A Very Crappy Week (and Weekend)

Well, that had to be one of the crappiest weekends in quite some time. Have you ever felt like everything is just pounding down on you and it just won’t stop? I’ve got to vent somewhere, so this is as good a place as any to get out my frustrations. It all started about a month ago. Danny and I thought we would refinance our house to get some of the equity out so we could replace the siding on our house and garage. Our house is 35 years old and it’s just time. We’ve got some damage on the second story and we want to get it fixed before the rainy season starts. Anyway, we got hooked up with some real scheisters. Have you ever had this feeling in your gut that something is just not right? First, they wanted me to get someone from my old company to lie about me still working there and that my prospects for continuing employment were good. Of course, I said “NO!” The issue was I hadn’t received my first check from my new company, so they couldn’t prove employment. I was a contractor prior to March, so my contract agreement wasn’t good enough for them (clue number 2). Then, we kept getting the run-around on what our interest rate was going to be. It kept going up – and it was a lot higher than I thought it should be. Then, documents we were supposed to sign came with a separate signature sheet (clue number3). So, we get down to the day we’re supposed to close and Danny starts looking at the HUD form – the one that itemizes your closing costs. OMG! The points were astronomical! He starts doing some research on the web (our friend Google to the rescue) and he starts finding these hits on predatory lenders. The stories are horrible. I could go on for hours about what these people do. Danny calls me about 30 minutes before I was supposed to leave to meet him and he says, we can’t do this. They’re charging 5 points. Yes, you read that correctly – 5 points! We back out, tell them they’re full of crap if they think we’re going to pay 5 points, but thank you, no way! A couple days later, we get all the loan documentation in the mail – you know, the forms we would have signed if we had gone through with the loan and not only had the 5 points bumped our interest rate up 5 %, but they were giving us a variable rate loan, not fixed like in all the documentation we had previously received from them. There was a loan payment schedule in the documentation, too. The monthly rate they had been quoting us was the payment for the last 25 years of the loan – the previous 5 would have been quite a bit lower. My guess is that they would not have applied the extra amount to the principle, they would have kept it for themselves. There was also a clause that said that we would not receive a reduction in the interest if we paid early. I’m not sure what that means, but I would guess it means we would still be liable for the full amount of the interest, even if we paid ahead. All I can say is that God was looking out for us! We narrowly missed getting sucked into something we probably would have ended up losing our house over. We are putting all the documentation together to send to the Texas Attorney General’s Office to file an official complaint. Hopefully, they can keep this company from screwing someone who isn’t as alert. The moral of the story is: make sure you know who you’re doing business with. And – make sure you check all the documentation before you sign ANYTHING!!!!!!!

That was the first thing. The loan documentation came on Thursday. Friday morning, Danny calls me at work first thing to tell me the Check Engine light came on in his truck and it’s starting to over-heat. Oh great! I meet him at the dealership and get him home, thinking we won’t need a loaner car – he can just work from home. $1200 later – it’s a new radiator, 60,000 mile check up, flush the oil system, new throttle body and a few other random things. Sheesh! The 60,000 mile check up was planned – Danny is taking a road trip in a couple weeks – but the rest was completely unexpected. But I’m glad it happened here at home, instead of on the road.

To bring this sad tale of woe to an end, we went Saturday morning to pick up the truck and guess what? My van starts making funny noises. Like the left front tire/brake is making this horrible grinding noise! No brake light coming on; no warning. We’re thinking, do we ignore this or do we go ahead and have them check it out? So, we trade out vehicles at the dealership (we both have Toyotas) and have them look at my van. Now, my pretty little thing has 128,000 miles on it. She’s just getting to middle age. I haven’t had to put that much money into her, but boy does she eat through the brakes! You guessed it – I need both front and rear brakes. AND, the rear brake drums need to be replaced. Oh, and by the way, the seals on the engine cylinders are leaking and should be replaced. I was ready to have a nervous breakdown when he told me all that! So I played “Let’s Make a Deal” with the guy – to find out what HAD to be done immediately, versus what could wait a couple weeks. I’m getting new front brakes and in the next month I’ll bring the old girl back to finish the work. I’m telling you, when it rains, it pours!


I did, however, try to make myself feel better by spending an obscene amount of money on scrapbooking kits J I’m sure I’m forgetting something, but here’s a pretty close rundown of my purchases:
Jen Wilson: I’ve started on her “Stories” collection. I have all 4 kits so far. I also picked up a couple other pieces of the Spring Decor Collection that I missed the first go-round. I am a complete nut for Jen’s stuff!
Shabby Princess: It’s been along time since I bought anything from her. But when I got an email about the Moroccan Sunrise Kit at ACOT, I thought I’d check out the Shabby Shoppe, too. I picked up several pieces from her – Silly Boy Nut-Nut, IN the Groove, Surf Club PP, Tickle-icious, For the Boys by Holly McCaig , and Authentic by Sara Carling
A Cherry on Top: I got SP’s Moroccan Sunrise and Trish Jones’ Life's Desire
Sweete Shoppe: Aero and Splendor by Sara Carling; Amy Jo and Playful by Mindy Terasawa
Sbbytes: Trish Jones kits: DownNOut, Shutdown (both from the Down with Paper collection), Circuit and Round from the Scrapcircuit collection
Jasbeanie: Spring Blossoms and Urban Chic Paper Packs
ScrapArtist: Handsome – the Combo kit with Ronna Penner and Emma’s Sundress by Michelle Coleman
Designs by Dani: Fresh Air and Sassy Pants kits

So now I’ve got all these kits that I need to organize and start using. I think I’ve exceeded my allotment for the next few months ;) But, of course, there are still others I just “have” to have. Those will need to wait until the van gets fixed ;)

I found some older pictures of my boys that I forgot I had. When Danny & I first started using a digital camera, it never occurred to us to keep the original photo somewhere. He would crop the photo, load it on his website and that would be it. We lost a lot of photos from those early days L So, here is one of the boys “helping” Daddy do some work in my sewing room. They were playing beneath my sewing table (the little goofballs!).



I also found this photo of me and the boys from our first spring in the house (March/April 2002). Here we are in front of the house with our Azaleas in full bloom! I love azaleas – they’re beautiful. I just wish they’d bloom longer than a couple weeks. My azaleas have already come and gone this year L. But, they were beautiful as always! Azaleas are BIG in Houston! Every year the River Oaks Garden Society puts on the “Azalea Trail.” It’s usually the first 2 weekends in March. It’s a chance for people to view how the “other half” live ;) It’s about $10 and you get to view the homes and gardens of 10 residents. Most of these people live in River Oaks – one of our most expensive neighborhoods. If you saw Terms of Endearment, it’s the ‘hood that Shirley MacLaine and Jack Nicholson lived in. Anyway, this year it was so warm in February the gardeners were putting ice on the roots of the azalea plants so they wouldn’t bloom too soon! Now it’s time for the bluebonnets, buttercups, Indian paintbrushes and all the other wildflowers that bloom in the springtime in Texas. Maybe this weekend I can convince Danny to go for a ride so we can take pictures before they’re gone!




So now I’ve got a couple pictures to scrap that I like, I’ve got a lot of nice new kits to scrap with and a much better attitude so I guess I’d better get after it, eh?