoughts!
Cindy
My Turn Now
We made our second trip to the ER this week. This time it was my turn!
The time was 2:56 am. Why can't I ever sleep through the night without having to get up? Grr. I went to do my thing in the bathroom when all of a sudden I lost my vision! Not wanting to wake anyone up or worry them, I decided I'd just go back to bed. We've lived here long enough that I figured it wouldn't be hard to find my way easy enough.
There was one problem with this theory though. My legs didn't cooperate with the plan. I stumbled around and got completely disoriented, knocking into planters, wall sconces, and ended up making all kinds of noise and then finally collapsing on the floor with a tremendous thud.
All of this noise woke Cheesehead up. He asked what all of the commotion was, trying to joke around with me. I answered (not so calmly) "I can't see!". I couldn't even move from the somewhat seated position on the floor. I was SO scared! Cheesehead came running in and flipped on the overhead light. Thankfully my vision returned, but then I felt super sick and steaming hot feverish. I managed to drag myself over by the toilet, just in case. Cheesehead felt my forehead and he told me that I didn't have a fever. I felt clammy and completely icky. I just HAD to go to the hospital right away!
He got out the phonebook and called the hospital, but they refused to give any type of advice over the phone. I didn't want to wake Peanut if I didn't have to! I really was feeling much better and decided to wait it out.
Idly, I wondered what kind of neurological condition I was suffering from. (Apparently I watch too many doctor shows!) I booted up the computer and attempted to search for answers.
This curiosity got me worried all over again. Botulism? Dimensia? Hypoglycemia? Schizophrenia? Oh geez!
Cheesehead called his mom to seek her advice. Poor woman, it really wasn't THAT big of deal. Was it? She thought we should go in right away, so we finally decided better safe than sorry.
We woke Peanut up, the adults got dressed, we all bundled up, and we were off.
Turns out it was nothing serious, just a silly little bladder infection. Well, maybe not so little.
Boy, am I tired. I still need to go to town to pick up my prescription. Man, I wish Cheesehead didn't have to work today!
Thank you for stopping by. Please leave me a message. I'd love to hear your thoughts!
Cindy
The time was 2:56 am. Why can't I ever sleep through the night without having to get up? Grr. I went to do my thing in the bathroom when all of a sudden I lost my vision! Not wanting to wake anyone up or worry them, I decided I'd just go back to bed. We've lived here long enough that I figured it wouldn't be hard to find my way easy enough.
There was one problem with this theory though. My legs didn't cooperate with the plan. I stumbled around and got completely disoriented, knocking into planters, wall sconces, and ended up making all kinds of noise and then finally collapsing on the floor with a tremendous thud.
All of this noise woke Cheesehead up. He asked what all of the commotion was, trying to joke around with me. I answered (not so calmly) "I can't see!". I couldn't even move from the somewhat seated position on the floor. I was SO scared! Cheesehead came running in and flipped on the overhead light. Thankfully my vision returned, but then I felt super sick and steaming hot feverish. I managed to drag myself over by the toilet, just in case. Cheesehead felt my forehead and he told me that I didn't have a fever. I felt clammy and completely icky. I just HAD to go to the hospital right away!
He got out the phonebook and called the hospital, but they refused to give any type of advice over the phone. I didn't want to wake Peanut if I didn't have to! I really was feeling much better and decided to wait it out.
Idly, I wondered what kind of neurological condition I was suffering from. (Apparently I watch too many doctor shows!) I booted up the computer and attempted to search for answers.
This curiosity got me worried all over again. Botulism? Dimensia? Hypoglycemia? Schizophrenia? Oh geez!
Cheesehead called his mom to seek her advice. Poor woman, it really wasn't THAT big of deal. Was it? She thought we should go in right away, so we finally decided better safe than sorry.
We woke Peanut up, the adults got dressed, we all bundled up, and we were off.
Turns out it was nothing serious, just a silly little bladder infection. Well, maybe not so little.
Boy, am I tired. I still need to go to town to pick up my prescription. Man, I wish Cheesehead didn't have to work today!
