My almost 18 month old daughter has this spinning wand toy. It is pink, and you press a button and it lights up and spins and is pretty neat. Well, the top has a big star that lights up, and also on the portion that spins, there are 3 stars.
Tonight we were watching a movie ( Nim's Island if your interested, good movie, really cute. We rented it because Abigail Breslin is in it. Our daughter is named after her character in the movie Signs ) and she was playing with her wand. sitting in between my husband & I. I look over at her, she stop it spinning, grabs one of the spinning stars, and says "Star!" I stared for a second...unsure of what I heard....as if on cue...she said it 5 or 6 more times. Enough for me to confirm what I had heard and my husband to also hear it.
Now, for months she has been a little repeat machine. She will repeat almost anything. She knows what most of the "animals say", and is happy to tell you if you ask. She also has been known to pop off with a random unexpected word too....
The impressive part was not that she said star for the first time...but that she recognized a star, without any prompting, and honestly, I had not even mentioned the word for at least a day.
My child amazes and impresses me daily.
WOW.
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Off the House Buying subject....on to Medical Bills.......
I know I was suppose to follow up on our house buying nightmare, days ago....well, sleep has taken priority...and frankly the nightmare is getting worse. So, for the sake of my own sanity, I am taking a break from the house blogging ( it will be back once things are heading in the right direction a bit more!), and going to rant on something else....Medical bills. UGH!!!
Let me start at the beginning more or less.
About 2 months ago, I suffered a miscarriage. Honestly the worst few days of my life. It began on a Saturday with some bleeding, followed by a trip to the Emergency Room, where we found out the baby was "no longer with us". Being as it was a weekend, the D AND C had to be scheduled for Monday. ( now a D AND C is basically the procedure they use for an abortion. They dilate, ( hence the D ), and go in and clear everything out ( Cuttage is what the C stands for ). So I had to spend the rest of the weekend carrying a baby a I knew would no longer be born. Anyway...I am getting slightly off subject.
It was a horrible experience. ( Oddly, physically, it was a very mild experience for me. Other than the bleeding following the procedure, it was nothing even painful. But the emotional part, was basically the worst pain of my life. )
As if that was not difficult enough....now the medical bills are rolling in.
First there is a $500 bill for prenatal blood work. For a baby I will never be able to meet.
Next, the ER. A bill from the Doctor and a separate bill for the hospital ER.And don't forget the bill for the lab work. Then the day of the D AND C. There is a bill for the hospital, one for the Doctor/surgeon, one for the Anesthesiologist,and another for lab work.
So far we have bills for everything except the D AND C Doctor and the Anesthesiologist....can you guess what we owe so far without those 2 bills? We do have insurance. Which obviously is not very good. As of right now, we owe just under 3K. Remember that does not include the Doctor or the Anesthesiologist. I shudder to think what the total bills will be.
All of this for a baby we wanted so badly, but are not able to have.
So....as we are trying to buy a house, which we WERE happily going into debt free.....that is no longer the case. We go into it with anywhere from 3K - 5K in debt. Miserable.
It is also a pleasant thing to look at the calendar and realize that the day just passed where we would have had our Ultrasound to see if the baby was a boy or a girl. That is hard enough...or at least one would think it hard enough. Apparently it is not...a flood of bills in the mail is necessary to make the pain more difficult I guess.
We as a country, are in serious need of Health Care Reform
Let me start at the beginning more or less.
About 2 months ago, I suffered a miscarriage. Honestly the worst few days of my life. It began on a Saturday with some bleeding, followed by a trip to the Emergency Room, where we found out the baby was "no longer with us". Being as it was a weekend, the D AND C had to be scheduled for Monday. ( now a D AND C is basically the procedure they use for an abortion. They dilate, ( hence the D ), and go in and clear everything out ( Cuttage is what the C stands for ). So I had to spend the rest of the weekend carrying a baby a I knew would no longer be born. Anyway...I am getting slightly off subject.
It was a horrible experience. ( Oddly, physically, it was a very mild experience for me. Other than the bleeding following the procedure, it was nothing even painful. But the emotional part, was basically the worst pain of my life. )
As if that was not difficult enough....now the medical bills are rolling in.
First there is a $500 bill for prenatal blood work. For a baby I will never be able to meet.
Next, the ER. A bill from the Doctor and a separate bill for the hospital ER.And don't forget the bill for the lab work. Then the day of the D AND C. There is a bill for the hospital, one for the Doctor/surgeon, one for the Anesthesiologist,and another for lab work.
So far we have bills for everything except the D AND C Doctor and the Anesthesiologist....can you guess what we owe so far without those 2 bills? We do have insurance. Which obviously is not very good. As of right now, we owe just under 3K. Remember that does not include the Doctor or the Anesthesiologist. I shudder to think what the total bills will be.
All of this for a baby we wanted so badly, but are not able to have.
So....as we are trying to buy a house, which we WERE happily going into debt free.....that is no longer the case. We go into it with anywhere from 3K - 5K in debt. Miserable.
It is also a pleasant thing to look at the calendar and realize that the day just passed where we would have had our Ultrasound to see if the baby was a boy or a girl. That is hard enough...or at least one would think it hard enough. Apparently it is not...a flood of bills in the mail is necessary to make the pain more difficult I guess.
We as a country, are in serious need of Health Care Reform
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Home Buying Hell!!!
I am proud to say that finally at the age of 33, it is time for the purchase of my first house. My first house, which I look forward to becoming a comfy home for my family for many years to come.
With that said, right now, about 7 weeks into the process, waiting on the answer to offer #2....I am beginning to wonder if we will actually ever own a home!!!!
I know home buying is HUGE!!! Which makes sense it would be a lengthy, and stressful process. Honestly though, I figured that would come more so once we were in escrow. Not from DAY ONE of the process!!!
