Posted by Marcia on Aug 28, 2010 in
so thankful! It is currently 12:02 AM and I should be sleeping.
Today has been a whirl wind. Cade and I just got back from supper with one of his co-workers. Cade helped me finish everything that needed to be done before our trip this afternoon so that we could spend the evening hanging out. It was fun and I’m glad we had a distraction because I my mind is racing.
I got coffee this morning with friends (and their adorable babies) and then began washing clothes and packing.I had high hopes of getting some images up from my quick trip up to Columbus earlier this week but clearly that is not going to happen.
I apologize.
But at this point our two small, carry on suitcases are packed. We only have to add the little “bags” of liquids to the top. I am so impressed with us. We have 2 weeks worth of clothing (no washing or repeats necessary) and we will be carrying it all on the plane with us. My amazing camera purse is also ready to go with one camera, 2 lenses, 2 batteries and ALL of the cards. =)
Here’s to hoping my feet don’t give up half way through our trip, since I will be wearing flip flops most of the time to allow my “blessed” toe fungus to stay dry, heal and leave my toe nail mostly in tact. (It should be fine, I’m just learning to swallow my pride because it doesn’t look pretty right now.)
I have no words to express how excited I am right now about what the next two weeks hold.
I truly think that the only thing that would make this trip even better would be to bring our family and friends along. Yes, YOU! How fun would that be?
Ciao!
Posted by Marcia on Aug 17, 2010 in
just for fun I am so excited to finally share some of the images from our session with Sean & Mel McLellan. These are my favorites!
Posted by Marcia on Aug 12, 2010 in
just for fun I am usually too pessimistic to enter any sort of free drawing. The odds are stacked too high against me.
But this morning, I decided that it couldn’t hurt.
I’m hoping by 6:30 this evening to have won this amazing photographer’s camera bag disguised as a fun purse. I have been thinking about getting one to take to Italy so that it’s not as obvious that we are carrying expensive camera equipment.
Fingers crossed!
If you are on twitter and you want to help me win, you must RT the contest entry details from http://twitter.com/@kellymooreclark
I’ll figure out some great way to repay you!!! =)
Posted by Marcia on Aug 10, 2010 in
family Last weekend Duane, Liliana and the boys came up for a quick weekend together. As soon as the boys got out of the car on Saturday evening they both seemed to remember me which has not always been the case.
Jonathan was especially cheerful, running up and down the steps and stopping to wave back to me. Ahh, melt my heart.
We ended supper that night with the delicious “Paletas de alta calidad”, ice cream bars that I stumbled upon at Aldi a few weeks ago. (You should try them! They are delicious with real pieces of fruit mixed in. Yum!)
Early the next morning, I woke up to a crackling sound coming from the kitchen. I didn’t get up right away because I couldn’t figure out what the sound was but after a while I couldn’t fall back asleep so I went to investigate. There, sitting at the dining room table, was Adrian chewing at the corner of the plastic wrapper for an ice cream bar. The whole box was sitting out in front of him and then I saw the half eaten one he had started, but never finished.
“Oh, no you don’t. This is not breakfast food, buddy.”
What a little stinker!
Later that day, after everyone got up, we went to a park close by. One of their favorite games is playing “chase” on the scooter. One will run and the other rides on the scooter (sometimes with the help of dad or “tio”.) When we were tired, we headed home for some naps and then went to get some yummy BBQ. On our way back to the house we stopped at McKay Used Bookstore to see if there were some good Spanish kids books. Cade and I looked through books with the little ones while mom and dad shopped. They especially loved pop-up books.
When we got back, it was decided that we should play Rock Band. Adrian was beside himself. His coordination with the T.V. is still off, but he knows how to play the drums so it was fun to watch. For supper that evening he prayed thanking God for “guitars, drums…. and “tio” and “tia.” Not sure how I should feel about that order. =)
Poor Jonathan was just too small to do it by himself (although he tried!)
Oh, and sometime during the first evening they were there, Cade was playing his game on the computer. The boys were both very interested! Jonathan even crawled over top of Adrian to get the closest view. I LOVE how cuddly he is.
I’m so glad that Atlanta is only 3 hours away. Quick trips like these are priceless!
Posted by Marcia on Aug 7, 2010 in
trips Both sets of parents have asked us to give them the details about when and where we’ll be during our 2 week trip. Last night we made our last hotel reservation. We are now in the final planning stages and it’s all coming together!
