PHEW!!!

Well, with the help of my friends and my Credit Union, I have enough money to pay for the house in Nebraska when it closes on the 7th of June AND go to Florida next week for training in the new business. I didn't have to borrow much. Actually, had more than I thought once I tallied everything up! Just so nerve wracking. It's funny when you have no debt and over $200K in equity in real estate and you're considered too 'risky' for the bankers for a short term loan! I still hate bankers... will avoid at all cost for the rest of my life. Because of their greediness and screw ups, we consumers now have to suffer under their new tighter restrictions that have swung way past 'common sense'!

The only thing that will have to be postponed until this house in Houston sells is my move. And that's actually ok. It gives Jacque more time to "decorate" the new house. She's excited so I hope I am when I see it!

And it gives Mac and I more time to get his situation sorted. Despite several calls and messages this week, nothing has progressed with him. CPS = molasses in winter time UPHILL!

Doing some child care juggling to make sure Mac and Savanah and all the animals are taken care of while I'm gone. Savanah is my daughter in law's sister's girl. Also six and Mac's best friend. I keep her a lot and love her like she was my own. I claim her as a faux granddaughter a lot. Her mom surprised her this week and took her to see Taylor Swift!! She was over the moon.

And lastly, I had already purchased tickets to see the Eagles in St. Louis June 24th. I thought I was going to be in Nebraska. Jacque is going with me so now we'll be rendezvousing there. The Eagles have been my all time, life long favorites and I think I've had tickets 2 or 3 times to see them and had weird things happen every time. This time, I'm going! None of us are getting any younger! So Mac and I will be driving to east Texas to my brother's house, Mac will stay with them a couple of nights and I'll go on to St. Louis. Desperado, Tequila Sunrise, Wasted Time, Heartache Tonight, Hotel California... and we have good seats! I'm stoked!! Then come back and stay a couple of days in Leesburg. They have a wonderful lake house with otters, deer, hummingbirds... just total peace. Then head home for Vacation Bible School for a week. That means free mornings for me.... whoohooo!

So June is going to be exciting and busy! Hopefully, somewhere in there my house will sell. There's an open house on the 11th and I hope that brings some interest.

I'll check in when I get back from Florida.

Oh... side bar... I've become a GLEEk! I'm totally loving that show!! And I HATE show tunes so I can skip over those but the other covers and the characters are great!

Still not Grand!

Sadly, I'm still not having much success on several fronts.

No one has viewed my house and now it's been a month. I reduced the price and we've scheduled an open house. I'm now in a financial bind to pay for the house in Nebraska that I put in a cash offer on. My severance was taxed at the 30% rate, not 20% that I expected. My financial advisor told me to pay off all my credit. And my 401K lost about 8K last week in that dip so now I'm short of cash for the house... about 20K short. And that's not counting moving expenses or the fee for the course I have scheduled in Florida in two weeks to get the business started. No one wants to give me a loan... can't imagine why!! Oh yeah, no job! I make enough to pay for everything in my budget but banks don't care about that anymore. Just your debt to income ratio. I hate banks. When a bank you've banked with for over 30 years, won't give you a secured line of credit, there's a problem somewhere.

I have my 'last chance' loan application in and should hear something tomorrow. Otherwise, I will have to throw myself on the mercy of the seller and see if she will let me owe her the balance until I sell either my house or my Mom's which I decided is not worth the trouble to rent. Worse case, she could sue me, too, for breach of contract. Or she could be nice and take the balance when this one sells. Then I'll just have to stay here in Texas until this house sells. I'll have to reschedule the move and keep paying for a storage unit. I'll lose the money already spent on airfare for the course in FL and I'll have to reschedule that after this one sells as well. Which means I won't be able to start the business as planned in July and won't start making any money until who knows when... I can't do much from here. So I'm praying that my 'last chance' loan comes through.

And CPS is not cooperating on any front with Mac. First they said he could go to a kinship placement and his teacher and her family wanted to take him. Perfect answer. But no, she didn't know him before he came into foster care so they can't get qualified on the fast track. So I said I would adopt him. Now they don't want to let him leave until his citizenship is sorted out. They've had six months to do that and haven't. So I suggested just letting him go with me on a vacation status and hopefully, it would be sorted in 2-3 more months and now they don't want to let that happen either. They need to see him every month. They want to move him to a new foster home until the citizenship issue is solved and he can be put back with me in adoptive placement. What a crock! Unless I stay on their butt, it could take a year or years for them to get it all sorted. The current case worker wants to help but like all of them, she's green. So I may have to call my congressman for the first time in my life but I'm not going to let this little boy be bandied about by incompetent bureaucrats!

And lastly, the lawsuit filed against me (horse kicked someone) is progressing. My lawyer has submitted a "general denial" on the claim and I don't know what happens next. Allstate is also defending me so I hope I'm covered. Again, what a crock!

I knew all this was going to be hard, but I really thought the hard part would start when I got to Nebraska.

Happily, the horses were shipped to Nebraska a couple of weeks ago and they arrived safely and are adapting well to the new barn and stables. Jacque is enjoying the time she gets to spend with them.

My church friends are so supportive. I've been so mad lately. It's been hard to keep myself in check and not worry about all this. I have to take a deep breath every hour to just relax and let it go back to God. I'd like to go back to that peaceful sleep I was enjoying a few weeks ago. That was short lived!

I've had a few very nice lunches with the "Leavers", those of us leaving Shell. And some with other friends, too. I'm turning into a lady that lunches! It's nice to get together over a great meal and share our plans, secrets and just generally catch up. I have a few more scheduled and they are always bright spots to look for in my week.

So for anyone out there, say a prayer for Mac and I. We need all the help we can get.