School

Finally! I get to start school! My first two classes I can take online but then I have to go to a testing center for the test. I am looking forward to it. I have been studying in the evenings and of course I get to work the job during the day. I don't get to do the actual appraisals but as an assistant I get to work thru every step of the process.

I love doing the research. I gather almost all of it online, occasionally I have to call the assessor or treasurers' office for information, but most of it I can find online. The county courthouses have all the info online now from the property report card, tax information and aerial maps of the property. I think I would have enjoyed selling real estate in this day and age than I did over 20 years ago. When I did it back then I hated all of the trips to the courthouses.

When I get an order in for an appraisal, the research process begins and before long I have assembled information that tells a complete story of the subject property, including all of the owners, remodeling projects and tear downs and new constructions. This is one particular profession where I see how immensely the internet has benefited the job at hand.

My mother has been doing this for almost 30 years and one thing she started years ago that is so much fun to look through now is: Every home on Lake Tippecanoe (because we all live on or near that lake) - she has taken a picture of when they are going to be torn down. Then she takes a picture of the new home. She has a large file of this ongoing process around the lake and its quite fascinating to look through.

I know I have babbled a lot lately about my new profession - but I really am liking it and wish I would have done it 20 years ago when I had the chance. Better late than never.

Get over it kid

Hmmm.....my guess is her husband is not ever home because of her!!!

Red Skelton's Pledge of Allegiance

Listen to the end....

Things that bother me....

I had a situation at work last week that absolutely disturbed me to the point that I lost sleep and was still upset when I arrived at work the next day.

My sister does the inspections on the appraisals that come in. She puts the schedule together and gives it to me to make phone calls and set up the appointments.

One of the places that I called, I got voicemail and left a message for them to call me back. After 20 years, experience has been if you give too much notice, they forget the appointment and if the notice is too short - give them an option of two days later than the one presented. When the lady called me back, she was very distressed because we were only giving her one day notice. We were asking to come between 2 and 4 and we would call 1/2 hour in advance. She flipped because her husband doesn't get off work til after 2:30. I said fine, I would note not to come until after 3 if he could be home by then. Then she said he may have to work until 3 so I said we would come after 3:30 and call first. She still wasn't happy, I told her we could come two days later if she liked. She was still pissed.

She hung up, called her parents, called her husband and called the lender and called back to the office and demanded to speak to the office manager, which is me presently. I again offered her many options, apologized profusely and did everything to appease her. We settled on 3:30 and would come two days later if her husband didn't make it home. She still wanted to be mad. No matter what, I could not win.

The lender called later and wanted to know what was going on, I told him the entire situation and apologized to him also, even though I didn't do anything wrong. He was ok. I guess.

The next day, my sister arrived before 3:30 the hubby was there and was as nice as could be. She apologized to him and he actually told her to extend an apology to me, he said his wife has been in "biotch" mode for weeks now.......

So I lost sleep and stressed over this for?????

Pink Tulips

Pink tulips are my most favorite flowers. I went to Wally World tonight to pick up some things for my son to take to school tomorrow for his birthday treat, he will be nine on Sunday. Well believe it or not, right there in the flower case was pink tulips. I stopped and looked at them a long time. My son asked why I was looking at them and I told him because I love them. He said well why don't you get them. I was like na, I don't need them.

So we went on our way and had to make a trip through the toy aisle so he could be sure that he knew that I knew exactly what he wants for his birthday. He asked me again to get the tulips for myself. And again, I said I didn't need them. On we traveled to the food section and got fruit roll ups, gold fish crackers and capri sun juice bags. On to the checkout.

He said to me that he wasn't going to leave the store til I got my flowers and he would give me his own money to pay for them when we got home. I said I will just buy them for myself to celebrate having such a wonderful son. He liked that and I did too. So, I have pink tulips in a vase on my fireplace mantle tonight and an adorable almost 9 year old son upstairs in his bed asleep.

Teal

Teal is the color I decided on for my family room. My son and I are painting it today. I chose to paint the back wall and around the corner and the stairway wall into the foyer. It is going to take two coats, but I think it will look good.

I am already aching and hurting and have had one of my dizzy spells that I kept having this summer. But its ok, when we get the second coat of paint on a little later I will go take a hot bubbly bath!

We have the Colts game on and all is well. It will be a weekend of something accomplished.

Unfortunately, tomorrow at work is going to be a completely different story. We have an absolute mess with our computer conversion. My mother is ready to fire both companies which would be horrible because none of us know enough about anything that has been done to fix anything. So if you have it in your heart, say a little prayer for me for my day at work tomorrow, its gonna be a tough one.

Computer Problems

OMG it has been a week from hell. We got a new computer at work and an upgrade to our WCA program. What a nightmare. Three women working together in an office who know just enough to be deadly. We have been on long distance calls with tech support most of the week and have been down more than up. One of the geeks came out to work on it again today and guess what? We are right back at square one. They are coming out Monday to uninstall and re-install. I see at least two more days of down time. I hate working and not getting anything done.

