Summer Fun!

I've had a busy June! It actually went much as planned! Surprising!

I closed on the house in Nebraska scraping together every penny I had and a last minute line of credit from my Navy credit union. PHEW!!!

Jacque and I went to FL and did our course. Really had a nice trip and learned a lot. We're so anxious to get started! We even had a day of antiquing and Greek food before we left. Everything was done on a shoestring but we got it done.

Finally got a program in place for Mac so we can move in August. I have to complete his INS application and then he can go. We have his photos so we have to do a physical, TB test and have an interview. Why interview a six year old? But whatever...

So the trucks are reserved, the kid's tickets are bought and we're going to get this done. We're doing a self move with 2 20' trucks! I've asked the youth group from church to come over and help load. We'll see how that works! Otherwise, it's going to be a few very tiring days for us.

I drove to east Tx to my brother's lake house. It's a gorgeous spot and they are always so fun to hang out with. Float in the pool, feed the catfish and turtles, watch the deer, birds, etc. Left Mac there for one night and drove another 700 miles to St Louis to see the Eagles. (The reason I bought tickets in St. Louis is that was the closest place they were playing to Omaha and I was supposed to be in NE by now!) I tried to sell my tickets but didn't so Jacque drove down from Omaha and I drove up. It was a long, long drive but the concert was great. Hot and crowded on the floor of Busch Stadium but really, really great. I'll go again every chance I get! Glenn Fry told the best joke: "I'm from Detroit where "mother" is half a word!" Don Henley ate a bug accidentally and joked about the protein. Timothy Schmidt's hair is still super long; must be like Sampson's hair cause he still sings and plays great. And Joe Walsh is still a wonder on the guitar even sober. But why did he put on a jacket in the middle of the concert when it was 100 degrees??? The Eagles are the greatest band of all time...

My house is NOT selling STILL. I've lowered the price. The open house was a failure. I'm interviewing another realtor tomorrow but basically when the stimulus expired, housing sales have dropped dramatically.

Well, that's about all... I did a couple of training sessions on "The Speed of Trust" for Shell and they want me to do two more so that money will help although I'm not charging much! It'll pay for one truck! LOL

Say a prayer for me to sell this DANG HOUSE!!

PHEW!!!

Well, with the help of my friends and my Credit Union, I have enough money to pay for the house in Nebraska when it closes on the 7th of June AND go to Florida next week for training in the new business. I didn't have to borrow much. Actually, had more than I thought once I tallied everything up! Just so nerve wracking. It's funny when you have no debt and over $200K in equity in real estate and you're considered too 'risky' for the bankers for a short term loan! I still hate bankers... will avoid at all cost for the rest of my life. Because of their greediness and screw ups, we consumers now have to suffer under their new tighter restrictions that have swung way past 'common sense'!

The only thing that will have to be postponed until this house in Houston sells is my move. And that's actually ok. It gives Jacque more time to "decorate" the new house. She's excited so I hope I am when I see it!

And it gives Mac and I more time to get his situation sorted. Despite several calls and messages this week, nothing has progressed with him. CPS = molasses in winter time UPHILL!

Doing some child care juggling to make sure Mac and Savanah and all the animals are taken care of while I'm gone. Savanah is my daughter in law's sister's girl. Also six and Mac's best friend. I keep her a lot and love her like she was my own. I claim her as a faux granddaughter a lot. Her mom surprised her this week and took her to see Taylor Swift!! She was over the moon.

And lastly, I had already purchased tickets to see the Eagles in St. Louis June 24th. I thought I was going to be in Nebraska. Jacque is going with me so now we'll be rendezvousing there. The Eagles have been my all time, life long favorites and I think I've had tickets 2 or 3 times to see them and had weird things happen every time. This time, I'm going! None of us are getting any younger! So Mac and I will be driving to east Texas to my brother's house, Mac will stay with them a couple of nights and I'll go on to St. Louis. Desperado, Tequila Sunrise, Wasted Time, Heartache Tonight, Hotel California... and we have good seats! I'm stoked!! Then come back and stay a couple of days in Leesburg. They have a wonderful lake house with otters, deer, hummingbirds... just total peace. Then head home for Vacation Bible School for a week. That means free mornings for me.... whoohooo!

So June is going to be exciting and busy! Hopefully, somewhere in there my house will sell. There's an open house on the 11th and I hope that brings some interest.

I'll check in when I get back from Florida.

Oh... side bar... I've become a GLEEk! I'm totally loving that show!! And I HATE show tunes so I can skip over those but the other covers and the characters are great!

Still not Grand!

Sadly, I'm still not having much success on several fronts.

