Yeah so I was over at the board that I found for foreclosure support and I got kinda pissed, no not kinda pissed I guess really pissed at a post. Now I responded well as I can be very diplomatic in my replies to people even if I am  mad and even when I think they are spewing nothing but crap. I actually pride myself in this ability as I know some people just do not have that kind of personality. I am passionate but always respectful.

Anyway the post started was by a rental investor and the first sentence was "We used to be rich, really rich but now we are losing it all". Mmm k that sets the tone nicely. Basically this poster and a subsequent poster are rental property owners, who through the bubble burst, have lost their life savings or are close to it. OK that sucks I get it, but they are just coming at the people who are strategically defaulting like they are the anti-Christ. Stating things like "I hate to say this but if I had to do it all over, knowing these people with no money down to few thousand dollars down invested to bring down the market, I would not have cashed out everything to make these payments". Well let me tell you these statements as well as others made my hackles go up. As I said I was diplomatic in my reply, however what they fail to realize is that in my state for example it's those investors that drove up prices so high that people like me had to pay astronomical amounts for homes; and that THEY artificially drove prices up and caused builders to continually build on all available land to keep up with demand. It was crazy when we bought. I can't tell you how many homes we were interested in only to find out while trying to make offers that cash investor swooped in with wads of cash and bought them before we could even negotiate!

I replied that while we may not have put mass amounts of money down, we have put so much money into necessary updates into this home that we will never be able to recoup nor take with us, so while little or no money down might piss them off it does not mean we or others are not out money that was hard earned as well; not to mention the payments we made for the entire five years we have been here. To me the only difference is we are making a choice to leave before it sucks us dry and they chose the opposite. We all make choices and they all have their own repercussions.This is a business decision we are choosing to leave they chose to stay. It is not my fault that the laws are stricter for investment properties, or that they may live in a recourse state. Whether homes were bought for personal use or as rental properties they were still bought with the thought that they would be assets, I mean that is what we have always been told in the country; that home ownership is an investment in your future. So regardless of what the property was bought for we are all losing investments!

Anyway I ended my replies with "I wish you both the best and I am sorry for you as well as all of us going through loss of a home regardless of whether it is by choice or not". I truly feel this way. To me it does not matter what the situation is surrounding the loss of your home it is still traumatic and sucks whether you lose a ton of money or not, there is more to lose than just money when losing a home. While I am sorry that they as well as others lost a substantial amount of money that it is really irrelevant. Money no matter the amount is always hard earned and just because you started with more and lost more makes you no better than me. I think for one we need to stop blaming the other side, put the blame where it belongs on big banks and the government. I was just rubbed the wrong way. TO ME it felt as though I/we should have more sympathy for those who chose to invest large sums of money into investment properties and now they lost it. Lets stop playing the blame game. You had a ton of money and lost it, I was cautious with my cash, but I am still losing. In the end I feel sorry for all of use, but we all have to live with our choices.

So this new year will all that is going on I have been on more of a quest to save money thank usual. I mean I have always been frugal, but now with an impending move I have been trying to save every penny possible! It dawned on me a while back " I have a student I.D. and a .edu email address" I wonder if there are any good student discounts I cant get in on? Well I am still on the hunt ,but two great ones I came across were both from Amazon.com.

A few months ago I was able to get a free years worth of their Prime service just because I have a .edu email address as a student. If you are not familiar with Prime basically you get FREE two day shipping on any order that is sold or fulfilled by Amazon! Usually without Prime you can get free super saver shipping, BUT you have to order over $25.00 in order to qualify and its not as fast. Now I get what I need super quick and I do not need a minimum. In reality the shipping is always overnight for me as I have a warehouse in my state so I get things in less than 24 hours! It looks likes the offer has changed to six months of membership at a discount, but if you use Amazon as much as I do I would take that too!

Next is a deal I just got on Friday. As you know, I am taking a digital photography class this semester and possibly even another next semester, and we are working with Adobe Photoshop Cs5 at my school. Now I had been using paint shop pro X2, but I have always wanted PS but didn't have an extra oh $1000.00 sitting around for it. So I thought I would look around to see if there were student discounts. Sure enough there are. Now here is the kicker. Adobe offers it online for $299.00 for students. I thought OK If I save for a while I can get it. For the hell of it I looked at Amazon which I always do for price comparison and I was shocked and stoked to find the same Adobe Photoshop Extended CS5 Student and Teacher Edition for $149.99!!!
 Now I know that Amazon rocks, its my favorite online retailer, but I didn't think they would beat the products own website order by that much money!!So yeah I ordered it!! I cant wait until we start to use it next week in class as its partnered with a digital darkroom class. Woo hoo great software great student discounts!

