(no subject)

[altarflame]

There were packages galore today.

First off, I got my incredible Steve Madden shoes:


I am so in love with them and so drunk on being newly appreciative of shoes and having money at the same time, I also ordered these today when I saw they had them:


I'm still considering whether I "need" them in white, burnt orange, brown and red, too. I mean, come on, I'm actually going to have a closet of my own to display them in, soon ;) My justification is that I can wear them to church every Sunday for the rest of my life; as in, even if there is no other occassion to wear heels to, there will always be that, so why not get some to match any conceivable dress :p

Elise's new fitted diapers came.

Then, in an onslought, UPS delivered the big old Gymboree box along with my Nicoletta Ceccoli print and some things of Grant's.

I don't know what to think of my investment in higher quality childrens' clothing. I got them all dressed up in their new duds and they looked so adorable I thought, I need to make a habit of this. And then LITERALLY within the hour, Aaron had ripped a hole in the knee of his pants, Isaac had pooped "but only a tiny bit" in his shorts and gotten Nutella all over his face, and Jake was soaked down the front from the hose.













I don't really know how anyone manages to keep kids' clothes in resale condition, especially BOYS' clothes. I really don't.

The Nicoletta Ceccoli print - which is the picture used for this icon, her painting "Corvi" - is incredible. First of all, in something larger than 100x100 pixels (it's actually 14"x14"), you can see the richness of the grass and the brushstrokes on the hair and it's just great. Also, whoa, it came hand signed and numbered 87/101, both in pencil. No wonder the thing cost $300. I mean damn, I just wanted to find it on allposters.com or something ;)

I really, really, REALLY wanted to go to FIU's art department's "Spring Review" tonight, and had planned it in advance, but a whole lot of things conflicted and it wasn't meant to be, I guess. Sorry we weren't there, Shaun.


Speaking of culture and glamour, tomorrow we're spending all day long de-lousing again *big sarcastic thumbs up*!!! Honestly I am so sick to death of headlice, I would like to never see one again as long as I live. Mindy's girls keep giving it back to us when they come over here to spend the weekend, and then they get rid of it but I don't realize Annie has hatching eggs again and they go home with it, etc etc FOREVER. Laura is terrified Brian is going to catch it and keeping his head buzzed, I am beyond over combing through hair, and I REFUSE to move into a new house with head lice on board. I've designated every Friday in April as "Lice Day": we're doing the whole shebang with shampoo, vaccuming, bedding through ultra hot wash with tea tree oil, couch cushion covers, spraying toxic chemicals all over the house, ALL OF IT, with boiling brushes and combing until my hands are numb. And then we're doing it again the next Friday. And the Friday after that. And the Friday after that. Mindy and Teresa are doing Patrice and Nadia's hair and entire house, too, also weekly. If there is some way that somehow something somewhere is missed after all of that...I just don't know. I really don't. The best I can come up with is, maybe the girls get it from school and can't come to our new house until we know they're totally free of it. I'm just hoping that doing it once or doing it two weeks in a row wasn't thorough enough, because it always seems as though they are totally gone after we do it, for a few days or a couple weeks, but then I guess more eggs hatch or something?

For the record, I spent months trying to use baby oil as a 3-day smothering agent AND as a one time combing aid, tea tree oil, the new homeopathic lice treatment, we've been doing the whole Suave Coconut Oil shampoo and conditioner thing...please spare me the natural tips. I know there are people who swear by mayonnaise, vinegar, and/or vaseline, but eww, DEAR LORD EWW and I've read about that taking WEEKS to rinse out and being impossible to comb through anyway. My toddler and preschooler are not going to sleep in shower caps. This is it.

Elise is just getting copious combing and nitpicking, as I can't bear to put RID on her head yet, and don't think I could safely keep it off of her hands or, thus, out of her mouth, anyway.


