Secular Confessions

[daylilies]

I love the egg cartoon. This is my absolute favorite Easter cartoon though. It just makes me giggle every time.

[missychrissy]

Oh I know Chrissy! I can't stand it when DH knows I'm getting my period. Like what, I can't have a frigging emotion unless I'm about to bleed for a week?

I don't think of a week as 10 days, but I have a very strange problem with taking pills. Even if I know they're to help me, like antidepressants or when I used to take BCP, I will forget to take them for days at a time. That's why I'd rather not take them.

No kidding.

And I'm the same way about pills. I'd be in big trouble if I had to take something every day and my life depended on it.

And that cartoon totally cracked me up, even though I'd seen it before. It is funny!

As for my house drama, I've been talking with my realtor, although I haven't yet heard from my mortgage person. The sellers are offering a 2 year rental agreement with the same terms they specified before. But we need to get clarification as to whether we'd be eligible for any mortgage if I can get the old house off our record.

[missychrissy]

I confess I get annoyed with people that are always upset about something. I totally feel like one of those people that's always upset about something.

[daylilies]

I feel like I'm one of those people too. Can't you tell? I usually only come here to whine about something. I've tried to mellow out lately.
Seriously though, I don't think you complain about everything. It's not like you find things to whine about. Your troubles are very valid, like the house and your children's issues. I have this girl on twitter that I met once at a concert and she complains about EVERYTHING. So as long as you don't get as bad as her, you're okay with me.

[missychrissy]

I have this girl on twitter that I met once at a concert and she complains about EVERYTHING. So as long as you don't get as bad as her, you're okay with me.

Yay! I'll try!!

I kwym about people like that. They're the ones that get to me. But now I'm doing some self examining and I'm trying to remember if I ever got annoyed with people that had 'valid' complaints. I hope not-and I don't remember it if I did. But I just worry that my constant litany of 'here we go again' must be a dreadful bore some days.

[missychrissy]

And I totally don't get the 'whiner' vibe from you at all Kate. For what it's worth.

[AbbeysMom]

lol at the bunny cartoon. Katy, I forgot about your artwork! Please steal my siggy and I'll take it off, it's pretty perfect for you.

[daylilies]

Oh good. I know I used to complain a lot more about DH. I try not to so much anymore.

[missychrissy]

lol at the bunny cartoon. Katy, I forgot about your artwork! Please steal my siggy and I'll take it off, it's pretty perfect for you.

Hilarious!

Oh good. I know I used to complain a lot more about DH. I try not to so much anymore.

Men often deserve to be complained about. And please, if you have stuff please share so I'm not the sole debbie downer lol

[daylilies]

I don't have anything juicy recently

[missychrissy]

Well that's good. Things must be going relatively ok then.

[Bean]

I'll jump in here and make a complaint!

I am so sick of people making me feel like a horrible mother. I've been running around, making phone calls, FIGHTING to get this physical therapy BS straightened out for Bodhan and then I get these rude a$$ people making comments and I want to blow my top.

First, he was referred out to this place called ACCA. The receptionist took down all my info and over the course of the conversation I mentioned that Griffin has worked with ACCA before for his speech. She then gets this "ooooh" sound to her voice like I just explained something to her and after that all of her questions started sounding like "she's a moron, I have to talk slow and use my happy voice!" Then she says "did you use drugs during your pregnancy?" and the way she says it is so accusitory I could've slapped her. She mentions that they don't even HAVE a PT on staff (which it later turns out they DO!) and it may take a while to get another referral. I asked if there was anything I could do to expidite the process because they wanted him in PT at least once a week from Feb-April. She GOES OFF on me, "well why didn't you contact us sooner? Why wouldn't you get him help right away??" I was like "I just got the paperwork saying you were who we were referred out to Friday of last week! I called Friday AND Monday and YOU are only just calling me back now!" Stupid woman.

So she gives me two numbers- one for a place called Building Blocks and another for the woman who works out of ACCA (who the receptionist said didn't work there but she does). So I call the first place and the soonest they can get him in is April 15th. Granted, this was three weeks ago so IMO, that was not soon enough. I book the appointment just in case but then I call the second number and get his current PT and she says I can bring him in the following Wednesday. So I call Building Blocks back and cancel my appointment. The receptionist asks why I'm cancelling so I told her- I got someone else who could get him in faster and it's incredibly important that we start working on him ASAP. She sounded really annoyed, like I was putting her out for having to cancel an appointment. So yesterday I get this phone call from Building Blocks:
Receptionist: Hi, this is _____ from Building Blocks. We still haven't received your referral so I need to get your information to contact your insurer....?
Me: Actually, I called last week to cancel my appointment.
Her: Oh? Why is that?
Me: Well, ACCA was who we were originally referred out to and his current PT was able to accept our insurance with no problems AND was able to get him in sooner.
Her: Who is seeing him?
Me: [gave her Bodhi's PT's name]
Her: Well, good luck with THAT.
*click!*

Seriously. These people are SO RUDE!!!

