I'm discouraged. Sigh...I don't know what to do with this house! When we bought it, we bought it from Sean's brother and the taxed amount of that sale was $1. Sean's brother had owned it for several years, and had made many improvements to it, including re-wiring several rooms. Since we have had it, we have replaced all the floors downstairs with high quality hardwoods and ceramic tiles. We have had a new 40 year roof installed, and have replaced the furnace, water heater and all the stuff in the basement. The conundrum for us is this... We never had it reassessed. We continued to pay itty bitty taxes, and now this is biting us on the bottom. This place is worth Waaayyy more than it's current assessment. Reassess and pay higher taxes from a foreign country? Sell with the current assessment and lose our butts? Remember folks...Sean is flying out and I'm going to have this to deal with by myself. My "Sigh" didn't do it...How about SIGH...nope. Still not enough. I'm making progress with all the little things that need finished up, I guess I'll just put the gloom and doom discouragement underneath the push and power of harnessed fear and plug away... SIGH. Not even a big pink sigh will do it.

So we've determined that we will fly into Belize rather than drive. That leaves us to determine which of our worldly possessions are important enough to bring along. Obviously we'll bring our clothes. I will bring both Bibles (mine and the easy reader one we read from each morning). The kiln is gone for obvious reasons, as are the 1000+ ceramic molds. Furniture is easily replaced, and everything except our family heirloom furniture will be sold. I'll store the Campbell beds and my daddy's chair at my Grandmother's house. They are over 150 years old and have held more of my ancestors than I could remember. But once the "keeps" are kept, what do I do with all the other junk! I have Christmas ornaments out the wazoo, entire sets of dishes, so many wicker baskets that I could start a wicker and more store... It's almost February for pete's sake! One simply can not have a yard sale in sub zero temperatures... Right this way folks, we have a queen sized master suite under this snowbank, and here is a deep freezer for sale...Of course it works! Doesn't it FEEL cold? ;)

And the cat! Dear sweet Mischief...all 23 lbs of him (and counting). Belize allows our domestic animals to enter with a vet clearance so he'll be going. But what happens to him once we get there? He's mutantly large and around these parts, he's quite the predator. BELIZE HAS OCELOTS, JAGUARS and some other wild big cat the JAGUARUNDI! http://consejo.bz/belize/animals.html If the local animals don't gobble him up, will he be OK? I'm thinking he'll learn to love the indoors. SIGH

Time is ticking by
I am sticking by
There's no need to cry
It's all feed to my
SIGH