Redlands Bike Classic 2011

Hi...I know it's been too long. I would promise to blog more...but life always gets in the way. (That and the fact that I might just have the most boring life in the world. No complaints though, I would take boring over drama any day of the week!)

So this weekend was the Bicycle Classic. Olivia got to race last year but Toby couldn't because you have to be 3. He has been looking forward and talking about it since last year, so he was super pumped that the time has come. They ride their bikes up and down our street a lot, and have gotten pretty fast, so I thought they might have a chance. We practiced on Thursday night and that didn't go so well. They did fine the first couple of times, laughing the whole way to the "finish line" But the third practice run wasn't so pretty.

Toby's foot slipped half way down the line, causing him to stop and watch Olivia finish the "race". She starts chanting "I won...I won" causing Toby to burst into tears. We set them back up for a 4th practice run and this is where it got ugly. They take off, giggles turned to grunting, smiles turned into looks of utter determination, each of them were GOING TO WIN. So they get to the finish line, dead even, and both decide, without even saying a word, that they were going to turn around and race back to the starting line. But Olivia (who is a little more conniving and a bit more clever that Toby) decides she has a better chance of winning if she hops off her bike and cuts off Toby. The only problem was that Toby was NOT stopping, no mater what was in his way. So...he ran her over. Full speed, just takes her out. She's hurt, Im trying not to laugh...we go inside and decided not to practice again.


So, Toby ended up winning his heat. 3 year old bike with training wheels...I was so proud. And so was he. He got a medal and the smile didnt come off his face for an hour.

Olivia took off strong. She was in first for about half way down tthe line. Then second, then third, then her petal fell off, and coasted into the finish in 4th place. No metal, but still in good spirits.

I love these races. It is so fun for them to do, and even more fun to watch.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Happy Valentines Day!

Just wanted to show off my cute Valentines Day Decor...and my cute kids!










Happy Love Day!!

Home Sweet Home (Part 3)

The Final Chapter: The Loan Modification

Like so many other people, we sold and bought our house at the peak of the housing market. We paid 390k for our house. It is still crazy to me to think how much a modest medium size house was...and that we agreed to pay that much for it...sheesh. We signed up on an interest only loan, the only way we could get the payment down to around $2,000 a month. That was even crazy, but we had to do it. Well, even after 6 months of paying that, we realized we had gotten in over our head. I called the mortgage company to see what they could do. They said we could apply for a loan modification through them. They sent us a 30 (yes I said 30) page packet to fill out and sent back. We did it, and after 3 months of them "processing it" they needed new pay stubs and bank statements, 3 times!! 3 months apart each time. After the third time, almost a year later, I gave up. This wasn't going anywhere.

So fast forward a year after I gave up on that loan mod, after a huge tax return, and borrowed money from Kevin's 401k, and us still not back on our feet, I tried again. Called the mortgage company to see what they could do. The recording said something about President Obama's Home Affordability Plan. So I asked the lady about it. She said they would send me a packet. Ugh...not again, but we were desperate. AND since this one was through the government, I knew it would take forever, but had heard that it was actually a law and that the gov't had to help if you met the criteria. So I did it, filled out the 30 page packet AGAIN, and sent in new pay stubs and bank statements almost every month religiously, so that would not have an excuse not to help us. I was calling once a week, being put on hold for up to an hour and a half each time, and being told the same thing, "that it was processing and just to wait to hear from them, but if I didn't to call back in 3 weeks." It was so frustrating. But I kept on them...I was going to save my house, and if I did, this would all be worth it.

They had originally told us that it could take 60 to 90 days to complete the review process, they told me this every time I called. After 90 days had passedm they would tell me, "Well, Ma'am, it is actually 60-90 business days" But I just kept calling...and praying.

Even with all of the effort, and time that was passing, and us not being able to make all of our bills, going a little more into debt each month, I had a peace. I really can't explain it. Our house, our life, was up in the air, but I still felt this immense peace. Through this whole thing, God kept telling me "I am faithful, I am faithful, I am faithful" (tearing up right now) He has never said anything more clearly to me before in my life. It was so clear, it was impossible not to believe Him.

