The above is a picture I took last year of the Chief's Tipi. Please note the door flap is not on it, it does have one--we would not have let him sleep in it last year without one as he married at last year's Pau Wau!!!
If you are in the Aynor, SC area or can get there the first weekend in November, stop by and look me up.
Please, do come on out and learn about the Waccamaw Indian People and how they lived life then and now. Join with us as we celebrate the lives of our Ancestors and the lives we now live and are leaving for our children and grandchildren.
All are welcome.
Here are a few more photos from last year's Pau Wau:
What did the LO tell the BO? Did he have her prepared for a Notary Closing?
I received a call on last Thursday, from a signing service that I do a lot of signings for. They needed me to do a closing the next morning, early, just a few miles away, meeting place was a local bank.
I accepted and that was the beginning of a pure nightmare.
The documents arrived via email that night–great start so far.
I noticed that the lender was a branch of the same bank were meeting at, in another state.
Everything is set and I arrive a few minutes late the next morning due to some road construction.
Upon entering the bank, I notice it is someone’s birthday as the place is decorated inside and out. I approach one of the two tellers and inform her I am there to meet a Ms. Jane Doe. The teller sort of giggles and says, “That is her.” while pointing over other customers’ heads.
The teller states that they are confused as to what is going and offers us a place to meet. She says, “We don’t have a place with a couch.”
I tell her we need a desk or table and some chairs to get these documents signed.
She says, “We have a great conference room. Jane, if you will, turn the lights on when y’all go in.”
This is a small town and a small bank. The conference room is nice and nestled in the corner of the building, on the other side of the entrance doors.
We introduce ourselves to each other while the teller is talking at us. Then we go into the conference room.
I get my briefcase open and get out my notary seal, venue stamp and information stamp (It has my printed name, county of election and commission expiration date.) I get out my notary journal and two ink pens, the documents and my business cards.
I ask Ms. Doe if she has copy of her DL for me to send back with the dosuments. She looks really surprised and says no. I explain that we need to send a copy back with the documents or the loan will not fund and show her the document that says this.
Ms. Doe asks if I have access to the copy she sent in to the LO. I tell her no and that this copy and the documents are going back to the TC.
Without asking her, she hands me her DL. I go over the bottom line of the HUD1, asking her if the amount of $22.00 9not the correct figure.) Is the correct amount for her to be receiving. Her reply is in the affirmative. I hand her her copy of the documents, explaining for her to go ahead and read over the documents while I fill out my notary journal. I also hand her a business card.
She asks, “So, you are a notary public?”
I answer, “Yes, ma’am.”
She asks if I work for the title company. My answer is simple, “No, ma’am. I work for myself. The title company hired a signing service and they contracted with me to ensure your documents are signed and notarized properly.”
We continue on, her reading over the documents and me filling out my notary journal.
When I get finished, I hand her DL back to and state that maybe the bank would make a copy of her DL for us.
She takes them from me, stands up saying, “Okay.” Then she asks, “If we had met at my home and I did not have a copy, what would you have done?”
I asked did she have a scanner on her computer. She replied she did not. So I answered that I would have had to have taken a photograph with my digital camera.
She sort of “humphed” and went off into the bank.
In 5-7 minutes she came back, stopped just inside the doorway, leaned over, snatched her purse off the table and then jerked my business card off the table. She marched back off into the bank.
I waited fifteen minutes. I stuck my head out the door and could not see her. I was not going to walk off from her documents or my journal so placed them and everything else back into my briefcase and went in search of her.
I saw her in an office, alone, on her cell phone and walked over to the doorway. She was not talking and appeared to be on hold. I spoke, “Ms. Doe, is there a problem? I need to know as I have other signings scheduled for today and need to stay close to on schedule.”
No response other than she looked at me as if I was insane for speaking to her.
I try again, “Ms. Doe, I generally do not wait more than thirty minutes to begin a signing.”
At this ppint she literally stuck her nose up and turned her head away from me, and a femal bank employee came up behind me, she began speaking, without ever introducing herself to me.
Employee, “So, you are a public notary? Why do you have those documents?”
Me, “I am a Notary Public. I have the documents because I was hired by your employer to ensure they were properly executed.”
