My Weblog

Short Update

I am going to have a very busy day.  It's still 10 minutes til 10 and already I've had two clients in and out.  Next one is due shortly.  I have made up my mind to start calling and e-mailing clients.  If I leave them to their own devices, they'll all be here on April 14, hoping for a tax return........  NOT gonna happen.  The ones I've contacted all have excuses--I've been sick, I've had company, etc.  I wonder if any of these excuses will work for me if their returns aren't finished by 4/15?  Not likely!

Joe has three signings scheduled for today.  It's likely that will multiply into 4 or 5.  He did 5, I think, yesterday, including one at 8PM last night.   Chances are, that will slow down.  It's always heaviest at the end of the month.

I stayed with the boys last night.  A good friend of Jason and Jennifer's is running for a judgeship and there was a fund raising function for her.  So, Grandma went down and did the babysitting thing and then came home and finished up the most complicated return to date.  I'll deliver that one today and collect a nice chunk of change which will help our pale bank balance. 

Will came running when he saw me and I loved that.  I've had him a few Mondays lately because he doesn't have school on Monday and doesn't much like going to the Day Care center.  I think his being here more is making us a little closer and that's a good thing.  I love that he brings his homework with him and I get to help him with that.  He's very very bright so it's a pleasure.   Spending time with Atticus makes me so sad that Will was in Reno during this period of his life.  I missed so much!   

Atty, too, is very bright, but he doesn't seem to come running anymore....he seems to have figured out that if Grandma is there, Mom is leaving, and that is not to his liking.  He is such a pleasant little guy.  I could swear he said some version of "grandma" last night while we were eating dinner.  Of course, I've never coached him on that, no, not me........LOL.  He had a really awful BM and when I went to change his diaper, I figured it would either take a whole box of wipes or.........I could put him in the bathtub.  I chose bathtub.  Put him in there, let him soak for a few minutes, emptied the tub and cleaned it out and then put him back in for another soak and to splash about a bit.  It was still early in the evening, but I put him in his jammies.  He played for a while and then toddled up and handed me an empty baby bottle.  I'm not sure if he got it from the cupboard or from his diaper bag, but he knew what to do with it!  He may not be talking a whole lot yet, but he sure does communicate.  It was pretty easy to figure out what he wanted!  He was ready for a bottle and bedtime!

I don't think I mentioned it, but we had Erica here from Saturday til Wednesday.  Spring break for her.  She had a project she was supposed to be working on.  I really didn't feel like she was too enthusiastic about it.  Either that or she just didn't know how to approach it.  I tried to help, but she doesn't ask for help when she's stuck--you have to keep asking her how it's going and what she thinks is the next step and then help her do whatever is needed.  She needed to have pictures for her project and they were going to have to come from the internet.  I tried to emphasize she needed to pick those out early so I could help her with them, but.........  (Internet photos, while they look fine, are VERY small and at a VERY low resolution.  There's a skill to knowing how to enlarge them for printing purposes.)  I guess she'll learn that..........

She turned 15 on Easter Sunday.  We got her a cake and gave her $25.  Even that was more than we could afford.  Jen, Jason, Will and Atticus came over for cake and Jennifer very sweetly got her a gift certificate.  So, she did get a little loot from her stay here.  But with the shortness of the visit and our heavy tax/signing/babysitting schedules, she didn't get to do her usual thrill rides at the casinos.  Joe has been exhausted each evening. 

I think I have the record for time spent in a signing.  I had one go three hours the other day.  First, I was supposed to have an 11AM signing so I got myself dressed up, makeup, hair, etc and went over there.  The customer no-showed.  So, after waiting around for a while, I just went on home.  But, on the way out the door, one of our fave escrow officers snagged me for a 1:30.  So, I went home for an hour and at 1PM headed back to the escrow office.  After waiting 25 minutes, I went back and notified the escrow officer that the clients were not there yet.  She started making phone calls and begging me to stay while she found out what had happened.  She finally got them in there at 2:30.  By 3PM, I had their signatures on exactly 1 document.  The dummies were sitting there trying to compare the ESTIMATED closing statement to the good faith ESTIMATE they got from their lender.  If ever those two documents match up, it will undoubtedly be an act of God.  The escrow officer always has better information by the time the ESTIMATED closing statement is prepared than the loan officer will ever have when he/she prepares the good faith ESTIMATE.  Besides, they're both ESTIMATES, so what does that prove?  But, they were really torqued at their loan officer and thought this process proved something.  Finally, I told them we were either going to start signing documents or I was going home.  And, they finally realized it was after 3 and they were supposed to pick their kids up from school at 3:30.  So, for a short while, they signed everything I shoved at them, trying to get finished up.  When they realized we weren't going to make it, she started calling around trying to find someone who would pick up her kids.  As soon as that was resolved, they went back into slowdown mode.  I finally got out of there at 4:15 and it's a good thing I did--I was TOTALLY out of patience by then.....