No one has viewed my house and now it's been a month. I reduced the price and we've scheduled an open house. I'm now in a financial bind to pay for the house in Nebraska that I put in a cash offer on. My severance was taxed at the 30% rate, not 20% that I expected. My financial advisor told me to pay off all my credit. And my 401K lost about 8K last week in that dip so now I'm short of cash for the house... about 20K short. And that's not counting moving expenses or the fee for the course I have scheduled in Florida in two weeks to get the business started. No one wants to give me a loan... can't imagine why!! Oh yeah, no job! I make enough to pay for everything in my budget but banks don't care about that anymore. Just your debt to income ratio. I hate banks. When a bank you've banked with for over 30 years, won't give you a secured line of credit, there's a problem somewhere.

I have my 'last chance' loan application in and should hear something tomorrow. Otherwise, I will have to throw myself on the mercy of the seller and see if she will let me owe her the balance until I sell either my house or my Mom's which I decided is not worth the trouble to rent. Worse case, she could sue me, too, for breach of contract. Or she could be nice and take the balance when this one sells. Then I'll just have to stay here in Texas until this house sells. I'll have to reschedule the move and keep paying for a storage unit. I'll lose the money already spent on airfare for the course in FL and I'll have to reschedule that after this one sells as well. Which means I won't be able to start the business as planned in July and won't start making any money until who knows when... I can't do much from here. So I'm praying that my 'last chance' loan comes through.

And CPS is not cooperating on any front with Mac. First they said he could go to a kinship placement and his teacher and her family wanted to take him. Perfect answer. But no, she didn't know him before he came into foster care so they can't get qualified on the fast track. So I said I would adopt him. Now they don't want to let him leave until his citizenship is sorted out. They've had six months to do that and haven't. So I suggested just letting him go with me on a vacation status and hopefully, it would be sorted in 2-3 more months and now they don't want to let that happen either. They need to see him every month. They want to move him to a new foster home until the citizenship issue is solved and he can be put back with me in adoptive placement. What a crock! Unless I stay on their butt, it could take a year or years for them to get it all sorted. The current case worker wants to help but like all of them, she's green. So I may have to call my congressman for the first time in my life but I'm not going to let this little boy be bandied about by incompetent bureaucrats!

And lastly, the lawsuit filed against me (horse kicked someone) is progressing. My lawyer has submitted a "general denial" on the claim and I don't know what happens next. Allstate is also defending me so I hope I'm covered. Again, what a crock!

I knew all this was going to be hard, but I really thought the hard part would start when I got to Nebraska.

Happily, the horses were shipped to Nebraska a couple of weeks ago and they arrived safely and are adapting well to the new barn and stables. Jacque is enjoying the time she gets to spend with them.

My church friends are so supportive. I've been so mad lately. It's been hard to keep myself in check and not worry about all this. I have to take a deep breath every hour to just relax and let it go back to God. I'd like to go back to that peaceful sleep I was enjoying a few weeks ago. That was short lived!

I've had a few very nice lunches with the "Leavers", those of us leaving Shell. And some with other friends, too. I'm turning into a lady that lunches! It's nice to get together over a great meal and share our plans, secrets and just generally catch up. I have a few more scheduled and they are always bright spots to look for in my week.

So for anyone out there, say a prayer for Mac and I. We need all the help we can get.

Not having a good time...

NO ONE is coming to look at the house. So I met with the realtor on Monday to reword the narrative and re-do some pictures. She acknowledged that it was her fault there was no traffic so I thought that was good. It's only been two weeks and I'm antsy to sell it so I know I'm hyper sensitive. I'm glad she's a friend so she understands me! If you need a nice 6 bedroom house, go to www.har.com and search on 13307 Birdcall! Tell your friends!!

I had a lawsuit filed against me. A first for me! A lady at our barn was tending to Jasper and Butch one Sunday in January while I was at church. She helped me periodically while I was traveling and on vacation last year. She was walking him out to the paddock and stopped to talk apparently. It was nice a chilly day and he was frisky. He got tired of waiting on her and decided to leave so he stripped out of her hand, spun around and kicked out as he was leaving and hit her in the wrist and behind her ear. She was really hurt.

I feel awful about the whole thing but she knew what she was doing and she was getting paid to do it so that makes her a 'professional' in the eyes of the law. We have an Equine Liability Law here that basically says, 'there is an inherent danger to working or being around horses and you take that risk on when you do it so if you get hurt or killed, it's your own fault.' But of course, anyone can sue anyone for anything so now I have to defend myself and the worst part of it is that it's probably going to cost both of us money on top of the other suffering she's already been through. She's insured but supposedly can't work now.

And the other bad part is that people at the barn won't help each other anymore if they think they'll have to put up with this nonsense. Another neighbor who won't help a neighbor anymore because of these stupid lawsuits.

On a good note, both Jessica, my daughter in law's sister and Barbara, my friend from church, got new permanent jobs this week! I'm glad somebody is finding work... now if Jake, Megan and Jacque can find something. (Actually, I'm secretly hoping that Jacque and Megan don't so they'll work for me and help me start the business in July, but that's a long ways off if you're unemployed!)

And my Shell friends are still looking sort of... some are contracting, some are still on the Shell payroll technically and a couple of us are loose. Had a nice catch up luncheon last week and we're going to make it a regular meeting so I'm looking forward to the next lunch!

