---

Goodbye beloved Misty!! You are missed so much! Wish you had not run after that truck!! So unexpected, so unfair.... We love you and will always miss you!!

More pics of store

Opening Up Shop

I tried to write in this thing last night but couldn't get the link to work.

I forgot to see if I already posted about this..but we're opening up an actual STORE. woo hoo!! It is mostly for hub's woodburning art but also for a few things that I want to sell in it (like lavender love). We're hoping to be all ready by March 1st.  Here's a picture of the store.

 

Isn't it adorable??? Like straight out of the ol West?  My hub named it WOOD STOCK and the sign will go above the porch there. Well I have to clean today and do some other stuff so I'll write later.

furkids

After watching some of the Olympics and a daring skater from China who followed through with her pairs long program after falling on her knee... :)    Stacey and I took a quick snapshot of 2 of our furkids, Misty and Molly.  They looked so adorable!

What cuties!! How can you not love them! :)

 

Good one!

Well I was glued to my tv to watch Grey's Anatomy and it was a heart stopper!!! :) 

I just wish Dr. Shepard would get his act together and admit to his wife that he can't live without Meredith!  Guess have to wait until right before the season is over to hear something like that.

Okay no more about TV shows. There is enough real excitment going on in our own lives.  Hub and I went to meet the owners of the little country store we want to lease out and they were very nice!  I'm hoping they say yes and that Steve can finally have his own fine art store and gift shop.  He does beautiful work and should get the kind of recognition and a decent price for his work.  He spends hours wood burning and he has been wanting this for a long time.  Keep your fingers crossed for us.  It is a risk and there will be even more bills, but it may all pay off and help him finally feel at 'home' here in Texas. 

Tomorrow starts another work week and I've also taken on yet another joint venture with an old friend who needs my help.  I guess I can't rest until I feel like I have a plate that is not just full, but overflowing to the nth degree!

Nite!

 

Finally Friday

Friday is here and so is the rain!  Well we still 'need' it so I'm not going to complain.  At least it is Friday.  I was suppose to get more work today via DHL but it didn't get here, which sucks because weekends are the best time for me to do extra work - no stress.  I don't suppose they will delive rthe package tomorrow.  So much for OVERNIGHT delivery.

I did get to vent about things to the person who hired me for this work at home job I do (my main job) and that makes me feel a little better about not quitting so soon.  At least she knows where I'm coming from and whether anything changes will depend on how well the communications go between her and others that I work with.  I did forget to turn in my billing today though and so now my pay may be delayed an extra 2 weeks!

Hub called me all excited today because he found a nice retail store on a somewhat traveled road near us that he would like to consider for opening a store at.  He does wonderful fine wood burned designs and has wanted a store ever since he used to have one.  The monthly rent is not too bad and if he does some larger things like coffee tables, he can ask more for the pieces and could very well grasp his niche market, which would be really cool!!    I haven't seen this place yet, but we are suppose to go look at it on Sunday, although I'm sure we'll go there tomorrow since he is so excited about it.  (I posted a sample of his work below)

Me, the practical one wants to find out how much everything else will cost though: insurance, phone, ecommerce account, any furnishings/displays we may need, etc.  I just don't want to get into a bunch of debt again after getting out from most of it last summer when we moved here and sold our house.

I talked to my folks today too who are now trying to sell their house again in PA to move here. Seems that they found a GOOD real estate agent finally!  So when they get out here my dad can put some of his lamps that he makes with a lathe at the store too (if we open one up).

Later.

http://www.dianestjames.com

Today is Tuesday

I just wanted to catch this thing up as I don't want to let too much time go by. Let's see work was busy today.  Not too many problems. I decided though I am going to take the full consulting package focus away from my abcmortgage.net site and change my focus to offering my underwriting services to help brokers or correspondents with loans before they become post closing problems.  I am still going to offer phone consultations for borrowers with the pay per minute option, but I haven't had enough response to the full consultation packages and really would like to use more of my underwriting skills than anything else. 

I am already helping one NJ lender with their loans and it has helped them tremendously.  So...maybe I can help others and build on that. 