[daylilies]

Yeah, things are okay. Once in a while he'll say something really insensitive that makes me think "Why am I married to this guy?" but that's probably something most women experience.

I can't get over how the stupidity of people who are supposed to be in professional careers. It seems like any idiot can get a job these days and yet so many smart people are out of jobs. I don't get it.
I'm sorry if I missed something, but what kind of issues is Bodhan having? You're doing a great job, calling around and dealing with these people to get him help. And Lorelai looks so grown up in your sig!

[missychrissy]

Oh god Cass! What a nightmare.

[Bean]

Thanks! Bodhi has torticollis and plagiocephaly. Both really need to be dealt with asap, preferably before 4-6 months of age. We were hoping that by getting him the PT it would fix the torticollis and then the plagiocephaly would sort of fix itself but he'll be 4 months soon and his head is still all bulgy so it looks like we're heading down helmet alley.

[missychrissy]

Oh no, poor little guy. Are either condition painful for him?

[girlwonder]

lol at the bunny cartoon. Katy, I forgot about your artwork! Please steal my siggy and I'll take it off, it's pretty perfect for you.

Can we share it?

[Bean]

Oh no, poor little guy. Are either condition painful for him?

The torticollis is. He can't turn to the left easily and when he does he snaps his head back like "nope, that hurts!"

[missychrissy]

The torticollis is. He can't turn to the left easily and when he does he snaps his head back like "nope, that hurts!"

Aw, that really breaks my heart.

And it makes me so angry that you were given such a runaround in trying to get him the treatment he needs. I mean, wtf? Cases like his should just be rushed through because it's obvious that time is of the essence.


___

No deal for us on renting or lease option at that house. I've informed our current landlords of the situation. They were expecting us to buy this place, which isn't an option even if we wanted to, so there's no telling what they're going to do. Maybe kick us out at the end of July.

Out of desperation, I'm considering calling my bank and seeing if there's any way we can work things out and go back to our old house. It needs so much work. There were a multitude of reasons for leaving...going back would be a hard pill to swallow.

[AbbeysMom]

Can we share it?

definitely!

[AbbeysMom]

Cass, it sounds like you've dealt with horrible people throughout just to get him treatment. Hopefully his physical therapist is a nicer person, anyway.

Chrissy, why did you leave your old house? Would any of the hud.gov anti-foreclosure stuff help you? This is pretty heavy situation. I hope things are figured out soon so that you can feel some stability.

[missychrissy]

Chrissy, why did you leave your old house? Would any of the hud.gov anti-foreclosure stuff help you? This is pretty heavy situation. I hope things are figured out soon so that you can feel some stability.

There were a multitude of reasons to leave. We included the house in our bankruptcy, erroneously thinking that was all we had to do to get out from under it. It stopped them from being able to expect any money, but actual ownership has remained in our name because the bank was slow to foreclose. I've learned a lot in the last 2 days-BK alone doesn't get your name off a house. Live and learn.

Some things have changed since then. I'll have one less kid soon (she's going off to college) so the little house won't be as cramped. I make double what I did then so affording it won't be an issue. It needs a LOT of work though and that is still true. It may be worse now as it's sat for 3 years vacant.

We're not eligible for any help because we make too much. We don't owe more than the house is worth or anything like that. But we can use the money that we would have put on a down payment on our dream home to bring the loan up to date. That would take it out of foreclosure and that's all that would remain on our credit are 2.5 years of missed payments.

A year from now, we'll have established a good payment history with them and had the chance to get our scores up. It's not outside the realm of possibility that we could either rent or sell that home and then buy our dream house (the one we've been trying for) when they put it back on the market. They intend to rent it for just a year so it just may work out in the end after all.

I do have concerns about the work that needs to be done, but considering all our options, this appears to be the best one for us.

[Gwenn]

Chrissy, that actually doesn't sound like a bad option (bearing in mind I don't know what condition the house is in).

[daylilies]

(hugs) Chrissy and Cass.

[missychrissy]

Chrissy, that actually doesn't sound like a bad option (bearing in mind I don't know what condition the house is in).

The more I think about it, the better it sounds. It needs a chimney and the kitchen and bath are in deplorable condition. The septic needs a leech bed put in as the house was built before they were required. I don't know how much of that we'd be able to accomplish in just 6 months time.

We need a sizable down payment and the mortgage company would allow us to make monthly payments for 6 months to catch it up, so there goes all our 'extra' money for 1/2 a year. That leaves just another 1/2 a year to make those fixes...and thinking about living there in that condition isn't exactly heart warming for me.