I know that Microsoft offers discounts as well because two semesters ago I ordered office 2010 as my computer (as with most) only came with a trial. While I had a decent free program I used for a while my school used word and it was hard for me to save my files in a format that was easily opened by my teachers so I had to get it.

I have heard that Apple give a $100.00 discount but I cant confirm this myself. I will be on the hunt for more deals that help us students and will update this post as I find them. If you know of any please share so we can help each other save!

Of not smoking! As you know if you have read my blog for some time that I had quit for about 18-mos and stupidly picked it back up again in a moment of severe stress. I had been smoking again for about a year a knew I had to quit again, but the medication I used before had new cardiovascular warnings and with a heart condition I knew it would not be wise to even suggest to my Dr. that I take it again. I had an electronic cigarette that I had bought when I was not smoking that I planned on using to keep the urge at bay with non-nicotine cartridges, but even the cartridges that contained nicotine and this brand did not do it for me. So in about August I bought another kit and messed around with it and different juices until I found a combination of hardware and juice that I could deal with for more than a couple drags. So I am now on day eight without a real cigarette! I cant tell you how proud I am of myself especially doing this in the midst of what has got to be the most stressful time I have ever experienced! I have a long term goal to get of this too completely, but one day at a time. It is certainly better than the alternative!

Not too much to report. I got my first call from the mortgage company way earlier than I was expecting though. The payment was not even considered late until the 15th of the month so imagine my surprise to receive a call on the evening of January 5th! It was quick, yet it seemed to go on forever. I was asked if I had forgotten to make my payment and my reply was no I hadn't forgotten, but had hired an attorney in this matter. There was a long pause at which time I offered the caller the contact information and stated all communication needed to go through the attorney. The caller took the information and that was that. I am rather surprised at how calm I was being that I was not expecting them to call before the payment was even late! I still wonder why they did call so early on. My husband thinks I set off some radar as we always paid earlier than the due date, but hey they also started charging $5.00 to make a payment online about two months ago, so they need to expect that there will be more people who chose to drop a check in the mail now and we cannot control the speed of delivery. I mean really online payments and the fees that are charged are the cost of business, so pass that on to customers and expect a backlash.


Anyway we are coming up on month two without a payment. I feel so weird living here without paying but I look at it as trying to recover some of the cost of things we did to our home out of pocket that we cannot take with us. New A/C unit (this house never had one so it was the cost to actually wire it and the unit) new heat pump, all new electrical and new line drop after a botched roof job send a piece of our aluminum porch into the power drop (that we paid for all of pocket again because our insurance claimed we didn't have a code addendum (something that was never offered by nor even know they had by our policy selling agent) new gas line for a dryer as the previous owners never owned a dryer. All new lighting fixtures every one in this home replaced, landscaping......etc all things that we cannot take with us that have benefited this house and the next owner. I figure the cost is about $25,000 or more out of pocket so if I can get get even 6 months of payments which will not even cover a bit of what we paid then so be it. I already lost my butt on this house badly, I need to get something back after losing it all and taking the massive credit hit that is to come.

I still continue to take it one day at a time and expect a letter of default soon. I just keep trucking along and try to keep my emotions in check, as that is what the banks want us to do to fold in on ourselves. I refuse. I will continue to look at this as a business choice until the day comes where it is all said and done and then I will allow myself to grieve for the loss of my house and the dreams I had for us/it. Ill say it again as kind of an affirmation to myself that we will survive, and we are definitely not the only ones who have made this choice or who will make this choice. I will not gauge my worth by useless numbers, nor will I allow myself to feel guilty. Sure I bought this house but I did not cause the mess this country is in. All I can do is make the choices that I need to be able to get back on my feet and live, not just survive.

This coming year will be one of many changes. Some good some bad as with all years, but I vow to make the most of all the blessings I am given, and to learn the most from all my mistakes. I will not let anyone define my worth with useless numbers nor with my material possessions or lack there of. I vow to make this a great year and to live the best I possibly can and to be grateful for all I have and don't have.

