birth plan?!?! bwhahahhaa!

our little daughter is finally here!  charlotte was born on 11-02-2011 at 5:24pm.  7lb 10oz, 20 3/4"  isn't she precious?

she is such a good baby, which is nice since her birth did not go quite as planned.

on 11-1, i went to my regular doctors appointment.  my blood pressure was high and i had protein in my urine.  they sent me straight to L&D to be monitored because of preeclampsia.   when my blood pressure refused to go down, they suggested induction. i refused at first, and then was basically told that i didn't really have a choice, due to the risk of organ failure, seizure, and death.  at 4:30pm, they gave me misoprostol, a drug that helps ripen the cervix.  i got another dose at 8:30, and then the contractions started.  they weren't too bad, but they definitely kept me awake all night.   the next morning, i was only 2 cm dilated and so they decided to start the pitocin.

unfortunately, pitocin makes your contractions incredibly strong and painful - your body doesn't have a chance to gradually get used to them.  because of this, i decided i needed an epidural.  unfortunately, i am one of those rare people that doesn't respond to epidurals, which i figured out after getting 2 of them.   at this point, i'm in extreme pain with no pain relief and i feel the urge to push.  it's more than an urge - it's an involuntary reaction.  oh and did i mention that she's posterior, so i'm having back labor?  so i'm pushing and there's no progress.  apparently she's stuck up there - every time she moves forward a little, she slips back in.  the nurse tries to reposition her, but nothing is working.  then they doubled my dose of pitocin to try to make the contractions even stronger.  after 2 hours of pushing, i couldn't take it anymore.  i begged the doctor to shut off the pitocin and told them i was ready for a c-section. 

once that decision was made, things happened rather quickly and charlotte was born an hour later.  while i was incredibly disappointed that the birth didn't go as planned, i made peace with it and was glad that the medical intervention was available since i needed it.

luckily, i have recovered quickly from the surgery.  i think it is because i had the placenta encapsulated and have been taking them daily.  nursing has been very easy, which is a relief because i thought i would have problems.  i've also already lost all the baby weight (50 pounds in one week!! most of it was water retention), so that's been nice to not have to worry about.

and most importantly, charlotte is very healthy and the most perfect baby ever!!  :)

the time i was sued

as i mentioned in this post, the house we are living in now isn't one we picked by choice.  this is something that is difficult to deal with emotionally, considering the people that used to live here.

once they were kicked out of this house by the city, i thought i would never have to deal with them again.  10 months later, as we were packing up our house to move and 3 weeks before our wedding, there was a knock at the door around 9pm.  had i been home alone, i would have ignored it, but jared answered the door and just like that, we were served.

the summons said that we were being sued by the previous tenants in small claims court for $7500.  which, not coincidentally i'm sure, is the maximum amount that you can sue for in small claims court.  this meant that if i counter sued for even $1, the case would get kicked into district court and lawyers would probably need to be involved.  they were suing me for 2 things.
They claimed:
*they did not receive their deposit back
*they were forced to move and lost all of their belongings due to a mold problem

right away, i knew they didn't have a leg to stand on because:
*they never paid me a deposit
*they were forced to move by the city - the mold problem was remediated.

the court date was scheduled for a day that we were on our honeymoon.  i kicked into high gear and got the court date changed and scheduled a meeting with an attorney.  he mentioned to us that we were going through 3 of the 5 major stressors that can happen to people, all at once.  getting married, selling a house/moving, and getting sued.  great.
he gave me some good advice, but also left me with this statement.
if you plan to be a landlord for awhile, this won't be the first time you're sued. 

like the nerd i am, i spent weeks googling what to expect in court and what to do and not to do.  i gathered all documents and pictures i could find, made copies, and organized them in a binder.  i prepared my opening speech and practiced it in front of jared.  jared actually made fun of me, but i told him that we shouldn't underestimate these people.  he was convinced that they would be completely unprepared, but i had a suspicion that this wasn't the first time they were involved in a lawsuit.

