I want to say thankyou to everyone who is serving or has served in the military. Thank you for serving our country. FIL, who just passed, was in WWII. My own father, who passed when I was 9, was in WWI and WWII. He served as a captain in the army for 30 years. I am very proud of him.

Well, Monday has passed and no law enforcement officers came to my house. I guess I have escaped going to jail this time!
Hubby thought the fake IRS guy might call me back to try and scare me again, but so far, he has left me alone.
Guess I can stay here on saving advice a few more years! Yeah!!

I got a call yesterday from a young man from the IRS. He gave me his name, badge number and case number. He said the IRS had been to my house twice in July to inform me that I owed back taxes.
When I tried to question him, he yelled at me to be quiet and to write down all he was telling me.
He then informed me that I would have to surrender my driver's license, all my bank accounts would be frozen and their would be an officer with an arrest warrent coming to take me to jail this coming monday!

All the while, he was screaming a me and would not let me get a word in edgewise. I tried to ask him to send me the paperwork, but he kept yelling. According to him, I owed $3890 and I was going to be arrested this Monday.
I hung up the phone on him, but by that time, I was shaking. I hate anyone yelling at me!!!!

I called the IRS toll free number I found in the phone book. The 40 minute wait on the phone was worth it. I was told that it was all a scam.
I wasn't too worried about owing money, but I don't think I would look good in a jail jumpsuit. Heck, I have never even once gotten a speeding ticket. (I drive like a little old lady)

Anyone care to visit me in jail next week?

Do you know what was the best thing about "the good old days"?
Well, I wasn't good!
And I wasn't old!!

p.s. ( saw that on a tee shirt)

(actually, I was pretty good, just not old)

My brother in law called. He got the bill for the cremation and it was $1900. I have no idea how much a cremation should cost.
Anyway, he can not pay the bill.
A little background on my brother in law and sister in law. They are both 59. He has owned his own business for about 20 years. He usually makes in excess of $100,000 a year and she works too.
They own a house on a lake and they bought all the surrounding lots. (They have since lost all the lots)
They have 12 cars and 5 horses.
They "had" to buy a $50,000 horse trailer. (It has sleeping quarters, a/c etc.) They can't make the payments.
They are still paying for their daughter's $50,000 wedding from 7 years ago. (She got divorced after 1 year.
They go on long trips to Disney world (2 weeks or more at a time) even though they live 1/2 hour away and could easily go home.
They can't pay their house taxes and have to redeem them at a premium each year.
FIL put all of his savings into their savings account about 20 years ago. (Why, I don't know, except she worked at a bank.) BIL and SIL spent it all.

Should we pay for the cremation or tell him to sell some of the antiques or antique cars (4) to pay for it? What would you do?

My husband called his younger brother yesterday. (There were 3 brothers; the youngest died unexpectly about 7 years ago, my husband is the oldest son.)
His dad's body was cremated yesterday.
Brother read the will. The house and all the cars (including 3 antique packards) will go to the middle son. Everything else is to be divided between his live in girlfriend (of 22 years,) the middle son and the middle son's two daughters (both in their 20's)

No mention of my husband at all. I know he has to be so hurt, although he is not talking about it. He loved his father very much and went to visit him every year. This year, he made a special trip to find them some help with the house. He founds a lady to come in and clean and take them out to shop. Since money was tight, we agreed to pay for the cleaning lady and have been sending them money every month.

There is nothing that we need or want, but I am saddened by the hurt I know my husband has to be feeling. He has always been a good son, a good man and someone to be proud of. I wish I knew what to say to comfort him.

I did my grocery shopping today and earned back $6 in advantage card savings.
The new news is that Ingles is going to start awarding more points for weekend and Tuesday shopping trips. You earn one point for each dollar spent and on Tuesdays, they are going to triple the points. I guess I will be changing my shopping days to Tuesday.

You get money off your gas purchases when you accumulate points. When you have 600 points, you can save 30 cents a gallon. That is $6 on a 20 gallon fill up. Dh always buys his gas at Ingles, but I usually get mine at the corner store. I will be getting gas at Ingles from now on. Gas is now $1.99 a gallon. Imagine paying $1.69 a gallon?? That is like being back in the 70's.
(I am so old that I remember when gas was under 20 cents a gallon.

$20 challenge
Prev. total $20,121.00
today 6.00
new total $20,127.00

My husband's father passed away this morning. It was not too unexpected since he had been in and out of hospitals several times in the past few months.
He just celebrated his 94th birthday 2 weeks ago.
Dh is holding up ok but I know he will miss his father. He went to Fla. every year to see him.
Rest in Peace.