After 6 long months of calling and sending in updated information time and again, we got the packet...we had been approved for the trial period. We would be getting the packet later in the week. I cried, and cried, and cried. I could not believe it. So our payments went from 2,020 to 1,600. At first I was so relieved, $400 down a month, then I got greedy. "Why couldnt they drop it down more? Thats not 31% of our income" (which is what they are supposed to knock it down to) Then thankful again, "Ok, thank you God, we will take any help we can get" The processing wasn't all that fast, but you get the picture. So we paid the 3 months of the trial period and was supposed to get an answer about whether or not we got approved for the final modification.

One part of the trial period is that you have to meet with a credit counselor, so that he can give them his recommendation whether or not you "deserve" this modification, and whether you have been good with your money or not. I gave him all of our spending information and how much we made and what not. He said that he felt we had been responsible with our money and that he thought we had a "pretty good" chance of being approved for the final modification. I asked him if he knew what the percentage of people actually getting approved for the final modification was. He told me I didn't want to know. I thought oh great. He said that of course the gov't doesn't put out exact numbers, but he has heard that it was less than 20% that were actually getting approved. This got me a little worried, but I just continued to pray, it was out of my hands now, and now amount of worrying was going to change the outcome.

After the 3 month trial period was done, I called the people again, and they said just to make a 4th trial payment just in case it didn't get processed yet. And I did, because I wanted to keep my house!! So my last email went like this. "I have just paid the 4th trail payment, even though I was only supposed to have to pay 3. I just REALLY want to keep my house and will do whatever it takes. Please let me know what I should do. Thanks" She writes back to me "You should be getting your paperwork today or tomorrow" I sat there thinking WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?? So I wrote back. "Does that mean we got approved??" After 10 LONG minutes she writes back "yes"

Yes? "Yes" Thats all she writes!! It made me laugh because she just gave me the news that I get to keep my house and all she says is "yes". This is the answer to best news of my life and she answers with one word. I cry again...uncontrollably. HE IS FAITHFUL, HE IS FAITHFUL, HE IS FAITHFUL. All I could do was cry out "Thank you God for taking care of us" The kids were all worried about me asking if I was ok and I tell them I am, I am so ok, God always takes care of us and these are just happy tears. They thought I was crazy. I felt like it. I cried for a week, every time I thought about it.

So 9 months after we turned in the first packet, we received our final approval packet. And again, we got another blessing. Our modification was not only approved, but our new house payment is now only $1,300. I read the 10 page packet four times just to be sure that I wasn't reading it wrong. They had recalculated out income from the new pay stubs I kept turning in and dropped the payment down another $300 from the trail payments. And $700 a month from our original payment!!

I still can't believe it. We wouldn't be able to rent a nice apartment for that little. I still am in awe. I still am SO thankful.

Home Sweet Home (Part 2)

**This one is going to be pretty short, but I always want to remember how blessed we are to have been able to get all this stuff, stuff that we would have not had the money to pay for outright, and probably been drowning in credit card debt for purchasing them. But we are not, and for that I am SO thankful!! **

The next part of our story, is how blessed were, to buy the condo at such a low cost, and really reap the benefits of a 2nd and the housing boom. When the housing market was so high, we borrowed a huge chunk from the house. With that money, Kevin was able to:

*Pay cash for his Subaru, allowing us to only have one car payment
*Buy my wedding ring (less than a month before I found out I was pregnant...whew) ;o)
*Buy us a new mattress, because my pregnant back was hurting so bad from the old one. (It was my surprise Valentines Day present...how freakin awesome is my hubby)

And even after spending all that money, after selling the condo, we were still able to pay off the 2nd, put 80,000 down on our new house AND buy most of our new furniture and appliances for the new house.

WOW right? All this, not to brag, but to give God all the glory. The way He constantly takes care of us baffles my mind. He knows what we are going to need, even before we do, and sets up a plan to take care of us. It is so amazing to completely depend on God to fill our needs, and for Him to pull through for us every time. Still gives me goose bumps to this day.


*I promise part 3 will come sooner than part 2 did

Home Sweet Home (Part 1)

If you haven't heard yet...the loan modification on our house got APPROVED!!! I am so thankful and give 100% of the glory to God for this. I know it was Him. He is the reason that we have our house in the first place and now he is the reason we get to keep it. He has made this very known by the timing of all the things surrounding our house. For the first part, I want to tell you the story of how we got our house, and the way God showed himself through the whole process.

