Tonight's picture was taken in May of 2008. That day I visited Mattie's kindergarten classroom and did a guest presentation about coconuts! Why did I do this? Because every spring, Mattie's grandparents would visit Florida and they literally mailed us a whole coconut in the mail! Husk and all! Mattie absolutely loved it! I guess the educator in me, turned this hard shelled gift into a learning opportunity. I took my coconut show on the road at both Mattie's preschool and his elementary school! I literally would do a presentation, so the children learned a little bit about coconuts, then we would demonstrate how to open the husk and crack the coconut, and then the children got to taste the coconut! I also typically baked coconut treats, so all in all, it was a fun experience for the entire class.
Quote of the day: We don’t even know how strong we are until we are forced to bring that hidden strength forward. ~ Isabel Allende
If you have been following along, then you know that my dad was given a Flomax prescription when discharged from the hospital last Friday. The goal was to take one pill for 14 days. By day five, I was at my wit's end! In a small percentage of patients, the side effect is diarrhea. However, given my dad's irritable bowel issues, the side effects were magnified. Yesterday was such a nightmare that I contacted the doctors, because I couldn't see surviving another clean up day like Wednesday! My dad's primary care doctor suggested I stop the medication for three days to see if I noticed an improvement. Sure enough, today was better. I had the usual IBS issues, but not the full blown clean up nightmare while on Flomax. Though the urology team said that my dad's issues couldn't be Flomax related, I KNOW MY DAD! I knew that the only new thing added to his regimen was Flomax. Given that my dad is very sensitive to all medications, it did not take a rocket scientist to see the connection!
After my typical morning routine, I thought I could sit down and focus on Foundation things! Forget it. My phone rang, and I could tell it was my mortgage company. I applied for a mortgage assumption at the end of April. Why? Because legally in my marital settlement agreement, I have to remove my other half. I learned today that the bank could care less that I am divorced or the fact that my other half is currently on the mortgage. All they care about is that the house is in my name, I live in the house, and that I pay the mortgage. In all intensive purposes, things would be business as usual, if it wasn't for my marital settlement agreement. I found that very interesting, because for some reason I thought if I was divorced, that the mortgage company would require only my name be on the mortgage. But that isn't how it works.
Any case, today's call was disappointing, because what it means is that I have more work ahead and another two hour long phone call with my assumption's agent. When I became separated, I wasn't only managing caregiving 24/7, maintaining the house, running the Foundation, but I also had to learn about paying bills and paying off accumulated debts. The debt process has been a major learning curve for me, which is why I got to know our banker very well, as she sat down with me, educated me about debt, how it impacts my future, and then worked with me on a plan to resolve it. But given that I do not work and do not get alimony, debt management is a slow process for me.
All I can say is I am learning so much and I am also stressed out so much because I need to secure a mortgage assumption to remain in my house. Remaining in my house is crucial given that my parents both have dementia and significant health issues. My mortgage assumption agent gets it, and he will continue to work with me on finalizing this process. What I can say is that in my time of need, when I am absolutely at my wit's end today, I turned to two people. Both of whom have agreed to help me through this mortgage assumption because in their minds I have been through more than enough and they love me. In fact, when I wrote to one of the women in question... her response was "Of course I will.... happy to help."
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