they day of the court date, we arrived 30 minutes early, prepared and dressed nicely.  30 minutes passed and the plaintiff still wasn't there.  we held our breath, thinking maybe they wouldn't show up.  the court told us that they would give them an extra 15 minutes.  we were livid.  if you can't show up on time to court, you shouldn't get extra time.  sure enough, 10 minutes later, we see the door open, followed by a baby carrier and the plaintiff*.

before we could go in front of the judge, we were required to go through mediation.  we met with mediators who told us that there was a $100 fee for the mediation.  the plaintiff refused to pay it.  the mediators tried to negotiate with her for about 20 minutes before they finally gave up and waived the fee.

after going over the details of the case, jared and i were a little worried about three things.
*even though she didn't pay a deposit to me, she paid one to the previous landlord that never transferred to me.  i didn't know if that was my responsibility to have it transferred or not.  if it was, i may be liable for 3x the deposit amount because even though they did not deserve to receive their deposit back, there was no letter sent to them itimizing the damages.
*we didn't know how the judge would react to the mold situation.  even though i thought i did everything the right way (working with the insurance and a contractor to take care of the problem asap), maybe i was wrong?
*we didn't know if the judge will feel sorry for the plaintiff since she is clearly poor, has a lot of kids, and is not educated.  versus us, who appear to be the opposite.   i had never been in court before, so i didn't know if there was ever a bias in these type of situations.

things got pretty heated in the mediation and the mediators, even though they aren't allowed to give us legal advice, were strongly encouraging us to settle because of the mold issue.  jared and i decided to offer them $1600, which was the amount of the deposit.  they didn't accept it and wanted us to pay them $4500.  we countered with $2000.  they declined and we went in front of the judge.

the judge asked if we had any witnesses and the plaintiff named her daughter.  i wasn't going to have a witness, but i decided to name jared.  what i didn't know is that they would send the witnesses out of the room during most of the trial.  so there i am, alone, scared and nervous at the defendant platform.  we start the trial and i have to listen to the plaintiffs sob story for a good 45 minutes while i am not allowed to say anything.  finally it's my turn to talk.  i say my part about not being paid a deposit and show the judge the signed lease i had with "0" clearly written in the deposit line.  the judge asks the plaintiff why she's not suing the previous landlord instead and immediately clears me of that charge. 

right then i think, oh wow.  maybe this WILL be cut and dry like it should be.  i relaxed a bit and we got onto the mold issue.  of course, i had all the documentation about how it was being remediated and the plaintiff had the option to move but they didn't want to.  i also had the piece of evidence that i'm pretty sure the plaintiff wouldn't want me to show.  i had the actual eviction notice from the city that said they were living in squalor and went into details about how they were feeding their dogs from the trash and there was a dead animal on the front porch, etc.

there were a few more details and we went back and forth and then the witnesses were called in and we went back and forth some more.  finally the judge said that i had acted appropriately and done everything i could and none of it was my fault.  she dismissed the case.

wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

that was one of the biggest rushes of my life.

it restored my faith in the judicial system. 

and i was thrilled that our greedy tenant could have had $2000, but ended up with NOTHING.  i would have liked to have sued them for the money it cost me to deal with this ($50 to the courts, $250 to the attorney, $12 for parking!), but there's no way i would have seen a dime from them even if i won the case.  not worth it.

it also made me hyper aware of the risks of being a landlord.  i am way more diligent about doing everything by the book, getting everything in writing, and covering all of my bases. 

because i really don't want to have to go through that again.  it was one of the most stressful times in my life.  i couldn't even FULLY enjoy my honeymoon because the court date was looming over my head for when i returned. 

i have faith that karma will catch up to these people.  they've worked the system and other people for way too long.  quite honesty, their lifestyle is probably punishment enough. 

