Smiling Mom

I’m going to San Diego on Tues­day with the kids. I work tomo­rrow, so everything needs to get done today.

To Do List:

1. Laundry, do and put away.
2. Cook two din­ners, in bulk for Hubby when I’m gone
3. Pack
4. Clean the house, again, and again, and again. You know how it goes with todd­lers!
5. Wash the dog
6. Wash the kids
7. Wash myself, at some point, oh ya, and my teeth too!
8. Blog
9. Enter­tain two sick kids…
10. Finances

I’m exhaus­ted already

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Today I was given a gift. The gift of time. My good friend AM and I have been switching child­care for about a year now. I watch her daugh­ter about 4 hours a week and she watches my kids when Hubby gets called into work on one of his days off. Our kids play so nicely together so it’s wor­ked out quite well!

Since Hubby’s pro­mo­tion, his hours have become more sta­ble, which is very nice for me! But that means that I don’t ask AM to watch our kids as often. So… this week I deci­ded to ask her if she wouldn’t mind me brin­ging my little terrors ado­ra­ble chil­dren over to her house once a week for a cou­ple hours so I can sit in my empty house and work on our finan­ces, in total and com­plete silence!

Nice huh? She agreed. So, today I was for­tu­nate enough to have a 2 ½ hour chunk, all to myself, in the mor­ning, to sit down and focus on our finances.

I was able to pay bills, recon­cile our savings and chec­king accounts, and get us back up and run­ning on this whole mana­ging our money thing.

The gift of time.

It feels good. As much as the thought of wor­king on and doing our finan­ces paraly­zes me, being orga­ni­zed and up to date seems to free me!

Funny, huh?

I feel for­tu­nate enough to have a set of spec­ta­cu­lar friends who have shown me sup­port in the last days.

Thank you AM for your willing­ness to take my kids, and J-Doc for your kind, kind email. I am so lucky!

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We’ve been furiously trying to refi­nance our house before our next mort­gage pay­ment is due, April 5th. This has been an ongoing pro­cess for the past three or four weeks. Yes­ter­day was the day we were to sign the loan docu­ments. Unfor­tu­na­tely, everything fell apart. Nor­mally we’ve had a notary come out to our house with papers in hand, the sig­ning takes place, the loan clo­ses and all is good in the world.

Two days ago, the com­pany called us and told us we had to come up to their busi­ness, an hour away during busi­ness hours to sign the docu­ments. Hubby was a bit anno­yed. He infor­med her that we wan­ted a notary to come to our house ins­tead, as we have…well, lives. Two todd­lers, two jobs, nap sche­du­les, hel­ping friends move, etc. She told Hubby no. Mis­take #1.

Hubby was non too plea­sed with these results and refu­sed to set up an exact time to make the trip to see her. We’d call 1 hour prior to our arri­val. The next mor­ning, Thurs­day, I called at 9:30 to ensure all was well and let them know to expect us. She, infor­med me that our len­der for our line of cre­dit had not got­ten back to her with the exact amount we owed. But that didn’t mat­ter, so come any­ways and she’ll appro­xi­mate it. Mis­take #2

Hubby did not like this, and called to cla­rify. He men­tio­ned that he was frus­tra­ted because the day before she’d infor­med him that all was com­plete and ready to be sig­ned. And now today there were still parts that were not done. And on top of it, we were sch­lep­ping two kids an hour out of our way because she refu­sed to send a notary to our house.

The lady then told Hubby that he didn’t give her a rea­son why. Had he then she’d have been more sym­pathe­tic to his needs. Mis­take #3 Hubby did not like this.… he let her know it too. “Let me get this straight,” (never good when it begins with “let me get this straight”) “I’m now requi­red to report to you why I need what I need?”

After an ear­ful she res­ponds by saying, “I feel like you don’t trust me.…”

This is not our mort­gage bro­ker we are spea­king too, but rather the com­pany the bro­ker used. That being said, we’ve never, ever spo­ken before. Trust? Ya, we don’t trust you. We don’t even not trust you. We don’t know you. This is a busi­ness deal, hello!

