Taking a break

After a lot of thought and hours of talks, number crunching and soul searching – we decided tonight to walk away from Dunsmuir (yes, we name our houses the streets they are on. How else can we keep track?) We will hold our current position, take the townhouse off the market immediately and rent it out. With the bubble burst, holding steady makes the best financial sense and we will likely cash flow on the rental as nobody can buy a home. Bitter sweet.

We’re a little relieved to take control of the situation, although chances are the deal was going to crumble anyway. Three months ago – that was a different story. Had I worked on the financials instead of letting someone else, we would probably be moved by now and starting renovations at the new house. Little would we have known that the real estate market would soon come crashing down – along with our intentions of selling Black Quartz & Huber, which would have to happen to keep us afloat. Basically, we would be up the creek without a paddle. Or a boat. Or a life jacket. Been there – done that. Not going there again.

I guess this is all a blessing in disguise and proves to me that things happen for a reason.

So, we’re staying here in our little home and will be ripping it apart to make more room. The list is long but we’re pretty good at this remodeling stuff and are ready to get started. Along with our laundry list, we’re taking a break from HIR (Hughson Investment Realty, Inc.).

We’ve been on the fast track since we turned 20... We’ve started a company (even made a good amount of money!), acquired some real estate and started a family. We’re ready to enjoy life a little bit and take a break from it all. So, no more clients – no more houses for a while. We might even take a vacation! That is, after we add a bathroom, remodel the other bathroom, gut/expand and rebuild the kitchen, finish the basement (add family room & laundry room) and move the office & gym to the garage which will be finished into an actual living space. But first, we will sod the back yard. Oh, and somewhere in there – the new baby will arrive.

And this is what we call “taking a break”.

That's just peachy

Our hopes of actually closing this house by Friday are slipping away right before ours, and the nation's eyes. BNC (the lender) just publicly announced it's closing the doors and halting all new lending activity.

A tiny spec of a glimmer of artificial light through rose colored glasses still remains though as our file is in final review and all conditions have been met as of Monday. So, we got in under the gun and have a better chance of closing than many others, but still, no guarantee we'll get our house.

we're hanging on by a thread here... but it ain't over till it's over! I can't wait until Friday when we'll actually know the outcome. knowing that all of this is in someone else's hands is driving me absolutely mad!

I predict zero sleep before the weekend.

At the park...

Today, just like every other day, Kaitlyn and I headed out looking for some adventure. Yesterday was the Children's Museum - today was the park.

We walked to the play ground and find the best swing. I hoist her up and off she goes - giggling and smiling. UNTIL - she gets a very serious look on her face, slouches down, closes her eyes and GOES TO SLEEP! in the SWING! who is this child? This has never happened... so i wasn't quite sure if I should try to wake her, get her out, or just keep pushing the swing. No other kids were waiting so I let her swing and sleep for a bit. I wish I had my camera!

After about 5 minutes, some of the other moms were looking at me strangely (or they were admiring my subdued child) so I lift her limp little body out and let her wake up. It really was very funny to see her dangling in the swing - completely lifeless and sleeping. very odd too.

Once she was ready to play again, we ran around and picked up sticks & rocks, put our hands in the mud, looked at the bees, picked dandelions and blew kisses to the dogs walking by.

it was quite the adventure.

Always something to laugh about

I consider myself very fortunate to be able to find the humor in things that piss me off. I’m also fortunate to tengo un hermana who also revels in this weird humor.

Last Friday I had my mother-in-law watch Kaitlyn while I took our nasty little BMW to get detailed so we can sell it once and for all. (I HATE THAT CAR WITH A PASSION) So, she gets up from her nap and we hop in the Expedition and drive to grandma’s house. 45 minutes later we arrive in NE Portland and make the drop. Now, I get back in the car and drive 50 minutes to Beaverton where the BMW has been parked on the street , hoping someone would just steal it. I swap cars and drive 20 minutes to the detail place and wait in line for 30 minutes in my nasty car. Finally, I can leave the keys and go pay…

I had been waiting not 3 minutes when the lady comes back in and says “Excuse me Ms. HUG-son, we can’t do your car. The doors don’t open from the inside.” WTF? I’m pretty annoyed after all that driving and waiting and don’t respond as nicely as I could have. I say something like, “what are you talking about? They work fine… did you not just see me get out of my car?” she goes on…” well, they don’t work so we can’t do your car.” (they work perfectly fine!) We go back and forth for a few minutes and I’m getting nowhere. I even offered to give her a lesson in operating a car door. I guess she didn’t think that was necessary as she handed me my receipt for a refund. So I stormed over the register – pissed off – and got my money back.