Well, that's it for today.  I have tax returns to work on and phone calls to make.  No pictures today.  Sorry, no time!

 

It's been a while

Blog posts.....why do they take so long?  If I posted short blurbs every day, would that take less time overall?  I have no clue, but the idea of updating this thing is daunting.  Hold your hats, here we go.

The big news first--the process server is back.  We were served yesterday.  Today someone comes with a truck and takes 33 boxes and 2 file cabinets out of the middle of our garage.  We will once again be able to park the van in the garage which will be a blessing.  We are so anxious to get this stuff out of here.  It's like being able to reclaim some square footage in the house.  Yippee!  Unfortunately, contrary to what they told me last time, they are now insisting I have to be deposed.  I have no clue how my blood pressure will hold up to that but it's supposed to be sometime next week.

It's spring break for Will's school.  So, Will's been going to "horse camp" this week.  Jen stopped by briefly last night and I got to look at the kids.  Will has had a slight sunburn.  He looked good with a bit of color in his face.  He's normally kind of pale......  I was teasing him and telling him this would bring out a fresh crop of freckles.  That's a good thing.  Little boys and freckles just seem to go together.  According to Mom, he is doing very well with riding.

Atticus was sick with an upset stomach earlier in the week.  That led to two cranky days.  But, according to his mom, he seems to be over it now.  He's spent Tuesday and Wednesday wandering around asking for "Mo".  That's Atticusspeak for "more".  Ordinarily, he'll point to what he wants and say "mo" or "dis".  Or, he may say "mo" and sign the ASL sign for milk.  But, he hasn't been doing the pointing or signing so she has no idea about what he wants "mo" of........

Jen brought me a present yesterday......two more boxes of Girl Scout cookies.  Considering she's already given me two boxes, I should really waddle when I've eaten all of them!  But, I have a real weakness for Thin Mints so it's all good.  And, I'm back on the treadmill so maybe, if I can keep my consumption low enough, it won't make me too much bigger.

I am up to date on tax returns.  That's a good thing and a bad thing.  I hate getting behind because the closer we get to April 15, the less likely it becomes that I will be able to catch up.  But, our budget would certainly be better off if I were so totally slammed I couldn't see straight.  Signings are kind of slow the last couple of weeks.  That's pretty normal for the first few weeks of the month, but we really need the money and I really need some time with Joe out of the house!  He's driving me nuts.  Hopefully, we'll get a bunch of signings in the next 10 days, so many we can't see straight. 

We have been discussing the possibility of a bankruptcy.  It is not something we want to do.  But the truth of the matter is that Joe has funded only one small deal in the last 6 months.  We have had to resort to paying our bills with credit cards for 6 months.  We're running out of credit.  Clients have bad FICO scores, Values of homes have fallen below the amounts of their current mortgages so they can't refinance, etc.  Joe thought he had one deal and the borrower has jumped through all kinds of hoops to make it happen.  She estimated the value of her property at $550,000.  Joe knocked that down to $500,000 and then the lender required an appraisal and the property (through 4 different appraisers) has come back at $460,000, which is too low to lend on, given the existing mortgages.  And so it goes.....
While the combination of tax revenue and signings is keeping us afloat now, shortly the tax revenue will go away.  We have to believe for a miracle from God.  Otherwise, we just don't know about that promise to "supply all your needs" means.  But, timing is everything.....

Joe has been sick most of the weekend and right up until yesterday.  Bad stomach cramps and no "relief" to be had.  I think it's our diet.  I have a menu and grocery list ready, but he hasn't gone to the grocery store in weeks.  We're out of about everything.  So, stupidly, we've been eating fast food--not a veggie with fiber in sight!  We hang on the cellphone, waiting for news of a signing, and he doesn't want to miss one so he won't go to the store.  So, I finally got him to eat grapes and corn on the cob and he's feeling better now.

The carpet is laid in the bedrooms.  Sure enough, there was only enough carpet for two rooms.  So we carpeted the guest room and our room.  Unfortunately we didn't see that there was a big pink stain on the carpet that got laid in the master bedroom.  It was extremely bright and sunny the day he was here and, in that light, it just wasn't visible.  If we'd seen it soon enough, the guy could probably have cut the carpet differently so that the stain would have been under the bed, but it's now actually at the foot of the bed and visible which just broke my heart.  We immediately rented one of those carpet shampooers and Joe went over and over the stain.  It may have lightened some with all that work--he thinks it did--but it's still there.  Some friends of ours manufacture a totally organic cleaning product which they swear cleans anything.  We have a small remnant in the garage so we're going to test the cleaning product on it and if it does no damage, we're going to try it on the stain.

