The Joy of an HOA President

Here we are again.  Time for the annual meeting.  I thought I would be helpful with taking on a task that nobody else wanted.  I have come to realize why this job is so thankless and why nobody wants it.  I have been honestly doing my best to communicate with the residents in my HOA, but I am only human and I only have so much time to devote to everything.  I started a Facebook page to try and open communication up.  For the most part it has been successful.  People that choose to are getting additional information and know when meetings are every month and what topics we are discussing.  Of course though, there has to be a bad seed in every group.  A majority of these home owners do not actually know who I am because they have never attended an HOA meeting.  They do not understand how an HOA works or the struggles that our particular HOA has had in the last 4 years.  Below is a message that I received through Facebook.  It is nothing short of just being plain crappy of someone who wants to take out their anger on someone they don't know.  They did send this through the messages for only the board to see, but I posted it in a Note for all to see on what is not acceptable to be sending.  I have to be honest and say that I have been steaming about this since I got this message.  Those who know me, know how I am and exactly the words that I wanted to say. The also know its probably not a good idea to get on my bad side. I was planning on having a discussion or two and some "words" with this particular person if they did choose to show up at our annual meeting next week. I actually had it all planned out with a little research on what would be brought up in front of everyone.  However something this weekend changed that.   See below the messages on what changed my mind.

Uncalled for Message from Home Owner

by Centennial Farms Hoa Milliken on Wednesday, February 9, 2011 at 10:28am

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Erin  February 8 at 3:34pm 

So first of all, I think the person who invented HOAs should shot, drug through hell, and then be resurrected and shot again. I have yet to see where HOAs serve any other useful purposes than to allow power hungry control freaks an outlet to tell everyone else what to do. Maybe you can enlighten me as to the purpose of an HOA? (and I don't want to hear any BS excuse about how HOAs protect property value. I've lived in neighborhoods before where there was no HOA, and this may come as a shock to you, but people actually took care of their properties. ) 

Moving into this neighborhood has been one of the biggest regrets of my life, and I can't wait until the day when I can move. This HOA is a disgrace, and a complete and total waste of time and money. 

By the way, if you want my Christmas lights (which haven't been on since the beginning of January) down, you can come get on my roof in the snow and ice and take them down yourself. I don't how you sleep at night. What this HOA does is nothing short of stealing and nothing short of socialism.

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Please remember that the reason this site was created was to have open communication between the HOA Board Members and the residents in Centennial Farms.  Vulgarity and Threats are not acceptable to send as messages.

The Board is always open to discussing issues and concerns and a majority of the time home owners find out that the board has the same concerns.  The board is always open to ideas.  Our main focus at this time is the budget and paying for the Landscaping, Property Management Company, and the Park Lease.  

Thank you for your continuation of making our community a nice place with nice neighbors to live in.

The board members would be happy to discuss any issues at our annual meeting if you are current on your dues.

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Something in the last couple of weeks has been urging me go to church.  It has been awhile.  I decided this last weekend that I would make time.  Come to find out exactly why I was meant to go and had to go this last weekend.  Everything they talked about during church felt as if it pertained exactly to me and what I am going to be coming up against at the annual HOA meeting and all the feelings that I have been having towards some of the residents.  I honestly want nothing more than to rip into some of these people and I know that it is not pleasant to be on the other end of my tyrants, very unpleasant, because as nice as I can be, I can be doubly mean and I'm good at it (sad to say, but its the truth). 

Here is a piece from the church bulletin that is now posted on my fridge.

Catholic Corner

It is natural human response to want revenge when we have been wronged.   When we are hurt, we want to strike back.  However, Jesus was very clear that this is not the way to behave.  We are to treat everyone with love, respect, and compassion - even our enemies!  Do you tend to bear grudges, rejoice in the bad fortune of those you despise?  Do you think there should be exceptions to what Jesus has told us?  We may not always be able to control our feelings; but, we can choose how to act.  What choices are you making?

