Recap of May, 2011

Good afternoon,

There are tons of things over on my website, so hurry on over and check them out.

I just did this picture for my blog. I love pinks and grays together!

I just wanted to use this post to recap some of this month.

The weather -- alas, has been mostly rainy. Usually through the week. We had about 4 or 5 beautiful days together, and it was beautiful yesterday, and so far; it's beautiful today. Other than that; we've had a real record number of days of rain ... and more rain.

My youngest granddaughter, Emma, has begun walking. I guess it was last weekend. And she's said her first sentence: "Hi, daddy."

My oldest granddaughter is growing like a weed, and is having a ball playing with neighborhood friends, and riding her bike. She is beautiful ... as always, and last weekend, we got to have a spend the night!

I had a wonderful Mother's Day this year!

And Emma is due to turn 1 at the end of this month: next weekend! Still have shopping to do.

I took a tumble on Friday while visiting with my daughter, and we went out walking with the babies. I somehow stepped on the edge of the sidewalk ... and down I went; taking off a good layer of skin on the inside of my right elbow, the outside of my right wrist, cracking my right knee on the sidewalk and twisting my left ankle. As always, it happens so fast ... and then it's over.

Blood oozed from my elbow mostly and stung like the dickens! My right knee began to throb and swell ... and at first, I was afraid to get up. Several neighbors were out, and one delightful gentleman came to my rescue. He happily got me into his luxurious car, blood and all, and drove me back to my daughter's house several streets away. He suggested I might want to head over to UrgentCare, but upon resting, decided I was okay.

I'm doing much better today. Not stiff and achy, like yesterday.

I've been busy sculpeying with my clay, and I've made a lot of items.

I have a coworker-friend, whose daughter, Kristi, is graduating from high school. Their party is today. I made her card, and sculpted her a dolphin leaping over a small little island. I will post it in another post. I dropped it off to her on Friday before going to my daughters. Congrats, Kristi! Thanks for the party invite, too!

My husband has been treating our lawn for weeds, and it is looking much better. He cut the grass yesterday, and I managed to hobble outside and pull the weeds in my garden. It is now ready for vegetables, which I plan to go buy shortly. I will get them in the ground today.

My sister had surgery on the 9th. I need to call her to see how she's doing.

I am counting down to a week's vacation ... coming up the week of the 20th of June! Yeah!

In February, I sent a letter contesting my property taxes. They were charging me about $30 thousand more than the bank had my house valued at. They rejected my letter/case. And then, about 3 weeks later, I get a certified letter from them, which took me 2 days to get from the post office (I went to pick up 2x) ... and found out I had a hearing last Wednesday at 3:15 p.m.

I managed to hire a licensed appraiser to do an external appraisal of my home and property, and found out that my property has continued to fall. It is $21 thousand lower than what my bank says, and a whopping $51 thousand below what the county was charging me in taxes!!! Can you believe that!???

I went to the hearing with my appraisal, and am again ... waiting on a another certified letter! This should really cause my house payment to go down.

Times are bad.

It seems that 800,000 people in Franklin county contested their property taxes. This is a record number. After I sent the original letter, the county dropped my taxes 2%, but that hardly is a drop in the bucket. I hope I don't have to seek legal recourse, but if I have to do that, I will.

I hope your month has been good!

Cj
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