Mortgage

As people with a mortgage Jeff and I have been following the whole mortgage crisis with rapt attention. Now we didn't get as screwed as some people did because we didn't do any of the following:

1. Buy a McMansion

2. Take out a home equity loan and completely upgrade our house (though my God I would love to do this)

3. Roll credit card debt into our mortgage

Some people did these things for various reasons and it looks like the market is tanking. Ugh.. now what we DO have is an adjustable rate mortgage. And while we have two more years on our mortgage before we deal with the ramifications of this, we have been trying to figure out ways to change that. Re-finance if you will. Well, apparently you CANNOT refinance if you have been paying your mortgage. Who knew?? Apparently to get any good deals or any sort of help we need about $10,000 more in credit card debt and to stop making mortgage payments for like 6 months... than we will get help. How insane is this??? We're doing our best to be fiscally financial, and need I remind everyone that we're still living with a shower like this:

Not because I LOVE it... and I think that electrical tape is fabulous, but because we're trying to prioritize. Sigh... I hate being an adult some days!

Love for Cheesy Holiday Movies

I love, love, love all the old Christmas movies. You know, with the bad animation and everthing. Happy the Baby New Year, Rudolph, the Bumble and the Island of Misfit Toys. Love them. Well two of my very favorite characters were the Miser Brothers. You know, Heat Miser and Snow Miser and they fought ALL the time and sang the best song ever. And now... there's a sequel. Yes people, our dreams have been fulfilled, and my favorite song from the hour long special is as follows:




I'm getting emotional watching it right now...excuse me for a moment....

Trip to Wrentham

I went to the Wrentham Premium Village Outlets with my friend Jen and we had quite a nice time. I ventured into a maternity store and Jen actually found me a super cute black maternity dress that I plan on wearing tonight and I could also wear to work. I also got a pair of very comfortable black flats from Easy Spirit and two gifts. Something for my father and something for Jeff. I did have a couple of interesting experiences. At the maternity store I went up to pay for my dress and the woman asked for my phone number and zip code, fairly standard at some stores. Next she had my verify my address, which I thought was odd, but whatever. Next thing I know she is telling me I was APPROVED for some sort of maternity credit card. WHAT??? I didn't ASK to have her run a credit check on me, and I thought that I needed to agree to that? Not just wander into a store and have them running a pre-approval system without my knowledge. Is this legal??? I was PISSED. Is it me??? Is this normal and it's just been so long since I've been shopping that I have no idea anymore??

Second thing was Jen and I went into Zales to look around. Why not? We're girls, we love sparkly things... So in we went. And I saw this GORGEOUS, I mean seriously drop dead gorgeuos ring made with diamonds and BLUE DIAMONDS!! I didn't even know blue diamonds existed and the ring was to die for. Just to die for. Of COURSE I ask to see it because I enjoy taunting myself with expensive items that I can't afford... and the ring won't even fit on my baby bloated fingers, so Jen tries it on and OMG it was so beautiful. I scoured the Zales site looking for it and no dice. Here's something kind of similar:

Except instead of the gold band and diamond, it was encrusted with a row of sparkly and beautiful blue diamonds! It was seriously stunning and I was practically drooling with lust! Price? Well the *original* price was something like $2200. But of course the sales lady came over with her little calculator and chunka, chunka, chunka, it was now half off for $1100 and change. She next suggested we open a Zales credit card that is no interest for 12 months and then that gorgeous piece of bling would be all MINE!!!! <> Except... well.... no. I did think about it for like.. a second. I wanted that ring BADLY. But common sense prevailed and I left it behind. Sure I may have shed a tear when I left it behind in the glass case, but I did it. Sigh.... the price of being an adult I suppose.

Anyway, if anyone would perhaps like to know the perfect gift for me for Christmas I just so HAPPEN to have the item number and the sales lady business card. You know... JUST IN CASE! :-)

thoughts on parenthood

I don't really comment on parenthood or child rearing ideas because.. I'm not a parent. It's hard for me to judge because I haven't been in that situation. But since I'm pregnant now, I thought I could throw my two cents into the ring.

I just read this on MSNBC:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28112285/

A 70 year old woman in India gave birth to a baby girl thanks to IVF. Does anyone else think this is crazy?? At 34 I am worried about having the energy to deal with a newborn, I can't imaging being 70 and trying it. It just seems insanity to try something like this. Am I alone in this view? Should I just get over the whole age thing and just be happy that she and her husband have the baby they wanted?? I just can't get over the age thing though... odds are not good they will live long enough to see their child grow up and I'm wondering if they have a plan in place for that.. I don't know. Maybe I'm just over thinking the whole thing.

Three Jobs

Jeff and I were talking about finances and budgets - thoughts that have been consuming us what with the whole baby coming thing and I am trying to figure out how much longer I can keep working 6 days a week without snapping. The goal is to keep it up through January for the extra moolah, but everytime I mention I have three jobs there are questions. So here they are:

Monday - Thursday
Working at a Pediatric dental office in Lexington from about 7:15am until 5pm. It's my full time job and I gotta tell you, it's a soap opera every day. I had no idea that dental offices had so much drama. Insane.

Friday
Work at HomeInstead Senior Care (this is my favorite job right now) as the Recruiting Assistant. It's from 9:00am to 2:30pm.

Saturday is my day off.

Sunday I work at Elements at Woburn as a massage therapist from 10:00am until 3pm.

Those are the jobs. They're not TOO bad, and I have to say that one of the reasons I'm staying at Homeinstead is that I love it so much. The office is tiny, but the people are so nice and very encouraging and understanding and willing to work with you. ALSO.. it would be right next door to the Melrose YMCA which is one of the places we are looking into for daycare.

I'm thinking though that massage I'll only realistically be able to do for a few months longer, but I hate the idea of giving it up. I love getting the extra money and giving that up will stink. Though I confess having a full weekend to myself will be a wonderful thing!

Meanwhile this weekend I'm going to the Wrentham Outlets and there are actually baby shops that I'm going to go into and look for me. Me!!! I know, freaky!!! If I do buy something I'll be sure to share it!

QVC order

At night now I sit in bed around 9pm and watch QVC. It helps make me sleepy and I find it really soothing. Plus they have some REALLY cool stuff. And guess what I want??

http://www.qvc.com/qic/qvcapp.aspx?view=2&app=detail&params=item^K20139,frames^y,from^se,cm_scid^isrc,cm_ssi^Item:%20K20139&cm_re=PAGE-_-SEARCH-_-K20139

It's the Technique 10 piece Silicone Collapsible Bake and Carry Bakeware set. It's SOOOO cool! And everything collapses into one tidy littly carry piece so you can keep it all neat and pretty. Love it! LOVE IT! See.. we don't have a lot of storage in our house and the idea of keeping all my bakeware in one place is really nice. You have NO idea how hard it was not to order it IMMEDIATELY because I wanted it badly. Normally while I am watching QVC I just watch and have no real impulse to buy.. but this really called out to me. If they offerred it on their "easy pay" option I would totally get it.

So score me for not getting it and sticking to our budget but oh boy do I want it!

Jeep

Are you ready? Because God only knows Jeff and I weren't ready.
$687.39

I wanted to DIE!!!!! They kept my Jeep until this evening and they replaced the following:
car battery
Power steering hose
Pressure Hose
replacing the steering fluid
and a whole lot of other stuff I just don't understand,

And?? AND... they are suggesting we get the coolant replaced and spark plugs replaced at some point. Sigh.... I love my car and I am determined to pay it off so we won't have a car payment but still.. this is the problem with used cars. They need MAINTENANCE!

I think I'm going through my bookcase to see if there are some other books to sell!!