Katrina's Nonsoapy Journal

March 17, 2004
Updated at 4:15 pm

Well, that's it! It's now totally out of our hands as nearly as I can tell and in the very kind and capable hands of our mortgage broker. Today, Eric overnighted the paperwork and just a half hour later (an hour early by mail schedule), our mail came and in it was the VA Eligibility letter sent out from LA yesterday! I can't get a letter across Sacramento in a day, much less halfway up the state. But here it was, so I hurried back to the post office and sure enough, the woman dug the envelope out of the mail bag and let me put the VA letter in the previous overnight envelope, then taped it back up again. Yayyy! So we have absolutely done everything we can do toward this and The Universe has it now (and our broker!). We should know something in a week or so, which is good because a week from tomorrow is the cut off date where we lose our $1000 deposit if we don't back out. It took absolutely every penny we had to scrape up the deposit, but we did it! Of course, we're broke as a frickin joke now and back to wondering where the goin' on money will come from, but that will all take care of itself as it always does. Eric was supposed to get some money from the company since a long time hold out client finally paid them about a third of what he owes them, but that ended up going to pay for some insurance endorsements they needed to start working next week on the housing projects. It will be well over a month before they are paid for any of that work (construction work pays out on a weird schedule), but at least things are starting to move! They've been doing little jobs along the way to fill in the blanks. They are doing a job tomorrow and if those people pay quickly, we should be fine. At least there are good in-roads for the miracles to follow!

My friend Kathy told me something today that reminded me of the loose change thing. It used to be that when I did spell work for money, I'd start to find little pieces of change in my path, just a quarter here, a dime and a nickel there. If I picked them up and showed them value, then I'd get the money I needed. If I ignored them, I wouldn't. It was as though the Universe was saying if I didn't honor the little things, I wouldn't get the big miracles. That made me smile to think of that again.

So now that the house issue is totally out of my hands and we've done everything we possibly can for it, I want to just take my mind and my focus off of it. That's going to be hard, but I need to be involved with other things. With any luck, we won't have a lot going on with the sale of this house as far as showing the house or dealing with realtors. I'd love to just live out in peace until we move, then they can just go bad on whatever they want to do with this place. It's been good to us and I appreciate all the house has given us, but our connection is coming to a close and I'm ready to move on.

For now, I'm going to be busy doing book reviews, trying to squeeze out a soap column and working on this Sunday's public Spring Equinox ritual. It's time to plant those seeds and get the harvest cycle underway! This year, both Eric and I are planting prosperity and abundance. I'm tired of this poverty cycle and want to get out of it and with our combined focus, I think we can do it. Moving is the first step and from there, I'm ready to set up my quiet serene life up in the mountains. It's so hard to believe it was on February 26th that we were told that the house was going on the market. So much has happened in those three weeks I can't believe it! A month ago, I was happily ensconced in my little house, never imagining the changes that were right on the doorstep, waiting to pounce. I've been through the gamut of "What are we going to do?" "We have to keep this house!" "Oh no! We can't keep the house!" "Oh no, we have to find another house!" "Oh my, we've found a house!" "Oh wow, can we get the house?" It's been exhausting! At least now, it's done and we will just have to wait it out. There is a certain freedom that comes with that. Whatever is to be will now be and we just have to wait for the message. So don't expect to hear much on this for several days and hopefully then, we'll have great news to announce.

My friend Jen lost her job last Thursday. She worked as a preschool teacher at a school for 9 years and was suddenly fired, so she was pretty shell-shocked. Today, she found out she got a job that she very, very much wanted and she is just over the moon. So her life turned around 180 degrees in less than a week! Amazing! The energy is just so strong now.