Thank you for stopping by. Please leave me a message. I'd love to hear your thoughts!
Cindy
Fraud!!!!
I've been dealing with my enormous bank that I'm still trying to sever ties with. Many of you already know some of the reasons and I won't go into those right now. It's just such a headache to deal with these places. I can't get a straight answer from anyone either which increases my stress levels enormously.
What am I dealing with this time? Apparently my debit card number and information was stolen and used to purchase something in Utah from some Bean place (?). The number they gave the bank rings through to a voice mail whose message box is full. How entirely professional. I called them AFTER I called the bank to report the fraudulent use of my card. The bank has yet to take any action on this matter. My account is STILL negative $134.xx dollars.
I found out on the 23rd when I was notified via automatic email of yet another bounced check. That would be the same day Peanut got sick while I was attempting to make my butter cookieswith too much milk (don't even ask!). Nice.
I know we didn't do it, we drained all accounts at that bank and I'm just waiting for them to process the account closures that I wrote to them about. They should at least notify me of what further actions I need to take since I wrote them a letter, shouldn't they? The card was cut up after I sent the letter closing the accounts and Cheesehead hasn't had a card since we moved here. I closed the account via a letter I sent to the Elk River office the middle of last month right after they stole all of my money without notification or explanation. Now what?
What in the world is hapening to my life anyway? What am I doing wrong? What in the world am I supposed to be doing? Why me? Will this hell on earth EVER end?
Thank you for stopping by. Please leave me a message. I'd love to hear your thoughts!
Cindy
What am I dealing with this time? Apparently my debit card number and information was stolen and used to purchase something in Utah from some Bean place (?). The number they gave the bank rings through to a voice mail whose message box is full. How entirely professional. I called them AFTER I called the bank to report the fraudulent use of my card. The bank has yet to take any action on this matter. My account is STILL negative $134.xx dollars.
I found out on the 23rd when I was notified via automatic email of yet another bounced check. That would be the same day Peanut got sick while I was attempting to make my butter cookieswith too much milk (don't even ask!). Nice.
I know we didn't do it, we drained all accounts at that bank and I'm just waiting for them to process the account closures that I wrote to them about. They should at least notify me of what further actions I need to take since I wrote them a letter, shouldn't they? The card was cut up after I sent the letter closing the accounts and Cheesehead hasn't had a card since we moved here. I closed the account via a letter I sent to the Elk River office the middle of last month right after they stole all of my money without notification or explanation. Now what?
What in the world is hapening to my life anyway? What am I doing wrong? What in the world am I supposed to be doing? Why me? Will this hell on earth EVER end?
Thank you for stopping by. Please leave me a message. I'd love to hear your thoughts!
Cindy
To Winterize or Not
Many of you may know that the house in MN that we tried to sell for over two years has been foreclosed on. According to the original communication that we got from the bank we had 6 months from the sheriff's sale to redeem it. That landed us on December 16. I have been trying to contact the bank for a couple of weeks since I haven't heard from them in a while. I have sat on hold for over 1/2 an hour a couple of times onlyto get cut off. If I try to call other departments of the bank I get endlessly tranferred around until I get so frustrated that I just hang up.
My mom moved out last weekend so I no longer hasve someone else to pay the utilities. I can't afford to throw away money, but the utility companies won't take the bills out of my name until the bank contacts them. The realtor wants us to keep the utilites on so if someone buys it they'll be on for inspections. Why should I pay for something hat isn't even mine anymore? We had two showings this week too, but I don't think I could even choose to accept any offers made at this point.
Since the bank is too busy to care what's going on my neighbor says we should just winterize it and turn all utilities off. I'm so frastrated at this point I can't even stand it. What's a people pleasing perspn like me supposed to do?
Thank you for stopping by. Please leave me a message. I'd love to hear your thoughts!