I got a vendor spot at the Tuesday Expos too and just had my Lia Sophia /Lavender Love 1/2 time slot.  It is a constant struggle to keep promoting my other biz's but I'm not a home party type of person...so internet is the way I am pursuing it.

We just changed medical insurance companies and hopefully the coverage will be as good or better than where it was before.  The insurance premiums were getting higher every few months! This is a much more affordable plan!  Thanks Jerry Jolly!

In the next month I'm going to consolidate the debts we have into one (or 2 if have to) credit cards that have 0% interest.  Got one offer already in the mail for 0% to Sept 2007! Not bad! :)

Of course I always hope to have everything paid off long before then...but life has a way of getting expensive!  

 

 

 

Saturday and Father Ralph

Yesterday since hub was working, Stacey and I had the day to ourselves and it was nice for a change.  Just a girl's day together.  I started out checking email as I always do and then I did some work that I didn't get done Friday. I did the rest of it this morning and so I'm as of right now caught up.  It was a nice sunny day yesterday. I really love the skies and overall weather here so much better than in PA and sometimes wish I had done this years ago.  There was a time right before I met hub that I was thinking of taking the girls and moving here, but just didn't have enough courage to do it or something like that.   My absolute favorite day is a warm day (70's at least) with a clear blue sky and that was so rare to have in PA.  Here it is most days! :)

Okay, back to yesterday.  Stacey had a school project to work on so we were going to Michaels but went to lunch first at a restaurant called Stone Canyon that is right near our house but we just hadn't gotten to it yet. We both had soup and salad and surprisingly it is more of a hambuger/chicken place than a gourmet restaurant which is what I thought it was.  We brought home a menu because I think hub would like to eat there too.  Then we got what she needed at Michaels and went home.

Since we had nothing planned other than her working on her project, we got out The Thorn Birds which we started watching last weekend.  I told her I loved it and even though it was long (4 VCR tapes - I think 8-10 hours), it was really, really good. We had enough time to watch the last 3 tapes and she did like it.  I don't know if she did as much as I did, but I remember when I saw it the first time I fell in love with Father Ralph as much as Meggie did.  :)  Richard Chamberlain was so handsome in it to me...and it was a little disappointing years later to find out he is gay.  Oh well.  I enjoyed watching this as much if not more than before. It is a tear jerker for sure and every time Father Ralph had to go back to the church, I cried right along with Meggie whose heart was breaking bit by bit. Sappy I know...but if we can't enjoy the fantasy of films and books, our imaginations would go stagnate!  I don't do it as often as I'd like but when I am on the upper porch playing my guitar and singing, I pretend there is a big audience out there and they like my singing, and I am famous, and I am touring....lol...that is until I open my eyes again. Imagination is what helps makes dreams come true for the young and helps keep us older folks young.

There is no one to blame but myself for not having pursued singing more.  I never really tried to get in with any band and it isn't like I would get into one based on my guitar playing because I don't play all that great. It is more to accompany my singing than anything else. 

Enough ramblings for now...

 

 

Something Different

Yesterday I did something that was very unusual for me!  I made plans to stop work early and spend some time with my sister. To some this may be nothing strange at all, but it is so not me to do that. I am all work, work and more work usually but I decided to go for it, especially since I don't like the work I'm doing nearly as much as straight underwriting. 

So anyway, I emailed my boss (since I work at home) that I'd finish the last 2 loans when I got back or over the weekend.  Well I didn't get back home until 8:15pm (and had left at 1:00pm).  This went over like a lead balloon with hub.  He had loaded up his truck for a job today, his first laminate installation job this year!! When I didn't get home in time for dinner, he had to unload so he and Stacey could get dinner.  I think he said he loaded everything up again, but he then had to take her to meet a date at the highschool to see a play since I still wasn't home by 6:30.  So needless to say when I called him just before 8 he was pretty frazzled thinking he'd have to pick up Stacey and would have to unload his things again.  Now granted he parks his truck in the gararge...so why he couldn't just load up everything this morning before he left...who knows. I don't know why I had to be made to feel guilty about being gone for the day as like I said it rarely ever happens.  We both usually stay home and don't go anywhere.

