Delusions of... Everything

Sing-A-Long Saturday

Less than a year after getting her driving permit Drill Daughter, at age 16, has gotten her drivers license.  While this is very exciting for Handy Man and me it's also very stressful.  Not only are we worried about her being safe while driving, we are also worried about our wallets.  Insuring two vehicles with four drivers, two who are teens, is a shocking amount of money. Wow!  Thankfully Star Wars Son will start paying his portion of insurance in October.

In honor of my darling daughter passing her driving exam I'm playing a band I normally would not feature on Sing-A-Long Saturday, The Jonas Brothers!  Here they are covering The Beatles Drive My Car for Sir Paul McCartney.

 

Sometimes Tuesdays Are Good Days

Today has been great!

When I got dressed the morning I put on a pair of pants I haven't worn for a while and I found two $5 bills in the pocket!

Dancing Daughter was ready to go on time this morning so I wasn't late for work.

At work I happily helped a new employee use Excel.  I love Excel.  Excel is my office boyfriend.  Anytime I can share the Excel love I'm happy.  Yes, I know I'm weird.

Jean Auel's latest book, The Land of Painted Caves, came out today. After work I went to my local, small, new and used bookstore where I pre-ordered the book a few weeks ago.  I haven't decided if I'm taking it on vacation.  It's pretty large!

On the way to the bookstore I noticed a wine store is going in near the Trader Joe's in my neighborhood.  It's not open yet and there is no sign other than "coming soon" in the window.  It's called Decanter Wines.  I can't wait to check it out when it opens!

In the depths of my closet live my summer clothes, mostly consisting of short sleeves and capri pants.  I dug them out and was happy to find that everything from last summer still fits!  Makes packing for San Diego that much easier.

By some manner of pure luck (and Star Wars Son's amazing computer skills) I was able to snag two tickets to Eddie Vedder's upcoming solo tour!  They went on pre-sale today through the fan club.  He will be promoting his new album called Ukulele Songs, that will be coming out soon with a live concert film called Water On The Road.  Just like it sounds it's a whole album of songs played on the Ukulele.  He will be ending the short one month tour in Seattle, at Benaroya Hall on July 15.  To say I'm excited would be an understatement!  Here is a mightly fine picture of Eddie with his Uke!

How was your Tuesday?!

For those that are interested here is a photo montage of Eddie while his new single Longing To Belong plays

 

 

 

Life IS Good

Things are going very good in the life of imom! 

I really truly LOVE my new job.

I got my first paycheck since January!

Somehow our house appraised 30K over what it appraised at 9 months ago even though home prices in Seattle continue to drop at an alarming rate.  This appraiser gave us credit for things the other appraiser didn't, like a view(!) and he saw the condition of the house as being above average, where the other guy said it was just average.  We have continued to work on the house and maybe that showed through this time around, who knows!  This means we will refinance with ease!

Back in January I posted my horoscope for 2010 and it looked very promising even though things were not going well for me.  I'm re-posting it here with the things that have happened in bold.

For all you Sagittarians out there here's what you can look forward to in 2010. (From this site)

Did you just hear that gigantic cry of "hooray"? That was the sound of millions of Sagittarian lives getting better in 2010. Pluto has moved out of your sign, and Saturn has left Virgo (which wasn't doing you any favors either, as you may have noticed from the unusual pressures in your home life, and the difficulties you've had getting what you need to feel secure).

Of course, as much as you'd like all of life to match that happy, carefree streak you have, you know it doesn't always work out that way. The big pressures have just moved on and changed form. Fortunately, your reputation for being able to see the bright side of things will generally be justified by these new issues. There will be new challenges to your money supply and how you handle your money, and yet you'll also have new opportunities to correct problems in your material life, and maybe even prosper more than you ever have before.

Work is also going to present new roles and new opportunities, and will also give you chances to shine. And there will also be new demands from your friends and loved ones. But those same issues will help you sort out who is of real value to you, and what your real value is to them too. The hard work that you've sometimes had to put in during the last two years is going to start paying off for you. And for some of you, the rewards will be enormous. Can I hear a "hooray" out there?