(If you click on the names of the cities below you’ll see the google maps I have created with little markers for each of the places/museums/hotels we’ll be visiting in each city.)
Sunday, Aug. 29 - Fly out of Nashville at 11:45 AM
Monday Aug. 30 - Via Atlanta, arrive in Rome at 7:05 AM. Catch a train to the main Rome Train Station. Walk to our Hotel, Auditorium di Mecenate, then see as much as we are able before jet lag sets in. We’ll be in Rome until Thursday morning. We haven’t decided when to do each of the following, but these are things we want to do/see during those 3 days:
- St. Peter’s Basilica – possibly attend one of the daily masses at 5PM and climb 323 steps to the top for a panoramic view of city
- Vatican City & Vatican Museum
- The Pantheon
- The Spanish Steps
- Trevi Fountain
- The Colosseum
- Trajan’s Column
- Campo di Fiore (an open air flower market)
- Get gelato from Giolitti, one of Rome’s best ice cream shops
Thursday, Sept. 2 – Take a train to Venice. Walk to our hotel, Antica Raffineria.
Things we’ll be doing in Venice between Thursday and Sunday:
- St. Mark’s Basilica (and climb the Bell Tower)
- St. Mark’s Square (watch the dueling orchestras)
- Glass blowing demonstration and tour
- Gondola ride
- Ponte Rialto (one of the main bridges)
- Look at the famous “carnavale” masks in the touristy shops
Sunday, Sept. 5 – Take a train to Florence. Check into the Azzi Hotel, just a few blocks from the Maria Novella train station.
Things we’ll see on Sunday afternoon or Tuesday during the day:
- Duomo (Basilica de Santa Maria di Fiore)
- Uffizi Gallery
- Academy Gallery – see the “David”
- Ponte Vechio (old bridge)
- Michaelangelo’s Lookout
While staying in Florence we’ll be doing 2, all day tours:
Monday, Sept. 6 – Group tour to see Cinque Terre… lots of hiking and swimming.
Wednesday, Sept. 8 – All day tour to some Chianti Vineyards and the Tuscany country side.
Thursday, Sept. 9 – Take a train to Sorrento by way of Naples, and check into La Vue D’Or Hotel (The View of Gold). We splurged and reserved a room with a private balcony and view of the sea. U-la-la! (The image below is NOT necessarily the view from our room… although I wouldn’t mind if it was.)
We’ll be based in Sorrento for 3 nights. One day we’ll explore the Amalfi Coast. Another day we’ll walk through Sorrento and all of it’s lemon groves. Hopefully we’ll find a sort of private/secluded beach for some relaxing next to the water.
Sunday, Sept. 12 – Catch a train back to Naples then to Rome for one last night at the same hotel where we stayed before, only this time we get their nicest room: an original, antique fresco painted ceiling.
Monday, Sept. 13 - Lose my passport & ticket, pretend I don’t speak English anymore and plead with Cade to stay in Italy forever.
If that doesn’t work, we’ll catch our flight back to Nashville at 12:30 PM.
Posted by Marcia on Jul 30, 2010 in
personal After two years of living in East Nashville, Cade and I were really excited to find out that our church had become a hub for Jobs for Life – an 8 week, 16 class program that teaches Biblical principals about work. We were especially excited because when we mentioned it to our neighbors, they said they were interested in attending. Jobs for Life does not guarantee you a job, but it does help to create some interviews with businesses that might not have otherwise even consider a person.
June 7th was the beginning of 8 weeks which FLEW by. The class met every Monday and Thursday, from 6:30 – 8:30, at our local YMCA. At the beginning we had 7 students. Each student was assigned a “champion” who basically attends class with them and helps with homework or anything else that is needed. Cade and I were champions for Germaine and Angela (Germaine, 24(ish) lives next door with his parents. Angela, 28(ish) is his girlfriend, and mother to their 1 year old child).
To be completely honest, I was expecting both of them to drop out. There were days when it literally felt like we were pulling teeth to get them to jump in our car and go with us. About half way through they each had missed two classes. You can’t miss more than 3. Then Germaine hurt his foot playing ball and stayed home but Angela went anyways. About a week they both skipped again.
It was really frustrating because when we came home that night and told Germaine that he wasn’t going to be able to graduate, he acted really hurt and disappointed. But he never tried to call the director to see if he could get an excused absence from when he was “sick”. I guess he didn’t really care that much.