But all in all, I think it is our best option. If we can get it sold in a year, we won't have a foreclosure on our credit and we'd be able to look for a more suitable house. We don't owe a whole lot on it, so even if it's in tlc condition we should be able to sell it. It is in an excellent neighborhood.

[Gwenn]

Chrissy, our house is actually in similar condition. The kitchen and bathrooms need to be re-done and we're missing a face on the fireplace (the chimney is there but not certain of the condition it's in). The plan was to work on this slowly but we may be trying to rent it out 6 months to a year from now so we're going to have to make some choices quickly. How strange we may both be in the same boat.

[AmeriBrit]

Chrissy, I hope everything works out. I'm sorry things haven't gone how you wanted them to.

Cass, that is awful how they spoke to you on the phone; I'd make sure to complain to someone about their behavior. Oh, and your new siggy is super-adorable!

I am super tired today; Cash and Travis were up a few times through the night. I think I'll lay low today.

[missychrissy]

Chrissy, our house is actually in similar condition. The kitchen and bathrooms need to be re-done and we're missing a face on the fireplace (the chimney is there but not certain of the condition it's in). The plan was to work on this slowly but we may be trying to rent it out 6 months to a year from now so we're going to have to make some choices quickly. How strange we may both be in the same boat.

Somehow that makes me feel better. Thanks. The girls aren't going to be happy as 2 of them, if not all of them, will have to share a room. But really, I don't know what else we can do. The basement is 1/2 above ground and years ago we talked about finishing it and making a bedroom and 2nd bath down there, but the basement leaks really bad. We won't be able to do anything about that.

I am super tired today; Cash and Travis were up a few times through the night. I think I'll lay low today.

Were they sick, or just restless? Take it easy.

I have one major worry with going back to that old house. At one point our neighbor had to report some guys breaking in. I thought for sure that he said he called the police when they were trying to break in, but Rich was saying last night that they were actually in the house. I don't know what they might have done. A lot of vacant houses were ransacked for the wiring....if there's a mess like that, then I don't see how we'd be able to do this because we can't live in it and we won't be able to afford to pay for it and somewhere else. I don't know how we can find out either since it's locked. The bank won't let us in till we settle up.

[Ky'sMom]

So sorry you were not able to get the dream house Chrissy. I also think the old house sounds like a good deal, but I would be afraid of it being vandalized as well. When we moved in our house someone had broken in while the house was vacant (before we bought it) and tore out all teh copper wiring and stole all the copper pipes for plumbing as well. Luckily we had a great home inspector who was a friend of ours and the bank paid for everything to be fixed before we moved in, but it was about 15K worth of work that some drug addicts caused who probably only got $20-$30 worth of copper out of all the wires and pipes put together.

Cass, that sucks that people were so rude to you over the phone. That is one of my biggest pet peeves about Atlanta actually and one of the main reasons I want to move away from here eventually. People talk about "Southern Hospitality" but since I've lived here (since 1997) any time I call any place I have to brace myself for a phone battle. Now a days I use kudzu or other sites to try to narrow down those that have horrible customer service and I avoid them if I can but other places, like local city government offices and the police, I cannot avoid. The police especially are the rudest people here I have ever talked to. The water department, run by the city are a close second. I haven't called either of them in probably 2 years and hope to not have to call them again for another 5 years at least. So sorry though that you had to endure a bunch of crap when trying to get your baby boy some help. I don't see what is so difficult about being nice to people when they call a place of business, especially a doctor's office.

I also don't like chronic complainers. My DH used to be like that but he isn't so much anymore. Ky also went through a complaining stage and it was very difficult for me. I think I am just too simple minded. I rarely complain about my actual life or things I do or my children especially (lots of people complain to me about little kids, I can understand toddlers or teenagers, but 8 year olds don't really do much IMO to complain about). Usually it is nothing to complain about either, like their 3 year old "talks to much" (I hear this a lot) or their teenager bugging them about driving or something like that that IMO is not worthy of complaints. My aunt complains about her son "being too serious" he is 17, I'm always wondering why is that so bad. He's a great kid and doesn't cause her any trouble at all. Go figure.

Erin

[missychrissy]

When I talked to the bank last night, they were clear that there wouldn't be any help from them if there are issues with the house that make it unlivable. I can understand their point-we haven't paid in 3 years and we left it vacant. I'm going to see if my dh or brother can get in. We own it, so...screw 'em.

ita with you about people that complain about things with kids that aren't really complaint worthy. Kids are kids, and they each have their own personalities. Being 'too serious' isn't worthy of a complaint, imo. Bobbie is also very serious. My only worry with her is I hope she can lighten up and just enjoy the small things in life. It's not a complaint, but a mommy worrying about her daughter's happiness. Seriousness can be a positive thing...I've never met a teenager more worried about social and political issues in my life. I'm very proud that she thinks of society as a whole and not just of herself.