Current events

Hiya, Stalkers!  I'm still here!  I know I've slowed from my hot & heavy posting to win my made up contest keep you informed of all aspects of my life!  However - I've had some recent drama that has taken precedent over kicking your butts blogging.

First up-house drama.  Sigh.  Ya'll know the housing market sucks, right?  And it sucks REALLY bad if you live in a manufactured home like us.  Modulars & manufactured homes were all the rage when we got married 13 years ago.  And it was the PERFECT solution for us.  Our home came with everything we needed except furniture.  No lie.  Blinds, curtains, carpet, linoleum, dishwasher, stove, microwave, hot water heater... you get the drift.   All we had to do was buy furniture & a washer & dryer.  We were in our EARLY 20's with not much money so it was great.  About 10 years ago, we got a home equity loan because that's what all the cool kids were doing (yes, if someone jumps off a bridge...we're totally doing it too...) but it's maturing like NOW & I've either gotta pay it off (which would wipe my savings out & I HAVE to use that to see Faith Hill.  Duh.) or re-finance.  Well, no brainer,  I'll take re-finance...except that appraisals are lower now for homes... & my stupid manufactured home has a lot of stupid 'restrictions' on it because so many stupid people that lived in modulars foreclosed on their loans, etc & scared the banks.   (& if you did that - I'm sorry for you- but I hate you...)

So, even though we live on 112 acres THAT WE OWN.... & our home is permanently attached to the concrete walls of the basement.... & we have lived there for 13 years... & we have paid our mortgage every month on time... the bank still thinks we might hook it up to a trailer & pull it off in the night & leave them empty handed.  It's the dumbest thing I've ever heard of.

So my days have been filled with crunching numbers & creative thinking to pay off this stupid 2nd mortgage.  (I have one husband for sale...he comes with lots of vehicles & 'stuff'.  Please comment if interested...)  Then  we'd only be left with a first mortgage (with an interest rate of 6.5%-which is EXTREMELY high now compared to new loans.)  Are you wondering why I wouldn't re-finance now to get a lower rate?  Please see above paragraph...

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Tuesday I had to go ghetto on a friend of ours for some comments he made in an open forum on the internet.  It's a super long story that you don't care about (but you know I tell ya'll everything...)- the gist of it was the stupid motorcycle gang B-rad was in.  Basically - they're a bunch of middle aged piranhas & vultures.  Anything they can do to tear someone else down is job numero uno to them.  There was drama this summer when Brian had his accident on their ill-fated Deals Gap trip... then there was more drama in the aftermath of people questioning what exactly happened.  (All the vultures accused them of 'lying' about exactly how the accident happened.  Not sure why they would lie about it, but whatever.)  Again-I stayed out of it the best I could.  I figure if B-rad was gonna be involved on the website - he has to accept the consequences of socializing with vultures.  But B-rad's not been on the site lately.  He sold all his bikes & with the exception of maybe getting on it a few times a week (instead of 9 million times a day...like I check facebook...), he doesn't get on it much anymore.

ANYWAYS.  

A guy I consider a friend to him said something derogatory about him & Brian in regards to the Mustangs they drive.  And I.went.off.

Here's what I flipped out about:  this 'friend' also knows those people are vultures.  The 'friend' made a statement on a MOTORCYCLE site about Mustangs & used a derogatory term to describe Brad & Brian because they drive them.  So, the vultures that:

A) for some reason care that B-rad & Brian don't ride bikes anymore &

B) want to stir up trouble because they have no lives

POUNCED.  And just like that, the friend gave chum to the sharks & all the drama from the summer was right back in the forefront.  I am soooo over it.

I was LIVID.  LI-VID.  And the more time that passed where I thought I would calm down - I didn't.  I got more LIVID (if that's possible...).  B-rad refused to let me send a very spirited (yet very eloquent) message to the friend.  (He's so boring.)

Eventually the friend found out I was upset (as was Shauna...) & we were able to speak over the phone about it.  He tried to play it off like he was joking & 'that's what they do'  (call each other names, etc) & he meant no harm.

Now, do I believe he was joking?  Kinda.  

Do I believe 'that's what they do?'  Definitely.  Boys will be boys.

Do I believe he meant no harm?  UHM... I explained to him that being he was one of the smartest people I know - he did a stupid, STUPID thing.  It's one thing to call your buddies derogatory names in private.  Heck - I have no problem with that.  But the issue to me was calling them out in a public forum.  Not cool.

I'm still kinda irritated about it....2 days later...

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B-rad has been working at the barn every night to get ready to start harvest.  I'm sure once they start it should finish pretty quickly.  I mean, there's not much out there to get so should be easy breezy.

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I'm still busy doing my jewelry shows.  One thing that Premier expects of me is to help jewelers under me by encouraging & helping them.  I always try to have a 'contest' in place for them to dangle an extra carrot out there.  I usually offer free jewelry to them (because who DOESN'T love free jewelry?) but this time I got creative.  I have 4 gals under me right now & the one who does the highest retail for Oct, Nov & Dec combined (that's our busiest selling season, by the way) will win THIS:

UHM YES.  That's a real, live Coach Tote bag.  Oh my word, it's adorable!!!!  

And yes, just in case you were wondering - I AM an awesome jewelry mom...it never hurts to hear it though...