Employee, ‘you have no right to have those documents. Give them to me NOW. We have a real NOTARY PUBLIC and a loan officer on duty here.”
Me, “ Ma’am, I can not give you these documents. If Ms. Doe decides not to sign them, I can not leave a copy with her.”
Employee, “You have no right to have those documents, they belong to us. Gove them to me NOW.”
Me, ‘They belong to a branch of your bank in another state. I can not give them to you.”
Employee, “I just spoke to the originating loan officer and he said for you to give them to me.”
Me, “He did not tell me to give them to you.”
By this point the employee is blocking my route to the exit door. She looks around me and asks Ms. Doe just what is wrong with the documents, are the fees correct or just what is wrong. Ms. Doe snubs her the same way she did me!
The employee is so distraught she forgets she is physically blocking my exit and I take the chance to go to my car.
I call the SS and speak to Tommy. He says that the lady says I was rude and was trying to steal her identity.
He had heard the conversation after I found Ms. Doe, as he was who she was on the phone with. He had been explaining to her that it was a requirement for me to obtain a copy of her DL to return with the documents and that I could not leave the documents with her or the bank.
While he was on the phone with her, the bank was calling the TC and the TC called Tommy on another lie and told them simply, “you are off this.”
While we are talking I start my car and head home. TC calls Tommy back and says for me to turn around and take to documents back.
I ask who is going to pay my print fee. No travel fee requested, just my print fee. TC informs no one is goig to get a dime for this.
Tommy is a great customer of mine and so I do go back. I ask him to call and tell the bank I need a receipt for the documents before I will leave them.
He agrees and does so . I walk back in and the same employee walsk out of her office (all the inside walls for this bank are glass.) She writes me a receipt on a letterhead, printing everything but her name-it is in cursive in the body of the receipt and the signature and not legible.
Tommy calls my cell as I am leaving the bank and tells me that the bank employees were looking for M. Doe to go ahead and close the loan for her. They could not find her. Someone noticed her car was in the parking lot and then they found her in the restroom, crying with the door locked!
I have gone over this in my head and with several other NSAs over the weekend. No one can understand what happened.
Tommy knows my work well, and he knows I was not rude to this lady, or anyone else. That would serve no purpose but to ruin my business. A business I love and take great pride in.
The bank employee was mis-informed as was the BO.
All they had to do was ask for my id. I would have been happy to have shown her my DL, my commission, my Tribal ID, my business license, my notary bond and my E&O policy. She never asked.
Of course, she sort of lost credibility when she accused me of trying to steal her identity. Really, I mean I met her at a bank. She decided on the time and the location. I had her loan documents.
I have done many closings in the neighborhood she lives in. One of her neighbors has been friends with my husband for over 45 years.
Just what had the LO and/or TC told this lady was going to happen?
Note–All names and dollar amounts have changed to protect the identity of the BO, SS, TC, and Lender.
This is one I really want some notary opinions on.
As we know, many, if not all banks, hold the bond for the notaries that they employee. Also, we know that bank notaries only notarize for that bank's customers. (That is a whole 'nuther issue for a different blog!)
Back in October or November of 2008 I needed my own divorce papers notarized. I represented myself sui juris, my then husband had been living in another state for some time and his lawyer was an hours drive from me.
This presented the problem of locating my own notary locally. Well, I went to my bank. I have had many things notarized there before, by the same lady. She had recorded in her notary journal the more important documents (Tennessee does not require a journal.) However, on this particular day, AFTER I had signed, and she had notarized the Complaint for Divorce, Marital Dissolution Agreement and sundry other documents pertaining to the divorce--she informs me that she is required by the bank to keep a copy of each and every document she notarizes!
She proceeded to copy them and placed them in a three ring, loose leaf binder!
Now these papers have, since then, become public record as all divorces do--unless for a particular reason the judge is asked to seal the record and does so. Also, as it was an agreed divorce there was nothing particularly "bad" in the documents. Yet the question arises--What if we had reconsidered and decided not to file the divorce? These are being kept in a loose-leaf binder, to be turned over to the bank's officials.
A fee of one dollar ($1.00) and no more is allowed to a notary public for recording in a well-bound book, to be kept by such notary for the purpose, each of the notary's attestations, protestations, and other such instruments of publication.