Let's begin....
Got a referral for a local Realtor. Contacted her, only to find out, she is no longer an active Realtor. She was kind enough to refer us to someone from her old office.
Contacted him. He then gave me the information of a finance woman, so we could find out what we qualify for.
Now things get really ugly.
Ok, let me give you the basics. I have amazing credit, but no paying job. My husband has about average credit, but some ugly marks on his credit and a few outstanding debts. He is the one who makes the money. Therefore his credit is most important. We are first time home buyers, so we were looking for an FHA loan. Just my luck, the woman we are working with is basically as familiar with the FHA as I am. About 3 weeks later, we finally have a dollar amount to base our house shopping on.
Side note....I was not aware of this before going through the experience myself. I knew it to be true, but not to this extreme. Even with my husbands less than glorious credit, we qualify for MUCH more of a loan than we can afford. It became ABUNDANTLY clear to me why so many people are in trouble with their home loans. When seeing the difference in houses between what we qualify for and what we can actually afford...I could see the temptation to live above your means so to speak. I have NO idea how someone, based on our income, would give us such a large loan. The payment on it would be about 80% or more of our entire income. Being as we drive, like electricity, running water, food, cable, the Internet, and so on, spending 80% of our monthly income on only the mortgage is insanity.
Anyway...back to the "process".
We then went back to our Realtor with the dollar amount, which after 3 phone conversations and 2 business days, he told us he didn't feel he was the Realtor for us.
He then referred us to a Realtor more familiar with the area we were looking in.
My husband works long hours, and the area we are searching is about an hour and 15 minutes from where we currently live. So, house searching was going to have to be a weekend event.
After a couple of phone conversation, and a several emails back and forth and roughly 5 days, we finally had an appointment to meet the woman and go look at actual houses!!!!!
And it is now midnight.....my darling angel daughter will probably wake up rearing to go in about 6 hours.
So I am off to clean up, and turn in for the night.
I will be back soon to finish my tale...and to explain why an area with bank owned and short sales properties, is not really the dream come true for a home buyer that you think........or at least that I was led to think.......
( let me just say, I am in no way happy to benefit on someone else's loss. I am VERY sorry for the people who have lost their homes to foreclosure. Unfortunately, in the neighborhood we want to be in, it is our only option )
That said....
Good night..
With that said, right now, about 7 weeks into the process, waiting on the answer to offer #2....I am beginning to wonder if we will actually ever own a home!!!!
I know home buying is HUGE!!! Which makes sense it would be a lengthy, and stressful process. Honestly though, I figured that would come more so once we were in escrow. Not from DAY ONE of the process!!!
Let's begin....
Got a referral for a local Realtor. Contacted her, only to find out, she is no longer an active Realtor. She was kind enough to refer us to someone from her old office.
Contacted him. He then gave me the information of a finance woman, so we could find out what we qualify for.
Now things get really ugly.
Ok, let me give you the basics. I have amazing credit, but no paying job. My husband has about average credit, but some ugly marks on his credit and a few outstanding debts. He is the one who makes the money. Therefore his credit is most important. We are first time home buyers, so we were looking for an FHA loan. Just my luck, the woman we are working with is basically as familiar with the FHA as I am. About 3 weeks later, we finally have a dollar amount to base our house shopping on.
Side note....I was not aware of this before going through the experience myself. I knew it to be true, but not to this extreme. Even with my husbands less than glorious credit, we qualify for MUCH more of a loan than we can afford. It became ABUNDANTLY clear to me why so many people are in trouble with their home loans. When seeing the difference in houses between what we qualify for and what we can actually afford...I could see the temptation to live above your means so to speak. I have NO idea how someone, based on our income, would give us such a large loan. The payment on it would be about 80% or more of our entire income. Being as we drive, like electricity, running water, food, cable, the Internet, and so on, spending 80% of our monthly income on only the mortgage is insanity.
Anyway...back to the "process".
We then went back to our Realtor with the dollar amount, which after 3 phone conversations and 2 business days, he told us he didn't feel he was the Realtor for us.
He then referred us to a Realtor more familiar with the area we were looking in.
My husband works long hours, and the area we are searching is about an hour and 15 minutes from where we currently live. So, house searching was going to have to be a weekend event.
After a couple of phone conversation, and a several emails back and forth and roughly 5 days, we finally had an appointment to meet the woman and go look at actual houses!!!!!
And it is now midnight.....my darling angel daughter will probably wake up rearing to go in about 6 hours.
So I am off to clean up, and turn in for the night.
I will be back soon to finish my tale...and to explain why an area with bank owned and short sales properties, is not really the dream come true for a home buyer that you think........or at least that I was led to think.......
( let me just say, I am in no way happy to benefit on someone else's loss. I am VERY sorry for the people who have lost their homes to foreclosure. Unfortunately, in the neighborhood we want to be in, it is our only option )
That said....
Good night..
My daughter is 17 months old today. She is my world. The last movie I saw in the theater, was 300, the night before I went into labor. A lot has changed in the last 17 months, and I am more grateful than words can express. I don't miss the "office" world. I don't really even miss night outs, with drinks and dancing. Nothing is as fulfilling to me as watching my daughter learn and grow, and trying to help in any way possible.
But as I sit here at 11:30pm, with everyone else sound asleep........I must admit, sleep is the one thing I do miss. I don't get nearly enough. And sadly, I imagine that will not change anytime soon.
All a fair trade though, I must say.
As the saying goes...."I'll sleep when I am dead."
But as I sit here at 11:30pm, with everyone else sound asleep........I must admit, sleep is the one thing I do miss. I don't get nearly enough. And sadly, I imagine that will not change anytime soon.
All a fair trade though, I must say.
As the saying goes...."I'll sleep when I am dead."
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