After about fif­teen minu­tes of this, Hubby hangs up the phone. We load up and head to her office. An hour and a half later, after get­ting lost, we finally make it to her office only to find out that there have been some glitches. Mis­take #4

Turns out that our pro­perty tax check, sent by B of A, the bank our mort­gage was through, had not been cashed by our county tax depart­ment. This imme­dia­tely halts the pro­cess. We are not able to refi­nance our loan with an outs­tan­ding tax bill. Why had she not noti­ced this prior to sen­ding us out to her office? Why did we drive 1 1/2 hours with a 2 yr old and 1 yr old just to turn back around and head home? Um, we were livid.

At home, I dealt with B of A, had a let­ter faxed to our len­der, sta­ting that the bill had been paid, just not cashed yet. So all is well. The notary is coming out to our house tomo­rrow night and we will sign papers then.

Yes­ter­day was so stress­ful that I was not able to func­tion for most of the day. I tend to shut down with extreme stress. All I want to do is curl in a ball and go to sleep. Of course, sweet dar­ling BC and eClaire chose not to take naps, so that wasn’t an option. It wasn’t until I sob­bed to my mom, later that eve­ning that I began fee­ling better.

Life isn’t all that easy. But each day gets bet­ter. You’ve gotta just to keep moving. Right, please tell me I’m right!

Stay tuned tomo­rrow! I’m par­ti­ci­pa­ting in The Blog Exchange and have been pai­red up with Gun­figh­ter. He and I are exchan­ging our best posts. I’ll have his up first thing in the morning.

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Last night we had the long awai­ted cele­bra­tion. Since Hubby had the flu for his pro­mo­tion and party, we resche­du­led the re-do for last night. I began the shop­ping on Wed­nes­day, baking and laundry on Thurs­day, clea­ning and set­ting up yes­ter­day. For­tu­na­tely with Hubby’s less stress­ful work sche­dule, he was around for a good chunk of time on Wed­nes­day and Thurs­day and all day on Fri­day to help out. It was very easy to get ready for this party since Hubby work sche­dule is so much less hec­tic. We had the house vir­tually ready to go by 3:00 for our 7:00 party. Not bad!

Bac­king up to Thurs­day, Hubby the kids and I went for a two mile walk to Star­bucks and back. BC rode his tricycle and eClaire was in the stroller.

BC on his trike!

While we were out, I got a call from a friend, Mrs. I. She asked if I could watch her dar­ling daugh­ters for a few hours. No pro­blem! They pla­yed with eClaire while BC slept and I clea­ned out the fridge, tho­roughly. It was awe­some! As Mrs. I was lea­ving my house, she sug­ges­ted that her daugh­ters would love it if BC came over and spend the night.… so he did!! I pac­ked his bags, put him in the car and waved, “Bye, bye!”

2 1/2 years old and already has had his first slee­po­ver! It was such a bles­sing because Mrs. I gave me the gift of time Thurs­day eve­ning to bake sugar coo­kies, 4 chee­se­ca­kes, two dif­fe­rent types of cho­co­late chip coo­kies, and time on Fri­day mor­ning to clean the house. BC came home at 1:30 Fri­day after­noon, ate and took a nap until 4:00. This was a good thing because he sta­yed up until 9:00 p.m. pla­ying with the other kids who came to the party.

I guess HM, girl to the right of green-haired BC in the pic­ture said to BC in the car, “BC, do you want to sleep with me tonight?” to which BC res­pon­ded, “Yes, I do. I really, really do!” So cute… but if this con­ver­sa­tion hap­pens again in another 10 years… Lord help me!

Any­way, the party was a fan­tas­tic suc­cess. May more kids came than I was expec­ting, but all young ones had a blast. There was more alcohol here than we will ever use. Beer, cigars, wine and des­sert was loved by all in atten­dance. But mostly, we were surroun­ded by friends and family that have made a dif­fe­rence in our lives. The eclec­tic group of peo­ple meshed so well, and many sta­yed until the wee hours of the night. Our last guests left around 1:30 this mor­ning. It was so much fun. Hubby has been a really hard wor­ker, and is now begin­ning to see the fruits of his labor. I am so proud of him.

I char­ged my camera last night but, of course, I for­got to take pic­tu­res. The only pic­tu­res I have are of the kids, not the party. So I’ll leave you today with the best pic­ture of the cutest girl. eClaire gets today’s award for being the most ado­ra­ble child I’ve ever come across!! She is found, at all times, with at least three nec­kla­ces around her neck, clutching a purse and tal­king on a cell phone. Honestly, girls are so dif­fe­rent than boys!

Stop by and have a glass of wine with me, one of these days. I have tons left!!

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