Check out "Melissa and Doug." Toy's R Us carries them. We LOVE them!

We say the pledge and then we sing "My Country Tis of Thee." I grew up singing all the patriotic songs (military brat), and we sang "My Country Tis of Thee" in elementary school (DODDS). I think it's important for history as well as a civics lesson. After Christmas, I'm going to start teaching "America the Beautiful.":patriot:

STOP!!! I'm crying I laughed so hard! :lol::lol::lol::lol::lol:

If I have enough rum I don't need Mental health insurance:cheers2:

I keep waiting for his head to explode because they won't stay within the time constraints. SNL TOTALLY has a skit here: Tom- gentlemen, please stay within the times you agreed to. Tom - gentlemen, I'm going to remind you ONE MORE TIME that you agreed to a one minute discussion time Tom - IF THE TWO OF YOU DON'T SHUT UP, SO HELP ME!!!! Oh, wait, that sounds like my school day :D

We sold our house, sold our 2nd car, the other car is free and clear, and my husband starts a new job October 6th. He received a 20% pay raise so we're hoping to pay off everything else but the student loans by the end of 2009. For the first time, we feel like we can do it :hurray: Blessings! Dorinda

Sharon and everyone else, Yes, it's finally over:party: We packed up last week, moved over the weekend and closed on Wednesday. I've been sick ever since closing and sleeping a lot. I think my body finally said enough with all the stress. Closing was smooth and we were able to take $1000 less to the table than we were originally told. Moving is expensive so that was a HUGE blessing. Then, on Thursday, my husband was offered a job with another company here in town. :party: God has been doubly good to us this month. We just don't have enough words to praise and express how overwhelmed we are by His goodness. I was praying that He would provide the money for us, and that the loan we had to take out to close on the house would not be a burden for us. I was also feeling a little bitter on Saturday when we were leaving behind all our appliances and curtains and shelves. I know they're just things and our rental has appliances that are great, but I find it easy to complain about them because they're not "mine," and they're not what I would have picked out. But, then I locked the house up and realized how blessed we are that the house sold at all! And I haven't been back since. I haven't been sad or bitter, and no, I'm not happy that I still owe money on a washer/dryer that I no longer own, but it just motivates me to pay it off even faster. And now, with the blessing of a new job for my husband, God has provided me a way. A couple of weeks ago, my husband and I were fretting over the money for closing, and my oldest daughter overheard us (she's going to be 9 tomorrow). She said, "you know Mommy, doesn't the Bible say that God will provide for all our needs? maybe you'd feel better if I wrote it on a piece of paper for you and hung it on the fridge to remind you." So, she wrote, "God will Provide for Us," on a piece of paper, and copied Matthew 10:29-31 under it. It hung on our fridge all month, and it's on our fridge in the new house. I'll probably keep it forever. If only we could understand what a child understands and find the same peace as them. My daughter never doubted Him and I shouldn't have either. So, ladies, I'm going to continue to pray for you as you prayed for me, and I pray that even if you have to pay at closing, or give up all your appliances, or whatever it is in selling your house that becomes a sticking point, that you will find God's peace that passes all understanding, and trust in Him. Blessings and peace to you all! Dorinda

At least you can deduct them on your Federal taxes? :001_smile:

Yet another reason not to refi:glare: Oh well, live and learn I guess. If I were in congress, (that's a thread waiting to happen) I would change the law, because you really are "re-purchasing" your home when you refi. You're starting over! I did read that in 2007 congress was debating re-doing how the tax break works on points when you refi. I didn't understand it all, but basically you wouldn't get as good of a tax break if at all. Thanks for the answer! Dorinda

Cadbury Robin eggs - YYUUUUMMMMM!

As I was walking tonight, it occurred to me that we might have to pay taxes on the sale of our home!!!:scared:Since we're having to pay at closing and walking away with nothing, I was horrified. After searching the internet, I've discovered we won't because even with my most conservative calculations, we won't make a gain of more than several thousand, and since we're married filing joint, we have to make more than $500,000 on the sale to pay taxes on it (yeah, don't we all WISH we had that problem). So here's the question that's bugging me: When you do the workup to figure out whether you had a gain or a loss on the sale of your home, you use the original purchase price. If you refinanced, didn't you "re-buy" you home? So wouldn't that be the purchase price? :confused: Because everything I found specifically said, "original purchase price" and it never said anything about "if you refinanced your home." (I was on irs.gov). The reason I want to know is, that means without the refi it looks like I made a profit on my home. But with the refi included, I took a loss. Either way it's a wash because the profit isn't enough to claim and you can't claim the loss (which I'm REALLY disappointed about). I just can't find the answer and it's bugging me! I have to know! If you know, please post and put me out of my misery:willy_nilly: Thanks! Dorinda

Actually, they have all the seasons. We are in Season 8 and there's one more. I think we've been watching it for almost a year now :) My husband and I are constantly saying, "Good Moaning!," and the other day we were reading from the book of Joshua to our girls, and someone in the book of Joshua says, "Listen very carefully," and I started to say, "I shall say this only once.":blushing: We LOVE it! Next, we're renting Fawlty Towers. My Grandma got me hooked on that in college. Oh, and before that it was, "Coupling." The one we tried to watch and didn't understand was "The Office.":confused:I will never understand the humor in the British version.

