No T Words mentioned at all - a fresh start

flowertotmum

Morning all..hope your all well on this wet windy morning.

I was up at 6 and it was still dark..not long til the clocks go back.

Thanks so much all of you..

Hoglet..so glad your hubby had a good birthday..and the food sounds amazing..i love to batch cook and have my meals planned out..i really don't like wasting food..dry socket is appalling isn't it..thought i was going to go bonkers with it. You sound like me..i read my books in the bath and get all inspired to grow more and make more of my own..my allotment is crammed to overflowing..no wonder we need another one.
Your garden sounds wonderful and think of all the money you will save..well done on your mortgage payments too..

Sm..thank you so much for the postcards..the girls love receiving them..The Little House on the Prairie is the best..we have started to read the Laura Ingalls Wilder book..we enjoy them so much. My tomatoes ripened too and then kept growing..like you everyone and anyone got arms full of them lol.

VJ'smum..o i bet its such a relief to know your girl is all settled and ok..Well done on the tickets..it may seem ages away but it will be here before you know it..

Well today it whats known in our house as the Birthday Eve..lol..Simon made it up years ago..now its like a tradition..so today we will be doing our school work until lunch then my friend is popping down..the girls will have the afternoon off and play whilst we natter.

Tonight its the big party decorating..balloons,banners and dangly things..then placing the presents in front of the fire so its the first thing she see's. She is so excited bless her..

Right i have to go and sort out some laundry..have a cuppa then school..
back later
love you all
ftm

candlelight_2013

FTM you sound as though you are going to have a lovely couple of days. I am sure Iris must be beside herself with all the excitement, I hope she has a wonderful day.

You really sound as though you have been through the mill with your tooth, hopefully you are on the mend now.

Congratulations on passing with the HE Inspector, I think it goes without saying it is because you make your lessons so interesting that the girls are doing so well.

I hope Fionna managed to have a good weekend and is ready to start her treatment. I think you will all feel slightly better once she starts treatment, because then, at least, you know something constructive is being done.

Hoglet I feel tired just reading your posts you are always so busy and your garden this year is going to look wonderful. A lemon tree how lovely, obviously we couldn't have one here, although I suppose it would survive in a heated conservatory.

It sounds as though DH had a good birthday amd you have a well stocked freezer as well. Alfie obviously enjoyed the company of the little one, perhaps it was a little overwhelming for the other two which is why they ran for cover

SM good to see you back safe and sound and it is a pity work gets in the way sometimes. We are due a visit to Costco soon. I had read an American blog and they said the Christmas decorations were in stock but when we went into ours about a month ago they had hardly any, so I think ours will be in soon. I don't necessarily buy any but I do love to look.

Well the weather here is absolutely dreadful, very heavy rain and winds. I have quite a heavy cold which started yesterdsy, so Himself has gone to take DD shopping because I don't want to give it to her she has quite enough to cope with.

Have a good day everyone and sending love and healing vibes to Fionna

Candlelightx

hoglet121

Morning everyone :-)

FTM - I hope Iris has a very happy birthday! Lots of birthday wishes to her from us! Birthday Eve sounds like a great idea :-) And thank you to you and Candlelight for your kind words about my garden :-)


Candlelight - I'm not sure how much warmth a lemon tree needs, but I suspect it wouldn't like to be exposed to the cold winters, so yes a heated conservatory would probably be its friend :-) Didn't the Victorians go in for Orangeries? They must have found a growing solution somewhow! Here it is limes which are temperamental and apparently will not grown any further south than Auckland. Ours got a bit of frost nip this year, but I chopped off the worst bits and it seems to have some new growth coming so fingers crossed.

We had a big storm last night. Crazy winds and rain, which got the cats all scared and all they came to sleep with us. They were a bit uppity afterwards and tore around the house - much to DH's displeasure. We knew the storm was forecast so I didn't plant out my lemon tree when I brought it home, just kept it in a sheltered spot, and got DH to take down the hanging basket too. Will need to inspect the mandarin tree and the compost heap when I get home tonight.

The mortgage is turning into a bit of a saga - lady from the bank emailed me the details of our new payments and they are significantly higher than I was expecting. I queried her and she said that those were the numbers that came out of her mortgage calculator, but they are in excess of $200 a month more than what their online calculator suggests. Surely a certain amount of money at a certain interest rate can't generate such different repayments?! I want to get to the bottom of it, as 'that's the number my computer gives me' isn't good enough for us to pay almost $2500 a year more. Spent half an hour on hold to their phoneline last night before giving up (fortuantely such things are free here) so I will try a branch near to work and see what they can tell me.

In a fit of excitement I just tried the bank's mortgage phone line - after telling my story a little enthusiastically the girl told me that the mortgage team start at 8am and as I'd rung before then my call had been transferred to the generic banking line. Ah. That will teach me to ask before I launch into my problem!

