Hi there girls....

Just a quicky to see how you're all doing. How is everyone doing on the weight loss front? Do we have a bunch of losers?? I haven't weighed in since we moved, but found our scale so Monday will see the damage. Eating has not been the best. I really need to concentrate more on what is going into my body!

Treadmill is out in the garage waiting for me to use it. I think I may just find a plug in out there and just walk. Get my legs used to doing that again. My arms have really been getting a workout due to lifting boxes and pulling around furniture! :lol: But the darn things are still flappin in the wind-- what's up w/that? :shrug:

Ok gals....I'm off to clean house. My kitchen is finally looking good....so off to another room.

Have a great weekend. :wave:

Hello ladies...

MARTI...hope you are getting some rest in between all the unpacking. Bet your home is purdy though. Can't wait to see pics!

SASSY...glad you are feeling better! :hug:

JANE...hate to think of the tax man next year. Hope it wasn't too bad for ya. Taxes here are ridiculous. Karoke with Neal, eh? Bet you guys have fun doing that.

PINKJANE...I do love CSI! Used to watch CSI-Miami but tired of Horatio (David Caruso) and his glances, lol. You are doing great with your workouts! :carrot:

JULES...love the nn Teri-Beri...too cute! Lily is a cute name too! Glad mommy and baby are well. I too am afraid to hold newborns.

TAMMY...I did turn the heat on...it got down to 44 but with the wind it was colder, brrr. I am feeling your pain! Well, almost. I have had a toothache since last Sunday. Being stubborn and deathly afraid of the dentist I have put it off. But told DH if it still bothered me Monday I would make an appt. ugh! Hope your pain eases some. Have fun at the surprise BD party!

Hi to everyone else :wave:

Nothing much going on today. It is a BEAUTIFUL, sunny day. :sunny: Ran some errands this morning, cleaned house, did my exercise and some laundry too!

Have a good weekend ladies! :wave:

Sunny Days........
 

Hello everyone, my name is Carol and I am new to the 3FC world. I am just kinda checking everything out. You ladies here seem to have made some really good friends in this forum. I like that.

Well, a little about myself. I am 28. I was born and raised in a small northern Michigan town. I have an 8 year old boy who is my entire world. Currently laid off from work and collecting unemployment. I have a pointer named Sparky, and two cats, Chester and Cheetah.

I need to lose weight. Ever since I was laid off my weight has just kept increasing. Now I have finally got to the point that I AM going to do something about it. I have started exercising (well its more like a stretch routine) and have started walking daily. I have not started the strict dieting yet because I thought I would approach this one step at a time.

I guess I am just looking for some friends who know what I am going through. It is hard for me to get out and exercise, mentally and physically. But I want to change.

You gals seem great and I hope to get to know you all a little better.

thanks for any and all support.:)

Cristina~ Thanks for the nice comments. Yup, they are three years and one day apart. We figured we would do the combined birthday parties until Brandon decides that he doesn’t want to share his birthday party anymore.

Sassy~ Thanks for the congrats! I hope you are feeling better now. I seem to have gotten the “two week virus” that Tommy had. Although mine just started, so besides being tired from not a lot of sleep and chasing the boys around, I am sure that I will be tired from this “virus” that seems to be going around.

Jules~ I am so glad to hear that mommy and baby are doing well. Marissa had her cord wrapped around her neck so when I would have a contraction there would be a deceleration, with a somewhat slow rise after. So, I felt like a fish out of water getting flipped from side to side. And after having to get the epidural three times, I was beyond completely numb so I had to have Tommy and my nurse help me roll from side to side. But I would do it all over again if it meant having her (or the boys).

Tammy~ Thanks for the congrats. She is sleeping soundly, for now, next to me. Let me see if I can find a close up picture of her and put it into my avatar.

We went and walked around this indoor market place on Saturday with my in-law’s. We ended up running into a friend of ours who had her daughter in February. She looked at me and said “I can’t believe you are up and walking around here so quickly. And you don’t even look like you had a baby four days ago.” (So, of course, that made my day!)

Marti~ I hope you are getting some sleep in between all that unpacking! How is the unpacking going by the way?