Wierd Al's "White and Nerdy Take #1" It's the entire song with Donny Osmond dancing behind him. The first time we watched the actual video, I was like, "is that Donnie Osmond?!" and then I found the link to this. We laughed so hard we almost wet ourselves!:lol: Enjoy!

:rofl::rofl::rofl: We LOVE Galaxy Quest! You're killing me and my husband!

:party: You are awesome! Good for you! Dorinda

I think there probably is an investor that has been sitting on the sidelines, waiting for the Realtor to call and tell him that there's an offer for x amount, do you still want this house? Now, if you refuse to give a counter offer, the Realtor will go to the seller and say, you've had two offers and one is an investor who's low but has cash. I think there are Realtors in bed with investors that wait for this very thing. The investor wants the house and the Realtor strings the seller along until they are ready to sell to the investor. We started out with a Realtor like that and when we figured out he was crooked, we switched to one that was top dollar, but he's 100% ethical. I felt stupid for not using him in the first place. He's worked with 2 of my friends and was fabulous, I was just trying to save a buck. Take the advice of the other ladies, but also ask any Realtor you call for references on recent home sales. If no one is willing to give him/her one, that speaks volumes. Blessings! Dorinda

Heather, That's rough! I'm so sorry it turned out that way. We dropped our price a total of $15k, and it sold for $25K below what it was appraised at 2 years ago. It was such a blessing/surprise to get an offer at all we felt we couldn't turn it down! We know others that did turn offers down 6 months ago and they're regretting it now. I'm sorry for you guys. I keep telling myself it will be over soon and we can just move on.:sad: Hang in there! Blessings, Dorinda

We only sold our house by dropping it 10k. We are paying out at closing, but here's what we were up against: 1. It has become almost IMPOSSIBLE for a first time home-buyer to get a loan. They have to have 3.5 percent down (no more breaks there), and they have to have 2 years of steady income, and they have to have excellent credit. We have friends that had 3 offers on their home in the last 12 months, and every one fell through because they couldn't get the loan. It used to be that the seller could "help" the buyer with the closing costs and down payment, but no more. With Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac going under, there are no more risky loans out there, and lenders want the buyer to show responsibility by coming up with their own money. 2. We were in our neighborhood's price range until August, then we pulled the new comps and found 2 foreclosures and a ton of undervalued homes. We had to make the decision of waiting out the market and being saddled with a mortgage and no job in a year, or getting out while the getting is good. We obviously chose the latter. 3. If you wait out the market you will still have the legacy of the foreclosed and undervalued homes for some time. It takes time for the rebound. If we had waited it out, we would have possibly gotten even LESS for our home because now you have homes that have been sold in the last year for X amount and any home that goes up against it won't be appraised for higher because neighborhood value is a lot of your appraisal price. We estimated (as did our Realtor) that the market should rebound in 1 to two years. However, you'll still be a year behind that rebound because you'll still have all the homes that were on the market before yours that haven't been sold and are at "rock bottom" prices. Until there's a shortage in the market again, prices won't go up for a while. Here's another problem, we knew when we lowered our price $10k we'd get an offer for 10K less and that's exactly what happened. Buyers have been told it's a buyers market and they're brutal. But in the Buyer's defense, they have A LOT to choose from! They can wait and find a house that's cheaper that has new carpet or a new kitchen. They can afford to live where they want because there are so many foreclosures, it's all about the price. When we received our offer, the buyer showed he had a $30000 down payment and he put down $1000 earnest money. You don't get a buyer that qualified very often. The other thing he did was pay for the appraisal and the inspector. We knew that indicated he wanted our house and we just took the offer and ran. We are losing money in the process, but the piece of mind we're gaining is priceless. I hope that helps! Each situation is totally different, but that's what went on with us. Blessings and Peace in your decision! Dorinda

:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

Whenever someone says, "Awesome" my oldest says "Possum" followed by my youngest saying,"Falalalalawesome" So, here's how it sounds in my house: Awesome! Possum! Falalalalawsome!!!! They do it EVERY TIME, ALL THE TIME!!!:willy_nilly: My husband started it, don't ask me why :confused: Dorinda

:grouphug: You've got a lot going on Heather. I'm praying for you! Dorinda

UGH!! Last year it was Veritas Press, Math U See, Rod and Staff and Singapore.:banghead: HMMMM, come to think of it, last year was a tough year for us. :thumbdown:We DREADED school and I felt like nothing was working. This year so far so good (which is highly unusual). :thumbup: I will put in a disclaimer here, we haven't been very consistent this month because we're moving, but I don't foresee any problems. The moral of the story: CHANGE IF IT"S NOT WORKING! It's not worth the months of agony. Blessings! Dorinda

:grouphug::grouphug::grouphug: Sometimes there aren't enough hugs to go around. I am so sorry for you guys. I will pray for deliverance for you guys. Hang in there! Blessings, Dorinda

Heather, No, but I looked at the list you were talking about and there are other words where the "e" sound comes at the end of the word (comet). I can see why you don't like that rule for that word. FWW, we don't discuss the rules at all. They don't make a bit of difference to my dd. We just like the flow of the program and the way it works (testing than learning what you don't know). HTH! Dorinda

:grouphug: Heather, I'm right there with you. Inspections are NO FUN!:crying: Congrats! At least it's over and you don't have to do anymore to your house. I'll pray for smooth sailing after this! Blessings! Dorinda