*there was not a time that i had ever NOT seen this lady pregnant.  before they were kicked out, they had a baby and we didn't even know she was pregnant until after the baby was born.  sure enough, she was pregnant again, bringing the grand total to 10 children and another one on the way.  this is revolting to me on so many levels.

infestation

our house is being attacked by fruit flies.  they are mostly in the kitchen, but aren't afraid of exploring the bathroom and living room.

it is SO annoying.  and quite embarrassing.  i know i don't clean my house as often as i should, but we are not dirty people, so i really can't understand why we can't get rid of these little buggers.

a few days ago, i put all of our fruit in the fridge and wiped down the counters really well.   then i poured baking soda down the drain, followed with vinegar to let it fizz and clean all the nooks and crannies of the garbage disposal.   and then i poured a whole kettle of boiling water down the drain. 

i have 3 apple cider/saran wrap traps set out to catch them.

we take the trash out every day and have a closed trash can. 

it feels like nothing is working!  any ideas of other places they could be breeding?

it's been an expensive year

so i've always thought that any anxiety or stress i felt was directly related to the events that occur in my life. i also always thought that when those events are over, the stress will go away. what i'm realizing now is that it's just replaced by something equally stressful. 2009 has been a very anxiety-ridden year so far. a little run down.

january-april: spent all our free time fixing up the quitman rental and maxed out our credit cards doing so.
february: huge tree in our backyard falls down in the wind storm, causing $8K worth of damage and a month of dealing with the insurance company.
april: jared proposes (yay!) - start planning wedding and figuring out where we'll get the money
leak in fenton rental leads to mold growth in basement and months of dealing with contractors and insurance.
may: j gets into a car accident and it costs $2k to fix his jeep. i find out that j owes 3 years of back taxes.
june: tenants in fenton house get kicked out by social services and the city says that the house is uninhabitable. this is a blessing in disguise, as the tenants were HORRID, BUT we can't afford to have an empty house right now.
july: j's jeep broke down and we were forced to buy a new car. we got a used subaru forester and now have another car payment. j finally gets his crotchrocket into the shop so we can get it fixed up to sell and it costs $1700 to get it running again.
july-august: months dealing with contracts and insurance adjustors lead to a $18K insurance payment, but the work still hasn't started because the check is made out to the mortgage company and i have to jump through all their hoops to get things fixed.
august: we decide to put the quitman house on the market, and have to deal with the annoyances of trying to sell a tenant occupied house.

do you see a pattern here?

some reasons why we appear to make good money on paper, yet have none.
*i have not yet received a commission check this year because i am about 40K behind my sales goal.
*j was forced to take a 20% paycut at his job
*we have been paying two mortgages for 6 out of the last 8 months.
*we have paid cash for the following:2 insurance deductibles ($1000 each), 3 separate vehicle repairs ($4500 total), an engagement ring ($3000), and wedding downpayments ($2500).

now we have drained our savings, maxed our cards, and have 2 houses, a jeep, and a bike that we desperately want to sell.

too bad no one is buying..

do these stripes make me look fast?

this is my car.
















i know. it's super cute.

and apparently, invisible.

i have owned this car for almost 3 years. and i have been hit 3 times.

#1: summer 2006 - was parked at a friends house and someone in a large SUV backed into me. i had a huge dent in the hood from their ball hitch. fortunately, they were decent enough to leave a note and paid the $1500 repair bill.

#2: labor day weekend 2007 - was driving home from going out and a tweeker kid ran a stop sign and t-boned me. shattered the driver window, mangled the driver door. thank god no one was hurt. he was driving his friends mom's car. i didn't want to call the police because although i was ok to drive, i had been drinking that night and wasn't sure if i would register on a breathalyzer. i think the kid was on something too because he didn't want to call the police either. i was smart enough to get the license plate. i filed a police report the next day, saying that it was late and i didn't feel safe waiting for the cops to show up and thought it would be ok because no one was hurt. the owner of the car's insurance paid the $3500 repair bill.

#3: fall 2008 - was parked in front of my house. went outside and saw that my back hatch door was bashed in and there was red paint where it had been hit. no note. i filed a police report and then played detective in my neighborhood for weeks, checking the front of every red vehicle i saw. nada. so i sucked it up and claimed it on my insurance. its going into the shop this week. buh-bye $1000 deductable. i have a feeling it was a friend/family member of the immigrant family across the street - they are always parking in front of my house and dropping off or picking people up. and i'll bet dollars to doughnuts that they don't have car insurance. fuckers.

so not only do i seem to get hit a lot, i have about twice as many close calls. maybe only 10% of them are my fault. today i experienced 2 within an hour of each other.