Halloween or Reality?

This picture was sent to me on Halloween, but somehow it just seems appropriate anytime of the year with her.

My mother picks some of the strangest candidates to endorse and for the worst possible reasons. She is on the bandwagon for Hillary. Her reason? Because she is a woman. I am just glad that my vote will cancel my mother's vote.

I lost respect for Hillary years ago. The fact that she has always been a "mighty businesswoman" but she stood by and let her husband make a complete mockery of her marriage. At that point in time Hillary had the opportunity to send a powerful message to women everywhere, a message stating that women do not have to be treated that way, we can all stand tall and be proud of ourselves and we do not need a man for our identity. Hillary should have and could have divorced her husband for his tom foolery, and moved forward with her life and you know what? I would have respected her then and I probably would consider voting for her if she had shown a backbone then, but she just let a man walk all over her and make a fool of her. So add to that her identity problem, you know the one where she changes persona for each crowd of people that she addresses? "Witch" Hillary is the real Hillary?

Friendship

"If one day you feel like crying, call me. I don't promise that I will make you laugh, but I can cry with you. If one day you want to run away, don't be afraid to call me. I don't promise to ask you to stop, but I can run with you. If one day you don't want to listen to anyone, call me. I promise to be there for you but also promise to remain quiet. But one day if you call and there is no answer, come fast to see me. Perhaps I need you.

P-A-I-N-T

I have been agonizing over painting my living room for the last few weeks. Ever since I decided to get a new sofa I have decided I need a splash of color. I started out thinking a shade of red. Then I was thinking blue, then green, then a peachy color, but most of the time I was always drifting off to teal. Teal is my most favorite color. So I have made the decision its going to be teal. I have two really tall walls in my living room and two shorter, normal walls. I have opted to paint the back wall that extends into the foyer also and am going to paint the shorter walls in the foyer. I think it will add a nice splash of color and accomplish the effect I am looking for. And if not, well, its only paint, they sell millions of colors the next day too!

Disposable Society

I have a lot of ideas floating around in my head of just what point I am wishing to make with this post. Bear with me, it could be interesting or it could be a big yawn, if it turns into a big yawn I may delete it, if not, offer your two cents on what I am trying to say here or just ignore it, the beauty of blogs!

Have you noticed just how disposable our lives have gotten? Its really kind of sad. I have a gorgeous dining room table in my home with a buffet server. It belonged to my great grandmother and I have every intention of my daughter taking it with her into her home some day. Its been thru the generations of our family and is still beautiful. On the flip side of that, I have the third set of new living room furniture in my lifetime now. My grandmother is probably turning in her grave, furniture was a lifetime investment in her world.

I don't personally remember the milk man and the glass bottles of milk, but I know they existed. I wore cloth diapers as a baby, but would not even consider such an inconvenience for my babies.

A lot of convenience has been created in our lives by "disposableness", however, it seems like it has changed our perception on some things.

My parents are still in touch with people they grew up with. They have been life long friends and still get together frequently. My childhood and life has been a lot more mobile and I have not maintained such friendships in my lifetime. Perhaps mobile and maybe even mobility are key words here......feeding into the "disposable" angle I am going for here.

Since my separation and divorce I have discovered many facets of "disposability". Starting with the day my now ex husband "flipped the switch" on his emotions and said, "I don't love you and I don't want to be married to you." Wow. Just like that. Then the friends who "flipped the switch" and said sorry, I am friends with your ex, therefore I can't be your friend too" (it would make it difficult for them to sit and talk negative about me.)

Moving on to the dating scene. I will be honest, I really don't like the options of meeting a man in a bar, I don't think I will find what I am searching for there. I have turned to the internet dating sites to see what might be available. I personally like this avenue for meeting men. You can spend time learning about them and getting to know them slowly before you even have a first date. Unfortunately, not all of them adhere to the honesty is the best policy thought process. Still, the internet does offer a chance to weed through some of that. Now the most negative aspect of it that I have found is the fact that even when you meet someone who might just have potential, you still have the ability to keep perusing for something even better. It seems like many good people get "thrown away" or "disposed" of because of the next good possibility. I know its not just the internet, but I think it has definitely enabled this whole process. I have met a couple of men over the years that I really liked a lot, but I got thrown by the wayside as they found a shinier prettier model....whole other issue I have perhaps.

Now here is the real true point to this whole rambling post....FRIENDSHIPS. I guess I believe friendships are a forever thing. They are different than a romance, they are true blue thick and thin bad and good friends. I have not had many of those "best friends" in my life, but the ones I have had I have kept and would never throw them away. Again honesty is always the best policy and it is sometimes more difficult to maintain a friendship with someone of the opposite sex because they tend to drop all friends when they meet a new special someone and special someones are not always understanding of a best friend of the opposite sex. I personally have always indicated such a situation to the best friend but I have also made it clear to my special someone that this person is a very dear friend of mine and I will be there for them, day or night....why doesn't everyone think that way?? Why can some people just throw you away?

