Monday, July 25, 2011

Happy Birthday my angel!

Today was Lemmie's 9th birthday - I honestly cant believe the last 9 years have gone by so quickly!



Lem has grown up into the most amazing child. We do have our personality clashes, lol, a lot of them as she is very strong willed but I know that is part of her becoming a confident take-no-shit young lady lol. She borders on the stubborn but it doesnt get her that far with me lol.



She has an awesome sense of humour, and a smile that can light up a room. She comes up with the funniest things, and then laughs her head off for ages and her laugh is so infectious.



She has born the brunt of the trauma over the last year, and before. She used to try defend me when J was attacking me and would often be pushed out the way by him, only to come back and stand in front of me to try fend him off when I couldnt. She is the peace maker. Always trying to keep the peace when I am arguing with P or with her dad.



She struggled at school just after the divorce last year but quickly overcame it to become a little star. She really tries her best and gets very upset when her marks arent what she hopes for.



I am honestly so blessed to have her - she is my little champion. The last couple of weeks a switch has been flipped - she really has come out of her shell and she is an absolute joy to be around :)



All she wanted for her birthday was a J Board - so my dad and I got her one together and my word she impressed me on it!!! She is a total natural!!!!



Happy birthday my sweetheart, hope to share many many more with you!





















Monday, July 18, 2011

Cake, cake, and more cake :)

Shew the last few weeks have been busy for me on Cake side...I am becoming known as the "short notice baker" I think :) :) I do love it though, I work best under pressure - I am a born procastinator so the less time I have to do something the better :)

These are the cakes I have done the last few weeks - I loved doing the Spongebob, that really pushed me a bit - I made all the little cupcake toppers myself and loved playing around with Spongebobs expressions. i did however have a slip in the front when doing the lines of the pineapple...could kick myself for that but otherwise I am happy with how it turned out. The Barbie...*sigh* I love doing those too as I love all things pretty and pink :) I just love how the icing falls naturally and creates the ruffles of the skirt. And then I let go with my glitter and flowers and pearls and and.
The Jamesons was for a friend of a friend who decided at the last minute she wanted a birthday cake :) My friend told me she hadnt had cake in about a year as she couldnt eat eggs. so..I tried, for the first time, an eggless cake. I must admit it tasted pretty good.....I may just decide to use it as the base for most of my cakes from now on.

I have another Hello Kitty and a Volcano coming up in the next two weeks...the Volcano one is going to be VERY interesting! :)





Monday, July 11, 2011

10 Things I Love about You

In no particular order:

* I love that you wake me with coffee, a kiss and a smile every morning.

* I love that you wash my car EVERY week as you don’t like me driving in a dirty car.Even if I think its still clean lol.

* I love that you do the things I DON’T like doing – like clean my oven and the dishes lol.

* I love that you always take my side – unconditionally.

* I love how you enjoy and compliment each and every meal I prepare.

* I love that you always tell me how beautiful I am even when I am having a “FAT” day.

* I love how you always run my bath (with bubbles) before you shower to make sure I have enough hot water.

* I love how you love my girls.

* I love how you let me sleep in just a little longer on weekends while you wake up with the girls.

* I love your sense of humour and that you always know how to make me laugh.

I LOVE YOU!


Friday, July 8, 2011

My Beef with FNB.

I have both my bonds with First National Bank - both bonds are still in both our names (Ex and I) Now the one bond is for the home I live in now - No problems with that one really. I live there, I pay the bond, simple.

Now the other bond is an investment property that J and I bought when he got a big increase at work a few years ago.

We had tenants, but for the last year I have been fighting with the agents due to short payment of rent, late payment of rent, electricity not being paid etc.
So January they were evicted after not paying for 3 months.

My ex has not been paying towards the property either, even though in the divorce agreement it quite cleary states he is responsible for 50% of the costs. He never paid his share of the shortfall when there were tenants in - From January to May he didnt pay his share of the full amoutn at all. Only in June did he make a payment. I recieved a summons that FNB were going to re-posess. I spoke to him - I asked what his plans were (now bear in mind along with a reposessions comes a 30 year black mark against your name from the High Court. )he said no plans?