So to recap the first 6 months of 2010...

• I got laid off...
• Was on unemployment for 4.5 months...
• We sold the rental (for asking price, in a week!)...
• I found a new job with great pay...
• Our house appraised beyond our expectations...
• By July we should be finished with the refi!

Not to mention Star Wars Son graduated from high school...

YES, LIFE IS GOOD!

(I should be able to catch up with all of you over the weekend!)

Optimist/Pessimist

Generally I'm an optimistic person.  I see the glass as half full.  I tend to have faith that everything will work out.  I see problems as challenges.  Handy Man on the other hand is totally the opposite.  He worries that things will not work out.  A problem comes up and he thinks of the worse case scenario. 

The other day the computer went cattywompus (yes it's a real word, here is the urban dictionary definition - topsy-turvy; weird; To be all helter skelter and askew. Not functioning on all cylinders, or just plain strange.)  That exactly describes what the desk top looked like.  It was all big and jumped around every time the mouse was moved.  It was dizzying to look at.  Handy Man's first reaction was it needed to be taken into the shop.  My first reaction was, Star Wars Son can fix it when he gets home from school.

It turned out the mouse scroll knob got pushed while the apple button was pushed, or something like that... which magnified the screen.  You know who figured it out after some brainstorming with both the kids?  Handy Man... the chronic pessimist who initially said it needed to go into the shop ended up fixing it.

It's been very difficult for me to stay optimistic in my job search when I know Handy Man is in the wings thinking we are doomed to a life of poverty.  The interesting thing is that I can totally understand his fears.  It's possible we will have to pay the mortgage on two houses for a few months before our rental house sells.  That is very scary.  Super scary.

I'm a firm believer in the power of positive thinking.  However, when surrounded by heavy negativity it's very difficult for me to draw a positive thought.  I'm struggling on the edge of depression.  Some days I don't even want to get out of bed let alone pick up my camera, write daily or read my book (I've been reading the same book since the first of the year).

Yet I'm powering on.  I do get up every morning.  I work out 3-4 times a week.  I'm showering.  I'm reading your blogs.  I'm applying for jobs.  I'm even cooking dinner (mostly) and doing the dishes.  Every one of those things has been a huge chore.  At the end of every day I'm congratulating myself for being productive and hoping I can get up and do it all over again the next day.  That's the best I've got at the moment.

Now I'm off to look for my optimism and apply for more jobs.

Pearl Jam Sunday

This has been a strange weekend for me.  I haven't felt very good and it really hit me how much things have changed since I lost my job.  We have to watch every penny we spend.  We are planning budget meals that will last for a couple days.  All the work we were going to do at the rental before putting it on the market in April might not get done.  Everything just feels off kilter.

Today's Pearl Jam song reflects how I feel.  It's also one of my favorites songs.  It's from the Lost Dogs CD, which is a must have for any Pearl Jam fan because it's full of buried treasure.  This song was also featured in a little, slightly bizarre movie called Chicago Cab in 1997.

The change in the song that happens at around the 2:18 mark is my favorite part of the song!  Enjoy.

Pearl Jam AOL Sessions

Hard to Imagine

"Things were different then. All is different now.
I tried to explain. I hope this works somehow.
Things were different then. All is different now.
I tried to explain. Oh, somehow."

Treating Myself

Every December I get money as a gift for my birthday and Christmas.  Every year I'm never sure what to do with it.  Normally, between my birthday and Christmas, I get everything I want.  Sometimes I use the money to buy some CDs, or books, or I blow it on lattes at the local coffee shop.  The rest I end up giving to my kids for movies, bus or lunch money, in other words it gets nickel and dimed away.

This year I did something different, something spontaneous and just for me.

A couple days after Christmas, when my computer was down hence the reason I didn't write about it when it happened, I took my mom and Dancing Daughter shopping.  I really, really don't like shopping.  I'm one of those strange women who rarely find joy in "hitting the mall".  I'm happy to sit in the bookstore coffee shop and wait for everyone to be done then get the heck out of there.