Tennessee law does not specify that you must keep record of notarizations. However, that can be inferred from the statutory provision which allows a notary to charge a fee of one dollar ($1.00) for recording in a well-bound book each of the notary's attestations, protestations, and other instruments.
Now this does leave some very gray areas of whether or not keeping a journal is required, but it definitely does not say that we can or should keep a copy of people's documents.
What if I had taken my will in there to be notarized?
Hypothetical Situation:
Linda makes out a will, leaving nothing to her son.
Linda then takes this will to a notary to be executed and notarized. The notary makes a copy and places it in a loose-leaf binder.
Linda's son, Albert has an affidavit to be notarized and he takes it to the same notary. Again, the document is signed and notarized, and a copy made.
As they all live in a very small town, Albert and the notary start up a conversation about the upcoming Mule Pull. Will still talking the notary pulls out her notebook and places the affidavit in it. The phone rings and she turns to answer it, leaving the notebook open--to the document last placed in it--Linda's will!
Now Albert is not a nosy person but out of boredom, his eyes fall on it, he notices, in bold lettering across the top--Last Will and Testament of Linda Jones--of course his own Mother's name catches his eye and the rest becomes a huge family rift!!!
This will not be a long entry, but hopefully one that makes you think for just a moment. If my blog is worth reading, and apparently it is with over 300 people having read it in the past week--why is it not worth commenting on??
If my writing is terrible--say so, it will help me improve.
If you disagree--say so, that is part of a good conversation.
If you agree, say so, again that is part of a good conversation.
This is a re-post of an entry in my "other" blog. The more I thought about it, I felt it appropriate to put it here. Real Estate Agents (and others in the industry) travel themselves and also have clients that travel, some for the first time.
I bet you are wondering why in the world I would be writing about this. Surely everyone knows how to check in at a motel and what to expect.
Well, no, everyone does not and the surprising thing is, it is the ones who appear to be savvy travelers that are the most ill informed about such matters.
The first thing I would like to cover is identity. For the protection of the credit card holder, the other guests, the motel staff and sometimes due to state laws requiring it--we must see your identifying information.
Without a Federal or State issued picture identification we have no idea if you actually own that credit card you are presenting for payment.
Oh! your credit card has a picture on it? Sorry. We still need the Federal or State issued picture identification for comparison. I spoke to my personal banker about this issue and she stated to me that these pictures are not intended to take the place of checking the Federal or State issued picture identification, that the bank will put any picture you request on your credit card.
In some states, it is state law that the motel staff record your Federal or State issued picture identification's number and other information on it.
I become stupefied when I ask for a picture id and payment method and the guest gets angry at me for asking for the picture id, especially when I turn the credit card over and the guest has written on it in the signature space, "ASK FOR PICTURE I.D." This scenario has occurred several times over the past few years.
Remember, when you provide a Federal or State issued picture identification card along with your credit card, you know the motel staff is looking out for your best interest and making sure those that have stolen credit cards do not use them at their motel.
Next on the agenda is reservations.
When you call in or make a reservation online, the cancellation policy is clearly explained--if not you should ask. As a general rule, motels are going to charge you for at least one night's stay plus tax if you just do not show up or call and cancel the reservation by a certain time.
Let me explain the reason for that.
The motel has been holding the room for you, based on your promise to be there. They can not rent the room to any one else and they may even loose a reservation for a longer stay by someone else because you have made a promise and so have they.
If you can not show up for the room, call immediately to let the motel know.
You can still make reservations without using a credit card but the motel will only hold the room for you until a certain time that day. Make sure you understand what time you must arrive by for the room to still be waiting on you.
To make sure you have all the information you need, be very sure to obtain a written confirmation. Have the motel email, fax or mail you one. If you make the reservation on-line, print the confirmation.
Making reservations through third party websites.
This is any website that is not directly connected to the motel such as: Expedia.com, Hotels.com, Hotwire.com, Priceline.com and many, many others. When you use these sites, you pay them, not the motel. To make changes to the reservation, you can not call the motel. You must contact the website you made the reservation with and follow their rules about changes.