Carol~ Welcome to the group! I am also from Michigan. Where abouts are you located at? I am in New Baltimore.

Hello and Welcome Carol!! :wave: Looking forward to getting to know you. You'll just love these girls. All very sweet.


It's a gorgeous morning here in Oregon. Yesterday it was down right hot!

Got lots to do and hubby is home so that is nice. Just wanted to pop in and say hello.

Chat more later!

Hey I have a question, hope someone can give me a clue.

We refinanced our house in Dec. Because we live in a double wide (sits on 1 acre), we have never been able to do escrow. But the company we went thru hired an engineer to prove that our house was attached to foundation and so I guess it reclassified our home and we were able to get something better than mobile home rates, but just not quite as good as a "real" house. So, in doing that we were able to escrow our taxes and insurance. Of course we had to finish out our insurance policy payments until there was enough money to cover it, so it's been a struggle cause our house payment actually went up from what it was to cover the escrow. When our insurance policy renews in the fall, we will be paying less that we were. Anyhow, that's neither here nor there.....
My question is that our counties property tax rates have went up, from what I am hearing at least a 30% increase. So I am wondering what happens when we don't have enough in escrow to cover it when they send the mortgage company the bill? Will we have to pay the difference? Or will they just start taking out more for that and less will go on our principal?
Our taxes were only like $356/yr because we basically live in the middle of nowhere- lol actually our township has always had the lowest rate in the county. Some people in town are saying that thier tax bill is now over $2000 for a home our size. So glad I live in the country!
Hope someone knows the answer, it's been bugging me since I heard of the rate increase.
Thanks

Happy Sunny Sunday!
 

Evening Ladies!

Jodi--if you have not built up enough in escrow when your tax bill arrives, you may have to pay the difference the first year. After that the bank will take into account the tax rate and will increase your monthly mortgage to reflect what they think your tax rate will be for the following year. Let's say that they estimate your taxes to be about $375 for next year....well they will divide that into 12 payments ($31.75) and add it to your monthly mortgage payments. If they collect too much, it just gets added into your escrow account. Once in a while they actually will lower your payment if you have too much in escrow. Only happened to me once in almost 30 years of being a home owner. Hope this helps!!

Welcome Carol!!!

To everyone else....working in the yard all day and pooped. Heading up to get a hot shower and relax for the evening. Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend.

I think today is a "Work in Yard" day. We spent the afternoon mowing and weeding and raking. Tired arms.

Moved some things out of the garage and into the storage shed. Really need to go to the recycling place and get rid of all the boxes we went through.

My treadmill is finally IN the house and ready to use. But I think I'll wait until tomorrow night to use it. Too busy today to want to think about it. :lol: (great excuse right?)

I'm tuckered out and I think I'm ready to soak in the tub! Can you believe it?? I have a tub!! For those of you who didn't know, the rental we had only had two showers, no tub. That was ok until I wanted to soak. So this will be my first bath in YEARS!:D

Off I go ladies....I will do individuals soon....I promise.

Hugs to you all!:hug:

thanks Tammy- that's what I figured, esp since once we can stop paying escrow for the insurance AND the insurance our payment will actually be cheaper between the 3 things, but I figure this whole tax thing will screw that up. Awww a person can never win.
It's been a real strain on us paying for the insurance and the extra payment to build the escrow. We're struggling to keep everything paid, but we only have 2 more months and then we can take 3 months off from insurance. (we have a deal where we pay 9 mths and have 12 mths of coverage) makes it nice when we can look forward to having insurance money as extra cash for those months.

Thanks for the warm welcome everyone.

Mindee-I am from a small town in northern Michigan called Wellston.

It was gorgeous out today. 75 and sunny. We went mushroom hunting. Does anyone else go mushroom hunting???? We didn't find any but it was fun to go and wonder in the woods for a couple of hours.

Thanks again for the welcome.:)

Hello everyone!