On the scrapbooking front, there are a few good developments.  I have been asked to take over as blog moderator for another store.  I asked for more information on what would be required for that but the person has never responded.  I have no clue what that means!  And, I am designing a few quickpages for sale. One of my designers has decided to  let me use her designs to create these.  So, maybe  I'll make a few bucks from that.   She and I will split any sales we make.  I've got one set completed, but I don't know when she'll put it up in the store.  I'm working on a second set now. 

That's about all I know.  I'll try to post a few pages and then get on with my to do list.  Here are some pages to keep you entertained til next time.

I created this for the digidare of the week--my first time participating. Sad but true--it's all a faded memory...... I used a freebie from Designs by Krista for the bulk of the page. The flower is by Gina Cabrera

Do you read "Confessions of a Pioneer Woman"? What a fun blog. I figured if she could have a Marlboro Man, so could I. This one is mine! Now if I can just find him some chaps...... I used a background paper from Pelican Lake, a kit by Lynn Grieveson. The alpha is her Leather Alpha. Both of these items are available at Designer Digitals. The boots and bandana are by Mary Fran.

I loved this primitive-style mural that covered the entire front of a Mexican restaurant in downtown Ventura, CA. SO colorful. I also loved scrapping it with "Sundrenched", a very colorful kit by Cori Gammon, available at her Digichick store. Everything here is from her kit with the exception of the paint swatch behind the title which is by Shabby Princess (recolored).

I was reading Katie the Scrapbook Lady's blog the other day and she was showing photos she'd found on Flick'r that were all one color. So, I took a fun tour through my photos from the past year and produced this layout featuring Yellow. I used papers from Amanda Heimann's Summer Lovin' paper pack, available at The DigiChick. I also used a template for the scalloped square that was a freebie on the internet.

Though he can feed himself, Atticus still looks to us to plop little bites of food into his mouth. Sometimes it reminds me of a baby bird waiting for Momma bird to give him food. I used Cori Gammon's One Fine Day for this layout. One Fine Day is available in Cori's store at The Digichick. The bird is from Tweet by Lynn Grieveson, available at Designer Digitals. I used Chere Kaye's Layered Templates behind the photo and filled the templates using a glitter paint splotch from Cristina Renee.

Atticus is fascinated with the camera and with photos. One thing that is guaranteed to make him smile is to take his picture and then show it to him. I used the February Customer Appreciation kit from NDISB for this page. It's called Hopelessly Devoted and is available free with purchase.

I did this for the scraplift challenge at The Digichick. This is DGS #1 giving me one of the faces I get from him when I want to take a photo. I used Prissy Pants by Cori Gammon for this page. You can find Cori's kits at The Digichick. The star charm is by NinaScraps, her U Are My Star element pack, available at O Scraps and NDISB. The other star is by Natali Designs, recolored. You can see the page I scraplifted here: http://www.thedigichick.com/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/82766/ppuser/10880

 

Things are hoppin' around here

Well, things have gotten busier around here.  I've got three returns partially complete and have fielded countless phone calls.  Three out the door this week.  Four coming in the mail from Florida and one from Washington state.  One of our clients just regained consciousness, I guess, and toddled in here last weekend with 37 1099's to prepare.  (Geez, they were due out in the mail to employees by 1/31 and to the IRS by 2/29!)  And, of course signings.

As to the subpoena mess that was ongoing the last time I blogged, it has been resolved for now.  For all I know, maybe forever.  BUT, my garage is still filled with boxes and filing cabinets instead of the van that belongs in there.  Opposing counsel withdrew the subpoena.  There's a rule around here now--we don't open the door to anyone we don't recognize, no matter what.  In the meantime, I'm trying to get my client to come and get this mess out of here.  The current word is "maybe" today.  Oh, I really do hope that