As I mentioned earlier, I got a call from a couple from Fla. on Wednesday. They had been looking to buy a lot in our gated subdivision that we are building in. They saw that our cabin was for sale and called and asked to see it. I told them where the key was hidden.
They called back and asked if we could meet them there that evening to discuss how the cabin would be finished. After going over everything for about 2 hours, they said they wanted to buy it and would give us a deposit as a down payment.
Then they said, "draw up a contract and we will all sign it"
A contract?? We have never drawn up a contract in our lives and we have been building houses here for 31 years.

They asked, "then how to you do it"? A handshake, is what I answered. That is how we have always done business and we have never had a problem. I then told them that they could draw up a contract and we would sign it.
I can understand where they are coming from, with so many people trying to "rip" other people off.
But we are honest people and would certainly give them their money back if they should change their mind.That is just the way it works in our little backward town of Blairsville, Ga.

In the end, we shook hands. (But, I told them to go ahead and make up a contract to give them peace of mind.)

We have not yet advertised the cabin for sale, because it is not finished yet. My husband has been letting it sit, because he started a big custom house. He only works on the cabin on weekends.
We have had no lookers at the cabin because it is in a gated community and you need the code to get into the gate.
Yesterday morning, I got a call from a coouple who had gone into the subdivision to look at a lot for sale. They saw the cabin and wanted to look, so I told them where the key was hidden. They called back in the afternoon and wanted to meet with us.
They loved the cabin and hubby explained how he would be finishing it. (He does all the inside finishing work completely by himself; that includes building all the cabinets, putting down the hardwood floor, laying the stone on the fireplace, tile for the bathroom, paint, trim, etc.

I was shocked when they offered us a check as a down payment and wanted to buy the house. It was the first house they had looked at and they loved it!

Now, he will have to get on the ball and get it finished, but they said there is no hurry. They are from Fla. and this will be a vacation home for now until they can retire.

I am glad to have it sold. It is a really cute 2 bedroom, 2 bath cabin with a wonderful view of Brasstown Bald, the highest peak (mountain) in Georgia.
They also have lake access, with boat docks and swimming area, nice pavillion with picnic area, grills, etc. A really nice new subdivision on the lake. I am happy!

We live on a creek. With all the rain the past two days, the creek is very nosy and full. I love listening to it. Because we live on a fairly flat lot (in the mountains), we cannot see the creek unless it is super full like it is today.
We have a nice deck built out over the creek where we can sit and watch it. No need for that today. WE can see it from almost every room in the house.

(p.s. I know that the creek is NOISY, not nosy)

I got my biggest visa bill that I ever have gotten, in the mail yesterday. It is for $16,991.00.

DH charges everything that he buys for work at home depot. I have a Chase credit card that pays me back 3% of purchases for home improvement, which is what all home depot purchases are classified.
However, the 3% is only on purchases up to $2000 or $60 back in a refund check. On the rest of the purchases, I get the usual 1%.
This big bill was for $16,000 worth of windows and doors.
Of course, I am paying it off in full this week, so there will be no interest to be paid. I have already requested my refund check of $209.00 which Chase will send directly to my checking account. It is a nice little perk.

Just 3 more months until Christmas! Actually, Christmas gets easier and easier as I get older. But, I must say, it is sure not as much fun as it used to be.

We moved into our new house in Aug. of 1995. I had all new appliances, double oven, stove top, refrigerator, dishwasher, washer and dryer.
I have replace the refrigerator twice and replaced the dishwasher, stove top and dryer once over the past 20 years. My double oven went out in Feb. of this year, but I still have the lower oven working.
Lucky, I don't do much cooking and really don't need to ovens, but I will have to replace it with a double oven someday.
My washer is still working; it is the last appliance still standing. I guess it will be the next to go!

It is time to take a moment and remember September 11th.

I hope everyone is having a happy day. To my husband, labor day means a day to labor. In the almost 40 years we have been married, he has never had a paid day off. So, today he is working as usual. I, on the other hand, am playing bridge, which I love.
I hope you are all enjoying your day off.

This has been a busy week for us. Thursday night, friends from Fla. (they have a 2nd home here) asked us to go out to dinner with them. We really enjoyed it.
Friday night, hubby came home from work to say that we had been invited over to dinner at another friend's house. (We became friends when we built their house 15 years ago. We have since built a "vacation cabin" for them in this same town! Yes, they drive 6 miles to go on vacation about once a month and love it.)
Last night, the people we are currently building a house for, invited us to meet at a restaurant for dinner. The food was wonderful, but a bit crowded because of the long holiday weekend.

It is wonderful to have friends to go out to eat with, but we are looking forward to having dinner at home tonight. Just us and our fur babies, Molly and Abbey!

Alan is my hometime guy that won 1st place on the tv show, "Alone" by lasting 56 days out in the wilderness all alone. He is back in Blairsville now and was on the front page of our weekly paper.
What was the first "real" food that he ate once he was back in civilization? Peanut butter.

