"Catch-up"

No, not the red stuff you put on fries, just time to update all that's been going on. I know it's been about a month and a half since I posted anything, but then I'm not sure anyone even reads this stuff.

We made the trip to "Tekis" -- took 3 days instead of the planned 2, partly because I have a son who doesn't like to get up early, and partly because half way here, we lost a tire off the trailer carrying my truck!! Thank goodness it had 4 and we managed to pull into a hotel parking lot with it. Called Penske, and they replaced the trailer, but we had to wait nearly 3 hours for them to get the new one to us, so we just stayed where we were overnight. We were hoping to get a lot further that first day, but didn't happen. Oh, well. We finally got here, and safely, and that's what matters.

Moved into "my" neat little rental house on Monday (30th). 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, yard, etc. I really liked it and the "landlady" seemed really nice -- young, 3 kids, seemed really happy to have me in the house. It was a 3 minute walk from the kids, no major streets so the little ones could come over whenever with no worries. Had a room "set up" just for them. I was getting settled in and enjoying it until about a month later we came home from a job interview and found a notice from the bank on the door!! After some investigating, we found out the nice landlady (who had oddly enough moved to Ohio before Christmas!!) was 3 months behind in her mortgage payments and had 15 days to catch up or they were going to start foreclosure proceedings!!! K&J talked with several folks whose advice they trusted and the consensus was I needed to get out before I got locked out. So, rented a storage place, nice folks from their church came, moved my things out of the house and into the storage ALL IN ONE DAY. The next day we took enough stuff to K&J's for me to furnish a room (sorry Meg!) and stay with them for now. Of course, the nice landlady denied the "arrears", said her finances were none of our business, refused to refund my deposit because I "walked out" on the lease (of which I never did get a signed copy), and has already put the house on the rental market again! Maybe we did jump the gun, maybe she did catch up, but the trust factor is gone. How could I ever be comfortable there wondering constantly if she was behind again and looking over my shoulder for the bank to come lock up the house?

It is probably a blessing in disguise -- probably should have just moved in here to start with, but hindsight is always 20/20. The job situation did not pan out the way I planned -- still looking as a matter of fact! I guess I thought I'd come out here and just "fall into" something with no trouble. Didn't happen, still hasn't happened, although at least I have now had some interviews. So lack of substantial income makes paying a huge rent a bit difficult (rents here are about twice that in VA). At least I had someplace to go!!

So I will keep looking for work, work with my wonderful son to figure and learn to stick to a budget, help my wonderful "daughter" with the house and kids where I can, save some money, and rent again from a TRUSTED rental agent/company/person in (hopefully) a few months.

Good news is, Christmas was great!! The first "real" one with the grandkids! They are growing so fast. Ella was baptised on the 12th of Dec. and that was a wonderful thing to be able to see. Ben is quite a young man now. Maiya talks incessantly (did we really worry at one time that she would never talk??), and Cora is a joy -- such a happy baby most of the time. And we just found out there will be a new one to spoil come September!! The household is chaotic at times, but it's a loving chaos and I wouldn't miss it for the world!!

Next step is to get a job, then onward and upward from there!!

So I will try to keep up a little better with this, although as I said I don't know who even reads it. That's okay. It's a good outlet!