As far as "our house" (the house we really want, that I wrote about):

Due to all kinds of talk with the listing agent and going back and forth with Teresa and the amount of properties the bank has to deal with, etc etc etc, we ended up submitting an offer early yesterday morning for $214,000 along with a refundable cashier's check deposit of $22,000 (the bank had apparently set up terms with the listing agent that they weren't taking anyone seriously without at least a 10% deposit up front), all contingent on an inspection not revealing more than $7000 in problems with the property. We were supposed to hear an answer today but it looks like tomorrow, now. It is KILLING ME waiting. Killing me. We are apparently the only people who've made an offer on this house so far, which I think is partially because it's a very low traffic area and partially because the pictures online are HORRIBLE, blurry, non-enlargeable thumbnails that do it no justice whatsoever. Teresa expects them to counter-offer at least once as it was listed at 235k, appraised at 277 and sold last time around for 305. It's surrounded by houses that sold for 250-400k. But, if they accept our initial offer, which I feel like has to be at least a possibility with that deposit and our paying cash, our closing date would be APRIL 25. SO SOON!!

It is very surreal to be feeling almost wealthy for the first time in my life during a time period when the economy is flagging so badly...there are foreclosures on nearly every block in many neighborhoods here in Homestead, and I was reading yesterday about whole subdivisions in places like Cleveland and Denver that sprang up 2 years ago and are ghost towns now, with bank lockboxes on nearly every door. There is a nationwide spiking demand for low-cost apartments as former-homeowners try to avoid homelessness. They are estimating 1.2 million foreclosures in the past 12 months, and expect the next 12 months to be worse.

One of our favorite stores, a locally owned place in the shopping plaza we often walk to, is closing down. The co-owners have been in business for 14 years but they are blaming the economy. They sell things like handmade quilts, expensive fancy candy from bulk bins, unique cards and tons of frou frou old lady stuff like antique-looking-but-actually-brand-new furniture. We bought our dining table there last Fall. Anyway, it is a little bit awesome to have a place with a lot of things I like putting all their merchandise on clearance when I am buying my first home and have some money to spend outfitting it; on the other hand, though, that was really the ONLY "class" in that plaza, and the kids LOVE going in there, and the owner is almost what I would call a friend. She's followed our whole story, with Boston and Elise and the sponge and all that crap, and sent free gifts to my hospital room. It just bites to see people struggling on all sides. I feel very grateful to be "safe" from short-term recession problems, with Grant having just landed a very good job with a ton of advancement opportunities, a great benefits package and 12 hour shifts that allow for either 3 or 4 days off in a row each week.

It is WEIRD being treated differently because we have some money; we were at the bank putting $300k in a Money Market account to gain interest while we aren't using it, and the lady helping us was like, running to the printer when she had to get something for us to sign, and being all extra-special-nice. Grant was sitting there in his crocs-with-socks, shorts, tshirt and straw hat, and he theorized while she was sprinting to our hard copy that we probably seemed "Eccentric" to her and perhaps she was seeing my gigantic, red $20 Claire's purse as being worth a whole lot more :p

Sidenote: we can actually make like $900 this month just by letting that three hundred grand sit in a money market account instead of a regular checking account. And we can still access it and everything, in the meantime (though only a limited number of times without penalty). There isn't risk involved or anything. What the heck.

I will leave you with a few other pictures that I took today.











That's Nadia with A and A, she's one of Mindy's twins.

Comments

[florassecret.livejournal.com]

I absolutely know what you're going through. It's along and complicated story here's the short story: my mom died, just over 9 years ago, then soon after that my grandfather died, and left us and my one and uncle money.
I couldn't get us a house not on 30G so we went and did the right thing by paying my bills off, buying things we needed and had a nice vacation. It doesn't last long.

[florassecret.livejournal.com]

"one and uncle" = my one and remaining uncle (sadly besides my siblings, and one cousin he's the only family left.)

[altarflame.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, 30k is not enough to build a life on or something, I didn't mean to imply you weren't great with it! I mean, come on, you paid off some bills and bought furniture! Of course you took a vacation - you had 30k dropped on you.