In spite of all this, I was extremely proud of Angela. From that point on she attended each class and last night, for our FINAL class, she told the group that she had just been given a job at the Vanderbilt bookstore (pay $10/hr.) AND she was in the process of registering to go back to school in September to get her Medical Assistance Degree. Over the last 8 weeks we have have been talking about and planning her career goals and she is putting it into practice! I am so excited for her!
After she told the group, Jesse, our teacher, asked her if 8 weeks ago she could have imagined being where she is now. She said,
“No. I told you: Prayer changes things.”
Last night Angela also told me that Germaine is going to start a class on Monday to prepare to take his GED – something Cade has been encouraging him to do for quite a while now! I really hope he gets excited seeing how doors are opening up for Angela.
I know that this is only the beginning. It’s not going to be all roses from here on out, but we are praying that this experience has made an impression on them and that we can continue to HELP instead of enable.
Next Sunday is graduation. I’m going to have Cade take a picture of Angela and I and then I’ll post it. =)
Posted by Marcia on Jul 28, 2010 in
personal Our friends Shaka & Steph decided to be surprised instead of finding out the gender of their baby (which we now know was a girl!) So we planned a post birth shower so that at least some of the gifts could be gender specific. We also invited the spouses so that it was co-ed… which turned out to be a lot of fun!
Last Saturday I was one of the 5 hostesses and I am super pleased with how it turned out.
Steph and us hostesses…
Emma Ruth (3 weeks) and Clara (3 months and 2 weeks). Adorable!
Posted by Marcia on Jul 28, 2010 in
rant Please be warned that the following is a LONG rant and I wouldn’t blame you if you skip it all together. (Or if you feel uncomfortable knowing this much detail about our financial lives, I’m sorry. Hopefully it is helpful to at least someone out there. =)
***
I will never again do business with 5/3 Bank!
The only reason I even know what PMI stands for is because of Dave Ramsey. As I have said before, we are pretty big fans of his “getting and staying out of debt” advice. But when we purchased our home a few years ago, we didn’t follow his teaching 100%. He only supports putting at least 20% down and getting a 15 year, fixed rate, mortgages where the payment is no more than a quarter of your take home pay. We put 5% down and therefore ended up paying PMI (private mortgage insurance – which is required if you don’t have at least 20% equity in the home).
So for the last year and a half we have been working hard to get that ratio down, so that we could request to cancel PMI. Throwing away a $100 a month is not my idea of wise-spending. =)
In December of last year, after we had completed the new window installations in the basement, I called the bank and was told that we would need a new appraisal of our home to see if the value had increased enough to put us at 20% equity and then we could request to drop PMI. We paid the appraisal fee and the it came back very close to where we needed it. Nice! A few weeks later I called the customer service reps again to find out what paperwork I needed to fill out in order to begin the “cancellation process.”
About a month and multiple faxes later, they had finally received everything they needed. Then I was told that, according to our contract, we had to make PMI payments for 2 full years before we could request a cancellation. Well, that’s just stupid but what could we do at that point?
We waited until June 1, which was 2 years after we made our first payment, and then I submitted our request for cancellation AGAIN. This is where it began to get ugly. I sent multiple faxes that kept getting “lost”. No one had record of them. I sent them messages through their online system but because it needed to be “signed”, sending a fax was the only way to go. Finally someone acknowledged receiving one of the faxes. (If I were that inefficient, I’d fire myself!)
A few days later we were told that the loan to value ratio wasn’t even close (because this person wasn’t looking at our new appraisal that we faxed and put in our folder in March.) I talked to another supervisor who “found” it and we “moved on.” Then that supervisor called us back and said that Fanny Mac requires “Uniform Residential Apprisals” and that ours was not the right type. I pulled out our appraisal, while talking to her on the phone, and sure enough, each page had that title typed across the top. We went around and AROUND on the phone. I was getting SO angry at this point. I finally figured out a way to email them the appraisal (which they claimed for 6 months to not be able to do… that they didn’t have access to email… What kind of an idiot do you think I am?) When she received the appraisal she claimed that the top of the fax had been cut off and therefore didn’t show the title “Uniform Residential Appraisal”.
Whatever.
She submitted it to the appropriate branch again. We waited. It was almost the end of the month by now and we were holding off on paying our next mortgage payment hoping it would all go through so we wouldn’t pay PMI.
Then we got the final verdict: “Fanny Mae requires that when using a new appraisal, you have 25% equity in the home (not 20%) before PMI can be dropped. Your request is denied.”
I gave them a piece of my mind!