We've had all sorts of adventures with the signings.  Mostly Joe has been handling those.  He is, after all, Mr. Control, so it is good that the signings are just another thing he keeps himself busy with.  I seldom have to do any unless he's already booked.  I did get called into action late yesterday afternoon at 4:30 as he had a 5 scheduled at the far southwest end of the valley.  I also did one Wednesday evening.  I'm thinking of trying to organize the signers to ask for combat pay.  Lord, these people are angry and mean these days.......  Most of what we're signing is repossession deals.  So, the seller is actually a bank.  Now in the face of all the bad stuff that has happened in the real estate market, most of the banks have laid off staff.  So, the poor escrow agents are trying to get the borrower's short-staffed lender to supply documents and also to get the short-staffed seller (the repossessing lender) to cooperate and are being screamed at by everyone involved.  The people I signed last evening were in for their third time.  They were pissed, mean, demanding, and looking for anyone on whom they could spill their anger and there I sat, lucky me.  They carried on for more than a half hour before I actually got them to sign the first document.  They got it into their heads that they were being cheated by being asked to pay property taxes.  We showed them, via the County Assessor's web page that all taxes have been paid up to date by the selling bank, but a 0 balance due wasn't good enough for them.  Well, what more could we give?  They even refused to sign some documents.  The Escrow Officer labeled the Real Estate Agent a "real bitch" and refused to even come and speak to her, leaving me to deal with the "real bitch".  Gee, thanks.  These realtors are a trip.  They want to impress their clients.  So, they raise issues that shouldn't be issues and generally just gum up the works.  Invariably, they know far less than they think they do and leave themselves open to be truly embarrassed by some of the asinine questions they ask.  Sadly, their clients seem to trust them.  This particular one was demanding that the Escrow Officer tell her the exact time and date when this deal would close.  Of course, no one knows that.  It was made even worse because the borrower's own lender had not even sent documents yet and there is no way for an escrow officer to forecast just when they might be in the mood to do that.  And, of course, the realtor did not want HER clients to be signed by a mere notary; if she could have, she would have demanded that the president of the national conglomerate that is our escrow company come in for the signing, just so she could scream at him.  So, the escrow officer would not even speak to the realtor because the realtor had been so awful on the phone with her, and little ole me was the only one around on whom to dump the venom.  Add to the mix two very active, very bored boys, ages 3 and 4, and a sullen, stressed out, pissed off, short-tempered mommy and you might get an idea of just how hard I worked for my lousy $60.  I haven't had an "easy" signing in months.......  Everyone of these buyers seems to come to the table with a load of anger, and since they can't vent on the repossessing bank or their own lender, they vent on me!  By the time I got those people out of there last night, I was literally shaking.  Phew!  In casual conversations with other signers, they are experiencing much the same thing......

Jen called me last week, right after I had spent the day with William, asking if I could watch the baby the next day because he was sick.  Yes, of course.  But, he had a very bad night and a high fever so she took him to the doc the next morning, only to find out she, Will, and the baby all had strep.  So, my babysitting gig was cancelled.  Thankfully, it appears I've failed to catch strep!  Then, this week, Joe came down with a case of the sniffles.  I swear, that man has the most amazing immune system.  He's sickly for a day or two and then bounces right back.  Thankfully, I failed to catch that as well!  The good Lord is looking out for me.  Thanks, Dad.

We did manage to reserve Thursday evening for dinner with some friends.  They are actually clients of mine.  They are good solid born again Christians, the type that really try to walk the walk.  Like us they've been in a battle for a long time and they're weary, but hopefully having us to share with helped.  We ended the evening with prayer and really felt the presence of God.  They are sitting on a contract that should solve all their problems and take them all the way to "rich", but they are sitting on the contract in a home where they don't know how they're going to make the next payment.  Thankfully, they are expecting the first order under the contract by 3/21, so that should ease the pressure a bit.  After that they've got clear sailing to a very bright future.  They have a lovely new home which she has been decorating with clearance fabrics, cast-offs from Hotel Supply, and cheap paint from Sherwin Williams' mis-tints area and it looks just great.  It's amazing how Sherwin Williams seems to have buckets and buckets of mis-tinted paint in just the shades she's looking for.  No, of course not.  I don't see the hand of God in that!  She's quite the bargain shopper--she showed us two beautiful armoires (I'd give my left arm for them) which she bought for $200 each, about 10% of their original price.

Around here, things are in a real state of upheaval.  Sunday morning, 8AM, a carpet installer is scheduled to install the free carpet that's been laying in our hall for months.  I am so happy about that, I just can't tell you.  But, for now, the entire living room side of our living room/dining room combo room is filled with furniture and stuff from the guest room.  Today, Joe plans on moving everything he can move from our bedroom to the dining room.  If he could, he'd move the bed out there too and make me sleep on the floor tonight.  Honestly, he is so anal.....  The installer seems to be of the opinion that we have only enough for the master bedroom and the guest bedroom.  I'm still holding out for all three bedrooms.  I PRAYED this carpet in for free.  I needed carpet for all three bedrooms.  We'll just see what God sent when the installer actually gets to measuring.....    We'd asked Matt for help with all the moving but he isn't available.  He'd promised to help several evenings but Joe got signings and we needed the money from the signings, so........Joe is doing the moving himself.  I'd really rather not have Matt here for this anyway, so it's more than okay with me.  (It's been years since this furniture has been moved as I am just not strong enough to move it.  It's amazing what lurks under there!)  Joe, who is doing a lot of sweating, huffing, and puffing might have a different idea on that though.  But, what a wonderful thing it will be to have fresh carpet in the rooms and rolls of carpet out of the hallway.  I guess my next prayer project, beyond our "daily bread", will be boxes and boxes and boxes of tile someone doesn't want which I am sure will be just the color we're looking for.