The next couple of week will be filled with stress as the date of our first missed house payment becomes a reality. I know that in the long run this is the best possible choice I can make for my family. I long to move and know that would not be a reality if we are stuck here with a home that yet again has dropped more in value, now to the tune of 85,000 under water. I can't wait to get to where ever we end up and to be able to start to rebuild my life and put this nightmare behind me. I am scared, very scared to miss this payment though I will not lie I just have never not paid a bill. I know this is going to be extremely stressful, but I also know that watching the homes in my neighborhood go into foreclosure and thus further drop my value further and further would be far more stressful to endure. I really could care less if I rent forever. Home ownership  has not been the American Dream that it is touted to be. This has been a nightmare and I cannot wait to awake from it. 

I wish all my readers a happy, healthy, and prosperous New Year. Remember we always have a choice in life and even doing nothing is a choice. We only have one life to live so make it the best you can no matter what!

I love making homemade treats to share around Christmas! With all the rage on Cake Pops I thought I would give them this year with a twist. You see, I love the ease of cake pops and the fact that one box of cake mix and a tub of frosting go along way, but I didn't really want to do them with actual lollipop sticks for gift giving because then I would have to buy huge tubs to put them in. So I thought why not make them the same way but instead of using the sticks freeze them with toothpicks for easier coating then take the toothpick out and cover the little hole with a little more chocolate bark and add a special touch!

Now if you have never made cake pops let me tell you how easy they are in steps.

1. Bake any boxed cake mix that you love.

2. Let the cake cool from the oven completely and demolish it into cake crumbs. You can do this by hand which is how I do it, or you can easily throw it in the food processor.

3. Mix in frosting (any brand or flavor will do)  until you get all of it moistened, I find that takes about 3/4 of a tub of frosting.

4. Put the mix into the fridge until it is chilled/firm enough to work with.

5. Roll into balls. You can make them as big or as small as you like. You may have to return the mix to the fridge if it gets too sticky and warm to work with. I also flour my hands a bit to aid in the rolling.

6. Lay the balls on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper.

7.  Put the tray into the freezer until balls are firm enough to dunk into melted chocolate, I chose to leave them in the freezer overnight to be solid enough to dunk them all without having to return them to the freezer, also so that I do not have to worry about the toothpicks coming out mid dunk.

8. Dunk into your favorite flavor/color of chocolate bark.

Once the balls have set (literally seconds because of their chilled temp) you can remove the tooth pick and cover the missing area on top with a bit more bark and add whatever decoration you chose. For this year I found the most festive holly berries and leave sprinkles at the dollar store, so couple that with the white chocolate bark I used and they turned out so cool. This is an inexpensive way to give those on your list for goodies an inexpensive yet totally posh looking treat.

I cant tell you how excited I am that this semester at school is almost over or of the fact that this is my last math class(knock on wood). This math thing has taken over my life for an entire year, and with all that I have dealt with in regular life it has been very hard this semester to get it all to stick in my brain. I literally have three classes left woot woot. I have to take my last quiz tomorrow, then last regular test on Friday and my final next Wednesday. I can taste the end it is that close. I am so looking forward to next semester as well because I made the choice to take only one class that is going to teach me more about a passion of mine rather than a class that I am told I have to take. I will be taking a digital photography class! I love photography and enjoyed it so much in High School so I am looking forward to learning how to use my digital camera! I specifically got a nice Sony A230 last year so that I could have more flexibility with my photos, however I totally forgot all I knew about apertures and the like to really take advantage of all my cameras features. I love that I can use it in a ton of auto modes don't get me wrong but I want to learn (again) how to be in control of my shots. I have already added a nice yet inexpensive telephoto zoom lens and I am excited to try it out. I also know for a fact that I will be getting a set of filters and a fish eye lens for Christmas. Wee I feel like a little kid again so excited to play with my new toys! I am also excited to have the luxury of taking a semester all to myself. I wish I could say what I want to be when I grow up, but frankly I change my mind like the wind changes direction. I am determined not to be part of a problem, and seeing it first hand have totally sworn of Social Services now. There are actually a ton of options available to me even though I refuse to take anymore math, so I have time to think. This next semester is about me getting excited for school again and not dreading it. I cant want to be able to share all my shots here when they happen.