Poor Eric. Do you remember when I told you the new car (not new, but new to us) left Eric stranded along side the road! He was so blessed. His partner was just right down the road and could come pick him up for the meeting they were headed toward when the car bottomed out. When they got back to the car a couple of hours later, a CHiP guy came by who's job it is to help stranded motorists get their vehicles off the road during rush hour. (No charge to us) He helped Eric figure out what was wrong with the car and that it was VERY easily remedied (he was out of gas). Evidently, the new car MEANS it when it hits empty. : P So the car runs great. There was a huge leak around the oil filter, but when he changed out the filter, it was fine. The car is a 1990 Chevy Caprice and is white, so it looks like a giant cop car without the sirens or markings. :) I feel all authoritarian driving it. People tend to slow down and get out of your way. Also, since I am used to the brakes (or lack thereof) on the Caddy, I keep getting thrown through the windshield of this car because the brakes are very sensitive and very RIGHT NOW. There's AC!! That's a real bonus in California. So I'm very excited to have a reliable vehicle and since David only scoots around town, the Caddy will be perfect for him, so everyone wins, plus I'll pay David back the money he loaned us to buy the Caprice. So the transportation issue is resolved!

I keep thinking about my calla lilies and how before I knew about the house, I found those 17 new bunches that sprang up from nowhere. Let me see if I can find what I wrote about them back then:

Cool. Here's the link: http://eyeonsoaps.com/nonsoapy021904.htm

Here's what I said: My interpretation is that holy shitdogs, some really, really, really cool, intense miracle stuff is coming right down the pike like a freight train! Amazing things that have NEVER happened before are right around the corner, things are going to be coming from all kinds of odd places to help out and stuff that just absolutely should not be able to happen will manifest right before my eyes.

Whew! Those calla lilies just do not lie! Amazing! (I use that word a lot lately, I've found) When I wrote that, it was a week before The Big Announcement and I would NEVER have imagined that a month later, I'd be waiting for my escrow to close before moving into the mountains to our Rasbold Home Estate. Did I mention amazing? I think, as hard as it will be for me to do so, I'm going to leave the main batch of calla lilies (even as I say this, I'm not sure I can bring myself to do it). They are about 4-5 feet tall and I don't know if I can dig them up and move them and keep them safe while I do it. The 17 little ones will be easy to transport. I'm still debating.

So I've rambled enough. =) It's been a good day and that's what I worked for last night. I don't feel nearly as tense as I did before and more of a sense of resolve that everything will work out fine and we will be moving soon.

NOW I have to find a megaton of boxes from somewhere. Time to start haunting the liquor stores, I guess. *~*~*~*Manifesting the boxes*~*~*~*bzzt bzzt bzzzzt

(Don't let me kid you! I'm so excited I could jump up and down if I had the energy!) I'll bet that would burn a lot of calories.

News flash: According to Dr Phil, 240,000 Americans are in "sexless" marriages, meaning less than 10 times a year. Just so's you'll know.

Moving along to this morning's post...

50 Questions

1. What time is it? 10:25 AM.

2. Name: Katrina Marie Rasbold

3. Name as it appears on birth certificate: Katrina Marie Chapman

4. Nicknames: NOT Kat, I HATE that. My family calls me Kathy. David calls me Mumsy. Eric calls me Sweetie or Cuddle Bear. Sage used to call me Katrina Bobina.

5. Number of candles on your last birthday cake: um...42

6. Birthday: Sept 5

7. Vital Statistics: Height: 5'5", Weight: 230

8. Hair color: Dark Brown w/Grey (needs bottling)

9. Piercing: two in each ear

10. Eye color: Hazel

11. Hometown: Pleasant Ridge, Kentucky

12. Town you live in: Sacramento, Ca, moving to Grizzly Flats, Ca in two weeks

13. Favorite foods: homemade bread (white or wheat), potato skins, steak medium rare, good bbq chicken, chocolate dipped strawberries

14. Ever been to Europe? yes

15. Been toilet papering? no

16. Love someone so much it made you cry? Many times

17. Botox or body by jake? Neither, but I'd gladly take an extreme make over

18. Coffee, Tea or Milk? Iced tea, no lemon, artificial sweetener

19. Favorite day of the week? Days when my kids don't have school

20. Favorite Restaurant? So many! Olive Garden, but it makes me sick a couple of hours after I eat it, Claim Jumpers, Marie Callendars, Garcia's Mexican, Mongolian BBQ & Chinese Buffet, K-Bob's Steak House in Alamogordo, New Mexico, Elmer's on Fairview in Boise, Idaho, the Pizza Hut in Beaver Dam, Kentucky, JB's in Mountain Home, Idaho