Monopoly

There are three things that my mother told me many times as I was growing up, that I didn't always listen to, and they didn't always make sense to me, but now I think I am getting it. Slowly but surely.

She always said, "be nice to everyone you meet, you never know later on in life how they may help you."

She also told me, "no matter what your lot in life may be, build something on it."

Pretty wise woman eh?

This is her other revelation to me that makes a lot of sense and I wish I could put it into play at this. She said as a kid she loved to play monopoly. She constantly played the game and always bought all the real estate and built on it so she could charge rent. Very smart woman. Later in life, when she divorced my dad she went into real estate sales and when she could she bought houses and fixed them up and rented them out. Residual income you see. I get the picture now. Buy them low enough and they are quickly paid for and less taxes and repairs, they produce income. Monthly.

I know this is a common known fact and a smart business. But I never really looked at it before. But now that I am working with her and my sister and working on appraisals, I see a lot of houses going into foreclosure. It is most definitely a buyer's market and if I had the cash right now I would be buying up properties and fixing them up and renting them. No matter what, there will always be people renting. It is my goal when I get on my feet in this business to invest in real estate, I see the potential there.

Call me crazy, but I really think my mama is a smart lady! (Shhhhh don't tell her I said this!)

Sad news

Over the weekend I ran into a dear friend of mine I had not seen for a couple of months. We were in a bar in Fort Wayne and he pulled me out to the wonderful smoking patio (I don't smoke) but we could hear to talk over the band. He informed me he has stomach cancer and is terminally ill. He has opted to forego treatment and just be comfortable. He is younger than me. He is going to Indy to the VA hospital at the first of February and will probably never leave there.

This breaks my heart. He is a good friend who would do anything in the world for anyone but has always been something of a lost soul. He has been a drifter and at times a "mooch" - but we all know and accept him as he is. We know to never give him more money than we can afford to depart with and never see again. We know when he shows up to sleep on our sofa to not let him stay too long or he will not leave.

Nevertheless, this is not my wish for him. My wish for him was to find his happiness in life and settle down into a normal life. I have to say, he seemed more free and happy than I have ever seen him. I think he truly has found his inner peace. He did say he has made peace with his family and has all of his affairs in order.

My prayers are with him.

All is quiet on the home front

Its just kind of calm and quiet and uneventful on the home front. The rest of the Christmas items are piled in the living room and being boxed up to be put away for another year, when the boys get home from their dad's tonight I will have them help me carry everything back down to the basement. While we are down there we will work on straightening it up for them, since I got the new furniture in the family room, they now have two sofas and a recliner down in their area. I am going to look for some carpet so they can section of an area to be their relaxing area down there. I am planning on purchasing a flat screen tv sometime in the next three months to hang over the fireplace, which in turn will lead to the present tv being moved to the basement and they will be all set down there, they can hook the play station into it and have at it! I would be happy if I were them!

Tomorrow the kids will return to school and life will start to get back to normal. I am looking forward to getting back into a routine and back on schedule. I will go to the grocery store today before the boys return and stock up for the week. It was just my daughter and I here this week and it was amazing at how clean the house and kitchen stayed and we didn't run out of anything, when the boys are here, well, its a madhouse!

Have a great day and I hope all of the rest of you are looking forward to normalcy again also!

Saying goodbye to the old year

2007 was not the best year ever, nor was it the worst, however it has to be one that I was the most happy to see pass. 2007 was the year it seemed that I lived my life in limbo. I dealt with health issues and career and love issues and it seemed to go no where for the longest time.

The health issues were the hardest to deal with. And they for the most part overshadowed everything else. I just didn't feel well enough most of the time to worry about any of the rest. You truly can have everything in your life, but if you don't have good health, you pretty much got nothing. A hard lesson learned. Back in October I experienced a wonderful day when I was able to go for a long walk outside on a crisp day and breathe in deep the fresh air and not feel pain. It really was a glorious day. It was also when I picked myself up by the bootstraps and told myself to get it together and get back in the game.

By November I knew I was going to take the opportunity my mother presented to me and I am going to be an appraiser. I am truly the loving the work I am now doing and love learning more each day. I feel a purpose there and a true career for me. This is going to sound really silly, but I feel like a real grown up now.

I still have a few health issues, but they are getting better each day, my kids are doing great and we have a good family life and I have a good relationship with each of them. My truck wannabe is in the body shop and is going to be ok once it gets 5k of work done on it. It's like the energizer bunny, it just keeps going and going.

Obviously 2007 was a year I had to endure in order to pull myself together to face all that is ahead of me and enjoy and embrace each and every day.

My wish for all is to find true happiness and hold the ones most dear to you, the closest to you, never let them doubt whether they matter to you, reassure them as often as you can.

Happy New Year!