Be sure to print your receipt from the website as the motel can not provide you with one. Again, you did not pay the motel, you paid the third party website.
Even though you have paid the third party website for your room, that does not cover incidentals such as: long distance calls, laundry service, room service, etc. You will need to present a credit card at check-in to cover such things.
Complaints
No General Manager, Owner nor other Staff Member wants a guest to be dissatisfied. If there is a problem with anything at all, please, report it to the front desk at once and provide the motel staff the opportunity to correct it.
Our goal is satisfied guests that have a restful, pleasant stay. This can not be achieved if you do not tell us there is a problem.
Special Needs
If you have any special needs, please, when you make the reservation, make these special needs known to the person taking the reservation. If you do not make a reservation and are what is known as a "walk-in" guest, make your needs known at the time of check-in. Many motels have rooms specially equipped for various needs. Such as wheelchair accessible showers, TDD equipment, bathrooms with extra handrails and seats on the tub, etc.
Check-Out
At check out time it is always a good idea to make suggestions to the staff of things that you feel would improve your experience staying at that particular motel. Suggestions are always welcome.
When you checked in you signed a registration card stating you agree to the stated room rate and you will be responsible for any damages to the room or property made by you or your visitors. It may also have a clause about pets.
At the time you check out you are signing that you know what the final bill for your stay is and that you agree to pay it. This is called a folio. It contains a breakdown of the room rate, all applicable taxes, and any incidentals you incurred. You are not going to be charged two times because you signed twice.
Credit Card Authorization versus Charge
A credit card authorization is provided to the motel when you make the reservation or check-in to guarantee that the motel will be able to charge the credit card for the purchase amount. This authorization will set aside funds on your credit card to cover the projected costs of your stay. A credit card charge is the actual transfer of funds from the credit card agency to the motel for the final amount of your stay, incidentals and applicable taxes. If you are using a debit card the authorization will freeze these funds in your account.
You have not been charged twice-------you might want to have your bank or credit card company explain this to you further.
Part of a Group
If you are part of a group that has a number of rooms reserved for its members--when you call to reserve one of those rooms, the first thing you need to tell the staff person is that you are calling to book one of the "Smith Family Reunion" rooms or whatever your group's name is.
It gets very confusing and time consuming to correct if you make the reservation and then afterwards state that you are with a certain group.
Be Truthful About the number of people in your party and whether or not you have pets.
This seems like a no-brainer but it seems to be the most difficult one for people to follow. Most motels do not charge for children under 16 or 18, but they need to know the correct number of people in the room. God forbid, but if there was a fire or tornado or other emergency, the staff will tell the rescue workers what you have said as regards the number of people of in your room. If you have told two adults and not revealed three children, then the rescue workers are only going to look for two adults in the room.
As for pets--when you do not tell the desk clerk you have a pet, it is disrespectful of the guests that will use the room after you. Many people have allergies to pets. Allergies can be deadly.
If the motel accepts pets, they have certain rooms for them. These rooms are the same as all the other rooms on the property. There is usually a fee for pets that is $10 or less. This is due to doing a more specific cleaning of the room.
Smoking Rooms If you smoke, please, ask for a smoking room. If you get a non-smoking room, please, do not open the window and sit by while you smoke. Go outside.
Roll Away Beds
The local Fire Marshalls have rules about how many beds can be in a room based on its size and other factors. Sometimes rollaways can not be placed in a room that has two beds, especially if those are queen or king beds. There simply is no room for it without blocking the doorway. Again, if there were an emergency, this would create a serious problem.
Left Something Behind
You have left the motel and you realize you have left something behind. Call just as soon as you realize you did. Many motels will have a lost & found but they only keep items for so long. This varies from motel to motel and state to state. As a general rule, they do not keep wet items such as used swimwear but a few hours, it will mold!
Be sure to double check your room before leaving--twice! Here are some things that have been left behind in my long career in the hospitality industry:
APAP Breathing Machine
Wet Bathing Suits
Personal Towels
Laptops
Cell Phones
Cords for Laptops and Cell Phones
Hanging Clothing
Make-up
Suitcase
Coolers
Fishing Tackle or Rods
Credit Cards
Driver License
Personal Items
Comparison Shopping When you do your comparison shopping for motels you need to ask several questions before you get the real picture of what value you are getting for the price you will be paying.
