Getting ready for Thanksgiving

My poor husband has the swine flu, so I am hoping that I won't get it as I am the main cook for next Thursday. But we have no control over those things, so I am charging ahead with cooking plans. Today I bought the bulk of my groceries.

An interesting question was answered for me by a friend when I asked her which she prefers: A frozen turkey or a fresh one for Thanksgiving (or any time, of course). She is a gourmet cook, so I figured she was a good one to ask. She said that a couple years ago, Consumer Report published the answer to that after their research. One would think fresh is always best, but not so in this case. Frozen turkeys will be your best bet and the reason is right after they are slaughtered (what a thought, eh?), they are 'flash frozen' and then put in deep freezers. The fresh turkeys can lay around awhile before packaged for sale and actually, in the store they are stored at 32 degree temperatures so they have to be thawed to a certain degree also.

I made my pie crusts this evening and put them in the freezer, thanks to The Pioneer Woman's friend, Sylvia, I hope to have perfect pie crusts this year. Click on the green words (pie crusts) and you can see the recipe. This recipe has also been used in my in-laws' family for years and I know it is very good!

So groceries bought and pie crusts ready to roll out is enough today for Thanksgiving. Four days until I really need to get seriously cooking.

Plan

I called the 'Resolution' department again today for our home loan. They actually are part of Bank of America who holds our mortgage. The letter didn't say that at all so it is interesting what you find out.
The lady said that our home is past the time for a resale. What that means is anybody's guess. I just realized too that we have been in foreclosure a long time. Amazing. And we just got the registered letter yesterday. She said that if a home goes up for a foreclosure sale, then we have between 30 days and 90 days to move.
The assistant also told me to try B of A for a modification and I was reminded that I had only tried for a modification with a fraud outfit who won't return our money. And B of A won't charge anything.
Now, that all sounds like good news, but even though we will make a profit and loss statement and talk to B of A to try (again) for a modification, I am sure it will be tossed out the window as soon as they quit laughing. However, our plan is that that will just 'buy' us more time to stay here.
The way we figure, since the letter was dated 11/9/2009, we may have 90 days from that date. So we are planning on being out of here on Feb. 9, 2010. I must start packing things that we don't use anyway and get my mind wrapped around the idea that we do have to move, like it or not.

A Woman's Domain

I guess her home is a woman's palace, be it humble or extravagant. This is where we move about privately and safe from the outside world. Something about 'going home' just gives one a warm, cozy feeling. So when that is being 'shaken' it just leaves a very unsettled feeling. Especially when we don't even know what our next 'landing' space will look like or where it will be. The older I get, the more of a 'homebody' I become and in the past I have said home is where our stuff is. That is still true to some extent, but home is where we have been, too, for a long time whether in good experiences or bad, and when we have lots of memories, it is hard to tear ourselves away.

It has begun

So today, there were 4 registered pieces of mail (all the same thing) that is telling us our home is in default and when it goes to a foreclosure sale, we will be notified and told how many days we have to get out. Now if we come up with all the defaulted amount due, we can stay and pay exorbitant payments. and taxes.... and we can't pay any of it.

I am looking around at my 'old' friend here, our house where we have been sheltered for almost eight years. I am trying to be brave and rational and seriously hoping to keep from crawling into bed in the fetal position and never getting up again.

Usually, when we have moved, it has been to a better situation. I can think of a couple times that wasn't so, but usually....... Since this house was our 23rd move, it isn't about the exhausting job that moving is about. That is a whole other story. And yes, we didn't build this to stay here forever. It was to be an 'investment' and someday it would reward us with equity that we could live on when we retired. That was the general idea, but like all good ideas, they don't always work.

So I will use this 'journal' to post my feelings now and then and try to keep my sanity....