My Baby Brother is now a Married Man!

My baby brother got married last night on the beach in Maui. It was absolutely beautiful! THe wids was blowing which kept it cool, the waves were crashing and the sun was setting. My brother looked amazing in his pink tuxedo vest and black slacks. Carli was absolutely stunning in a black and pink gown, not traditionall I know, but the whole wedding was un triditional to our mainland cultures. The preacher blew a conkle shell horn to announce Carli's decent onto the beach, they had a sand ceremony and a Lei ceremony. The whole thing was perfect and so perfect to their personalities. And I now have an amazing new sister in law!

A Woman Scorned

I thought this was one of the funniest stories I have heard in a very long time. It's a joke that was told to me when I was going through a divorce and it just really hit the spot for me.

A lady and her husband lived together in a beautiful mansion, over looking a lake. With a beautiful winding driveway and flowerbeds surrounding the home, it was a dream come true. However, one day the woman came home to find her husband in bed with a 20 something bleach blonde. Now this woman was not by any means stupid. She knew that she did not have a job, although the house was completely paid for, she could not possibly afford to kick him out so she played it cool, filed for divorce and in the settlement she let him have the house with the agreement that a.) when he sold it she got 1/2 of the equity and b.) she could have one more night alone in the beautiful house before his mistress moved in.

To make for a speedy divorce, her husband agreed to her terms. So on the night following the divorce, she made herself a beautiful dinner of shrimp and wine, lit a candle and dined.

But as she was cleaning up she started placing the tails of the shrimp and other leftovers in the curtain rods, under the carpet and in the tv stand. Then she turned out the lights, locked all the doors and smiled as she walked herself to the car.

The next day her husband moved his new bride to be in to the luscious house and they started their new life together. But before long, a rotten smell began permeating from every corner of the house. The new bride scrubbed the walls and floors, washed the drapes and scoured the whole house, but to no avail. Before long she could not stand it any longer and demanded that he sell the beautiful home. However, with the smell permeating the entire house, he had alot of trouble getting any interested buyers. He lowered the price and lowered the price until it was selling for less than houses a tenth it's market value. Finally, it seemed a miracle, he received an offer from an anonymous buyer for the very low price he was asking. His brand new marriage already on the rocks and his new wife threatening to leave, he was glad for any buyers and he accepted the offer.

The stress of his divorce, his new marriage and the house had ultimately cost him his job and he was struggling to make ends meet. He bought his new bride a moderately priced home in a downtown suburban neighborhood and since this was not what she had bargained for, the marriage ultimately ended.

The wife on the other hand, who had been the anonymous buyer, took her half of the equity from the sale of the house and went through the house, removing all of her carefully placed treats and cleaning the house thoroughly. She turned around and sold it for market value, bought another elegant although slightly smaller house on the lake and used the equity from the re-sell of the home to live luxuriously until she found another man who loved and adored her and took care of her every whim.

The moral to this story is: Never underestimate the wrath of a woman scorned!

The Bridal Shower

Seldom do I walk into a house and find myself spell bound. Saturday was the exception. Now, most houses I visit are beautiful, exqusite even gorgeous, this one can only be described as spell binding. It was huge from the oversized wood and glass entry doors to the modern furniture, to the custom made, dark mahogany entertainment center and matching round dining table that expanded to seat up to 26.

The baby grand in the entryway happened to be a player piano that emited the most beautiful tones, filling the room with a glow of it's own. The fireplace was floor to ceiling rock with the opening being at least 6 feet under the easily 20' high ceilings. Even the furniture was oversized, but then it had to be not to be dwarfed by the size of the room.

The kitchen hosted a full granite counter and center bar with sinks in three places. The stainless steel fridge was flush mounted into the wall and featured two full size doors and the dual cooktops and matching built-in, head heighth stoves gave the impression of a grand catering company.

Upstairs featured a master bath, complete with jetted tub, flat screen LCD television and his and hers walk-in closets. Multiple other bedrooms littered the second level, but the kicker here was a 90 ft by 20 ft room, simply for the childrens playthings. There was a pool/pingpong/foosball table in one end and anothe LCD flatscree in the other surrounded by a wooden play kitchen, pint sized recliner chairs and a myriad of toys. One the return to the main level one had to walk along what can only be described as a catwalk type hallway, fully carpeted with beautiful, ornate railings, that opened to full view of the main level sitting area. The basement was unaccessable to us as it was a 3000 sq. ft. appartment for the lady of the houses' daughter.

The grounds, from what I saw of them were spectacular and the home itself is just about everything I could ever want in a home. As a side note, the lady of the house has 6 children of her own, married her husband who brought with him 4 children and they adopted 6 more for a total of 16 children who are now all grown and married with children of their own. 27 Grand children to be exact. So family get togethers are seldom small and the expansive room is necessary to accomodate everyone. All I can say is I wish I had her Husband's job!

If he won't do it.... then I will!

Now please don't get me wrong, I love my husband dearly and I appreciate all that he does do, however, I can get really frusterated at times over the stuff he DOESN"T do. And I do understand and sympathize with the fact that he has just SO much to do. My biggest problem of all is that he gets frusterated when I do it. It's not that he thinks I can't do it, he just thinks that I have enough of my own stuff to do and he gets embarrassed that he didn't get around to it.

Granted, I do have plenty of my own stuff to take care of without adding his to do list as well, but sometimes things just need to get done. So today, I did it.

I took the furnace motor that he repaired back to my mother's house and re-installed it in the furnace. Works like a gem! Then I went to Home Depot and bought my own caulking gun, a tube of high quality caulk and a couple of caulk removal and installation tools. I have since come home and removed the old caulk from the tub and cleaned it up so now it's ready for new caulk.

This is all very new to me. I have never done this kind of thing before but this was important! Not only has the old caulk given way and allowed the shower to flood my office in the basement, but it is also leaking to the outside of the house which tells me it is causing more problems than just soaking my basement carpet! So I had to get it done. And besides, it's not like I am installing granite tile or anything, I am simply spreading caulk. It seems to be alot like some of my crafts. And so far, it has been pretty easy. I'll let you know how the rest goes later.

I am learning more and more about life insurance since my step-dad passed away. I can't believe that people really get Cash Value life Insurance. It just doesn't make any sense to me, but then I am not an expert in the field either. I just hear what the salesman wants me to hear. I am wondering what other people think about the matter. My question is why pay nearly 3 times as much for a 10th of the coverage. Granted, term life insurance gradually decreases in value, but later in life you are not going to need as much insurance as you do now. Right now I have a Husband and children that I stay home with. If I were to suddenly pass away now, not only would he be left with the funeral expenses and the loss of my mediocre income, but he would also be left without child care and that can be very, very expensive. The amount of Cash Value Life Insurance that I can afford would never come close to replacing the financial stability that I currently offer to my family.

Term life insurance on the other hand, from what I understand, is less expensive and offers greater coverage, more to the tune of what my family would actually need to replace me. term life insurance rates are much lower than Cash Value insurance but, the coverage gets lower as I age, then again, so do my expenses. My house should be getting paid off, my children grown and the cars paid. By the time I am "old enough" to pass on, I should not have many bills or expenses to leave my husband.

Is there something that I am missing? Something I do not know about? Please let me know your comments and feelings on the matter. I am just struggling with the fact that a mere $50K is not nearly enough to cover the costs associates with losing a loved one.