He didn't yell or anything like that when I got home but he told me about his day and I could tell he must have been really irritated. I tried to just tell him that we went shopping and have makeovers which isn't exactly a fib - but what we actually did was go and get Glamour Shots so that we (my sister) and I could surprise our hubby's with them for Valentine's Day. Well it took that long for each of us to get down to that mall, get the hair done, makeup on, change clothes, then get shots together, separate, change two more times, grab something to eat while waiting for the pics to get loaded, go back to view them and pick from them.  And sheesh!  The pictures are expensive enough but when you get them glamour finished - all blemishes and imperfections smoothed out..that alone cost $75.00 per head shot! Yikes!  I did pick a few to get but none glamour finished.  I may regret it but money is tight right now as it usually is when a two income family is relying on one income.  When we were finally done, we left by way of Nordstroms because my sister just had to go through there. And her house is a good 45 minutes from that mall and my house another 20 from hers.  So there was my afternoon/evening. 

So today I have to finish my work and the house needs to be cleaned again, especially the floors on the first level.  The tiled floors get tons of dog hair everywhere and so do the edges of the carpeted areas. I'd like to get someone in to clean again like I used to when we lived in PA - I love not having to clean- it is one of the most thankless jobs ever!  And it never stays very clean around our house with having 4 dogs.  I love my furkids, don't get me wrong, but why doesn't someone invent a 'self cleaning' house ?

And maybe this weekend I can write an article for my mortgage ezine and maybe do a HPN newsletter.  I should start checking out how our taxes look this year too.  Hoping we dont' owe too much. There won't be a ton of sch C income since there wasn't a lot of flooring jobs last year, although we are still waiting for one 1099 and I'll probably have to call the previous mtg company on our old house in PA that we sold so I can get the interest amount on that.  But I think taxes will wait until next weekend or the next - probably won't be filing until right before April 15th anyway. ;-)

Okay, off to start my day!

ARGH!

I really need to exercise more patience!  I had a lot of trouble keeping my anger in check talking to my boss today.  I thought I was right, but I was wrong and it is hard for me to admit that, especially to someone that I don't care for.  I got through it okay but it was not an easy one.  I have to get my other work going better so I can consider a change.

Tomorrow can't come fast enough for me.  This week has seemed unusally long to me.  I just finished my hour at a new recruiting site I got a spot at for lia sophia as I love the jewelry!  And I got a loan submitted that was ready for approval and I want to get an early start tomorrow.  Have plans with my sister for tomorrow afternoon. We're going to get Glamour Shots done.  I hope they turn out nice and then maybe I'll get some for Steve as a surprise.  It will be good to get away from the work for a bit.

Well Danielle did go and get some piercings on her 18th birthday.  From the pictures her ears look like they are hurting although they are probably better by now. I hope she doesn't get any more!  

G'night

Ah yes the State of the Union

Why is it that Bush sounds like he's on a campaign trail when he does his State of The Union speech?  Oh yeah, he still wants to win in the popularity poll when the dust settles after he leaves the white house. Well one thing for sure when 2030 hits and as Bush says 60% of our nations resources will be needed to pay for social security and medicare benefits, I'll be right there among those boomers who will have worked most of my life, paid in my share of social security taxes, and probably will have to keep working as it is doubtful I will be able to rely on that being around then.  Yes, God bless America!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Back to things.  I actually was approached by a MI rep to send my resume to her. I had forgotten I spoke to a local gal at a mortgage company about underwriting and had left some messages a few weeks ago. But this lady called me today.  She understands my desire to underwrite and home and even though I am already working at home, the type of work I'm doing is not enjoyable. Granted a lot of people do jobs out there that are not enjoyable and that is a fact of life for them.  But I enjoy underwriting!  I enjoying reading a loan file which gives me a snapshot of someone's scenario and making a decision based on the merits of the file and the automated underwriting decision (which I prefer had never come about).  So we'll see what happens there.  I should do some advertising to offer my pre-underwriting services again.  It's a thought. 

Well tomorrow is Hump Day and my day off from exercising!  That's two things to look forward to!