Stumped, Confused, Worried, Screwed!

Once upon a time there was a girl who fell in love with a boy who lived high upon a mountain top. This girl had been a gypsy all her life, following her Wild Heart to many wondrous places. She

grew up by the beach & knew little of snowdrifts & snow days & snow plows, but over 13 years she learned much about these things & because the love she had for the boy was so great...no matter how much she moaned & groaned every winter, she stayed & craved a life out for herself & the ones she loved high upon that mountain.

Together this couple lived season after season in their small cabin on the hill, sometimes loving it & sometimes dreaming of a getaway. A fire broke out in their house one day many years ago when they were gone & by the time they got back, the interior was pretty well gone. This event truly broke their hearts...the loss, the damage, the fear & the dread. Over the course of the next two years, living in a trailer in their yard, through REAL blood, sweat & tears, their house was repaired board by board & brick by brick & became the little dream cottage they had always longed for. 

A blessing came in the way of a Grandson. He came to this cottage in the mountains since he was born, bundled up in his bunting & soon playing out side in his snowsuit. He couldn't imagine his Munga & Grandpa living anywhere else, now this had become his sense of HOME too. Over the past few years, as the economy turned bad so quickly, many things changed for this boy & this girl. No matter how they tried they couldn't seem to stay afloat. They closed a shop, lost a truck & a trailer...buckled down to the lowest of minimums & still times got rougher. In an effort to hold on to what they held dear, they tried a home loan modification...a process that would take 18 months 

During the 18 months they were told they qualified for the modification & to make half house payments until all the paperwork went through. And so, being naive & vulnerable, they did as they were told having faith in a system that would in the end, only let them down.

As they navigated through these muddied waters, memories were still being made in their little cottage in the mountains. The baby they loved, grew into a little boy. Holidays came & went. Springs turned into summers, which turned into falls & until once again the snow fell as they waited to find out their fate.

The couple is us...

Two months ago we were told our fate...

we didn't make enough money for the home loan modification

& now that we hadn't been paying the correct monthly payment

for all those months that they were reviewing us,

in order to keep this house, our home,

we needed to come up with $10,000, yesterday.

$10,000...is this a nightmare, somebody wake me up, please.

So ya mean to tell me that if B of A had been efficient & told us in 2 months that we didn't qualify, we would have just been working hard like everybody else to make our payments & we would have owed them like $1,000. It never dawned on either of us that by making these half payments we would have a balloon payment. They told us we were qualified, that's why we made those payments in the 1st place & anything owed was suppose to go on to the end of the loan...not so much!

We had a realtor come to the house for an appraisal, we are upside down by about $20,000...so selling it ain't gonna happen. We can walk away..but really OUCH!! We could take out a loan for the $10,000 & try our best to pay off the loan & make out house payments. We can dig a big hole in the sand & bury our heads in it & hope we don't wake up until 2013.

Sometimes, I'm a runner when it all gets too hard, sometimes fighting just takes too much of an emotional toll. Hubby wants to hit the road & travel for a year, just sell at big shows, work our side businesses, see if we might be able to get by. But at the end of the day, everybody needs a home. Everybody needs a place to hang their cowboy hat, a place to keep their stuff. So what to do Sweet Hearts, what to do?

We are both frozen, one day we want to stay, the next hour we say screw them...they can have it. The next morning I can't imagine not having a home. I'm too old for this now...if I were in my 20's & had the time to make it all up again, I'd be gone, just for the hell of it! I'm tired & scared & am just so sick of worrying about it all. I have handed it up to God & he hasn't gotten back to me yet. I know, so many in the same predicament...he must be exhausted!

So, here's where you come in. You have always been my trusted advisers, my rebel sistahs, my united front on the front lines. If you were me & in this moment & be really glad you're not...what would YOU do. Give me your knowledge, your heart, take my hand & lead me gently to a new way of thinking...maybe I've missed something along the way. The answer could be sitting right there in front of me, so close & yet I'm blinded.

Can I tell y'all, you mean everything to me...

Thank You Sweet Hearts,

my eyes & ears & mind are Wide Open!!!

XOXO

vintagesusie

Some Days Your Spoonin & Some Days Your Forkin...

Today, I've been forkin...

Today, I've been reminding myself of who I am

& where I'm headed.

Today, I've been thinking about the forks in the road

& the paths one chooses to take & why.

Today I made a fork necklace for myself,

so if I ever get lost I can read it & remember.

Mark Twain's words wrap around me like a summer breeze...

'Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed

by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do.

Catch the Trade Winds in Your Sails

Explore

Create

Dream

Discover.'

I added the Create.

And just in case my compass ever gets totally broken,

today I did a little spoonin too.

1956

Long Beach

with a 1917 Vintage Souvenir Spoon handle from

Long Beach, CA.

My simple reminder of where I began.

I hope you had a Beautiful Sunday

Sweet Friends!

XOXO

vintagesusie

Blog Designer to the Stars, Woot Woot!

Hey Sweeties....

I'm so excited to be telling y'all...

yes, I vintagesusie, am a blog designer to the STARS!

Can I get a Woot Woot!!!

Mark Montano

Designer, Author, TV Host & Crafter Extraordinaire,

has launched his newly remodeled blog,

Mark Montano's BIG-ASS Blog,

just today & FYI, it was oh so happily designed by MOI.