Now I get back in my dirty, nasty, hot car and get to sit in rush hour traffic all the way from Beaverton to NE Portland so we can do something with this thing. Now, it does have AC but because it is so nasty, there’s probably spiders living in the vents and I just knew that if I turned it on, spiders and spider paraphernalia would come flying out onto my face and I would crash. So, I sweat it out.

About halfway to grandma’s house I decide to call my sister, Angela, to tell her my story and vent… of course we made a joke out of the whole thing and came up with some rebuttals to the lady at the wash. I’m tempted to go back just so I can say some of this.

Lady: Your car doors don’t open from the inside.
Me: Is someone stuck in there right now?
Me: Did you see me kick the door open?
Me: Was I slamming my entire body against the door to open it?
Me: Did I appear winded upon exit of the vehicle?
Me: Was I flustered and hyperventilating from not being able to get out?
Me: Am I in my car now?
Me: Did I “Daisy Duke” it out of the window?
Me: Did I let myself out through the trunk?
Me: Did I ask for assistance?
Me: Was I screaming, “I’m trapped! I’m going to die”
Me: Was someone else screaming, “I’m trapped! I’m going to die!”
Me: Is someone NOW screaming, “I’m trapped! I’m going to die!”

NO. I opened the door just like any other door and got out. Apparently, you did too… Freak.

Feeling the crunch

if you’ve been following Wall street lately, or even if you haven’t, chances are you’ve caught wind of the crashing sub-prime market and “credit crunch”.

Quick synopsis – over the past two years, lenders (real estate) have been very loosey-goosey with their money and created all kinds of creative ways for borrowers with less than perfect credit and not a whole lot of income to buy a home and live the American dream. Most of this creative financing came in the way of 2 &3 year ARMs, stated income loans, and 100% financing deals. As the 2-year mark passed, the ARMs adjusted up and left the borrowers with mortgages they couldn’t pay. People began defaulting, foreclosure sales were (are) on the rise across America and subsequently, the sub-prime lending industry lost their ability to package and sell their loans on the market. Who wants to buy loans that are destined to default?

So, now, the smaller sub-prime lenders are being forced to hold onto these loans that are going into foreclosure left and right, and consequently – these banks are going bankrupt at a very fast pace. Guess what this means? If you don’t have a sizable down payment (15-20%), or great credit, you’re probably not going to be buying a home anytime soon. What’s shocking is that this tightening of credit is starting to ripple up to the big guys… ever hear of Countrywide? They’re one of the biggest home lenders today and their stock is tanking with talks of bankruptcy. Kind of scary…

Why am I going on about all of this? For two-reasons.

First, from a political standpoint, the Fed’s, big banks, and borrowers all blame the sub-prime lenders for getting them into this mess in the first place. I completely disagree. A lender doesn’t cause someone to lose their house. A borrower who isn’t financially savvy or lies (stated income loans) about their income so that they qualify for a loan is responsible for losing their house. It’s the same argument against tobacco companies… it’s common sense that if you smoke, chances are you will die from it. You have to use your brain and quit blaming other people for crap. C’mon people.

Second, Chris and I have been caught up in this lending mess since May trying to close on our next house. It has been an absolute nightmare! As of today, we are 7 days past out original closing date and are still unsure if the loan will even fund. Luckily for us, (and bad for our seller) the seller is one of those people facing foreclosure which buys us a little more time - she can't exactly re-list. She’s about to lose her house and it’s a rat race trying to get our bank to beat her bank to the end. If we don’t get this thing to fund soon, her house will go to auction and we’re both screwed. This has been the most exhausting transaction we’ve ever dealt with. We’ve been fighting – literally – to get this through and everyday it doesn’t is another day closer to losing the whole deal. Now, when I say “fighting”, I’m not just saying “we’re working really hard”. We have both been on the phone YELLING and bitching people out over this. It hasn’t been pretty. We’re drained and almost want to walk away from the whole thing… but we won’t. We have too much time & money invested at this point.

