The last five days

Over the weekend we had some fun social times, as well as annoying homework times, and some migraine headache times. Also, while all the cats had been sleepy and sluggish during the cold snap, Spook decided to stay that way when it got warm again. Then he started limping. Anyway. Over all, we had no idea what was in store for us this week.

I'd scheduled to do some work at church on Monday morning, and I had to go at least to take back something I'd forgotten to take on Sunday. When I woke up we noticed that Spook was really not doing well, so we scheduled a vet appointment for 10:15; I poured coffee in my travel mug, drove to church, got distracted on a project, frantically drove home and got the cat and drove to the vet late, where we sat for an hour to get a diagnosis of a UTI and some medication and give them more money we didn't have.

Got home around noon having not eaten yet, sugar crashed, ate, napped, then zoned out playing stupid games for a while (thanks, Sarah!). Wasted the day, knowing that Tuesday was specially reserved for 1) homework and 2) quick budget transition for March.

Tuesday laughed in my face. Har de har. I decided to do the quick budget stuff and settle in. Found one tiny discrepancy, grabbed the stack of papers in filing to find one form. Found another form.

This would be the form that somehow went to the filing stack that said, "Oh, by the way, your property taxes have increased from 660 to 2947 and you either owe Escrow 2500 by March 1 or we're raising your monthly payments by 500."

Panic ensued, then a half hour phone call with the current mortgage people, and then a 2 hour call to refinance the house. Joy. Suffice it to say, I didn't get any homework done yesterday.

This morning, a meeting at church for VBS planning and a good long talk with my friend Cathy. Vented, prayed, cried. Got home, talked to my dad who calmed me down and told me to call our cousin-realtor who helped us buy the house. He told us what we forgot to do a year ago, (file a form that came with our closing papers) so we downloaded a form to take to the tax assessor's and hopefully they'll move us back into the 4% range instead of the 6% which should cut it back down by at least 1500. I'm nervous about the little clause that says if we didn't file within their time frame we forfeit the right to file, so that's our prayer right now. That they'll let us file and recalculate our taxes.

In the end I know it'll be okay; once we finish the refinance (if the house assesses where we need it to) the monthly payment will be back in the safe zone even if we can't get the tax office to change the percentage. If we do get it changed and get the refinance as well, we're golden.

So we'll be a bit crunched for the next couple months until the refinance closing, moreso than we were before. But we'll make it. Money's really freaking annoying.

And now that I've shared all of this, I really should finish the homework due tonight.