Do you have a pool? Is it indoor or outdoor? Heated?
Do you have WiFi? If so, is it free?
Do you have a Business Center with Internet accessible computer?
Do you offer a breakfast? What is on the menu? (Is it all cold items or are there hot items?)
Can I send and receive faxes? If so, what is the fee?
What restaurants are nearby? How close are they?
What shopping is available within a five mile radius?
And any other questions that are pertinent to your visit.
Scamming to get room free
People will do many things to get a room for free. They will be dis-honest about finding things left behind by other guests, odors they smell in the hallway, falling, etc.
This is illegal and you will eventually be caught. Motel's keep records of these sorts of reports and actually have databases that it goes into. Managers and Staff check these databases on a regular basis.
Think before you do this--is the price of a motel room worth obtaining a set of silver bracelets?
The bottom line is the hospitality industry is there to make you feel at home when you are away from home. We strive to achieve this based upon your honesty with us.
Hoping your next visit to a motel is pleasurable and relaxing. . . . . . . . . . .
It's a hard world we live in. Tomorrow may never come is a very true statement.
While I have not been very active on ActiveRain--I have been working.
Time has been spent at my regular job. I work three night audit shifts per week at a motel. It recently changed ownership and franchise. Lots of remodeling and positive changes.
One of those changes is that the new owner's sister is getting married so the extra benefits have been much happiness around the place and extra hours.
You may ask why I work a regular job when I have to ways, including NSA work, to bring income in the house.
The answer, for me at least is simple. In my home there are a few bills that must be paid. Working these three shifts ensures me a regular income that will cover those bills and the expense of getting back and forth to that job.
I have spent some time setting up a small store at etsy.com to sell my handmade crating items. It is a fun and relaxing thing for me to do that brings in more income.
See, economics are not stable, nothing is. It could all go to a repeat of the gay and wonderful era of the 1920's or a repeat of the depression era 1930's.
My plan is to be prepared for either scenario and to live through whatever happens with a smile in my heart.
I did a witness closing recently that baffled my mind. The LO playing dumb (there is no other word for it) and the yelling (NOT by me) are not typical, yet they are things I have seen before.
Lay out the situation here: Married couple. Homestead/Dower/Community Property state. Spouse A is self-employed, stay at home parent. Spouse B is employed full-time, making a five figure monthly income. Married over 25 years. First home is purchased on an ARM. Re-financing on Spouse B's income only because it is easier to prove and sufficient. Only one dependent child in home.
They make contact with lender. LO is very nice, open, honest and personable. Leads them towards a conventional loan, with borrowers needing to bring $1000 to closing. (Figures are changed to help protect the privacy of those involved.)
This LO has to take a leave of absence. He is polite and calls the borrowers to let them know that he is taking a leave of absence and that a new LO will be calling them within a week. Provides his contact information and tells them to call him if they need to.
Several weeks go by and no one from the lending company calls the borrowers. They call the lender and are told their file must have just gotten overlooked. New LO is assigned.This LO pushes them for an FHA Insured loan. Borrowers agree.
I am contacted to be the mobile notary for this package.
When printing the documents I notice a Quit Claim. Not too odd.
I call borrowers to confirm appointment time. It is only forty-five minutes before appointment as the number I was given had been transposed in typing it up. It was unlisted so I could not get it from directory assistance.
Having the HUD in hand I notice they need to have a certified check for $2,367.32 (a little more than double what they had been originally told.)
Needless to say they are SHOCKED! They call the loan officer to make sure my figure is correct. She tells them, "Oh, I am not sure. It's around $3,500 you need to bring."
Well, this is the weekend and the borrowers are truly upset. Loan Officer tells them they can overnight the certified check on Monday along with copies of their driver's license.
I arrive. I verify identity, record everything in my notary journal and start going over the documents. The Right to Cancel is done first. Then the Quit Claim is next.
Spouse B is visibly upset to the point of trembling. At the top of a Quit Claim, or any other deed in Tennessee, it says, "This instrument prepared by_________________________". In this instance it had Spouse B's full name listed. She had not requested this be done, did not know one would be in the package, much less prepare the thing.
