Friday:)Finally Did It! They Made Me An Offer I couldn’t Refuse

“Sometimes God gives you a sign, and hits you over the head with it. If you’re waiting for a sign, this is it!”

~Toni Armenta Andrukaitis

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My very dear friend and “World’s Greatest Realtor” called me last week and asked if I’d be interested in selling my house. I’m not sure if I just said no or hell no. I guess with the crazy real estate market, there is little to no inventory available. She asked if I knew of anyone thinking about selling. Nope! Linda said that she had a client relocating to McKinney and moving from California. Yikes!

The next day, she called with an example of a cash offer that the client was willing to pay. She had shown him around McKinney, but the houses were too small for his growing family. “Toni, you have a big five bedroom house. You sure you wouldn’t think about selling?” Just on a lark, I asked how much were we talking about. She said she could get me $250,000 MORE than what I paid for in 2014. Yikes!

I called my sons and talked it over with them. Joe said that they would love for me to move back to the Chicago area to be closer to the granddaughters. He researched the available apartments just minutes from his house. There were some gorgeous and new two bedroom apartments for less than $2,000 a month. Decisions???

Just gorgeous!

So, everything fell into place in a matter of three days. My house is sold and I have a deposit on a cute apartment in Northbrook, Illinois.

We close on Monday and I have 30 days to pack up and move. I love McKinney, TX, but they made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. Keep on reading…

🤦‍♀️ Plus, it will take me another year to come up with another believable April Fool’s Day story, because I AIN’T GOIN’ NOWHERE FOR A LONG LONG TIME!!!! Did I have anyone going?

Sunday Sermon and Some Thinkin’ Outside the Box

When ideas fail, words come in very handy.
~Johann Wolfgang van Goethe
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Today’s Gospel was about the Canaanite woman who pleaded with Jesus to heal her daughter. The disciples said to send her away. Her faith and persistence was so strong that Jesus said,
“O woman, great is your faith!
Let it be done for you as you wish.”
And the woman’s daughter was healed from that hour.

That’s a good lesson for today. Faith, persistence and determination will win out in the end. I like happy endings.

It was a glorious rainy day today. We were blessed with a good storm and some well needed rain. Father even said a special thank you and blessing for the rain at Mass this morning. The storm curtailed my walking, but gave me the momentum to work on some more heavy duty packing. I decided to tackle the closets.

Even though the boys are grown and gone, they each have a room and I still maintain a fully stocked closet of clothing, football, baseball, and hockey jerseys, not to mention all their old books, trophies, toys, diplomas, well, you name it, it’s still here. So, while I was packing up all this stuff, I was trying to think of an easier way to transport all the clothes. (Light bulb moment.)

It would cost a fortune to box up all the clothes in wardrobe boxes to go just 4.5 miles. So, time to think OUTSIDE THE BOX. (Thanks, Leon Krejci who said, “Think outside the box.) I did. When I was looking at those big oversized hockey jerseys, I realized that I could fit 10 to 15 t-shirts or tops inside the jersey, use a twist tie or zip tie around the bundle of hangers, and “voila,” easy transport. Thank goodness I had a lot of hockey jerseys. I used them for all my shirts and tops too. Now, I can just throw the bundles in the car and hang right in the closets.

Zip ties work great.

Go Hawks! Go Wolves!

Piled high into the sky. Miles to go before I rest!

Tuesday: Timeless Circle of Life

“There are patterns which emerge in one’s life, circling and returning anew, an endless variation of a theme”
― Jacqueline Carey, Kushiel’s Chosen
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Life is like a big ol’ circle, isn’t it? It keeps going round and round. What goes around, comes around. “She’ll be coming ’round the mountain when she comes.” (How did that get in there?)

I was thinking about the circle of life, when my dear friend, Lynne, posted more pictures on Facebook of her moving boxes that she has been unpacking for weeks.

She has been kind enough to save me a zillion boxes, so now I can start the daunting task of packing up all my worldly possessions, thus continuing the cycle. Hopefully when I’m done unpacking, there will be someone else who can use a zillion moving boxes. Share a box, save a tree. The world keeps revolving in a circle.

Don’t feel too bad for me and all the work I have ahead of me. I am getting “a hand” here and there? A little humor helps. Very little humor and very little help.