What would be your 1st choice after 56 days? Mine would be M & M's!!

I have been watching the tv program, "Alone" for the past several months. Ten guys are dropped off in the wilderness to survive the best they can, all alone.

I knew it was down to just two men last week and one of them is from my town, Blairsville, Ga. His name is Alan and he works at a prison guard. Everybody else "tapped out" escept Alan, and so last night, he was declared the winner. He was there for over 50 days. He thinks he could have lasted another 2 months, but of course, he was glad to get home to see his wife and 3 small children.

Congratulations Alan. You make the whole town proud!

Today is the day that Elvis died, Aug. 16th, 1977. I sure miss all his talent, but his music lives on.

I watched the movie "Thunder Road" with Robert Mitchum, last night.
Trivia question?
Who was supposed to play Robert Mitchum's younger brother in the movie?
(don't cheat and look it up)

Who actually played the younger brother? (That one is easy if you ever saw the movie) (First question is the hardest)

Does anyone watch the tv show, "Alone"? We have been watching it because a local man, from here in Blairsville, Ga. is one of 10 participants on the show. Somehow, we have missed the past two weeks.
We are wondering how he did? We think the show is over now, because someone has seen this man, back here, at home.
Does anyone know who the winner is? (Our local's name is Alan Kay.)
I have my $20 challenge up to $13,537.00.

Are eggs high in your area? I just paid $3.95 for a dozen large eggs.
Dh has an egg for breakfast almost everyday. He gets up early and fixes himself a big breakfast before he goes to work. He takes his lunch, but he tends to eat light during the day. (especially during this heat) I myself, eat cereal about an hour after I get up. $3.95 seems high to me, but I guess everything is high these days! I can't believe that I spend almost $100 a week for just two people. (in groceries)

I have not been able to get into the vanguard website to check on my mutual funds since I started trying last Saturday. Has anyone else had a problem with this?

June 20th was our 1 year anniversary of the closing on the last spec house we built. These people were "the customers" from hell!
We have dealt with many many people over the last 30 years, but they were by far the worst.

They called weekly, always complaining about something. They were going to sue us cause they got a pot hole in their gravel drive about 5 months after they moved in. Their shower door towel bar fell off twice! They wanted the living room a diffeent color.
WE talked to their previous builder and he said they called him all the time complaining. Even the fence guy, who installed their fence, is still getting 3 calls a week, complaining about the fence. I guess their joy in life is to complain about something.

Our one year anniversary on that house was up on June 20th and we went out to eat to celebrate!
We have not heard from them since. (knock on wood)

I added a rebate from my building supply place of $453.00 to my $20 challenge.

Prev. total $12,161.00
today 453.00
new total $12,614.00

WE closed on the house this afternoon and everything went just fine! Now, I can just sit back and wait for those checks to start rolling in!

Well, we met with the young couple that are buying our spec house on Friday afternoon. We are financing it for them. We are going to go thru an attorney to make everything legal.
We are talking about a mortgage of $241,000 and they will put down $12,500 (which will cover the real estate commission.
After we went over the paperwork (our realton was there), we showed them around the house in case they had any questions.
They want to close as soon as possible, which is fine with us! Possibly this coming week, for sure by next week. I gave them a key.
They were so excited, they asked if they could give us hugs! I love hugs!
I told them to move in whenever they wanted. DH went to cut the grass there yesterday and found that they had already moved in some furniture.
They told me that this would be their best 4th of July ever!

It is nice to be so young and buying your first brand new house! I am excited for them too!

Remember I told you that we had a contract on our spec house (that dh built) Well, the contract fell thru. The young man is self employed and does not have proof of income for the past two years.
WE got the sad news on Saturday. Well, yesterday, I called them and offered to finance the house for them.

They were so excited; they kept saying, "You must be kidding, right?"
Nope, I wasn't kidding. We will hold the mortage just like a bank. The bank was going to charge them 4 1/2% interest, so that is what I am charging. We are going to meet with them this afternoon to go over all the details.

I am excited for them too!

WE got an offer on our spec house for sale. It is a young couple and they really want the house. It would be their first home.
They were turned down by the bank. They only have 5% to put down and their payment would be about $1300 a month. She makes good money, but he is self employed and cannot prove his income. I don't have any idea what their credit score is like.

I bought my first home at age 21. My monthly payment was $96.00
I might mention that I made $1 an hour and my husband made $1.25 back then. The house was new and cost $12,000. Because of that house, I became mortgage free at age 32 and have never had a mortgage payment since then.
The bank also wants about $7000 in closing costs. I have no idea what that is for, but we were going to pay the closing costs for them. I feel bad for them; they were so excited.

Yes, my little baby Abbey is three years old today. I guess she is no longer my puppy. She is all grown up. I think we will celebrate with a doggie cake for supper. (Actually a piece of homemade egg custard pie)