Cindy
My mom moved out last weekend so I no longer hasve someone else to pay the utilities. I can't afford to throw away money, but the utility companies won't take the bills out of my name until the bank contacts them. The realtor wants us to keep the utilites on so if someone buys it they'll be on for inspections. Why should I pay for something hat isn't even mine anymore? We had two showings this week too, but I don't think I could even choose to accept any offers made at this point.
Since the bank is too busy to care what's going on my neighbor says we should just winterize it and turn all utilities off. I'm so frastrated at this point I can't even stand it. What's a people pleasing perspn like me supposed to do?
Thank you for stopping by. Please leave me a message. I'd love to hear your thoughts!
Cindy
Common Packing Mistakes
Since Thanksgiving is now passed we got out our Christmas stuff today and prepared to deck the place out in all of it's Christmas glory. I had a bit of trouble though, so I thought I might share some tips with you so your decorations won't suffer the same fate as some of mine did.
1. When packing breakable ornaments, make sure that they have plenty of padding. If you think that one layer of newspaper will be enough, think again! I lost an ornament and two candle holders because of careless packing done last year.
2. Lights should be pulled tightly on a rolled up newspaper or cord winder. This just might save you a few hours of untangling light bulbs. It may also prevent breakage of a few light bulbs.
3. When you put your garland away you may want to wrap this tightly onto a rolled up newspaper roll as well. If you don't your "tinsel" garland may end up with a few bald spots and you beads will end up in a tangled mess.
4. Snow globes are NOT a good thing to store in a garage where temperatures reach well below freezing. Store them in your basement instead. It may save you a whole box of fabric Chrsitmas crafts that would have to be thrown out because of a heavy mold infestation. The moisture from the exploded globe was trapped in a water tight plastic box all summer. Everything had about 1/4 of an inch of white mold covering every visible surface when I opened the box today. EEEWWW!
5. Do not place heavy objects on top of fabric flowers unless you plan on spending a long time fluffing them back up to their original condition.
6. Okay, all of these little lessons can lead back to one major mistake I made last year. Do NOT under any circumstances allow your husband to put away your Christmas decor if you're ever planning on using any of it again. Sigh.
(Memo to self: Put reminder on calendar to put the tree away the day after Christmas so Cheesehead doesn't do it again this year.)
Thank you for stopping by. Please leave me a message and a backlink. I'd love to hear your thoughts!
Cindy
1. When packing breakable ornaments, make sure that they have plenty of padding. If you think that one layer of newspaper will be enough, think again! I lost an ornament and two candle holders because of careless packing done last year.
2. Lights should be pulled tightly on a rolled up newspaper or cord winder. This just might save you a few hours of untangling light bulbs. It may also prevent breakage of a few light bulbs.
3. When you put your garland away you may want to wrap this tightly onto a rolled up newspaper roll as well. If you don't your "tinsel" garland may end up with a few bald spots and you beads will end up in a tangled mess.
4. Snow globes are NOT a good thing to store in a garage where temperatures reach well below freezing. Store them in your basement instead. It may save you a whole box of fabric Chrsitmas crafts that would have to be thrown out because of a heavy mold infestation. The moisture from the exploded globe was trapped in a water tight plastic box all summer. Everything had about 1/4 of an inch of white mold covering every visible surface when I opened the box today. EEEWWW!
5. Do not place heavy objects on top of fabric flowers unless you plan on spending a long time fluffing them back up to their original condition.
6. Okay, all of these little lessons can lead back to one major mistake I made last year. Do NOT under any circumstances allow your husband to put away your Christmas decor if you're ever planning on using any of it again. Sigh.
(Memo to self: Put reminder on calendar to put the tree away the day after Christmas so Cheesehead doesn't do it again this year.)
Thank you for stopping by. Please leave me a message and a backlink. I'd love to hear your thoughts!
Cindy
Frustrated and Irritated
I may have mentioned a little over a week ago that I was in the process of assembling a home gym to some of you. I plan on getting back in shape so I can feel fit enough to keep up with the vegetable garden I plan on putting in next spring.