We are trucking along, and things are going great! Tomorrow, Monday, will be the true test. Tommy goes back to work, so it will be me and the three little ones at home. I already had a talk with both Brandon and Logan. I told them that since daddy was going back to work, we were going to get back to our normal routine. Meaning that daddy will be at work, so it will be them and mommy and Marissa during the day while daddy is at work. Tommy reinforced that they had to behave for me. He also asked Brandon if he was going to me mommy’s big helper, to which Brandon said he would.

Fast forward to a couple hours later and I swear I had a couple heart attacks! I was getting a diaper to change Marissa and I turn around because I heard him making kissing noises. I turn around and he is sitting on the arm of the couch and holding her in his arms! Yes, I did say holding her! So, we had to explain to him that he couldn’t do that and that he could hurt her. Then we told him that only mommy and daddy can pick her up, and that if he wants to hold her then all he has to do is ask. To which, he then went on to ask every five minutes, but since we were about to eat dinner I told him that he could hold her later.

Jodi~ Sorry I can’t answer your question, but I hope someone can for you!

Marti~ It is good to hear from you!

Sassy~ How did the “early” wake up treat you?

Tammy~ How are you doing??

Carol~ I haven’t heard of that town….so I brought it up on the map to see where it was located. I haven’t been that far up before. I have never been mushroom hunting.

Good Monday morning, ladies,

Ah, Tammy, you crack me up! Lipo in a box, hahahahaha!!!!! I need one of those! So how'd the party go? About scrapbooking, my kids were mostly grown, esp. my son, when I started. So what I did was use the cutest or sweetest photos instead of trying to do so very many. In the beginning, I used the originals. Duh, what a mistake! Now I make doubles of any photo that could possibly make it's way onto a scrapbook page, lol.

Marti - yes, ma'am, count me in on those that are still OP! I've lost 11 pounds in the last 5 weeks, and am going strong. I don't report my weight losses, but I guess I should. I don't like that people irl know about this place, but I suppose they can tell by looking at me how I'm doing, right? So glad to hear your kitchen is organized. That room, and the bedroom, are the most important to have finished, don't you think so? Also glad to hear you can have a good soak now. We put a flat-panel TV in our bathroom, since they don't take up much counter space, and I love soaking and watching some of my favorite shows, lol.

Cristina - our tax rate for the state of Indiana is still in debate as of today. The lawmakers have to be finished by midnight tonight, and we will for sure be seeing a rate hike, just not sure how much. Add that to the fact that I live in a new home, and I'm sure we're going to get slammed! Neal and I do have fun karaoking. I sing here at the house, but not in public. He sings in the bar, as do my sister and her dh. I'm just not that good. I sang one song in the bar, but that was after a couple of beers, lol. Now I try to stick with diet Sprite, lol.

Sassy - hey, could you post that recipe for the mango chicken? Sounds tasty, and healthy, too.

Carol - yes, we are a close-knit, fun bunch here. Welcome to the family! :hug: I like your avatar. Is that your DS? What is that on his head? Looks like a humongous spider! Are you close to Houghton Lake? Neal and I may be going there next year to fish. He used to go all the time before we married, but I've never gone. Again, welcome!

Mindee - I love your new avatar, too. How's your first day w/o Tommy home? Bet the boys are being your little helpers.

Jodi - I think Tammy is correct about the taxes, but I'd call the mortgage company to be sure. I haven't heard the news today yet, so I don't know if the property taxes got raised the proposed 24%, or not. Sheesh, I hope not!

Jules - how's the mama and baby doing? Did you get to see him yet?

Hello to everyone else reading this. :wave:

Ladies, I have to say I love all the cut flowers so far! In bloom right now are daisies, purple veronica, statis, and azaleas. What beautiful bouquets they make! The rhododendrons and irises will be looking good by Mother's Day.

Two more days until I get to meet Jackson. :carrot:

Have a good one, ladies!

Well I was able to go online and see what our property taxes are for this year. They only went up $37.80! I couldn't believe it. Says something for living in the middle of nowhere- lol. My one brother in law lives 5 miles from us, but must be in another township because his looks like it went up $400- over $1,000!!! But my other b-in-law it looks like his doubled! Makes no sense at all.
thanks for the info, it helped set my mind at ease yesterday when I was thinking about it all!