God continues to bless me. Barbara has a friend who is an Equine Lawyer so once again, she has come through for me with her networks. I guess it pays to have a native Houstonian in your circle of friends, for sure!

Career Lull

This career lull is actually quite nice! I'm settling in to a very relaxed routine. Sleep until 8am, never before in my life. Make Mac breakfast. Take the boy to school at 8:45. Feed the horses. Play with them for awhile. Or pick up some poop if I'm in the mood. Come home and look for a job for awhile. Play PoGo for awhile. Read email. Go to lunch with someone. Come home and do Ancestry.com for awhile (my secret addiction). Check out Facebook and see what my friends are up to... Pick up Mac from school at 4pm. Go back and feed the horses. Do shopping or errands when Mac's in school... so that goes a lot faster! Supper, homework, bath and bed for Mac. Then I can do whatever until midnight! So cool... I should be trying to write my book. Maybe I'll start that next week. Maybe not!

I never was a "stay at home Mom"... Never found a man who made enough money to be able to, I guess! I'm really envious but at the same time, I managed a career and did everything for my kids that I do for Mac. I just did it all somehow. The money allowed them to not want for much. I guess there are trade offs in either situation. This new found relaxed attitude may wear off anyway. Of course, it will have to wear off when I get to Nebraska and need to kick off the new business!

Seems Mac, my foster son, may have to stay here in Texas. I'm not done arguing with CPS yet but his teacher has stepped up and offered to foster him in a kinship placement. That just means the child is placed with someone they know. She definitely knows him and her husband and kids are supportive. That would be a good alternative for Mac since his adoption is still delayed due to his citizenship status. They are arranging to get his status changed to permanent resident alien and he can be adopted then but who knows how long it will take. He's Sudanese and Egyptian so they're not used to handling this sort of case.

The house isn't getting many viewings... only two so far. I'm still praying for a quick sale. I'm still closing on the one in Papillion on 7 June. The horses are being moved the 1st of May. I sent in the deposit for the training class in June in Florida. So Jacque and I will attend training 2-4 June. She'll go back and sign the papers for the house for me. Move is scheduled for 14-15 June. Hoping to save some money there since I've done half the work... the packing! Taking bids now.

AND THE VERY BEST NEWS EVER! I splurged and bought tickets to the EAGLES concert in Kansas City on June 24th. Jacque and I will take a break from unpacking and drive down. They've been my favorite band my entire life and I've never seen them live so I am excited beyond belief!

God is truly good and I'm so blessed. My life just keeps falling into place and it couldn't happen without HIM.

The House is Listed

OK... now time to send up prayers for a quick sale! The plan has changed a bit. I must wait until I'm 55 to draw out my 401K money or I pay another 10% penalty on top of the already outrageous 20% tax so I'm waiting. I've revised my offer on the house in Papillion to close 6-7 June. She was willing to wait until May 15 so I hope 3 more weeks isn't a big deal to her! I did offer to sweeten the deal a bit for her since she was waiting longer so she's actually getting a bit above her asking price. I hope she goes for it! I also asked for her living room furniture! It just fits with the room! I offered her additional money for it so we'll see how fond of it she is! Hey! Might as well push the envelope while you're asking!!

It's OFFICIAL!

I'm unemployed! Signed my papers yesterday and signed up for unemployment benefits this morning!

I'm so glad I've had several months to adjust to the change and I'm also thankful I worked for a good company that provides a great deal of support in the exiting process. I'm not happy to be out of a job but I am happy that the blow was softened. And as time goes by, I almost AM happy because I get to change my journey and get closer to my kids... love, love, love my kids!

We had a going away lunch on Tues so I got to see most of my colleagues and everyone wants to keep in touch! We'll see how we do. This was always the theme each of the 8 or 9 times I transferred in the Navy and I typically have 1 or 2 friends that really do stay in touch. We're all just busy people... too busy for the important things sometimes.

But now I'm not! I can do anything I want to! And after I get this house ready to show, I am going to do just that. (The contractors should be done and out TODAY!) I think I'm going to the zoo without the kids. I've never done that. And I haven't checked out the museums in a LONG time. Houston has a wonderful museum district and I think there's a Russian jewelry show going on! That will be fun!

News front: I'm sick of hearing about cheating husbands. First... Yes, men are dogs but that hasn't changed since the beginning of time. But what about these bimbo women?! Doesn't anyone have any sense of honor and pride anymore? They all knew they were cheating with a married man. They're not 'victims'! They accomplices! Go find one of your own! Leave other women's husbands alone. And secondly, we should just butt out! I'm sick of news people taking up air time talking about this crap instead of much more pertinent news. New England is about to wash away... how can we help them???

On a more positive note, I just found out about the Nissan Leaf. All electric car, 100 miles on a charge and $25,000! I'm in! ... when I get the business profitable! Maybe they can be our company car!

Have a Happy Easter and celebrate the gift our Lord has given. You are saved!!