My shot nerves and a Yum-O Recipe

Today is Brent's Birthday! Happy Birthday Pooky!!! I felt really bad for him getting out of bed at 4am this morning to head out on a job - but, I just talked to him and he is already headed back so we can have a nice B-Day evening. So this is where the Yum-O recipe comes in. Each year his Mom usually makes a cake so instead of me also making him a cake (he doesn't need 2) I always ask him what he wants me to make for him. It could be anything dinner or dessert and he always picks a dessert and it always contains the word chocolate. This year was Chocolate Delight or Chocolate Dream Pie (which is what it is called in our family cookbook). Here is the recipe:
Crust: 1/2c sugar, 1c chopped pecans, 1c flour, 1 stick butter
Mix the above ingredients and press on bottom of 9x13 glass dish. Bake 20 mins. on 350 then cool.
Layer 1: 1c powered sugar, 1tsp vanilla, 8oz. cream cheese, 1c cool whip
Blend and mix 2 mins. Spread over cooled crust
Layer 2: 1lg. instant choc. pie filling, 1sm. instant vanilla pie filling, 1tsp. vanilla
Whip until thick. Spread over layer 1.
Layer 3: Top with cool whip then chocolate sprinkles (or Hershey kisses, or shaved Hershey bars)
YUM-OOOOOO

Ok, now on to my shot nerves. So our house was built a little over 2 years ago. We have a fixed interest rate that is pretty good and our taxes and ins. are escrowed into our loan. Last year in March our house payment went up almost $200!!!! Per month!!!! I 'bout died and called the mortgage company and they explained that our taxes went up and so the increase. That extra $200 was tough because I am staying at home and the oilfield business really suffered this past year - so times have been tough. The mortgage company explained how the taxes are pre-paid for the next year and that in a year (from last March) our payment should go back down. So this year (March) I was waiting for our statement to come in to see what the payment went down to. Well, yesterday I got it and the payment went UP another $200 per month! I was numb! I broke down crying and I dreaded calling Brent to tell him. We are just now starting to get back on track and living more comfortably! And now I was worried we were going to have to sell the house because we could no longer afford to live here. How could this happen again!!!! I called the Tax office in Wharton and the sweet, sweet lady over there helped me look into it. She told me not to start crying because she would cry too. LOL. Come to find out we pay $4,000 in taxes. I thought that was high, especially since we live out here and not in the best neighborhood in town. So we compared to my neighbors and they only pay $1,500 in taxes. Our house is valued more than theirs, but not enough to make that big of a difference!! Finally the lady said OMG, so this is where you live? I said YES, why? You don't have a homestead exemption on your land tax! YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME??? So this whole time we have lived here we have been majorly overpaying taxes causing our payment to go up and up. All I have to do is fill out a one page paper and it's all taken care of. They will refund the mortgage for the tax overpayment and they will in turn credit our escrow account and our payment will go back down! So we learned a big lesson the hard way and I need a good stiff drink! Well, maybe in 5 months. LOL.
Hope everyone has a good weekend! I know we will!!!