This particular home gym I bought with a little bit of our tax money going on 4 (or was it 5?) years ago. At least it made the move easier than it would have had I not been lazy and assembled it right away! Last weekend it finally made it out of the box it was purchased in and it got mostly assembled.
I like to assemble things and I can usually figure out how to put it together without any directions. It's a gift, don't ask me how it all comes so easy to me because I have NO idea. I often get recruited into building things for people. On our honeymoon I spent my days assembling our RTA furniture, but that's a story for another time.
Back to the point. I got it all completely put together in one day until I got to looping the pulleys and the uh... chain(?) to attach the weights. I got about 1/2 way done with that part last Sunday and decided to call it quits for the night, I haven't looked at it since then.
I worked two full days last week, cleaned the house, entertained company (MIL and BIL came over for a day to loan us some money to get our bills paid despite the banks' efforts to cause us to become behind on all of our bills), ran to assorted appointments, and all of the normal housewife-y type errands as well as transfering and opening a new checking account and all of that "fun" stuff.
I went downstairs to pick up where I left off and I found a jumbled mess.
They were all like that. I had 7 of the properly threaded and tightend into place. Apparently son has decided it would be a great way to exercise (even though no weights are hooked up yet) and got it all messed up. Now the cord is no longer resting where it belongs on the pulleys. I am going to have to undo all of the pulley work I had done and redo it all. This entails loosening the nuts and bolts and reexamining the diagram. ARGH!
Since the kids will be coming home in just 3 short hours I think I'll have to let this project wait yet again so I have time to get it finished without their... um, help?. I guess it's waited this long to be used, what's a few more days? Somehow I think the pulleys are going to take me longer to figure out than assembling the whole rest of the gym!
Well, I guess I need to go into town to run yet more errands, pick daughter up from school, watch son's basketball game, and come home in time to make dinner. Geez, when I "say" it out loud it sure sounds like an awful ot of work to do!
Thank you for stopping by. Please leave me a message and a backlink. I'd love to hear your thoughts!
Cindy
This particular home gym I bought with a little bit of our tax money going on 4 (or was it 5?) years ago. At least it made the move easier than it would have had I not been lazy and assembled it right away! Last weekend it finally made it out of the box it was purchased in and it got mostly assembled.
I like to assemble things and I can usually figure out how to put it together without any directions. It's a gift, don't ask me how it all comes so easy to me because I have NO idea. I often get recruited into building things for people. On our honeymoon I spent my days assembling our RTA furniture, but that's a story for another time.
Back to the point. I got it all completely put together in one day until I got to looping the pulleys and the uh... chain(?) to attach the weights. I got about 1/2 way done with that part last Sunday and decided to call it quits for the night, I haven't looked at it since then.
I worked two full days last week, cleaned the house, entertained company (MIL and BIL came over for a day to loan us some money to get our bills paid despite the banks' efforts to cause us to become behind on all of our bills), ran to assorted appointments, and all of the normal housewife-y type errands as well as transfering and opening a new checking account and all of that "fun" stuff.
I went downstairs to pick up where I left off and I found a jumbled mess.
They were all like that. I had 7 of the properly threaded and tightend into place. Apparently son has decided it would be a great way to exercise (even though no weights are hooked up yet) and got it all messed up. Now the cord is no longer resting where it belongs on the pulleys. I am going to have to undo all of the pulley work I had done and redo it all. This entails loosening the nuts and bolts and reexamining the diagram. ARGH!
Since the kids will be coming home in just 3 short hours I think I'll have to let this project wait yet again so I have time to get it finished without their... um, help?. I guess it's waited this long to be used, what's a few more days? Somehow I think the pulleys are going to take me longer to figure out than assembling the whole rest of the gym!
Well, I guess I need to go into town to run yet more errands, pick daughter up from school, watch son's basketball game, and come home in time to make dinner. Geez, when I "say" it out loud it sure sounds like an awful ot of work to do!
Thank you for stopping by. Please leave me a message and a backlink. I'd love to hear your thoughts!
