Home loan modification???? Yeah Right!!!!!

Another day, another rant!  I won’t even get started on the health care bill passing, because I’m afraid it would take up too much space here on wordpress!!!  But, suffice it to say, as a person with a chronic illness, and a small business owner…well…we are pretty much screwed!!!!  Enough said!

Now on to home loan modification!  My hubby and I are among the millions of families who have struggled over the last few years to make ends meet.  For those of you who read my blog you know that my husband lost his job and was out of work for almost a year before he started his own business…(which he is working so hard at and I’m so proud of him for!)  So, we went to our friendly mortgage lender, and, with the confidence we had been given by our new President, and all the “change” he had in store for our lives here in the US, we applied for a loan modification!  We were told, what we thought, was everything we needed to know, what forms to fill out, what information to send our lender, and proceeded to do all that was necessary to get the help we needed.  We were told by our lender that if we did everything correctly, and sent in all the information they requested, we were sure to be given our modification.  Afterall, our new president had set in place this amazing program to help all of us in need, get the help we needed!!!!  They told us we needed to send in, for three months consecutively, the new payment amount they had figured out for us, in order to prove we could make the payments each month.  So, starting last July, we began vigilently making those payments.  Three months later we checked in again with our lender and everything was a go, and we were on our way!  So, for almost a whole year now we have been making those payments, checking in occassionally to make sure everything was still on track..we were assured all was well.  That is until our March payment came back in the mail with a letter saying…”the payment is not enough to cover the debt”.  What?????

So, we called the number on the letter…guess what…it wasn’t even the right number for us to call.  Three phone numbers later and transferred to three different people till we finally reached a supervisor, we were told that underwriting had “denied our modification.    Excuuuuuse me????  Why were we denied?  We asked.   You will never believe the answer….here it is…wait for it…..WE MAKE TOO MUCH TO QUALIFY FOR OBAMA’S MODIFICATION AND NOT ENOUGH TO QUALIFY FOR THE LENDERS MODIFICATION!!!  Are you kidding me???? 

So, for a year we have done our due diligence, made our payments, and crossed every T and dotted every I.  And, got nothing.  So then I asked “were we ever going to be told  that we were denied the loan mod?”  “Well,” said the supervisor in his superior tone…” according to our records a letter will be going out in 7-14 days.”  Awww how sweet…they want to give us 2 weeks to come up with 30,000 bucks or sell our house, find a new place to live, pack all our stuff up and move.  And, guess what…all those amazing underwriters who just decided our life for us…no one is allowed to talk to them..they are untouchable.  Yet they are the same people who, through bad loans a few years ago, got our country to the wonderful place it is right now.  They are also the same people who recently recieved bonuses for their amazing work this past year.  I’m sure some of that bonus money came from what we sent in over the last year…You are welcome, Mr. Banker/Crook!

Am I a little angry?  Yes I am.  Do I feel as if our government, at this point, is no better then some communists trying to take over?  you bet!  OH and just to top it off…those bankers…those government employees…they don’t need to worry about health care either…cuz we all are paying for that too!!!

I do have faith that God will get us through this…that He will take care of us and this chaotic life we live.  Somehow, someway He will make beauty come of all this!  But today…I’m really questioning why things can’t be just a little bit easier now and then…why does it always have to be so hard????

end of rant for the day!  Here are some more photos of the new baby…there is at least one bright spot in an otherwise not so great day!

my Reille Hunter rant….

Okay, so I’ve seen all the TV coverage, the people magazine articles, Elizabeth Edwards on The Today Show, GMA etc etc.  So, I figured to get the flip side of the story, even though I really detest the very thought of mistresses and their typical “blame game” of the wife…I needed to read Miss Hunters side of the Story in GQ magazine.  I tried my hardest to keep an open mind about her, to try to remember she is a mom, has a child to worry about with Mr. Edwards.  And so I read.

Well, my opinion of her didn’t change much…except to maybe like her even less.  From the get go of her story she tries really hard to justify her actions by, again, blaming the wife…or the “toxic marriage” between John and Elizabeth Edwards.  I will say it again…if you have a bad marriage, one that is not salvagable, GET “Out of it before moving on to someone else.  No matter how messed up your marriage is, having an affair is not going to help the situation, and it WILL, take it from one who knows, it will make this 100 times worse then if you had just ended it to begin with.

She talks about thier first meeting and that it was incorrectly told originally, in Elizabeth Edwards book.  Well, let me say that Miss Hunters version of their initial meeting didn’t make it seem any better or make her look more innocent.  The first words out of her mouth to John Edwards were “you’re hot”….INNAPPROPRIATE!!!  And she wasn’t a teenager, or a little twenty something woman.  She was a middle aged woman who should have known better.  And then later that day she had a meeting with him  WHERE????  Not in a resturant or diner, like most normal people have a business meeting…it was in his hotel room.  She describes this un believable attraction the moment they saw each other…they couldn’t stop staring…etc etc…so she decides to meet  him in his  hotel room!  She justifys it by saying he is a ‘celebrity” and that is the norm for them….Duh…it is also the norm for them to lie and cheat on their spouses…(enter Brad pitt and Angelina Jolie!)

