breaking bread

My Mom gave me her bread machine about a year or two ago. It has been sitting gathering dust ever since. Good intentions and all...

So today, I knocked the dust off, and baked a loaf of Italian bread. GOOD LORD.
I cannot tell you how freaking deeeelicious it is!! I am going to bake a loaf for my neighbors tomorrow.

I was talking to C today, she is my neighbor across the street. They are in the same kind of financial predicament that we are in. I had no idea. We talked and talked this evening, and she told me that it was so nice to have someone to talk to, that understood what they were going through.

They are on the verge of losing the home that they have lived in for THIRTY years. They refi'd about a year or two ago, before the market went south, anyway. They needed new windows and a new roof and a new AC. They also painted the inside of the house and redid a bathroom. And I can say, the place needed the work. Thirty years of nothing ever being done in there, left it really needing some help.

They did not go overboard with anything. It was a modest bathroom remodel... Anyway, now she has lost clients due to the economy, and W works his ass off. They are just barely making it. She is waiting to hear from the mortgage company as to whether or not they are going to restructure the loan, so they can avoid foreclosure.

We are not quite that bad off just yet. We do have a ridiculous mortgage. That is because we used what equity we had to make improvements. Then we refi'd to consolidate debt and get more money to finish some work we had started.

At that time, it was all well and good as T was making good money. Then he fell apart and went through like 4 jobs. He is now making less than he was 4 years ago, and that has hurt us a LOT. Add in some unforeseen medical expenses and it is a party. And it all just sucks. The market crashed and now we are left with a house that is valued WELL below what it was just 2 years ago. We now have a mortgage that far surpasses the value of the house. We will never get enough in a sale to cover what we owe. So we are stuck.

Same thing with our trucks. We cannot sell them because we are SO upside down on them. We owe way over what they are worth. So selling them is useless, as we would never get what we need to cover the loan. *sigh*

The baking of the bread thing is going to happen a LOT more, because it just simply doesn't get much easier than adding ingredients, and then eating warm gooey bread three hours later. LOL

mmmmm

Next up, cheddar and herb bread and onion soup bread. MMMMM.

Thanks Mom!