We started out in the morning before the crowds took hold.  As we were walking through the mall I asked where we should go first.  Dancing Daughter also had some money to spend and she wanted to go to one of those young people clothing stores, gah!  As we were walking toward Forever XXI I saw the Fossil store!

Me:  Ooooh, Fossil... Let's just go look

DD & Mom:  Ok

Clerk:  May I help you find something

Me:  No, I'm just looking

Clerk:  Do you know about our purses?

Me:  Yes, I've had a Fossil wallet for about 10 years and it's still good as new.  I've always wanted a purse but they are so darn expensive I've never dared do more than dream of having one.

Clerk:  (as I manhandle pick up a purse to find the price get a closer look .)  All the price tags are in the inside pocket.  I believe that one is $170.

Me:  Thanks (*sigh*)

Then I see it.  It's red.  It's pretty.  It's calling to me from across the store...

I considered the brown one for about 1.5 seconds.

I spent all my money in one place after being in the mall for less than 15 minutes!  I don't remember ever doing that before.  It's been almost a month and the buyers remorse I thought would come over me never has.  I love that purse.

What have you treated yourself to lately?

The Appraisal

The appraisal came back with the value of our house down approximately 3.3% from the 2007 appraisal when we purchased the house.  This seems very fair to me.  Our neighborhood has gone down roughly 12% since 2007, as have most neighborhoods in the Seattle area.  Handy Man is not as satisfied.  I knew this would happen.  I knew he would work his ass off on the house for months and be disappointed, but I was really hoping to be wrong.

There is even more to be disappointed about.  The whole time we've been going through this process of refinancing our house both Handy Man and I were under the impression that we would be able to refinance a portion of our loan and restructure the remaining portion.  In fact this is not true.  All along we needed the house to appraise at 5% OVER what we purchased it for.  That was never made clear to us.  The financial officer kept throwing numbers around, but never one that high.  This is a huge disappointment, especially for Handy Man who was really counting on refinancing.

The financial officer is appealing the appraisal, for what purpose I'm not sure.  The value of the house is not going up 8% because of an appeal.  The days of over pricing houses to qualify for loans is over.  I also feel like the days of "waiting it out" are over too.  I don't anticipate housing prices to climb like they have in years past.

I'm letting Handy Man wallow in his sorrow for a couple days then we will talk about other options.  We do have another house we can sell, one we don't owe too much money on, one he wanted to use for retirement income.  One that I never wanted to keep in the first place.  One that we were supposed to sell all along.  One that will enable us to get out of the ARM loan we are in AND have money left for investing in retirement. 

Now I have to talk Handy Man into it... Wish me luck.

Decisions, Decisions

In the Fall of 2007 we bought a new house and instead of selling our old house we decided to try renting it out first.  We had no experience with either end of renting.  Aside from 6 months that we rented a condo when we were newlyweds, we have either lived in military base housing or owned homes.  As any 21st century person who is plugged in would do I turned to the internet for laws, advice and forms.

We had 19 years of accumulation and wear and tear so there was much work to be done, mostly cosmetic, and so much cleaning and clearing, oh my!  We put out for rent ads, interviewed prospective tenants and became scared s***less.  We saw all kinds of people.  People with kids, people with dogs, people with alcohol on their breath at 10 am, people who tried to negotiate rent, people who just wanted to rent one room, people who are on Section 8 (government covers rent) who wanted us to lie about the amount of rent, the list goes on and on.

So we put the house on the market and the market died.  To say we were unhappy with our agent/banker would be an understatement and is a post for another day.  With much apprehension we put the house back up for rent.

This time we got lucky, very lucky.  We found a woman, Susan, who needed a home just like ours to move in with her ailing mother, Gladys.  Susan wanted space for her mom and a separate space for herself to have some privacy.  Since the house has a full daylight basement with living room, bedroom and bathroom it was perfect for her.  They moved in and immediately wanted to change it, good changes.  She wanted to paint everything a neutral color, put shelves in the garage and install a gas fireplace for her mother to enjoy.  She also hired a gardener to keep up the yard.  We loved her, she loved us.