21. Taste great or less cal? taste great, but low carb is a plus

22. Favorite flower? calla lilies :)

23. Favorite sport to watch? I don't enjoy watching any sports. Don't even know what channels on my TV are ESPN. When we were in England, I used to like to watch "One Man and His Dog" shepherding. It's a sport in which the best sheepdogs have to round sheep up into little corrals. It was great because these border collies would spaz out sometimes and start biting the sheep when the sheep would be stupid. I also enjoyed watching the dart tourneys.

24. Favorite Fragrance? Everafter by Avon, Dragon Cloud Oil and Secret Garden Oil, both by Airs. None of the three are produced any more, sadly. They were my signature scents. I miss them. :(

25. Favorite ice cream flavor? chocolate chip cookie dough, black walnut and butter pecan.

26. Denims or Microfiber? Microfiber (see vital statistics)

27. Favorite fast food restaurant? MCDONALDS!!!

28. Would you rather have carpet or hardwood? hardwood

30. Before this one, from whom did you get your last e-mail? Spam from The Drug Store, probably my 5000th about penis size this week.

31. Which store would you choose to max out your credit card? Walmart (I'm a simple soul)

32. What do you do most often when you are bored? Same thing I do when I'm not bored: computer.

33. Peeves? People who call me "Kat." People who are intentionally mean or snotty or rude. Real estate agents in my house. >:<

34. Pets? Two cats, one old dog.

35. Who will respond to this email the quickest? You're all off the hook, but someone better post this sucker to the Sage Brush Ranch board.

36. Favorite Music or Song? Classic rock from the 70's and 80's, Country music from the mid-nineties and back, gospel music from before 1980. New-agey stuff.

37. Favorite TV show? Sopranos, AMC, OLTL, Scrubs, Las Vegas, Charmed, Buffy, Angel

38. Last person(s) you went out to Dinner with? Eric

39. Ford or Chevy? Ford, but I own a Chevy. My favorite cars so far are Lincolns, but I've never owned one. I loved my '89 Buick Regal and my 2001 Dodge Intrepid that I had to give back. :(

40. Bedtime? 10 pm or so. Naps are good ANY time.

41. Wake up? Alarm is set for 6:20am, but usually I'm awake sometime between 4 and 6 lately.

42. Favorite book? Dr Phil's "Life Strategies" totally changed my life (and I don't say that lightly). I LOVE "Good Omens" by Terry Pratchett and "The Stand" by Stephen King.

43. Any children? Six: Five sons and one daughter.

44. When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up? A country music singer.

45. Got siblings? Two brothers, both younger than I am.

46. Play any musical instruments? Guitar and piano by ear, but I'm not very good. I do some rhythmic drumming, but I'm not very good at that either.

47. Favorite movies? "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" "Raising Arizona" "Devil's Advocate" "Looking For Richard" "Pirates of the Caribbean" "What's Eating Gilbert Grape" "The Breakfast Club" "My Blue Heaven" "Somewhere In Time" "The Ghost and Mrs Muir" Too many others to choose. I love movies.

48. What's your browser home page? Eye on Soaps, of course!

49. Favorite drink, alcoholic or otherwise? Strawberry Daiquiris or rum and coke for liquor. Dr Pepper, Mountain Dew or Red Fusion for otherwise, but I can't ever, ever have them. >:<

50. What's one thing you want to do in life that you haven't done yet? There's two: lose the extra weight and write a book or ten.

We just funneled through about (literally) 40 or so realtors who came on a tour of the house. Now the "floor guy" is on his way with one of the property managers to determine what they're going to do about the floors in the house.

Not sure what else today holds. We did find out that the final VA paper Eric needs for the loan package was sent out of LA yesterday, so we should have it tomorrow or the next day. It's getting really close!

I think I'm going to go hibernate in the back room while Nathan is being quiet and try to adjust my head so it's in a better space. I'm still a little heebie-jeebied by the flood of agents that just objectified my house.

Beee cooool.

Love,
K