8th Time's the Charm

So I have some more house news. Today has been a crazy day. I woke up around 3am unable to sleep so I went to the computer and got my landlord license for Provo City so I can legally rent out my house that I haven't been able to sell. I went to work and got called a mean pregnant lady by one of our customers (which was pretty funny). After work Tom and I went to our Labor and Delivery class then got a text from our realtor saying that we got the house we made an offer on a couple of days ago.

The story behind that is that we had a house all ready to rent about ten miles from where we are now. We have been living in a boxed up house waiting for the notice to leave from the bank because this house went to auction last week. Wait, no, we found out that the auction has been postponed until mid April. When we learned that we decided to look at one more house that our realtor emailed to us. It is 3650 sq ft, 5 car garage, .38 acres, and the best part, has a swimming pool! We were amazed at the low price of this bank owned house so we made an offer on it. The bank came back and said that someone else offered and to make our best offer. Well, the same thing happened on house #7 that we tried for so we were feeling like the same thing would happen and the bank would accept the other offer.

So we got the text from Hart that said they accepted our offer and went over to his house after our class and signed the papers to put us under contract.

I'm so excited. Again, this is the 8th house we've tried to buy and I think it is the best investment, not to mention the most fun. I realize it is real estate and the whole deal might not go through, but I don't feel bummed that we got this one (which wasn't the case even when we made offers on a few others). I feel good about it and with my house being rented (knock on wood), we will be saving a few hundred dollars a month more than we have been, even with the mortgage payment.

In other news, I'm 33 and 1/2 weeks along and last Tuesday had gained another 4 pounds for a total of 29 pounds. Morgan (or Lex) seems to be very healthy. I'm so blessed!

Vegas Baby

I went to Vegas last Wednesday night to spend Thursday with Kim, Katie and friends/family. There was going to be a wedding but things were postponed for a little while so it ended up being a get together slash present exchange.

This is what I gave to Kim. She was too embarrassed to touch it in front of anyone so Chris took over.

Kim, Katie and Donna gave me tons of baby clothes that I love so much.

We spent the day walking around the strip. We started at the M&M Factory, then Coke Factory. Then we ate at a buffet in the Excalibur before walking to the MGM hotel and the Bellagio to see the water show.

By the end of the day I was really achy from carrying around my extra 25 pounds but it was a good time.

Thanks again Kim, Katie and Donna for all the baby clothes!

Our Loan Defaulting Landlord

I got a classic message from our former property management company today. It went along the lines of...

"Hi Kelli. I just wanted to let you know that David Lynch" -- guy who owned the house until the bank took it on March 13th -- "called. He just got back from a three week vacation and was expecting to have thirteen days of rent when he got back. He also wants to talk to you about the refrigerator. Anyway, I didn't give him your number but I gave an email address so he will probably contact you about those things."

What! Really? Gosh I feel like I'm always ripping on people but really, a three week vacation when you don't pay for your house? Really?

Anyway, the property management company told us not to pay for March because of the whole being forced to move thing. We have it in writing so if Mr. Lynch wants to cry about 13 days of rent that he didn't get, I'm up for the fight.

We are currently still in the house but we have another waiting for us to sign the lease on Wednesday. We have looked at well over 100 houses to buy, made offers on 7 and nothing has worked out. We're taking it as an answer to a prayer that now is not the time for us to buy.

32 Weeks

This week has been eventful. We had our dr. appointment last Tuesday. Everything looks great. I gained another 2 pounds last month for a grand total of 25 pounds so far.

Last weekend Tom's mom and step-dad came to Boise to help us pack up our house. The house went to auction and we are not sure when we will get a notice to leave nor how many days we will have. Thanks Jo Ann and Ron for your help. Thanks to Sandi, Jory and Hart too.

31 Weeks... Almost

Yay! We've passed the 30 week mark. My next appointment with the OB is Tuesday, then I start going every two weeks.

The good news is that my sciatic nerve isn't being pinched anymore and doesn't hurt. I'm so lucky. I also feel the baby moving around a lot. I love laying on my side with my hand on my belly because I can feel her arms and/or legs move from side to side.

I go walking almost every day for about 30-40 minutes. I hope it helps me lose the baby weight because I'm feeling so fat. I can't wait to go running. This is a picture of me a few minutes ago. I'm going to attempt a bike ride.

