Probably the most important change has been that my son Aaron, his wife Sara, and my grandson Tobias moved here to California with me a year ago last November and have been living in my home ever since! Over a year now. What a joy to have them here with me where I can hug and kiss them all daily! AND, watch my grandson grow. What a thrill to see every tooth pop up, hear every new word being learned,

Because of the crazy hours I keep with my business sometimes, I have moved my main office to the Fremont office instead of the Pleasanton office. It is only five minutes from door to door and if I choose to come home and either baby sit or have dinner with all my kids and then go back to work, I can do that without too much trouble. I miss my co-workers in P-town though!  I will still take loan applications from Pleasanton if my clients live out there and need me to meet them, but this is more convenient for me now.  

About my missed trip to Washington DC:  My adopted daughter Charlotte, whom I was supposed to stay at her penthouse, called me, and told me that she knew why God did not want me there during that time. It appears that one evening while I should have been there, and her and her husband were out of the country, the wall fish tank motor shorted out and started a major fire. It smoldered inside the walls for about 3 hours before it hit the kitchen and burst into flames. It appears that had I been there at the time, I would have been alone and probably in bed asleep since it happened around 3am in the morning. I could have died from smoke inhalation or worse, burned to death. Even if I would have lived, I would have had no where to stay and would not have known anyone around there to stay with to finish out the trip.  My Gracious Heavenly Father knows best after all! Amazing huh?  I guess it was better to have been on my knees at the Porcelain god in Fremont than to have been a "Crispy Critter" back in the Clintonian Ciaos with no where to stay! When God is not ready for us to come Home yet, he watches over us and directs our ways here!  I was sick, but safe and alive!  I guess my work here on earth is not done yet!

My precious son Michael is here living with me and graciously helping me with my new web site design and implementation. He is a wonderful technician as well as a son!  I'm doing major updating and installation of new areas. I have met a new friend and animator, web designer that I am working with who is building my site as well.  It is cute, the way I like it and it has a lot of animations along with my writings, thoughts, and industry news that should be up and running these next few weeks. Please visit and sign in.
 

Let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions for improvements.  There are many "hidden" animations inside the individual sections, so go inside and see them! Individual writings have some things in there too. Just keep looking! It's like a treasure hunt. For some of you that have slower computers, it will take awhile to down load

but well worth the wait! At least in my opinion! Your small children will like the animated cartoons. Technology has both it's advantages and disadvantages, but I for one, am loving it!  I probably spend far too much time on the net but I'm learning and getting over much of my original fear of it. 

I'm constantly learning how very important it is to trust the Lord for every area of our lives. I'm thrilled that God can bring good out of bad and sanity out of ciaos.  I find that so many times, lack of understanding, miscommunication between individuals, and poor habits, can cause stress and trauma where there shouldn't have been any. But it happens and it happens often. Especially when on the computer. Since there is no sound and it's strictly the written word, it can be misunderstood by the other parties or even ourselves, and cause pain without intention. I guess with time, I'll learn how to properly deal with that and understand proper protocol and interpretations J.

As with each of you, there just doesn't seem to be enough hours in a day! Especially as I get older. I know that we all have the same amount of hours and some are better than others in their time management, but I'm finding that I'm having a harder and harder time accomplishing all that I want to do and I'm not getting as much done as I did when I was younger. I guess that is just a cop-out, but truly my brain doesn't have the same mental capacity or memory that I had when I was younger! I'm going to invest in a gallon of Genkoba to mainline or something.  I'm still teaching, writing, working, serving on boards, serving Sunday Night Dinner at MOM's,  and having added "Hot Flashes" that were never there before. I'm doing a lot of re-evaluating of who I am, what I'm doing with my time, and my life. Maybe that's all age related, who knows.

Recent losses of loved ones and friends makes me take a moment daily to reflect on what is important and who I might be touching in a positive way. I also think of my weak-nesses, and my need to improve and grow as an individual. I guess no matter how old we get, we continue to have times of reflections and introspection's into what we are doing with our lives and making sure that what we do counts for Eternity! I'll share with you a very appropriate scripture for our current times. Ecclesiastes 12: 13-14.  "Now all has been heard: here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgement, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil."
 

1998 ended very successfully with lots of things to be thankful for.  The mortgage industry is going through some very significant changes, much having to do with credit scores, risk management, and the like. We are now seeing interest rates being related to the individuals past credit history as an individual or couple, rather than any lender having a certain rate for the day.

 Before we can even really give you a quote we need to run a credit report and see your credit score.  BUT, we can give you an approval within hours or days now instead of waiting weeks or even months.  There's always good and bad news when it comes to technology and it's results. More about this later.  Changes, and excitement, go hand in hand!!