There are a lot of other things factoring into this that have made it the nightmare that it is… I’ll spare details but basically, we let the seller take the $5,000 earnest money upfront so she could pay her mortgage while we waited to close. We found out a couple days ago that she didn’t use this money to pay her mortgage and that’s why she’s facing auction so soon. Thanks. Also, this is the first time we’ve pushed a loan of ours through another broker. All of our loans usually go through me as I’m a licensed mortgage broker. This dumb ass has no idea what he’s doing. He’s seriously an idiot and doesn’t know how to get shit done. His most famous line: “I’ve called them twice and haven’t heard back”. “Well, IDIOT, I called YOU five times and that’s what got me a call back.” See how that works you F*%%#! MORON! I do believe that if this falls through, it's in part to his complete incompetence.

Anyway – that’s the crap we’ve been dealing with… we have no idea if we’re going to get this house and it sucks. We are drained and cranky and just want the whole thing to be done with. Times like this really make me wonder why the hell we’ve chosen this path. It’s stressful and frustrating but if it works out in the end – we will be two very happy people! If not, we’ve started a list of projects to do around our current house to make us feel better.

ugh. TGIF?

Birth Story of Kaitlyn Grace Hughson

Born April 6, 2006 @ 7:41pm
8lbs 11.6oz, 21 inches long, 13 inch head
APGARS 9 & 9


We knew Kaitlyn would be making her appearance soon after a routine prenatal doctors appointment on April 5th. At the appointment, the doctor found off the chart amounts of protein in my urine. This, usually accompanied with high blood pressure is a sign of pre-eclampsia aka toxemia. But my blood pressure was fine. We did another urine test and sent it off to the lab for further scrutiny while we waited in the lobby. An hour passes and the nurse comes out to get us… she wants us to go back into the exam room and wait while my doctor seeks a second opinion on my lab results – all the while, we don’t know if this is good or bad news.

When she comes in the room, she asks “what do think about going to the hospital and having your baby today?”. Of course we are ready and anxious to meet our little one, but are wondering if this is an order or a question. She begins to explain that while I still show protein in my urine, this is the only sign of pre-eclampsia I have and they really don’t know why it’s happening. After our brief conversation, we decided to go to hospital for more labs, hoping to find some answers.

We rushed home and grabbed the bags which had been carefully packed 2 weeks earlier. This was it! We were excited, anxious and nervous about everything and how it was happening. This wasn’t how we planned or thought things would go. I said goodbye to Kyle and we headed for the hospital.

We got to Providence St. Vincent’s around 6:00pm where they checked us into an exam room and we made ourselves comfortable. Our stay was only about 3 hours… they did yet another urine analysis which showed (gasp) protein. But still, as before, everything else seemed fine and I was feeling great. We were allowed to return home with strict rules to do a 24 hour urine collection for more lab tests. So – today wasn’t today after all.

When we got home, we were both pretty tired… this whole ordeal began at 2:00pm and we were on an emotional roller coaster. Was the baby ok? Was I ok? What’s going on?

That evening, the phone rang around 10:00pm. It was the attending doctor at St.V’s. She was not at all pleased that I was released to go home… apparently, she had been pouring over my labs and found some interesting “numbers” that made her very nervous and wanted me back in the hospital first thing in the morning. There went any ideas of getting some sleep. So, I headed for bed and laid there… looking at the clock, drifting off to sleep every once in a while, until it was time to get up and go.

We made it to the hospital on April 6th around 9:00am. I was again checked in to an exam room and hooked up to the monitors. They again wanted a urine sample, but this time, it wasn’t going to be as easy or as pleasant. They wanted a pure catheter sample. NOT FUN. Once that was finished, they drew some blood as well. Again, time to wait. About 2 hours pass while we are flipping through magazines from 2003 that we found shoved in a drawer. Finally, the doctor comes in and says we’re having the baby today. My kidneys are failing at a fast pace and can’t support me & baby anymore. She termed it “Atypical” Pregnancy Induced Hypertension (aka – Pre-eclampsia) because they really still don’t know what is wrong… just that my kidneys are failing and we could both die. The cure is to get the baby out NOW. So, off to labor & delivery we go!

When we got into the delivery room, the nurses immediately began hooking me up to the monitors. I was to be on them constantly because of my new “condition”, as well as the automatic blood pressure reader. Then, I get an IV which is attached to a Pitocin drip, Magnesium Sulfate drip and your basic fluids. By looks of all the tubes going in – you’d think I was dying!

