Count Down from 27

Yikes! That's it! 27 days left in the lake house rental and then we are kinda homeless. Sure, we still have a place in MN, but Andy still has to work in WI (nearly 5.5 hours from the MN place.)

We decided that what was most important is that we are together, even if we are basically living out of our cars. At this point we can't afford to stay in a hotel or rent another place & continue paying mortgage because there are those impending layoffs at his company and we will have no clue how they will affect us until mid-summer (when he has been here for a year, which he signed a contract to work.) So, it's not like we can all leave and figure out things in MN and we can't really figure out things in WI either.

And with gas at near $4/gallon, we certainly can't afford to drive back & forth to see each other on weekends, so we all must stay in WI. Both our families have offered to lebd us money, which is kind of them, but doesn't help because we still have to pay that back and how does that help us if things get worse (or even if they don't) and we have payments to our family to make as well as all our other bills. So, what does that mean?

Hell if I know!!!

Because we have not sold our house we have the
Homeless Plan:
* Rent a U-Haul & bring our stuff back to MN
* Deliver our pets to their 2008 summer homes (cats: Andy's parents, dog: My parents)
* Stay at MN home for a couple of days & breathe & try not to cry that our lives are a mess
* Return to WI and live at a variety of locations that include a couple of stints of house/pet sitting for 10 days at a shot, as well as living in our friends' furnished basements.

If our house (by some miracle) happens to sell we have the
Rental Plan:
* Rent a U-haul & move our stuff into that place
* Keep our pets with us (hopefully)
* Have our possessions from MN stored in a warehouse until we know Andy still has a job
* Find temporary furnishings (some have already been offered up by friends here)
* Breathe and try not to cry that our lives are a mess

Now, July could come along and Andy could find out he is indeed going to be laid off. We hope this isn't the case, but we can't trust that it won't be. So, we must rent so that we are not stuck trying to sell another house while Andy finds another job. And at this point, I think we have decided that we will just continue to rent. We really didn't want to. We wanted to buy a house, but we just can't trust this market (both housing & job) and the last year (yes, the house has been on the market for almost a yeat already) has not been good on our stress levels.

And to make matters worse, Andy had that accident which leaves him with a fractured radial head and more money to pay to the hospital & out of our pockets. We have decent insurance and after this episode we will have met his portion of the deductible, so everything beyond that is coverd 90%, but that means we still have to pay the rest of the deductible & 10% of the rest. As well, as he will have several visits (I am sure to a bone doctor) which we'll have 10% to pay. So much for getting a stimulus check. I guess we are supporting our local medical system with that.

How am I handling it? People say I am handling it well because I don't seem stressed to them, but inside I am bawling my head off and screaming. In the last couple of years I deveoped this eye twitch when I am stressed...just today that sucker has been twitching all over the place. I can't sleep for shit. I fall asleep for a few hours and them I get up every hour starting at 2:30am. I try to nap when Isabel does, but that doesn't help and is never long enough. And when I am trying to sleep, my body is so damn tight that I wake up with cramps all over the place and a stiff neck. I think that maybe I need to start drinking or using the pain meds Andy was prescribed but isn't really using.

I've been going to the Y & exercising or meeting up with friends and walking and just trying to stay busy & active, otherwise I fear I will go completly downhill.

And to make matters worse, our relator continues to be a POS and he told us our open house times would be 11-1 today, and we made out paid & free ads say that, but their website says that it is 1-4 today! What the hell!!!! I hate him.