September 2003

More Babies First there was Michael (Mac) born on June 4 from Cindy then on August 21 pretty much on his due date baby Joshua was born from Pam. Another 20 minute labor from one us Phillips' girls. Now both Pam and Cindy have 4 kids each. Pam keeps it simple, her two oldest boys were born on the 6th of the month and now her youngest are born on the 21st.     Refinancing.....finally, finally! A while back we got an offer from Wells Fargo for an 4.85% 15 year refinance with absolutely no closing cost, only the cost of a notary (which would be free at my credit union). My house payment would only go up $6 and I shave at least 8 years off of the loan! Anyway he said we probably won't hear anything for awhile don't worry. Well the closing was August 1st and I hadn't heard anything. I was figuring they would send me the stuff overnight in time. On July 27th, I decided to go look at the front door which we never use and there is the packet sitting inside the screen door (most deliveries come to the side door.) Great, I take it in and look to see just how long it had been sitting there. On the first page it says it is VERY IMPORTANT to get this packet signed and sent in by July 7th ($%^$#!) or the deal is off. Shit! I immediately got on the phone to Wells Fargo and told my stupid story to 4 people before I got to someone who could help me. After the guy went off to talk to his manager, they decided that they will roll over my deal to next month at my determined rate and send me a new packet. I was getting near tears there for awhile. Apparently this packet has been sitting inside my screen door for a month! I quickly made a big sign for that stupid door to not leave anything there. That sign already saved the day a month later after we signed the new packet and sent it back and apparently they forgot a form and overnighted it. I had no clue it was coming so it would still be there if not for that sign, instead it is sitting on the ground in front of the side door. This roll over turned out to be a better deal for us. Since that first mortage's process started a couple months before the closing date and they started it with a payoff request to my old mortgage and this new deal made its request within a month of closing the payoff was $600 less. Ok I don't understand the math here because even if the difference is 3 months I know only $300 should of made a dent to the principal. Because the loan is now $600 less our payments are now 25 cents less than our old mortgage. We are saving $6 less a month. I got a check in the mail from the old mortgage company yesterday for $42 for escrow that we have never had with the mortgage in the first place. I think that check would of been for $642 had the first refinancing went through. At least we are not now mortgaging that $600! ISP I finally get with the program and go broadband after my cheapo internet provider (IVWnet for $8 monthly) fell off the face of the earth. I went with DSL because I am still cheap and it was $10 less a month than cable and besides cable isn't quite in my area yet. While because of where I live I get the slowest DSL but to me it is plenty fast and I am thrilled that it is always on, no more dial up! While I am making changes I get a postcard in the mail from DirectTV for satellite TV and finally ditch the cable. I pay $5 more a month because of the 2nd TV but I get a ton more channels that I did with my basic cable. I then get a notice from cable (after I cancel) that they are changing things, they are adding a few more channel and charging a lot more! Glad I jumped off that ship when I did. Now that we have channels like the History, Sci-Fi, Discovery Wings....do you see where I am going? Raleigh will now be domineering the TV with his new choices, I needed to set up my computer room with the 13" TV to be comfortable. I bought this cool chair from Ikea that is a comfy stuffed chair that opens up into a single bed so easily. It fits much better in that space then the double airbed did and much easier to set up. It will be perfect for Dorothy when she stays. When more than 2 need sleeping then we will pull out the airbed.   Vacation We haven't done too much camping this summer yet. We went out to Michigan for the peaches in August. Here is an entry to my blog about it below: This past weekend our little family headed out to SW Michigan for the peaches. I honestly don't do peaches, this was for Raleigh who was obsessed about them. Too bad we didn't go last week, they had a Glads Peaches festival. Gladiolus are Raleigh's favorite flowers, that with the peaches, he would of been in heaven. Anyway I took Friday off and we headed up to Michigan. The only state park around was already full for camping so it was off to find a private campground. We ended up in Decater MI. The didn't have a spot for 2 nights in the same site so we had to move over 2 spots the next day. Our site was right in the middle of everything. There was a sandy beach across the way, the playground fitted with a bunch of Little Tyke's houses was a few steps over, the bathroom and laundry was a few sites away as was the pool and campstore. While it was fun in its own way it isn't really camping as far as I am concerned, it is just a bunch of people parking their RVs next to each other and hanging out. On Saturday we went out to a peach orchard and picked our own. The coveted Red Havens weren't ready yet. The season is a little delayed so we picked some other variety. Raleigh got 16.5 albs of peaches then put them in the trunk while we went out for lunch. By the time we got back to the campground, half of them were rotting! The next morning even more were gone. We found out later you got to chill the ripe ones. Live and learn. Raleigh somehow made a peach cobbler on the campfire. I kept razzing him that he goes out camping just to "bake". Later that day me and Hollace hit the pool. I think we were in there for 2 hours, seemed like forever and Hollace told me she wanted to stay there forever. She had a lot of fun. Another reason we haven't done any camping is because Raleigh and his mom just got back from Seattle. I backed out of that trip because I just didn't want to go and wanted instead to use my last week of vacation camping. There were various other reasons why I didn't want to go that I won't go into here. Since I was working and Raleigh was in Seattle, I took Hollace out to Cindy's for the week where she got to play with her cousin Emma full time. Next month we will hook up that camper and head to Kentucky to meet baby Joshua and maybe do some camping in Missouri. Movie Star Sharon from ArtWork's 9 year old daugher is staring in an independent film and they were looking for a young Gabby for a couple flash back scenes. Hollace fit the bill. I didn't hold out hope that Hollace would cooperate realizing that I have ruined her for all photos and videos. Sure enough when asked she flat out said no! I told her there may be something in it for her. She immediately came back with "I don't need anymore new toys". Hmmm, news to me. I clarify her comments and she then has second thoughts. "There is one toy I need, a new Barbie" Aww, now we got our incentive. We head out to Park (trailer park) City to film in this trailer. The scene is set in 1980 and Hollace is suppose to be watching the Olympics where we win the gold, everyone gets excited. Raleigh is even in the movie, or probably only his hands as her dad (what a stretch) I guess they get what they need. We were suppose to do another scene a few days later but they never called. I hope what we did do doesn't end up on the cutting room floor. A few days later me and Hollace head out for that Barbie. What is more perfect than "Movie Star Barbie". We get that one. "mom", Hollace, Raleigh as the dad and Stephan the guy making the movie sitting in front of the 1980 TV Eating outside in costume with Sharon Still eating that pizza now with her movie mom Getting her hair done     The Race ...the movie I have edited my first feature film, well all 2.5 minutes of it. It is a 3mbs Quicktime movie. 3.4Mb QT