More From Ann

It's Saturday noon, I've been up since five this morning, and I'm now washing a load of clothes at our friend's place.

We have a home and we've been frantically moving ever since. It came through at the absolute last minute. Angels dropped a tiny cottage in our lap, two doors up the street from where we were living. Kitchen, living room, bath, 2 bedrooms, and LAUNDRY ROOM. I won't have to get rid of my washer and dryer or my fridge and freezer. It doesn't come with a stove but no big deal for now. Between microwave, crockpot, and the electrical appliances I've accumulated, I can cook for two people. Friend Dawn is right around corner too and she has a stove.

It's perfect for us. Sits on the back of a large lot, has security lights which turn on at night when anyone approaches. And it's gated with locks at the back.

My church is part of a coalition called Love, Inc. which helps people in dire circumstances. We had the next months rent but not the equal deposit so they came through with the deposit for us. We picked up the keys Thursday night.

Much of our time has been taken with moving stuff on two dollies (hand trucks?) and a Target shopping cart from one place to the other. Now I'm beginning to wash all the dishes and hose down everything washable before it goes in. Ray's church has already taken one trailer of stuff that wasn't being moved and now I'll move most of the rest of it into our new yard and sort into trash, giveaway, and keep. I hope the keep pile will be the smallest but we didn't have time to stop and think about each thing too hard.

Afterthought:
we didn't swipe the shopping cart. It was sitting in our back alley so Ray brought it in to use and then we'll get it back to Target where it belongs. Honest, we will.

We're leaving the landlord two couches and my piano to deal with. I had it mostly for the girls, it's huge, and it won't fit in the new place. If I ever decide to start playing, it will be a small keyboard.

Our Social Worker from Adult Protective Services moved mountains. She got the Building Code people to call me. They have backed off and promised they'd let me know before they were going to come. So it was just our landlord applying pressure, not them. If he'd evicted us, we could stall for 120 days and he knew that. We wouldn't have, of course - I wanted out of that place as soon as possible but would rather have done it in a more orderly fashion.

With the money we're saving by much less rent and not having to rent a truck, we may put a few things in a small storage place for a month for two to give us time to think.

The last I heard, the girls are doing okay except for Rebecca and that may have improved by now.

Ray is still doing fine except we have to keep slowing him down. When I left with friends R & L this morning, we locked the gate to the new house, left him with the t.v. in the old one and told him to stay put.

R & L (I don't know how anonymous the guys want to be) came over early this morning, put up more shelves for me, cut my pegboard down to size and hung 2 pieces of it in the kitchen. I splurged yesterday on two new bath towels, mat, lid cover, and shower curtain - all matching. The rest of the house is still a disaster but the bathroom looks good and now I'm focusing on the kitchen and my COMPUTER ROOM/OFFICE!! The living room will be Ray's and we'll share the other bedroom and kitchen.

They'll pick up Tim after work and get our bed set up and move a few more heavy things. Tonight we'll sleep in our new home. Yesterday Dawn, husband, daughter, Ray and I had out first meal there. Takeout Kentucky Fried. Wonderful.

There seems to be a light at the end of this tunnel. I miss the girls dreadfully; what happened shouldn't have, but I'm now looking ahead more than looking back.

Our cable (with internet) will be hooked up sometime next Thursday so I'll be back on line then. Now I'm going to go read a week's worth of email (already read the comments to the last post).

Thanks to everyone for all the support. All of you in the States enjoy your 3 day weekend and the rest of you enjoy what part of yours is still left.

And please ignore any typos. Once again strange keyboard.

(L) of R & L just brought me a plate of chicken strips and potato wedges. Those guys are so great.

Take care everyone. I'll be back when I can.