Take no revenge and cherish no grudge...

You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

Leviticus 19:18

So there you have it.  My mind will continue to replay this and read it each morning and hope for the best on my actions.  I will be letting them know that since this is my 3rd year as HOA President that I will not go for another term of 3 years and my position will be open next year.  

Another Week Another Training

The end of this week found me in training again with the same crew from a week ago.  It's funny how after spending an entire week locked in a room for eight hours a day learning something new and having a few chit chatty conversations that you have new best friends.  This weeks training was on Xcelsius, a program to make some pretty cool dashboards.  I was able to keep up for the most part, but using it in real life and getting confident in it is yet to be determined.  Seeing everyone from the class before was fun though since they work in different departments and I don't often interact with many of them. It doesn't hurt that most of them are men since I do seem to get along with that sex.  One guy from the sheriffs department was pretty funny this week and he told me that its probably a good thing that we don't work together because he would give me crap everyday - all day.  I told him to be careful because eventually I would cut loose on him and it might not be as much fun then and told him to ask my ex work husband who was sitting next to him.  (Just a disclaimer, the guy is a grandpa and happily married).  The ex work husband told him to be careful what he wishes for, ha ha.  My boss of course is sitting there and just looks and shakes his head - its so funny to me.  Again I have to create my own fun.  
Everyone seemed to have had enough this week from either work in general or being in enough trainings over the last two weeks so my boss, another co-worker and I took off at 3:30 and headed to happy hour.  They had another name for it and when the other person said it I had no idea what they were talking about.  I guess its not acceptable at the work place to have a conversation about cutting out early (although we all had already put in our 40 hours for the week) for happy hour.  Either way we met up and had a drink and some good conversation.  The nice piece about that is its not all about work.  We touch on it here and there, but talk about our kids and families and just other general things.  My boss is a world of knowledge and it never ceases to amaze me  how much stuff he crams into his brain.  At the end of our happy hour, which was only one hour because we all have young ones, they said that I was supposed to plan the after work get together for March.  I will see what I can come up with and hopefully plan a day that everyone is able to go!

Wake Up Dad

Last night Dan fell asleep downstairs on the couch.  He usually gets up with the kids in the morning, but I thought I'd be nice and get them up and dressed since I had a little extra time before heading to a training class this morning.  I went up and Junior was just waking up when I got to his room.  He climbed out of his bed and ran right past me into the hallway - Where's Daddy?  I told him he was still sleeping, but if he wanted to he could help me wake up Katelynn.  He thought that would be great so into her room we went and sat on her bed.  He jumped right up and laid down next to her and laid his head on her pillow.  I started talking to her - Katelynn, Katelynn, time to wake-up sweetie.  She of course is becoming not a morning person and doesn't want to get up.  Junior helps me and we are both rubbing her back and talking nicely to her - Katelynn time to wake-up.  I finally just picked her up and grabbed the clothes for both of them I had laid out the night before and we went downstairs to my bedroom.  Junior of course kept asking, Where's Daddy?  I told him fell asleep downstairs and as soon as he was changed and dressed he could go wake him up too.  He let me change him without the usual struggle and got dressed nicely for me and then whoosh, off the bed he flew and down the stairs he went.
Dan came upstairs and said that he got woke-up by Junior hitting him in the head with the TV remote and telling him "show, show".  Guess he forgot how we woke-up Katelynn nicely!  Too Funny!

Junior and the Big Boy Bed Update

It's been a little over a week and I cannot believe how easy this transition has been.  Junior must have really been listening those first three days when I told him that he could not come out of his bed unless Mommy or Daddy came up and got him.  The first couple of nights it took a little while to get him to stay in the bed and we did lots of rocking, but once he was in, he stayed in the bed.  He also woke up in the middle of the night crying for us the first couple of nights which is not like him at all, he never wakes up in the middle of the night.  It only lasted three nights as well.  I have let Dan take back over putting Junior to bed now that we have a good pattern down.  Book, Rock, Bed.  I still find it amazing how every morning when he wakes up and yells for us even though his bedroom door is wide open and waits for one of us to walk into his room.  Now I guess it's time to take down the crib and sell the set we have.  I'll get to that sooner or later (probably later)!