Cindy
Tooth fairy MIA at our Place
Oh my. The tooth fairy forgot to visit my 11 year old son last night, if she's anything like me she can be a bit forgetful at times. He just lost a pre-molar while we were watching a Harry Potter movie together yesterday. It took a long time for him to loose it too.
He told me this morning that he knew that the tooth fairy doesn't exsist now, right in front of his 7 year old sister. It wasn't time for a deep philosophical discussion while they were getting ready for school either. What should I say?
I made up some excuses for her. Maybe they sounded a bit far flung?
1. Maybe she didn't have the money for such a big tooth so she was saving up.
2. Perhaps she thought he didn't believe in her so she decided not to come any more.
3. Was she stranded in a snow storm somewhere else in the country?
4. He is so big maybe she thought it was a grownup tooth that fell out because he didn't brush it often enough.
5. If she has trouble like I do she maybe just went to the bank for her monthly spending money and hasn't had a chance to break her bills for smaller ones and she couldn't afford to give him such a big bill.
6. Possibly she couldn't find his room because the door was closed and she wasn't used to that.
7. Was his room too messy? Maybe she was afraid of hurting herself in there.
Hopefully he and Cheesehead have a real discussion on the way to school this morning. I suppose he's a bit old for my being so silly, but I'm not ready to be done with it all just yet. My daughter's only 7. What should I do?
Thank you for stopping by. Please leave me a message and a backlink. I'd love to hear your thoughts!
Cindy
He told me this morning that he knew that the tooth fairy doesn't exsist now, right in front of his 7 year old sister. It wasn't time for a deep philosophical discussion while they were getting ready for school either. What should I say?
I made up some excuses for her. Maybe they sounded a bit far flung?
1. Maybe she didn't have the money for such a big tooth so she was saving up.
2. Perhaps she thought he didn't believe in her so she decided not to come any more.
3. Was she stranded in a snow storm somewhere else in the country?
4. He is so big maybe she thought it was a grownup tooth that fell out because he didn't brush it often enough.
5. If she has trouble like I do she maybe just went to the bank for her monthly spending money and hasn't had a chance to break her bills for smaller ones and she couldn't afford to give him such a big bill.
6. Possibly she couldn't find his room because the door was closed and she wasn't used to that.
7. Was his room too messy? Maybe she was afraid of hurting herself in there.
Hopefully he and Cheesehead have a real discussion on the way to school this morning. I suppose he's a bit old for my being so silly, but I'm not ready to be done with it all just yet. My daughter's only 7. What should I do?
Thank you for stopping by. Please leave me a message and a backlink. I'd love to hear your thoughts!
Cindy
Can They do That?
So I was minding my own business working to get my home mortgages for my house in MN figured out. You know how much I've been stressing about this over the last year. The bottom is falling out now.
I logged onto our account yesterday and they had taken all of my money out of BOTH my checking and my savings accounts. In all they took almost $2,000 from us. I didn't even get told this was even a possibility of happening. I've been talking so much with both the bank and the bill collectors I feel like we're almost on a first name basis with them. Why didn't they tell me they could and would do this?
Now I have NO idea how I'm going to pay our bills that are coming up to be automatically withdrawn out of our accounts this week. We need to come up with $1,000 fast. With no savings or checking we are going to have a whole lot of bouncing checks too. No one will give us a loan with a foreclosure looming on the horizon and we have almost nothing available on some credit cards that we used to be able to buy anything we wanted on them. As unreasonable as they're being I don't know that they will even contemplate waiving those charges for the bounced checks either. It's NOT my fault!
How can they just steal all of my money like that? I've been a good customer of theirs for almost 20 years, why are they being so unreasonable and crazy now? I keep calling them and trying to figure out a way to refinance our current house to add that loan to it but I don't want to triple the interest rate I'm paying either. They keep saying I can't refinance anyway. How can they be so unreasonable with someone who's trying to get them money, but just doesn't have the means to do it? Are we going to loose the house we're living in now because of this second mortgage on our other house that they forced us to take out when we didn't even really want to?