How cooooool is that!!

I want to tell you a little more about Mark.

His BIG-ASS BOOK OF CRAFTS,

has been the #1 crafting book in the US for the past 3 years...

& his follow up book, THE BIG-ASS BOOK OF CRAFTS 2,

will be coming out this fall, Yipppeee Mark!!

Not to leave any stone unturned, he also has the amazing

BIG-ASS BOOK of Home Decor.

I mean, what does this guy NOT do, right?? lol

Maybe TV???

Nahhh, Mark was a featured designer on TLC's

While You Were Out.

So...to say I was a little star struck is an under statement.

To say he was amazing to work with & helped push me to work

outside of my little Vintage Design Bubble, is right on.

To say it was serendipitous that me, with my Big Ass,

who often times acts, like a Big Ass,

got to design with the Guru of all things

BIG-ASS & Beautiful,

is again Right On! ;)

Thanks Mark, for a great weekend of work & creativity.

And Sweet Hearts, I don't know about you, but I'm headed over to Barnes & Noble

cuz any book with the words BIG-ASS in the title,

needs to be on my shelf!!! LOL

XOXO

vintagesusie

Thank God for AAA

Now, I know I'm getting REALLY old...I mean, old as DIRT kinda old!

I'm so old that I actually remember a time when service stations were just that, Service Stations.

I remember a rubber hose that ran along the ground & as you drove over it it would ding,

alerting the Service Station attendant that he had a customer.

He'd come running out, smile on his face in his clean, white uniform, hat cocked

to one side & yell out "What can I get ya?", & as we all sat comfortably in the car

my Daddy would yell back, "Fill her up with Ethel please."

I never knew who Ethel was until I got much older, but I figured she was a nice lady cuz our

car always ran down the road perfectly after we got filled with her.  ;)

These gentle men not only filled your car up with gas, but they also:

washed your windshields spotless,

checked your oil,

checked the radiator,

checked the air pressure in your tires

& if any of these were amiss, they fixed the problem immediately, with a smile.

I MISS those days, I really do. Life was just SWEETER.

Fast Forward fifty years...

Yesterday, I had a tire blow out. Not just a little, I came out of the store & my tire was flat

or a small, slow leak of air as I was driving down the road & had to pull over.

I had a going, 65mph, on a 2 lane HWY, in the middle of NOWHERE

BLOWOUT!!!

'Shut the Front Door', I'm surprised I didn't die.

It was 6:30pm, I didn't know what city I was in cuz I was in the middle of the desert,

the shoulder WAS the desert, I was an hour from home, an hour from my friends house,

cars & semi's were flying past me at the speed of sound, I was freaked out, a little stupefied

& the one thing I AM GRATEFUL for in these modern times, is my cell phone.

So, what do I do first...

Call my Hubby & what does he tell me to do, call AAA & call him right back.

THANK GOD for AAA!!!

I called the emergency hot line & talk to Angie.

I gave her my card number & she then asks, "Where are you?"

I panicky answer like the brilliant woman that I am, "I don't know!"

She asks "What city are you in?" I answer, "I don't know, I'm in the middle of a desert."

Brilliant, right?

Long story short, through my vague ramblings & inaccurate information, she decides my

location & sends a AAA tow truck out to help me. It will take 54 minutes.

Call Hubby back, we decide it's silly for him to drive that far, I will wait.

He tells me there are crazy drivers out there, not to wait in the car...

I say I'm scared of someone seeing me & kidnapping me {oldnapping me}

or maybe even worse, getting bite by a snake.

He says, just take my water & take a little walk off the road & make it a pleasant wait.

I say ok...I stay in the car & put my seat belt on, Angie calls again to check on me.

An hour later as the sun is getting lower in the sky, I hear the sound of a truck

pulling up behind me...yipppeeee, I'm saved!!!

I hop out of the car clapping my hands & waving...do all women do this

or am I just a moron? The sun is now slightly behind the driver as he jumps out of the

truck, clipboard in hand, blue one piece uniform on & a smile on his face.

"Are you Susie?", "Yes, yes, that's me...I've been waiting!"

"Can I see your card Mam?" "Oh yes, here it is, I've got it!"

"Thank you Mam, no worries. I'll take care of everything. These drivers out here

are crazy! If I could have you step back & away from the car for your own safety,

I would really appreciate it."

"Certainly, certainly, why didn't I think of that!"  ;)

He now went to work & with the sun setting behind him, there was a soft glow of light

surrounding him. His skin glistened & his hair blew softly in the desert breeze,

at least that's the way I remember it.

He mentions that he was leaving to go home when he got the call, but was concerned

about a women being stranded out here alone...I think he's my savior.

As he finishes up, I thank him profusely & run over to my purse to get him a tip.

I only have $3 & I fold it up & put it in his hand. He says no, he can't except it. I say

he must. He says he can't take my last few dollars & I say he has to take it. I say he saved

me & it's the least I can do & wish it were more.

He shakes my hand & says, with a smile on his face,

"It's just my job."

I get in my car & slowly merge back out into the traffic, finally heading for home.

I think, I hope he stops at a bar before he goes home & has a beer on me.

THANK GOD for AAA!

XOXO

vintagesusie