Creating My Own Fun at Work

Last week I was in training all week with the same 10 people.  They are all IT and very technical and mostly men.  I was signed up for the first part of the training and did fairly well on a new system that we purchased to do some report writing.  They kept referencing in our training the system that was the second part of the week and how it all ties together and I started feeling like I was going to be missing out on something that I needed to know.  I asked if I could attend the second part and my boss asked me if I thought that I was going to be building these "universes" and I said "no, you are".  He sent me the invite anyway and let me go to the training.  It got pretty thick on the technical creation side and I managed to at least understand what they were doing or at least I will be able to go in and do some troubleshooting.  By Friday I was done talking "code" and "technical" and "computer geek" conversation and I was getting bored.  The trainer was showing us a few websites and forums that we could go to.  He pulled up one website and said that it was the "BOB" site.  I did a double-take and then started laughing.  I couldn't help myself.  After the training was done we ordered some pizza and were all just hanging out for awhile.  I went to one of my co-workers (my ex-work husband) and said - BOB is not a good name for a website and then started laughing again.  I was really cracking myself up.  He had no idea what I was talking about.  I called my boss over and told him the same thing - BOB is not a good name for a website and started laughing and he knew what I was saying and just shook his head at me.  Yep, pretty sure he thinks I am crazy.  I told my co-worker to ask him what it stood for and he wouldn't do it.  I told him he would have to ponder it for the weekend then and when he was ready to know he could call me.  I asked my boss how long he thought it would take for him to try and figure it out and he just shook his head at me again, but I could see a smile, he thought it was funny and I was surprised he knew what I was laughing about.  I told him I was sorry, but I have to entertain myself sometimes, its how I get through life.
It took my co-worker until 4:30pm that same day to call and ask.

So are you wondering what it stands for?   If you have a bunch of girlfriends and some of them are single (key word single) and you ask them what they did they other night or weekend and they say they hung out with their boyfriend BOB, you will know or figure out what they mean.

The poor IT guys at my work must think I'm nuts after training, but oh well, it was fun and entertaining!

Crib Refusal

Junior has been 2 years old for the less than a week and has decided that he is done sleeping in his crib.  He has never tried to climb out (that I am aware of) or anything.  The other night he just basically started screaming and was having nothing to do with going to sleep in there.  Dan finally went up and he said he wanted to sleep in the bunk bed that is in his room.  Dan laid down with him for about 20 minutes and then let him sleep there.  I was freaking out pretty much since there was nothing to keep him later from falling out of the bed.  Dan went up an hour later and moved him into his crib.  At midnight he woke up screaming mad.  I don't know what woke him up, but he was not going back in the crib.  I put him in his bed and he went right back to sleep and an hour later I went back up and moved him back into his crib because I still figured he would fall out of bed or get up and wander around the house or fall down the stairs.  An hour later he was back up again yelling.  I stuck him back in his bed and back to sleep he went and I let him sleep there until he woke up at 5:30am and started calling for. I was exhausted after that and didn't sleep much.  I'm pretty sure that I was listening to the monitor the entire night waiting to hear anything. The next day after work I ran into Target and bought a bed rail because I figured he was probably done with the crib now after we let him sleep in the bed last night.  I am now back on night / bed time duty for both kiddos.  I had a few talks and explaining with Junior about how he has to stay in his bed and cannot get out unless he calls for me and if he decides to get out then he goes back into the crib.  I then put a gate at the top of the stairs again in case he does decide to get up and try to wander around the house.  He did pretty well on night two.  We read a book in bed, talked some more about the rules of sleeping in the big boy bed and only once had to put him in his crib to show that I meant what I had said.  After 30 minutes and a little rocking and going in his room one time because he was calling for me he slept through the entire night in the bed.  He did wake up at 5:30am again, but I rocked him and told him he had to go back to sleep and he did until Dan went and got him up.  Amazing.  I really wasn't ready for this step yet and thought we had another 6 months with the crib.  This is all happening during the week so the true test will be this weekend when we attempt to get him to take a nap in there.  Wish us luck - the trials of parenting!