When we went over to do maintenance on the house we would sit with her mom on the deck and chat with her, she was a very sweet lady.  Gladys thought Handy Man was THE Handy Man not the landlord.  She didn't know they were renting the house she thought they bought the house.  We played along.

Gladys died the first part of March.  Her health had taken a bad turn after the first of the year.  Susan let us know she wasn't doing well, so we knew it was only a matter of time.  It was a blessing that she passed and was relieved of the pain she was in.  Now Susan wants to move on with her life.  She's a single woman and wants to buy a small house, our house is too big for her.  She's willing to honor her lease, which isn't up until the end of November, but would like us to make moves to find a new renter.  We really want her to be able to move on so now we have decisions to make.

Our original plan was to put the house on the market next spring.  Now we have to decide if we want to to put in on the market now, or keep it and try to try to refinance our primary residence which has high interest rate compared to what's available now.  It's possible we owe more on our primary residence than what it would currently assess at.  Selling the rental would allow us to pay down some of the primary mortgage so we could refinance.  However we would love to keep the rental for retirement purposes.  It will be paid for in 9 years well in advance of retirement.  But will we find a responsible tenant?  We know we've been spoiled with Susan and her mom.  So many decisions!

We have appointments set with a real estate agent and a refinance company.  I'll keep you posted...

Tale of Two Days

Thursday

Dancing Daughter had been expecting her grades to come any day.  She went to check the mail at approximately 3:30.

At 3:31, while looking out the window at DD who was standing at the mailbox opening an envelope, my phone rang.

It was an 800 number.

Hello, this is Tammy

Hi Tammy, this is so and so, from your credit union.  I just want to let you know your credit card has been compromised along with many others so we are going to issue you a new one.  It's really nothing to worry about.

I was still watching DD out the window and could see she was upset.  Not good.

Oh...Ok, thanks for calling.

I hung up and promptly forgot about the call.

I stuck my head out the door.

DD, come in with the mail.

NO!  I'M GOING FOR A WALK!

She slammed the mail back in the box and took off.

I let her go, though I kept looking at the clock because she had dance class at 4:00.

SWS went to get the mail because he was curious about her grades.

SWS, Bri-Brute and I all decided that she must have been looking at her 7th grade 1st semester grades when she got a C in pre-algebra.  Honestly I knew better, that girl knows how to read a report card, she did not read it wrong.

She came back after 10 minutes, changed her clothes, got her dance bag and walked out to the car all without saying a word.

Silently I drove her to the dance studio.

A couple hours later she sent me a text message.

I got the worse grades ever.

I did not respond to that text message.

Friday

Friday was a teacher in service day, so that meant no school for the kiddos. 

Friday was also the day I was having scrapbookers converge at my house for some serious work time.

I took the day off work to get ready.

Handy Man and I decided to do our weekly grocery shopping combined with my shopping for the scrapbooking "party".

At the point we were discussing the grocery shopping I remembered the call from the Credit Union and told Handy Man.

So are they canceling our current card?

I don't know.

You didn't ask?

No, I was watching DD open her report card out the window, I was distracted.

I guess I better call them.. (you know that tone of voice?!)

*******************************************************

Hi So and So, this is Handy Man.  Say, Tammy got a call yesterday about our credit card being compromised..

Uh uh, ok...  So can we use the card?.. We use our card for everything and we will need to use it this weekend..

Uh uh, ok, So we can use it until they call us to de-activate it?

Ok, thanks a lot, bye.

*****************************************************

She said we could use the card.

We better take the checkbook, just in case.

Famous. Last. Words.

When DD was finally ready we went went Fred Meyer.  (Just an aside about DD... She loves to grocery shop?!)  Anyway we were in the middle of shopping when I remembered...

I forgot to grab the checkbook.  Did you grab it?

No.

Great.

Yes, of course our credit card was rejected.  So with a line of people behind us, the checker had to call the manager to suspend our order.  Another worker came to take our cart full of food to the cooler to wait for us to come back with the checkbook.

Mortifying!