We go on from there to how they slept together in that first meeting in his hotel room…I have a hard time believing she didn’t know that was going to happen given the way she describes their initial “attraction” to each other…and she KNEW he as married.  The whole thing is so inappropriate…not just on her part but on Mr. Edwards part as well. 

She talks about him being such a humanitarian, that he never lies to HER???  Guess what…men who cheat on their wives LIE to thier mistresses!  Any one who believes differently is naive!  She mentions the renewal of vows between John Edwards and his wife and how he called her and told her “it didn’t mean anything”…all the while telling his wife this was a new beginning..and she defends him as if he is a man of such strong moral character…Huh!!!!

And there is all the money that was put in her bank account….$5000.00 a month…and it was supposedly because Edwards Associate didn’t think Miss hunter should be spending her own money to visit “Johnny” when he was traveling.  Wow, I wish someone would pay me $5000.00 a month to travel all over the country!  What a lovely gift!  On the one hand she claims to be a smart woman…on the other…well you can figure it out!

She places no blame on John Edwards for the affair, for hurting his wife and kids, she places the blame on Elizabeth Edwards.  She takes no responsibility herself for any problems that have gone on in that marriage.  Whether there were problems in the marriage or not…she does bear responsibility along with Mr. Edwards for her behavior.   And she is living on blind faith that everything that Mr. Edwards told her about his life is the absolute truth.  Hmmmm…..

Like many mistresses I have read about, who speak out about their affairs, there is no remorse, no apologies, no taking of responsibility.  I’m sorry, but jumpin in bed with a man you know is married, whether the marriage is good bad or otherwise, is a choice…for both parties.  And the fact that society as a whole has begun to look on infidelity as trivial or the norm is appalling to  me!

As a woman who has been cheated on I can tell you that once it has happened you are never the same.  There is no trust anymore.  You question yourself, your choices, your life and all the years you wasted on a marriage that ended in ruin.  And, it is said that an affair cannot happen in a marriage that has no problems.  All I can say to that is show me a married couple that says they have no problems and I will show you the mayors of fantasy land.  Marriage is problems, it is conflict, it is two human beings trying to cohabitate in the same space, 24/7.  That is difficult at best.  So, if an affiar is going to happen in a marriage with problems, probably no one should ever marry!  We should all just sleep around, have kids with various people and forget the whole prospect of a committed relationship.  And, should miss hunter end up with Mr. Edwards, I would wager that she will spend most of her life looking over her shoulder for the woman who will be the one to take her place!

So, that is my Reille hunter rant for the day!  I’m sure her parents would be so proud of her accomplishments!!!!!

Another day in paradise

Today was a pretty basic day.  Got my hair cut, went to the grocery store, came home and held the baby..changed the baby…loved on the baby!!!  He is so tiny and cute, its hard to believe he is real sometimes.  He looks like a doll. 

I’m still having issues with my back, and not knowing what is going on is getting a little frustrating.  I have even had problems with my leg going a bit numb!  I will be going to the neurologist in a week or so, but till them I am still just dealing with the pain and hoping that it can be fixed some how. 

I’m going to try to sing for easter at church this year.  It will be the first time in several years that I have done that.  It seems like everytime I make plans to do something like that I end up sick and unable to participate.  I am hoping that since I was sick for the whole week last week maybe I will be okay for a bit. 

Here are a few more pictures of the new baby…including him smiling.  I’m pretty sure it was gas…but one can pretend that the boy is a genius at a very  young age!

***BREAKING NEWS: New grandbaby finally comes home.

I haven’t been here in a while.  Life has been a little hectic…and a little unhealthy…as of late.  Our new grandbaby was born February 21…he was premature, only weighing about 3 lbs…so his hospital visit was a lengthy one.  We were so excited for him to come home, especially his big brother who could only see him in pictures and a couple times through the hospital glass.  Finally, yesterday he got to come home.  It was a great day for everyone!

Meanwhile, I spent most of last week laid up with the flu…bad flu…and of course when you are a lupus fighter you worry that things will get worse instead of better.  So, I tried my hardest to stay in bed, rest, drink lots of fluids and take all the medication the doctor told me to.  It’s hard when you have kids that need to be run from here to there, and a business (which is really totally run by  my hubby who does an amazing job with it) that you have to go to now and a again…it’s hard to feel totally great about needing to stay in bed and rest.  And, of course there is the household things that don’t get done and all of that besides.  But I am feeling so  much better now and I’m gonna keep taking care of myself so that I can hold that precious baby whenever he needs to be held (or when he doesn’t need to be held . 

The kids have spring break this week so they have been busy with, well, sleeping mostly.  Jake, of course, has had his band practices and little dates with his girlfriend…how weird is it that my baby boy is old enough to go on dates with a girlfriend?  How and when did I get this old?  Anyway, I digress…it has been a busy week, lots of stuff goin on. 

God is good..He has done great things in my life.  And seeing the tiny little one that has now become a part of this family makes me even more grateful for the life that I have.  I love watching my daughters light up when they see my grandkids..even though they are “step”, our family is blended, they adore them with no hint that there is any difference in how we became a family.  There have certainly been difficult times in this life.  It has not been easy and I know my kids have had their fair share of sadness and hurt during the years.  I so admire them for their love and their open hearts, for their spirit of love and generosity.  I’m very proud of them.

So, here are a few photos of the baby and his homecoming…it was truly a highlight of our life!

troy sees wyatt

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