It’s been a while

Wow, it’s been quite awhile that I’ve written. 

I’ve found myself so busy lately!  School is thankfully about to start again, so hopefully everyone in this house will be back on schedule very soon. 

Things have settled down here since my last entry.  My dh and I talked and everything is back to normal now, or at least what I consider normal.  I’ve been really busy putting in 15-20hours a week into my business, my kids have been great, and really understanding.  They know, for the most part, that this is going to benefit them in the future.  My sister has been a great help during this all too.  If the little one is awake when I need to be working, she’ll come and help out so that I can continue to work.

I’ve been debating recently giving up the Close To My Heart business (scrapbooking).  I’ve not had any trouble meeting my minimum "requirements" yet, but I fear that I will in the near future.  I’m just not the type to go to houses and "present" as well as do a scrapbook demonstration in front of people that I barely know.  Not only that, but for 12 hrs of preperation and presentation in total, I’m lucky if I profit $50.  It’s just not worth it.  I enjoy the discount on the products though.  But even that lately hasn’t benefited me because I can’t afford to spend on frivilous things right now.

The matter with our rental property is still up in the air.  My dh and I are going Friday afternoon to meet with the lawyers and discuss it in more detail to see what we’re looking at.  Basically, the short version is as follows: we purchased the house in 2001.  The MLS listing stated that it was a 2 unit w/ three bedrooms in each unit.  We went to look at it, it seemed great.  We knew that we could live in one unit for a couple of years and make just about enough from the other to pay the entire mortgage because it was also a three bedroom.  We did just that, lived there for 2 yrs and then moved to our current location.  So we’ve been renting both units, it pays for itself and some of this mortgage.  Perfect, right?  Well, something happened w/ a tenant, and the Health Dept was called out (minor issues that the tenant was unaware of how to proceed with).  Anyway, the Health Dept then informed us that the upstairs unit is actually only large enough to be considered a 2 bedroom.  That one of the "bedrooms" doesn’t have adequate square footage to be considered a sleeping room.  So, now that means that we are looking at a potential loss of $200-300 PER MONTH.  That is a significant loss of money through the years, as well as depleting the overall value of the house from a 3 br to a 2br.  Eh, so that’s the short story of what we’re dealing with.  Hopefully we can get it settled and make up for our future losses.