#1: turning left onto colorado from 40th street. car in front of me slams on its brakes, so i slam on mine. turns out a stupid double-long fed ex truck was doing a U-TURN on a RED LIGHT on colorado blvd and got in the way of the guy in front of me. i passed the fed ex truck and honked. the guy behind me was riding my tail and when we got onto I-70, he sped up to pass me, honked, and flipped me off! WTF did *I* do? i hate that.

#2: going straight in the old navy parking lot. some lady pulls out and turns RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME. i slam on my brakes and lay on the horn. i was literally inches away from hitting her. i double checked to make sure i didn't run a stop sign or anything, and of course, i had the right of way.

is it because my car is small and people just don't SEE me? or are there more idiot drivers on the road now more than ever? i think i might have my insurance deductible lowered...

fat man! little jacket!

i was out at fados last night. it wasn't too crowded and so i left my coat with my friends coats on some bar stools. no biggie.

about 30 min later i went over to get my coat and it wasn't there.

there was, however, a men's leather coat slung over the back of the chair.

i figured that someone had grabbed mine by mistake and would come back to claim theirs and return mine. that didn't happen.

i waited until they were shooing us out of the bar and breaking it down. no one came to claim the jacket.

so i wore it home. it was cold.

i don't want this jacket and i rather liked the one i had lost. i put an ad on craigslist, so maybe i will eventually find it.

the leather one looks like a tent on me, so i can only imagine what my coat must have looked like on the guy that tried to wear it home.

i just hope it's not split up the back!

and that's when you know it's going to be a bad day

it's not when you miss your alarm and have to skip the gym to make it to work on time...
and it's not when you cut your armpit while shaving..
and it's not when you bang your knee on the side of the door while attempting to reach around from the outside to turn off the porch light..

it's when you pull out the can of the tasty mandarin oranges you thought you grabbed for breakfast and you get this instead:

oh canada

i just got back from a college friends wedding. she's canadian, eh, and the wedding was in kananaskis village, just west of calgary. living in colorado, i sometimes get a little jaded about the beauty of mountains.. but let me tell you, the canadian rockies are breathtakingly gorgeous! they're like the colorado rockies on steroids.

anyhow, the whole weekend was going perfectly until i had to get home. i had flown up there and si drove, so we had my car. we left kananaskis a little late on monday morning and had to haul ass so i could make my 1:30 flight from calgary to edmonton, where i would continue to denver. so i get to the airport at 1:00, and since canada isn't as uptight as the states, the airline lady checked me in and told me that i better hurry. i made it to my flight with a couple minutes to spare and was extremely relieved. i called si and told him he could head home, since i made the flight.

i arrive at edmonton at 2:15, an hour before my 3:15 flight. then i'm informed that because of bad weather in chicago*, my flight has been not delayed, but CANCELLED. ok, not a problem, it's only 2:30, i think to myself, i have plenty of time to get back to denver tonight. so i stand behind about 8 people at the united counter to wait to be rebooked. an hour passes, there are still 6 people in front of me. so i suck it up and call the airline from my cell phone, using the $0.50/minute international rate, and end up talking to perhaps the most unhelpful woman ever. out of frusturation, i hang up on her. by that time, there are only 3 people ahead of me. so i wait ANOTHER 30 minutes before i finally get to rebook. i'm finally told that there are no flights to the united states for that day, and they'll have to send me back to calgary and i can take the 6:50 am flight the next day. WTF? i had a hard time believing that there wasn't a SINGLE flight to the states leaving for the rest of the day.

but i sucked it up, called si, let him know what was going on, and remained completely irritated that instead of spending my extra day in banff with si, i had to spend it flying back and forth between calgary and edmonton!

luckily, my friend and her family and some friends were still in calgary, so i was able to stay the night with them and catch a ride with them to the airport, but still. of course, i didn't have any luggage because i had sent it with si - so i had to sleep in my clothes and borrow a toothbrush. then wake up at 4:30 to go to the airport, get back into town, take a cab home, and head into work ~11am. that makes for a LONG day.

the funny thing is, had i actually missed my first flight, i would have probably gotten on the 3:00 direct flight from calgary to denver!

*bad weather my ass.. whenever there's a flight problem they tell you this so that they don't have to give you hotel/food vouchers.