On the scrapping front, one of the stores I scrap for is in the process of taking on 22 new designers.  They REALLY needed to do that, but wow am I ever awash in scrapping stuff.  As the designers upload their stuff in to the store, they automatically set us up to be able to download it.  I've been working on little else in my spare time this past week.  The process is download, unzip, save, and organize in ACDSee.  I have at least two full screens of files to unzip.  There's more to download.  And I have four steno pages of stuff to get organized in ACDSee.  I wonder if I will ever catch up.......

I also received the most amazing RAK from Nancy Rowe Janitz.  I am SO grateful for that!  I resigned one team.  I was just having a difficult time with it--I had been on the team long enough that I felt I had little that was new and fresh to give and there was no camaraderie among the team members, so I felt I should resign.  I was just starting to celebrate the reduced workload when Cori Gammon needed someone to scrap for her so I'm back at it, on her behalf.  I love her kits for their bold, bright colors.

That's about it for now.  I've got to get to work on returning client phone calls and scheduling for next week.  Here are a few recent pages to hold you til my next post, whenever I get enough quiet time for that!

I've been in Vegas a long time, long enough to have been here when the MGM fire occurred. The word "fire" is a very scary one when you've been here that long. This page shows a night view of the beautiful, classy-looking Monte Carlo just 3 weeks before the fire. I used Jofia Devoe and Annie Manning's Stroke of Midnight for this page. The alpha is from an old collaborative kit by Amanda Lacey and Holly McCaig, which was retired long ago. I also used some of Rachel Young's spilled sequins, slightly recolored, just in case there wasn't enough bling for a layout about Vegas!

I love driving past the Excalibur Hotel in Las Vegas. It always reminds me of all those "happily ever after" stories from my childhood. The background paper here is by Patricia Amaral and Loreta LaBarca from their Christmas Joy and Happiness kit. The blue ribbon is by Faith True and the Orange flower is by Amanda Rockwell. I apologize, but I can't figure out who made the frame. The bright colored alpha is by Gina Miller. You can find Christmas Joy and Happiness at NDISB.

Will is a very serious little boy. So, this was a most unusual event--him, dancing with his shadow. Fortunately, Grandma was handy with her camera! Everything here is from the new Amanda Rockwell/Cori Gammon collaborative kit called So Funky. Everything, that is, except the Newsprint Alpha which is by NinaScraps and available at O Scraps and NDISB. So Funky is available at ScrapArtist!

I took a little tour of the New York New York Hotel Casino last month. I had great fun window shopping in the Harley Davidson store there, forming mental images of my two DGSs dressed in all their cute children's clothing. I loved the chance to see these old motorcycles. Grabbed a couple of shots of them. I was thrilled to find they went perfectly with the new Amanda Rockwell/Eve Kipler collaborative kit, Made of Awesome. Made of Awesome is available at ScrapArtist. I used a template by Bree Clarkson and an alpha from Theresa Hernandez's Shimmer and Sparkle alpha set, available at NDISB. It reminded me of all the chrome on the bikes!

When you're my age, looking in the mirror is not an uplifting experience! I used papers and frame from Kim Hill's Be Mine, Valentine kit, available at ACOT. The flower is by Amanda Rockwell. The alpha is by Weeds and Wildflowers.

I saw this title on an ad in Simple Scrapbooks and just knew I had to use it on these photos. Why? A) The little guy is my DGS and therefore the cutest baby in the world. B) It IS, afterall, a photo of a sleeping baby and don't we all "awww...." over those? and c) He really is sleeping in this position with his hands up in the air in his car seat. Just too cute. I used Traci Reed's Urban Vintage for this. I recolored the bows to match my layout better. The stitching is by Amanda Rockwell.

I loved the sweet photo of DGS#2. I used Lynn Grieveson's new kit, Capri, for the page. Capri is available exclusively at Designer Digitals. If using flowers on a boy layout is forbidden, I've violated all the rules......