We went to the first of four labor and delivery classes on Thursday. We watched a movie that followed a few women through the births. I think what Tom and I both got out of it is that there is no reason to ever do it naturally if you have medicine as an option. It would be like going to the dentist and having a root canal done without meds. Masochism!

Moral Dilemma

After lunch one of my coworkers came back and told us about what happened to him at the ATM. He typed in that he wanted $40 and the ATM spit out $60. He was totally excited when he told us.

What would you do?

There were three moral responses to the spitting ATM story.

First was that he should call the bank, explain what happened and let them decide what to do about it. The money was not his and it is stealing if he kept it without telling the rightful owner.

Second was that it's all about karma. If he kept it without talking to the bank, karma would play back twice as hard in some other way.

Third was that he had been charged so many overdraft fees by fault of the bank employees that he deserved the $20 and didn't have to tell anyone at the bank.

My answer was the first, two other girls answered the second, the ATM boy answered the third and our manager just smiled and didn't say anything.

Really, which stance would you take if it happened in your office?

Financial Morons and Mormons

I work for a finance company owned by AIG (remember the bailout?). At the end of the month our delinquency has to be under a certain percentage. It is the end of the month so I've been dealing with some major hosers this week and I'm going to take a moment to give my harsh but honest opinion.

Some people are financially stupid and irresponsible. I'm sorry if that sounds mean but it is true.

Example 1: Brent has been late on every payment since he took out his loan. He gets a late fee around $20 every month. That is $240 per year. It's not a ton of money but it could be some one's entire Christmas.

I called him today to see if we could work things out where he pays within his grace period. Do you think he would be at all reasonable? He says that he won't and will just pay the late fee. What?! And he does! Every month he'll pay the bill but always with a late fee. Financially stupid!

My favorite was when I asked him why he couldn't pay on time. He told me that its because he didn't get a bailout like I did. I very sternly told him that I didn't get jack and I still pay my bills on time. Then I called him a bad word when I hung up.

Example 2: Jennifer has $15,000 in debt. All but $3,000 is either a student loan or secured by collateral (car, boat, trailer, etc.). One day I called her for her payment and she said that she couldn't make it and was declaring bankruptcy so she'd just drop the car off at our office.

Okay, lets go over this... you cannot include the government, i.e. student loan, in a bankruptcy (unless it is a private loan which most are not). If you want to keep your collateral you have to reaffirm your account and pay the loan. Does this make sense to her? Nope. The reason she made the choice is because she and her husband went to a lawyer for tax advice. He told them that they should declare bankruptcy. What?! Even if the husband had a lot of debt, Jennifer is not bankrupt. What a crap lawyer!

Example 3: Norma is like a million years old. She had good credit a year ago... then she cosigned on a loan for her son. Originally his credit was crap so she offered to help him get an $800 loan. Do you think he paid? Not a payment. Now I have to call Norma every day to try to get $40 a month from her. She hasn't answered in 2 weeks. I'm not even sure if she's still alive.

This is a perfect example of why you should never, I repeat, never cosign on a loan for someone unless you are prepared to pay it back yourself because the person you are cosigning with will default. There is a reason that people need cosigners. It shows on their credit that they can't be trusted to pay.

That is enough of my examples for now. I realize that sometimes people are bankrupt for good reasons (medical, etc.) and that is why there are laws allowing bankruptcy. However, I am sick of people that have boats, cars, trailers, four wheelers and other toys, all of which are new, and get so far in-over-their-heads that if some $1,000 emergency happens one month it destroys their house of cards and they "have to" declare bankruptcy. Then you see them the next day eating at Red Robin after they got their nails done. That's so immoral to me.

If you think I am exaggerating, I'm not. Every story I told is true, including Red Robin. We once had an LDS couple write to our manager requesting that we alter their loan to a 0% interest loan because they couldn't afford everything they have. They included a copy of their budget and gave themselves a hefty allowance for clothes every month. A clothes budget when you can't pay your bills?! Now, most people in my office are not LDS and I can tell you that things like that really damage the views that people of other faiths have about us. My boss told me after we talked about it that she really wishes that our church would say that bankruptcy (but she meant financial irresponsibility) is a sin. What do you say to that? "Um, I think it is and I pay my bills. The church tells us we should get out of debt..." But actions speak louder than words.

Thanks for reading. Now go out and spend money ONLY if you have it.