Why didn’t someone tell us this information the FIRST time we called over 6 months ago? Every single person we had talked to up until this point had given us wrong information thus leading us to us to waste time and money. I was so upset!
Out of utter frustration with 5/3 Bank, I decided to see if there was a local bank that we could talk to about refinancing. I didn’t want to give 5/3 Bank a single dollar more or ever deal with them again.
I called our local bank, where we have our business accounts, and spoke with Susan in the mortgage department. Over the course of a week we talked multiple times on the phone, emailed back and forth, and I stopped in her office to chat with her… everything seemed too good to be true. She even offered to give us some discounts for the closing costs and completely understood our frustration with “big banks.”
Before we could continue with the refinancing process, we had to have our home appraised once again but this time by someone on their preferred vendors list. (Our previous appraiser wasn’t on that list which was a bit frustrating but worked out fine.) The day the appraiser came to our home I was ready! You would have thought I was trying to seduce him by how perfectly charming everything was. I had our home clean, top to bottom and staged to perfection! Candles. Certain lights/lamps on. Nothing was out of place. It was great. We were hoping that our home would appraise for at least the amount it did in January so that we wouldn’t have any trouble with the refinance without PMI.
One week later Susan called. She had just received the appraisal and wanted to share the good news with me personally. (I already LOVE dealing with a local bank!!)
Our home appraised for WAY higher than it did in January. Either I should become a professional “home stager” or else our curb appeal project paid for itself 1,000 times over. Not sure which. =)
The funny thing is that based on this new appraisal, we now have 27% equity instead of 20%. So I guess we could just submit it to 5/3 Bank and be done with PMI, but at this point we are dead set on never giving them our business again, PLUS over the course of the new loan we’ll save a lot because of the lower interest rate: 4.25%. Wow!
Needless to say we are thrilled to be refinancing our home on Friday!
This rings true in other ares of my life as well: I am willing to pay a bit more (if necessary) to support a local business where I am treated with respect and known personally. Relationships are so underrated these days.
Posted by Marcia on Jul 21, 2010 in
sharing Cade and I don’t really fight. We just have very tense conversations/discussions but we have never yelled at each other. I don’t know. I just can’t imagine raising my voice at him. =)
Last night after Cade got home from work and before he left to tutor a friend in math (yes, he is SO generous with is time!) we ate some supper while watching an episode of Mad Men. We were almost finished and I asked him if he wanted some ice cream to top it all off.
“Yes!”
We both went to the kitchen to put our plates in the sink and get some ice cream. Cade pulled it out of the freezer and realized that there was only 2 spoonfuls left of the “special” kind which he had picked out a few days ago. He told me I could have it all while he reached in for the vanilla ice cream.
“No, we’ll split it. I’ll take some vanilla too.”
“No. You take it all.”
“No, babe. Let’s split it. I like vanilla!”
He got really quiet and I realized that I had pushed a little too hard. He finally said,
“It is really frustrating how stubborn you are sometimes. I want to be able to spoil you and you don’t let me.”
I guess it’s good that we argue about who gets to win when it comes to “spoiling the other”. It’s one situation where it’s also good to lose.
Posted by Marcia on Jul 20, 2010 in
sharing I just read one of Seth Godin’s blog posts and was very challenged!
* * *
Is Everything Perfect?
Greetings have traditionally been an acknowledgment of the other person. “I see you.” “Hello.” “Greetings.”
Then, we moved on to, “how are you?” or even, “how’s business?”
Recently, though, our performance-obsessed, live-forever society has morphed the greeting into something like, “please list everything going on in your life that isn’t as perfect as it should be.”
In a business setting, this causes bad prioritization decisions. The owner of the bar says to the manager, “how was the night?” and the response is, “the cash register came up $8 short.” Suddenly, there’s an urgent problem to be solved. How to replace the eight dollars and who do we fire?
If the question instead had been, “what’s up?” (as in literally up) the answer might have been, “well, there’s a big party at table 12, another going away party. They’ve been buying champagne all night. And Mary told me she set a new record for tips. And the new beer we added on tap is…”
Highlighting what’s working helps you make that happen more often.
Perfect is overrated. Perfect doesn’t scale, either.
I’m not proposing you endorse theft or ignore the bad news. But it’s clear that one more going away party on table 12 is going to make up for that one piece of bad news, every time.
* * *
I think this can apply to your business and life in general. I am going to try my best to use this greeting intentionally and stop someone if they can’t tell me at least SOMETHING positive. I am tired of listening to “Debby Downers.” =)