I'm trying to practically give that house away so I can be rid of the problem, but it isn't working. No one's buying.I've done everything in my power I could do and asked every question to every person I could find. I've done everything I can humanly do, yet it's just never good enough. What in the world am I going to do?
I'm so stressed! Where's the chocolate? Any advise? Do you know a good lawyer? I can't afford to pay any fees though either. What on earth are we supposed to do????
Thank you for stopping by. Please leave me a message and a backlink. I'd love to hear your thoughts!
Cindy
I logged onto our account yesterday and they had taken all of my money out of BOTH my checking and my savings accounts. In all they took almost $2,000 from us. I didn't even get told this was even a possibility of happening. I've been talking so much with both the bank and the bill collectors I feel like we're almost on a first name basis with them. Why didn't they tell me they could and would do this?
Now I have NO idea how I'm going to pay our bills that are coming up to be automatically withdrawn out of our accounts this week. We need to come up with $1,000 fast. With no savings or checking we are going to have a whole lot of bouncing checks too. No one will give us a loan with a foreclosure looming on the horizon and we have almost nothing available on some credit cards that we used to be able to buy anything we wanted on them. As unreasonable as they're being I don't know that they will even contemplate waiving those charges for the bounced checks either. It's NOT my fault!
How can they just steal all of my money like that? I've been a good customer of theirs for almost 20 years, why are they being so unreasonable and crazy now? I keep calling them and trying to figure out a way to refinance our current house to add that loan to it but I don't want to triple the interest rate I'm paying either. They keep saying I can't refinance anyway. How can they be so unreasonable with someone who's trying to get them money, but just doesn't have the means to do it? Are we going to loose the house we're living in now because of this second mortgage on our other house that they forced us to take out when we didn't even really want to?
I'm trying to practically give that house away so I can be rid of the problem, but it isn't working. No one's buying.I've done everything in my power I could do and asked every question to every person I could find. I've done everything I can humanly do, yet it's just never good enough. What in the world am I going to do?
I'm so stressed! Where's the chocolate? Any advise? Do you know a good lawyer? I can't afford to pay any fees though either. What on earth are we supposed to do????
Thank you for stopping by. Please leave me a message and a backlink. I'd love to hear your thoughts!
Cindy
Digital Converter Boxes
I'd like to know what idiot came up with the idea to require all television programming to go digital by Febraury 17, 2009. Has anyone tried the digital box?
It stinks! I prefer watching the antenna to using the box. The signal is always breaking up, jumping around, and repeating phrases. It's worse than watching a satellite dish during a storm or when there's sun spots. Why should the signal be worse when you have to pay extra money for a gadget? Aren't gadgets supposed to make life better?
So, here we are in the middle of nowhere, no chance of getting cable to continue getting supposedly "free" channels for free. Are we going to be forced to pay a satellite company extra for a signal that's supposed to be free? (We are allowed the option to pay $5 a month for local channels from a satellite company which seems like a total waste of money as far as I'm concerned.)
This is just the most stupid thing ever. What a waste of a perfectly good, expensive antenna that is just a couple of years old. Yet more money seemingly thrown right out the window. Will this hemmoraging of money never end?
Thank you for stopping by. Please leave me a message and a backlink. I'd love to hear your thoughts!
Cindy
It stinks! I prefer watching the antenna to using the box. The signal is always breaking up, jumping around, and repeating phrases. It's worse than watching a satellite dish during a storm or when there's sun spots. Why should the signal be worse when you have to pay extra money for a gadget? Aren't gadgets supposed to make life better?
So, here we are in the middle of nowhere, no chance of getting cable to continue getting supposedly "free" channels for free. Are we going to be forced to pay a satellite company extra for a signal that's supposed to be free? (We are allowed the option to pay $5 a month for local channels from a satellite company which seems like a total waste of money as far as I'm concerned.)
This is just the most stupid thing ever. What a waste of a perfectly good, expensive antenna that is just a couple of years old. Yet more money seemingly thrown right out the window. Will this hemmoraging of money never end?