We call the loan officer, leave a message on her cell phone voice mail (she had given me this number to call her when she called me that morning). We set the Quit Claim aside and continue signing documents. Forty-five minutes later the loan officer calls us back. She tells me and the borrower she has no idea why there is a Quit Claim Deed in the package and she will have her supervisor call.
In just a minute or so, he calls and I answer (they are calling my cell.) He asks what is going on. I explain that Spouse B is unwilling to sign the Quit Claim. He just, non-chalnatly says, "Then there is no reason to sign those last five pages. The loan will not close without it." I get him to stay on the line and explain to him about the prepared by. He tells me to cross out her name and put in the title company name and for both spouses and me to initial the change.
I repeat this to the spouses. She still says she will not sign it. She wants her husband's name on the property.
I have to all but beg the loan officer's supervisor to speak with the borrower. He reluctantly agrees. I can hear what he is telling her. He tells her that HUD/FHA requires that any person not on the loan, sign a Quit Claim and have their names removed from the mortgage or the loan will not go through.
Borrower asks him if that is so, why is the husband's name still on the Deed of Trust/Mortgage? "Oh, it will come off after we file the Quit Claim."
Borrower says that does not make sense. For that to happen, another Deed of Trust will need to be signed. And bottom line--she DOES NOT want her husband's name off the property.
The Loan Officer's Supervisor goes on to explain, and again, I can clearly hear him, that FHA/HUD requires that the non-borrowering spouse sign a Quit Claim Deed. That what can be done is about a week after the paperwork is filed, for the borrower to go to the local courthouse and file whatever paperwork is needd to add the husband back onto the Deed of Trust. (Note the Note will not be paid off yet and this is suppossedly against FHA/HUD Rules.)
Borrower reiterates that she is not going to take her husband's name off the property for one second and that what he is proposing sounds like fraud to her. She even tells this gentleman that she can not believe the government requires a married couple to divide property.
He again states to her that FHA/HUD require the Quit Claim.
She asks if he will provide her with written proof of that.
He literally SCREAMS at her to stop calling him a liar and hangs up the phone.
She is shaking and has tears in her eyes.
My cell rings again. It's the title company. This person starts yelling at me, "Why did you tell her not to sign that Quit Claim?"
"Ma'am, I did not tell her to not sign anything. She got upset time she saw it."
"Well, she needs to understand that FHA/HUD changed the regulations January 1 of this year that the non-borrowing spouse can not be named on the Deed of Trust."
"Then a mistake has been made on the Deed of Trust--his name is still on it."
"That is because in Tennessee he has to sign it."
"Okay. I have done lots of different mortgages since January 1 of this year where both are on the Deed of Trust and only one is borrowing, not even the FHA ones have had Quit Claim Deeds in them. Also, I have done lots where only one of the spouses is on the Deed of Trust and that is the one borrowing. Both have to sign the Deed of Trust, but not both are listed at the top of it."
Please note, I had stepped out on the deck to be able to tell this lady from the title company what had transpired and see if she could/would speak to the borrower.
At this point she just starts repeating my name over and over again.
I finally get her attention and she asked me a question, which I do not recall at this time. As I started to answer her, she starts repeating my name over and over again!
I quietly, (that seems to get someone's attention much better), "Ma'am, if you will be quiet for two seconds I will answer your question." This was repeated several times.
I told her the loan officer had called and when the borrower asked him for written proof of the FHA/HUD requirement that she remove her husband's name from the property, that he had yelled for her to stop calling him a liar.
This lady then says, "I did NOT call you a liar."
"Ma'am I did not say you did. That is what ______ (loan officer supervisor) said to Mrs. ___________."
I ask if she will please speak to the borrower herself. She agrees and I pass the phone along.
They speak at length.
Agreement is that Quit Claim Deed will be signed and notarized but left with borrower. Title Company lady tells borrower that she is going to send over written proof of the FHA/HUD requirement that non-borrowering spouse has to sign a Quit Claim Deed. Then the borrower will FedEx the QC Deed along with the certified check and copies of DL's on Monday.
Needless to say this thing bugged me all weekend. I called FHA Rules & Regulations on Monday morning. They stated there was no such requirement.
