Chocolate Cherries

That's what color my hair is! I haven't had it colored for way too long and there are far, far too many gray hairs streaking my head so something had to be done! An $80 color job just isn't in the budget right now (more on that later) so Steve said he'd help me out. I spent forever at Target deciding the "right" color and decided on this - Chocolate Cherries. It's more chocolate than anything but maybe there are some cherries on the inside. LOL I really like it and if I must say - Steve is quite the colorist! He had a nice methodical method to covering all those gray hairs - so I think I'll be back for a visit to Salon Steve in 6 weeks.

So, now to the reason for the home job. When we bought the house we were told the first year here we only pay taxes on the land, then by the 2nd year all exemptions are filed and you are good to go. Well, we never had the first year of land tax only and we were told by the county tax office that the homestead exemption and mortgage exemptions were filed in time for this year so all would be fine. Well, low and behold a new "law" was enacted that your closing on your house needed to happen before March 1. Guess when we closed??? 7 days later - March 8. So.....we were expecting a tax bill of around $1200-$1500 for the year but we get a close to $5K tax bill. We are now having to pay for the next 4-5 months (we've already paid one) a $700 more a MONTH mortgage payment. Not, a hundred dollars or even two hundred dollars more - nope, $700.

Thank the Lord, we have the money for it. Thank the Lord, we even have a house to have a mortgage on. We know we are blessed. But, gosh darn! That's a lot of money for a single income family. Needless to say, Christmas will be scaled back huge this year. Steve and I won't buy for each other and we've already told the kids they won't be getting as many presents this year. At first Isabella took it hard, but she's been so sweet and understanding ever since.

Luckily, Steve called the tax office and the mortgage office to figure something out. So, once we get the escrow back to a positive and have the cushion they require then it will be adjusted based on a tax estimate for next year. In the end, it will all work out fine. And thank goodness gas has gone down $2 a gallon - that's a nice pay raise right there!

Ok, whining session over.