My Daughter - My Defender

This weekend I had to go and meet a friend at Bed, Bath, and Beyond and give her one of my 20% off coupons I had at the house because she was buying a big ticket item.  I decided since we were going to do a little shopping that Katelynn could do a girls afternoon with me and the boys could nap and hang out at home.  We met my girlfriend at the store and shopped a little.  Katelynn and I decided that we were hungry so we scooted over to Old Chicago and had an appetizer.  She is so much fun to take out to eat now, time, age, and experience really makes a difference.  After we had a little snack I decided that I wanted to make one more stop at JCrew. My girlfriend had a mentioned that I should swing in there if I hadn't been in awhile because she thought I would like their current styles. So off to the outlet mall we went.  She was right.  I found a few shirts to try on.  After I tried them on I really liked a couple of them, but wanted something to wear over the shirts until it was more spring time.  I grabbed a girl that was working and was getting her opinion on some selections.  I also wanted to talk to her about the sizes.  I had tried on a shirt and was buying 2 in different colors and they had fit perfectly.  I asked her if she thought I should get one size bigger since it fit perfectly, it's a 100% cotton and I have a tendency to shrink my clothes, actually I said it's pretty much a guarantee that I will shrink it.  My little protector steps in between me and the JCrew girl and tells her point blank "It's not my mommy's fault, she does a good job, it's the machines fault".  Love the girl to death!  Thank you honey and I hope that you remember that when you are a teenager and I accidentally shrink something of yours - its the machine's fault.

Junior Turn 2!

Well it's official I guess.  No more babies in my house.  Junior turned 2 today!  What a big boy he has become.  Last night after the kids went to bed I wrapped his presents and blew up a few balloons and decorated the house with streamers and Mickey Mouse decorations.  He was so happy this morning when he woke up and saw everything.  I had one present out on the table for him to open right away.  I love birthdays.  I think that everyone should be #1 on their birthday and it should be an "all about you day".
Even with all the playing we still managed to all make it out of the house to get to daycare and work on time.  I have been in training at work this week; I was so happy when the daycare sent me a text right before lunch and said that Junior must know that it is his birthday today because he's been all smiles and super happy.  I love that, that's exactly how I wanted it to be.

Dad trying to get balloons down from the ceiling.

I rushed to the store after training to pick up a cake (no, I did not have time to make my own and probably wouldn't have tried if I did!) and rushed home.  We had such a great night.  We all ate on our Mickey Mouse plates and drank out of Mickey Mouse cups.  I bought a helium tank and we blew up a ton of balloons for the kids to play with.  A lot of the balloons ended up on the ceiling, but that just made the house more festive.  We sang Happy Birthday to Junior and he blew out his candles and then said "Again, again", so we did it again.  I don't think he ate any of his cake, but he did have 2 servings of ice cream.  After supper, cake and ice cream we headed downstairs where I had stashed the presents so he wouldn't tear into them without me home.  He was so excited - "Presents, presents".  He ripped into to each one and of course immediately wanted them out of the box to play with.
It really was such a good night and Katelynn did pretty well with all of it too because it wasn't an "all about her day".
Here are a few pictures of our morning and night!

Birthday Boy / Birthday Morning - Loving the Balloons!

Opening his present in the morning.

Blowing Out the Candles - Messy face and all.

One Happy Birthday Boy before bed !