Thank you for stopping by. Please leave me a message and a backlink. I'd love to hear your thoughts!
Cindy
No Sense of Smell
Ugh, what a day. I have developed a pretty nasty head cold (or allergy problem) so I have almost zero in the smell department. I guess that's good if I'm cleaning the cat boxes, but not so good when I'm searching for things to scent my soaps with. I may end up just picking and drying a bunch of stems of things hoping that I may be able to use one of them later. Would that be a silly idea?
At least the headache is lessening somewhat so I may get the pumpkin carving done and bring the kids to town for trick or treating this afternoon. Not sure if I'll feel like doing much of anything else but I guess a gal should take a day off every now and then!
I'll attempt to take some pictures too of both the trick-or-treaters and their pumpkin carving antics, but I'm not making any promises. In case you didn't know the new camera I just bought last spring has a cracked LCD screen. Since there is no regular view finder I have no way of knowing what it is I'm actually taking a picture of.
My last camera just broke last winter, it just stopped working one day for some reason. At least that had both an LCD screen AND a viewfinder! I tried all new batteries and everything but nothing I did seemed to make it work again. I'm not sure what it is with cameras and me, we don't seem to get along very well lately.
If you add that to the fiasco with the computer not wanting to read the pictures off the memory cards, now you know why I haven't been putting up too many pictures.
I may just have to take a technological break today so I can get my old computer up and running again. I've got a ton of pictures on there I've been wanting to share with you.
Now my headache's coming back. Maybe I should take a nap instead!
Thank you for stopping by. Please leave me a message and a backlink. I'd love to hear your thoughts!
Cindy
At least the headache is lessening somewhat so I may get the pumpkin carving done and bring the kids to town for trick or treating this afternoon. Not sure if I'll feel like doing much of anything else but I guess a gal should take a day off every now and then!
I'll attempt to take some pictures too of both the trick-or-treaters and their pumpkin carving antics, but I'm not making any promises. In case you didn't know the new camera I just bought last spring has a cracked LCD screen. Since there is no regular view finder I have no way of knowing what it is I'm actually taking a picture of.
My last camera just broke last winter, it just stopped working one day for some reason. At least that had both an LCD screen AND a viewfinder! I tried all new batteries and everything but nothing I did seemed to make it work again. I'm not sure what it is with cameras and me, we don't seem to get along very well lately.
If you add that to the fiasco with the computer not wanting to read the pictures off the memory cards, now you know why I haven't been putting up too many pictures.
I may just have to take a technological break today so I can get my old computer up and running again. I've got a ton of pictures on there I've been wanting to share with you.
Now my headache's coming back. Maybe I should take a nap instead!
Thank you for stopping by. Please leave me a message and a backlink. I'd love to hear your thoughts!
Cindy
Scenting Homemade Soap Ideas
I got this great book at Goodwill this summer about making your own cleaners and stuff. One of the things it has in it is how to make soap with meat fat, so I am making a plan to make some soap.
My dilemma is I want to make it scented but it doesn't really say much about that in there. I love lavendar but my two plants are done blooming for the year. Do their stems smell too?
I have lots of plants in my yard, but it's been so cold that they're pretty much stems and leaves only at this point. How do I use them? Do I need blooms to scent my soap?
What else can I use with all of my blooms done already? I guess I didn't really plan this project out very well, did I? Any ideas you have to share with me would be greatly appreciated!
Thank you for stopping by. Please leave me a message and a backlink. I'd love to hear your thoughts!
Cindy
My dilemma is I want to make it scented but it doesn't really say much about that in there. I love lavendar but my two plants are done blooming for the year. Do their stems smell too?
I have lots of plants in my yard, but it's been so cold that they're pretty much stems and leaves only at this point. How do I use them? Do I need blooms to scent my soap?
What else can I use with all of my blooms done already? I guess I didn't really plan this project out very well, did I? Any ideas you have to share with me would be greatly appreciated!
Thank you for stopping by. Please leave me a message and a backlink. I'd love to hear your thoughts!
Cindy
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