He said he didnt care.

He said to take the money from the maintenance.

Ja right.

So to prevent me being ruined financially by a repossession my father paid the R18000needed to stop the reposession.

I then decided to put the property on the market through FNB's QuickSells.
Throughout this entire year of me fighthing with the tenants and the agents J has not done one thing. When the banks have called me re the short payments I tell them to call him as it is his 50% owing.They say "he told us to call you"

I get told, by the bank "we dont care about your personal problems Ms Daniels"!

Its a High Court order its NOT a personal problem!

So this last week I decide to rather take the property back as it was not going to sell and the mandate was up. If it goes to auction I am even more screwed! P and I can then attempt to take the property over and cut J out completely.
I approach FNB with the following email:

Please see attached documents as requested.

From experience I know the bank generally don’t care about a person’s personal problems (I have been told as much by staff at FNB) lol but this is something I am really hoping the bank can assist me with.

According to my divorce agreement (attached) my ex is liable for 50% of the costs on bond number ********9442. He however refuses to accept any and all responsibility towards this property. He has told me to take the money out of my maintenance every month – but I can’t. The maintenance is for my children and doesn’t even cover everything that it has to for them. To do that would be to not pay something else. Not really something I want to do. Although over the last year I have had to rob Peter to pay Paul due to non payment of maintenance from his side. I have been making all the payments to Questa Rey over the last year. Fighting with agents re non/short payments. Fighting with tenants re the same. Mr Daniels hasn’t even worried for one minute about this property or the payment thereof. He even went so far as to withdraw the rental money we received from the tenants in January from the One account to pay into his credit card. He only just this last month made an effort to pay the required payment.

I eventually had to put the property on Quick sell as the tenants were evicted and I just cannot pay for the bond on my own. I can barely make it as it is with my other expenses. Hence the reason the One Account is in arrears by a month. My dad sold some shares in order to pay the R17 000 arrears on Questa Rey last month.

He is now threatening to go overseas and work for a humanitarian organisation – therefore not earning a salary therefore not paying me maintenance. He is threatening this as he is “tired of paying me maintenance”. And “wants me to lose everything and be the reason for it”. I have sms and email proof of this. Apparently he has already resigned.

I am looking after two children and it is a battle for me every month to meet the commitments that I have – never mind now having to pay the full bond on Questa Rey.

I do however now have someone that is willing to assist me in paying the bond on Questa Rey..IF I can get tenants. He is willing to assist me in paying the shortfall between the rental and the bond repayment. Him and I will then do a substitution of Debtor when my situation improves.

I would like FNB’s assistance with the following:

1 – If the property does not sell on Quick Sell, I want to take the property back and find tenants. I fear the property going on auction – as my ex will NOT pay towards the shortfall and I don’t have the means to pay the full shortfall nor do I have the means to keep taking him to court. Nor do I think it fair. That could potentially ruin me forever if the property sells for 100/200k below what I owe FNB.

2 – If FNB do agree for me to take the property back – I would like them to agree to a payment holiday for 3 – 4 months in order to give me time to find tenants.

I am truly hoping that FNB are able to assist me in this situation, I have done the best I can with what I have had. My father has put 1000’s into this property and he just can’t anymore.

I really would like to keep it as an investment for my children which was the initial plan when Mr Daniels and I purchased the property. I have been through so much at the hands of this man the last year and this is one area where I require assistance from FNB in order to prevent any further financial problems which could potentially cripple myself and put myself and my daughters , literally, out on the streets.

I look forward to your favourable response,


I get a call back. And you know what thier answer is??

No.

Just like that.

No.

"Because there is not enough equity in the property" They tell me.

So - a bank as large as FNB are not willing to help me. Not willing to help me when I have done EVERYTHING in my power to honour my agreements. I dont think I am asking for a lot? I dont think I am being that unreasonable in my request?

I NEED HELP!

So...FNB...How can we help you?????? #epicfail!