I dropped the documents in the FedEx box with a heavy heart. There is nothing I can do.
I get a call that I missed a notarization; will I do an All Purpose Acknowledgement? I can not use the form I have that specifies what document it is being attached to. I must use their generic form that has no space for that. I tell them point blank-no, I am afraid the borrower has not returned the QC Deed and they will attach it to one and besides, I have forms that I use that specify the exact document and I know are legal in Tennessee.
They finally send me the document I missed and I take care of it, according to my Secretary of State's Office's recommendations.
I wonder about this lender, title company and these people. As I said at the beginning of this blog, it is not the first time I ran into rudeness, yelling and other bad behavior from loan officers. I hope it is the last time, but for some reason I doubt it will be.
As many of you noticed (Thanks for all the private emails!) I have been out of commission for a bit.
It just seems like when it rains it POURS!
On January 30 I was admitted to the hospital for blood clots in my left leg. On the way home from the hospital the next day I lost consciousness for approximately nineteen minutes.
An ambulance was called and back to the hospital I went. The CT revealed my lungs were full of blood clots. Apparentaly one had moved through my heart.
That set me on a course of blood thinners both orally and by injections in the abdomen.
Most of you do not know that this past summer we finally discovered what the excruciating pain in my back and legs has been since I was about twenty years old--degenrative disc disease, spondylolysis, bone spurs between the vertabrae and a nerve that likes lay on that bone and get rubbed raw.
Sitting, driving, and ability to move around has been affectted by all of this.
Picking up one of my grandbabies is no longer an easy task. When I go over little Kimberlee (3 years old) just doesn't understand that her "unchee" can not hold her and her brother and sister at one time anymore.
Unchee does not understand either. My children and grandchildren are the joy of my life.
I refuse to stop working. I have had to cut down doing long range mobile notary work as I am not to drive for more than thirty minutes. Being in the rural area of Tennessee has its set backs. I still do long range work, just not as much as I have to stop and walk around a bit. Have learned the advantages of standing up the last few minutes of a signing.
Dave, my Life Partner had cataract surgery on his left eye in February that did not go well. Some debris was left in the eye that caused some glaucoma and an infection set in. The doctors inserted four needles of different antibiotics to no avail in the eyeball itself. Eventually they had to go back in and clean the eyeball out.
He still has some pain and can not see very well at all from that eye.
I was doing lots of crocheting and have set up an e-commerce store for that at Cha'kwaina's Creations.
Just when things got to looking good, pain under crontrol without meds, blood thin enough without being too thin, I get a phone call--a county sewer truck slipped out of gear and ran into my storage building ruining some antiques. You can read about that at Storage Building Damaged and see a cute little movie I put together about it.
Several days after that I get a call from my Mother that my Brother is missing! He was in a serious car wreck--it took an hour to cut him out. You can read about that at My Brother's Disappearance.
Somewhere in this Dave had a liver profile done and his enzymes are elevated and his bilirubin is up. The sonogram showed a small amount of fatty deposits on his liver and the doctor only suggests a change in eating. His cholorestal is very normal, thank goodness.
We are looking at some natural alternatives to helping him with this.
So, at the moment I am back, re-determining how to support myself in a way that I can stay at home more and help Dave with his sister and brother-in-law (they have Alzheimer's) and be avalible to run to South Carolina and give Mama a break in helping with Don.
I plan on getting a garden of sorts in the ground in the next week or so. We have no idea if the tiller will work as it has not been used in four years. But I have a serious need to re-connect with the Earth and all the good she brings forth.
My nineteen year old (19!! WOW!!!!) is starting nursing school in a few weeks and all the grandchildren are doing well.
My son-in-law and ex are going to help Mama move my brother's things tomorrow into a storage building. The doctors are saying they want to discharge don on Monday but he can not put weight on his one leg at all(both are broken in several places.) We need a few days to make sure Mama has help in place and a hospital bed, wheelchair and other things done so that he does not hurt himself further nor does she get hurt in helping him.
Life is good and we are alive and that means there is hope for all things getting better.
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This is one I really want some notary opinions on. 
She asks if he will provide her with written proof of that.
;)
;)