Kevin's mom and step dad got married at the same time that Kevin was looking for a house. Kevin's step dad owned a condo in Redlands, and since him and his mom were moving into her house, he was going to sell it. Kevin was looking at places and decided just to buy his step dad's condo. He got it for a very good deal. He moved in, then we got married and I moved in. Once we had Olivia, and quickly got pregnant with Toby, we realized that we needed a bigger house, we needed a home.

The only problem, the market was at it's peak. Now even though we were going to be able to sell the condo for a whole lot, the houses in our price range (350k) were definitely fixer-upers. They were straight out of the 80's and all in the north side. *Side note: Call me a snob...I don't care, but I was NOT going to buy a house in the north side. I knew what I wanted and that was a 92373 zip code. Call me a brat...but I just knew what I wanted and didnt want to settle.* We had our house up for sale for 6 months with no bites. Six months of keeping the house clean in case someone came by, six months of looking at 30+ houses...none that I liked, six months of thinking "We need to get in a house before this baby comes out or there will be no place for him." It was rough. We decided to change realators. The new realator took us to see at least 15 more houses before we realized that we were just going to have to pay more for something that we could live in. So we looked at houses in the 400k range and they were so much better. We had found 2 that we put offers on, only for those houses to be bought in cash by an investor. It was such an emotional roller coaster ride.

After the second house, which I really liked, got swept away I had a break down. I was done. I cursed and cried and gave up. I remember sitting there, balling my eyes out, and just praying "God take it. Take my situation. I am realizing now I have absolutly NO control over whats going on. I can't keep getting invested, I can't keep getting let down." I pleaded with God to give me peace and take care of us.

A week later we got an offer on our house. This was bitter sweet. I was so thankful to have an offer, but so discouraged at the houses we had seen. We didnt want to accept the offer, then be homeless. So I prayed and prayed and prayed that God would show us our house. Our condo was listed for 299k. The lady offered us 10k less, which would have been fine, but we had already taken it down 10k when we listed it with the new realator. We knew we should take it but had 2 days to decide.

That night, around 9pm our realator called. She said that a realator friend of hers had a house that just fell out of escrow and that it was a really nice house in our price range. (They had been talking about our situation and she was on the look out for us along with our realator) Our realator said that we could go look at it first thing the next morning. So we did...and I fell in LOVE. I knew this was it, but Kevin took some convincing. All the walls were white, excpept for the add on which walls were wood paneling. I saw a blank slate, Kevin saw a boring white house. After much convincing from me, and any other family member we had come and look at it, he gave in. She called her realator friend and told her to tell anyone who was coming to look at it that there was already another offer in and she aggreed. So we put in the offer that morning, offering 10k less to make up for the 10k less the lady offered us for our condo. And...they accepted it. (God always works out numbers exactly for me.) We accepted the offer on our condo and in to escrow we went...

(...to be continued)

Happy Thanksgiving (Part 2)

Today I am also so greatful for the things I don't have at the moment. I remember this verse today:

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

Today I am also thankful for:

1. That hardly any of my clothes fit, though it's totally annoying, it means I am a new healthier (and smaller) me.

2 Garage doors. Our is broken at the moment, but it makes me realize how much I really appreciate being able to park in the garage.

3. My health and the ability to exercise. I am feeling sick today, and it always forces me to slow down and rest, i am thankful for that.

4. Money. We do not have much of it, but I am still thankful that we have just enough to pay our bills. Being on a tight budget also makes me thankful when we get to go out to eat (and be served). It is a rarity but I am thankful that we get to do it at all because I know some people aren't that lucky.

5. Money. Its a big deal so it gets 2 spots. Since we dont have a lot of extra money for Christmas gifts, I am thankful for my God-given ability to craft and make stuff. That way I can show the people I love how thankful I am for them by making them gifts.

6. All My family. I do not get my sister here on Thanksgiving or Christmas this year and it is really hard, but I am thankful that I have gotten to go see her in Colorado twice and that I know she will get to come home eventually.

I am so greatful to God for everything he has given me and all the things He chooses to withhold. I know that having less makes me more of a person. We are making it...and even though we dont have a lot of things or money, we have a lot of love and I am SO thankful for that.