"it doesn't last long"

This is what I am crazily aware of and frightened by. I want to have a lot to show on the other side of it being gone. It looks like "a lot" will be a house and two reliable vehicles, paid for outright and not owing, no other outstanding debt, a retirement plan set up, life insurance in place, a lot of nice things, some cool memories, a sense of fulfillment from various helping things, and beyond that...who knows. I'm still working on it :p

You know I had a great great grandmother that owned an ISLAND in the FLorida Keys? She sold it off at a ridiculously low price a couple of years back and everyone in the family was like WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!?!?! Likewise my paternal grandparents had a house - a 3/2 - with a YARD that had a POOL in it, on Key West, when I was little...I don't know if you know what that means, but let me tell you, it's over a million dollars easy. My Aunt Michelle bought a little (LITTLE) two bedroom townhouse in Key West for $600k 2 years ago. Anyway my Ma and Pa sold that house for like 80k and thought they did well since they bought it for half that. This was in about 1990. *sigh*

[florassecret.livejournal.com]

Ya know when I got that money I sat down and wept, because a) I have never seen so much in my life and b) I wouldn't have that money if my mom was alive. This is why I also donated money to the Canadian Cancer Society because she had breast cancer.
This is my opinion but get the house bought outright. Then you have time to write.

[altarflame.livejournal.com]

I meant to say, after I read this comment, that I am so sorry about your mom.

And although it is a very different situation, I feel I know what you mean to some degree about weaping when you got the money because of why you got it.

[armistice.livejournal.com]

I really think that the best investment you could make is in buying a house; most people spend, what, 33% of their income on rent/mortgage payments? That's so much money, every year, and you're not going to have to pay that. That's so huge. I keep thinking that I'd better seriously get to saving and budgeting so that I (and my fella) can buy a house in the next year, while the getting's good, so that we can stop wasting our money on rent and start creeping toward retirement.

I don't know how much you guys are paying Grant Sr. in rent, but all of that, that's money you won't be spending anymore, and that portion of your income can go straight to your retirement account, or to the kid's savings, or whatever. I am jealous of your house-buying capability.

[altarflame.livejournal.com]

I guess it depends on your perspective: Grant Sr thinks having a mortgage/rent payment is just a part of life, and something that is always there, but when you're buying instead of renting it's at least getting you something. My grandparents are the same way - they see it as an asset. Both have refinanced to the 9th power and done things like huge renovations, lavish vacations, better cars, and have very low payments now but, yeah, 20 years after buying they owe 2+ times what they originally paid. To them it isn't something "to be paid back", though, it's just something that is always there getting paid on monthly that buys you the power to take out a loan, or be approved for things.

Anyway, we actually don't pay Grant Sr rent (though he is getting some back "rent" now :p). I mean, ok, we payed for a $10k water softener and filter for the whole house, with a special kitchen sink attachment, that is suppose to increase the value of the home and everyone uses, so we have been paying on that ($150 a month), and we always buy extra groceries (probably about $300 a month). When my brother moved in and the electric went up, we paid the extra, and of course his food, and when G Sr gets long distance phone bills, we cover it. So that stuff will be gone, but more than offset by the cost of electricity, water, phone, internet, cable, homeowner's insurance and property taxes, etc.

What is really gonna help us is, we're used to spending $600 a month on a van payment, $200 a month on G's student loans (for his MCSE certifications), and every bit we can scrape together on the hugely charged up corporate credit cards for the business (at least 3-600 per month). All of that is gone now.

[armistice.livejournal.com]

Your grandparents are the exact opposite of mine. Both sets of my grandparents have their homes paid off completely, and have for quite some time. They just don't spend a lot of money, period, anymore, because they have pretty much everything they want or need. They pay for utilities, food (but for only two people), and property taxes, and maybe a new outfit every once in a while, but that's it. Both sets have the same car they've had for at least...seven years? And everything's all paid off.

I think that how they live/have lived totally influences how I see everything, too. It just feels like, man, when you've got a house paid off, you've got so much disposable income. *wants*

And getting rid of your debt is obviously huge, too. That's so awesome, for you. I've read that you're pretty terrified by all the money, and I can see where it would be a lot of stress and pressure, but when I read about all your options I just feel really happy for you guys, because, you know. Options!

[altarflame.livejournal.com]

My grandparents are really young and that probably influences their perspectives and thus, mine. They've worked full time my whole life, hosted big holiday get-togethers, this and that...I mean, right now, I'm 26, my mom is 43, and her mom is 58. I could be wrong here, it just seems to me that youth=more interest in buying random stuff/going random places.