Leftover shepherds pie to look forward to for lunch and then chicken passanda from the freezer for dinner tonight - a bit piggy but won't do rice or breads with the passanda owing to big lunch.

I need to find some energy 2 evenings this week to sort out spare room and guest bathroom ahead of visitors this weekend. We bought a new strip of seal for the shower glass which is a big improvement on the dried up brown grim leaky one that was there before. The cats will be most put out that their afternoon snoozing spot on the spare bed is to be given over to people for a few nights! Also need to clear out the large amount of junk under the spare bed and not just dump it in the garage until they leave, as that is not solving the problem at all. Those preservers amongst us, what do you do with your empty jars in between preserving sessions? Mine live in 3 or 4 huge bags and boxes under the spare bed, but I feel there must be a better solution...?

Last home game for our rugby team tomorrow night. They've just signed a big name and he'll be running out with them tomorrow so we're taking my cousin's little boy with us - his mum is already booked up tomorrow night but she'd have rather come to the rugby I think! DH is pretty tall, so he'll be good for helping get autographs for the young lad.

Right I'd better go and have another play with the mortgage calculators before I ring the bank again... errr I mean get on and do some work of course!

Love to you all

Hoglet x

hoglet121

I'm back!

Half an hour on the phone to the mortgage team and we got the bottom of what the problem was. The lady we'd spoken to at the weekend had just worked out the monthly repayments and divided them by 2 - we seem to have been at crossed purposes...

Restructuring the loan on the phone and tweaking it a little bit here and there has saved us just shy of $100K in interest payments and shaved years off the loan.

Dancing a happy dance here!

So glad I followed my gut instinct that I wasn't getting what I intended from the conversation with the bank at the weekend. A few years ago I'd have just agreed to the payments and thought I must have made a mistake somewhere.

candlelight_2013

Well done Hoglet dog with bone springs to mind:)

It just shows though you were sure of your facts and you were right

Much love
Candlelightx

candlelight_2013

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

IRIS :j:bdaycake:

With love from FLORA xxxx

:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j

candlelight_2013

Morning all,

Up early today, have a really sore throat, but have had a coffee and a strepsil:) hope it improves as the day progresses.

We have to pop to the supermarket today for a few essentials, but other than that not a lot doing. When Himself is awake I will put a wash on, but probably have to put the tumble dryer on for the first time in months. I can't see what the weather is like at the moment because it is still dark, but it is definitely cooler.

Wishing Iris a very happy birthday and hope you had a lovely party yesterday.

Have a good day everyone

Much love
Candlelightx

[Deleted User]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY IRIS have a lovely day and lots of cake Love from Lyn and Docky dog xxx.

flowertotmum

Hi just a quickie..

Candlelight thank you so much for the card..Iris was amazed and absolutely loves Flora..and was jumping up and down when i showed her your post on here..
MLW..thank you for the birthday wishes for Iris..she read it almost all by herself..

Hoglet thank you..Iris will have a great day...glad you got your mortgage sorted.

Well we were all up at the crack of dawn..well before sunrise actually..the house is full of pressies,cards and we decorated it all with banners and balloons last night..so she was surprised when she got up..

The tea-party is going ahead..everyone is coming,so it will be a full house later. We are having no school today..the girls are playing with Rainbow Dash and Rarity..her new Little Ponies..

right got to go and get lunch sorted ..

thank you all
love
ftm

hoglet121

Morning all :-)

The storm is well passed now and we had a nice clear evening. Good to be able to potter about in the garden after work, just watering a few things and checking on bits (what is eating my beans??!!). Makes me feel much more grounded when I can get into the garden even if it's just for a short while. DH came out to chat whilst I watered, it was lovely.

Guest bathroom cleaned last night, and whislt I was at it I figured I might as well do ours 'properly'. Both floors swept and mopped which was the main thing that needed doing - hoovered under our bed as well, just to see what came out. It's always a revelation... Whislt I love to potter in the kitchen and garden, I positively hate cleaning. Special thanks go to Alfie for shredding the toilet roll all over my clean floor at 5 am this morning... :-) DH has promised to help sort out the guest bedroom tonight, I think he forgot we are at rugby!

Bank saga not quite over yet - they have sent paperwork listing DH living at a different address and the wrong start date for the re-fix period. Seriously?! Not only do I want the mortgage paid off as soon as possible to save cash, it will be great when I stop having to chase banks to produce the correct documents! I was having a mooch online to see what we could afford further out from the city, not with a view to moving yet but just to see what our money would get us elsewhere. It's looking pretty positive that we could get somewhere with a bit more land, my dream of part self-sufficiency may not be too unrealistic :-)

Right, better get to some work, lots to do before 8.30!

Hoglet x