My Son Graduated From Basic Training with HONORS! - 11/21/08 03:43 PM
My Husband, daughter and I recently returned from Fort Sill, in Lawton, OK.  I am the proud mom (ok, step-mom, but that is really semantics) of one of our newest United States Army Soldiers.  Way to Go Bill!  We are very proud of you!
This is truly a different Army then when my husband went to basic training the day after his high school graduation.  He retired in November of 2006 after over 22 years in the military.  Everyone has heard the horror stories of the drill seargents barking orders and breaking the recruits, my husband, and I am sure that many … (5 comments)

Builder Dis-Incentives! - 11/21/08 03:08 PM
For anyone who has shopped for a new construction home and was told that by using the builder's "preferred lender", they would receive great incentives, if not, they would pay a higher price, not get special perks, whatever.  It always struck me as being a bit on the shady side.  I am glad that RESPA finally is helping the consumer the leeway to find their best advocate!
Effective Jan. 16, 2009 a new home builder can no longer use "disincentives" to steer their customers to their preferred mortgage company.  In practice, builders have for years offered huge monetary incentives to steer customers to … (2 comments)

The 5 people I tagged for THE CLOSEST BOOK MEME - 11/21/08 01:08 PM
The five people I tagged for The Closest Book MEME.
Ed Rybczynski who brought me into this fine group of Rainers!
Charlie Harden who really gets technology, something I am still working on!
Jeannette Neepat who just reached 100,000 points
Mirela Monte who wrote a really important warning about gift cards for this holiday season
Doug Wolfe who joined MySpace and is still fairly new to Active Rain
… (0 comments)

My Closest Book MEME, I've been tagged! - 11/21/08 12:44 PM
I have been tagged by Margaret Rome for my first ever MEME!  Margaret asked me to find my closest book and follow the instructions.
Here is the way it works:
1. Grab the nearest book.2. Open the book to page 56.3. Find the fifth sentence.4. Post the text of the next two to five sentences.5. Don't dig for your favorite book, the cool book or the intellectual one. Pick the Closest.6. Tag five people to do the same
*The one book that this can not be is the Bible*
Here's my closest book:  CONNECT by Keith Harrell and Hattie Hill  Keith … (5 comments)