For those who don’t know or are interested… pitocin is a synthetic hormone that stimulates labor and causes contractions. Magnesiun sulfate is a drug to prevent me from going into a seizure and dying (from the kidney failure). Then, the basic fluids are given via IV because the magnesium often causes pulmonary edema (amongst a whole lot of other fun side effects) so I am not allowed to drink anything. At this point, my blood pressure had gone up so they have me hooked up to that monitor and of course, two other monitors – one for Kaitlyn and one for contractions.

All this makes one feel a little constricted.

Still, I am in good spirits and ready to get going. So, at about 2:00 pm, the pitocin starts and we are on our way. I’ll spare all the gory details of labor and give you the short version.

2:30pm – contractions have started. Nothing bad, I’m still laughing and talking.

3:40pm – my water breaks while I’m sitting on the big exercise ball. All is still good!

4:00pm – I’m now breathing through the contractions, conversations are only in between contractions.

5:00pm – this sucks. I’m having back labor and not able to talk to anyone more than 2-3 words at a time. Contractions are pretty much non-stop.

6:00pm – I just tried to bite Chris’ hand and am having a really tough time keeping my cool through the contractions. I’m starting to push involuntarily and I feel panic setting in.

6:15pm – the anesthesiologist has finally arrived with a huge needle to shove into my spine and take away the pain. HOORAY! A needle in my spine was very much welcomed compared to the pain.

6:30pm – The Dr. checks me and I am completely dilated and ready to push. However, I’m now paralyzed from my chest down, can’t move anything, can’t feel anything – except for the crazy shaking. I guess it’s normal for your whole body to shake uncontrollably when you’re about to have a baby. So, we are going to have to wait for some of the meds to wear off so I can feel what I’m doing. Why did I get that epidural?! I could have waited 15 more minutes if I knew that’s all it was going to be!!! Damn it!

7:41pm – Kaitlyn is born after 30 minutes of pushing. They laid her on my belly and all we could do was laugh and cry. Such an amazing experience. No complications. We’re both doing great!


After all the routine stuff goes on (weigh the baby, cut the cord, bath, etc) I am wheeled to the postpartum room. We settle in for what will be a two night stay. My first thought -
“Can I get a cheeseburger?”. Since I haven’t been allowed to eat anything since I got to the hospital at 9am, I was STARVING!

The next 48 were a little blurry. Literally. Because of my kidneys, I have to continue the magnesium sulfate for at least 24 hours after birth. During this time, I am allowed to drink 24 oz of liquid. IN 24 HOURS. Torture. It also affects the central nervous system and caused slurred speech (very annoying when you’re sober), blurry vision, an inability to focus on objects, and extreme muscle weakness and slowed reflexes.

If you can imagine what it feels like when your leg falls asleep and you get up to walk – that feeling of having no coordination or muscle control… that’s what my whole body felt like. Turning myself over in bed was a nightmare – if not impossible. I had to ring for a nurse to help me get up and go to the bathroom every. single. time. I actually wasn’t even allowed to get out of bed without assistance because I couldn’t support my own weight. But, after giving birth, modesty goes out the door and you really don’t give a shit.

Besides all the drugs I was on, I had to have my blood drawn and reflexes checked every 3 hours for 24 hours. It’s so nice to have a nurse come in and wake you up at 2am with a tray full of needles and vials and check your reflexes. I think I slept through a couple of exams… but really, I loved my nurses. They were awesome and would get me anything I wanted. When it was time to go home, I cried the whole way… not sure why. I blame hormones.

So, all in all, nothing turned out how we planned or originally wanted. But I wouldn’t change anything. I’m not ashamed that I needed pain medication and I’m so grateful that we have a healthy little girl at home. She is the most wonderful little human in the world!

Here's a few pics...

long time no blog...

well folks... it seems I haven't really kept up on this blog for - oh - about 16 months.

Surprisingly, people have been asking if I will start it up again. I guess my banter is somewhat interesting to others... so, because I would love nothing more than to make others happy, I will try to do a better job of sharing with you tidbits from my hectic little life.

To get things started, I thought it would be appropriate to pick up where I left off and post Kaitlyn's birth story. I actually wrote this a few days after she was born but never got around to sharing it. I tried to leave out most of the graphic details but you may stumble across one or two. So, read with caution. It's a long one!