We have finally moved into our new home.We don't have everything unpacked, but try to work a few hours each day. I think we are down to 30 boxes out of 100 to be opened, cleaned and put in it's place. We still have some furniture that needs to be moved in from the garage. I was so shocked and mortified when I saw the condition of some of my family's antiques. The storage units left an undesirable odor that must be cleaned out of the wood. But, the worse of it all was how poorly so many took care of our belongings when we lived at Lightfoot. I guess since it wasn't theirs, it didn't matter to them. My desk, although it wasn't an antique but was mine when I lived with my parents in Florida, is so scratched up. The majority of my furniture and antiques, I paid thousands of dollars for, including having a lot of it restained or taken back to it's original condition when I bought it from our family auction and now I must have it all repaired and most of it restained. I am just thankful it is something my husband can do, so it won't cost the money. Not all the furniture will fit in our new home so we will store it in our garage to save money. The antiques I have made sure that went inside.

Our clothing we are sorting through to see what we want to keep. Since I have started delivering the newspaper, I have lost 20 lbs. That I am thrilled about. One of the few times I don't mind losing something. I have several bags of clothes I will be donating to the people who will be arriving shortly from New Orleans. I am striving to get back down to a size 6 that I was when Geoff and I first met, but that seems doubtful. I would be satisfied just getting back down to 135-140 lbs. (Yes a female who doesn't have a problem with gray hair, telling her age or weight.)

Unpacking a lot of these items has been making me miss my sisters a lot. We are all that is left from our nuclear family. And then with the ministry, I didn't have much time for them, let alone my husband or myself. I have seen my oldest sister in Indiana more since I have moved to VA than my sister in FL. One day maybe I will get a vacation, but for now, it is unpacking and work. Even this morn, Jenna asked me if I had a trip planned and I thought, "How could I do a trip? There is too much to do and not enough time and then my job." She told me about a 10 day cruise but I said, "I can do 4 but no way 10." I think the worst part would be staying away so long from my dogs. Most people have kids, I have dogs (a behavior I inherited from my mother and also because I can't have children.) Which, btw, the dogs love it here in their new home. They have a lot of yard to play on, they love the boat I bought and are slowly realizing there are other dogs in the neighborhood to make friends with.

Speaking of boats, yes, I bought one. The man who was living in this house had several for sale. It is a 19 ft. Rinken (in the neighborhood they call it the stinkin rinkin.) It isn't in the best of shapes as the man hadn't done any of the repirs to it and he stripped it of the seats and rails. He was going to fix it, but didn't have time. Actually, I still don't own it yet as I gave hime a post-dated check for the 19th. In the meantime, we are working on it (both cosmetically and physically.) It needs carpeting (just had new florring put into it), seats, rails, lights and the carborator fixed. It definately needs a paint job (another great money saver job my husband can do.) I want to strip the ugly black and red stripes off it and paint it white with lavender stripes. We have named it "Tippy Towed" (Tippy is my nickname from my husband cuz I walk on my tip-toes.) But, I can't complain since we only paid $1000.00 for it and the trailer!

Well, my computer time is up and I need to get to work on unpacking. Will blog more later.