The Catawba Expedition begins in earnest.

1 January 2012  -  3 April 2012
The last eight months(today being 7 September) congeal into a massive blur. Packing, sorting, saving, discarding began in earnest New Year's Day 2012. One would think that such a task would be relatively easy, albeit time consuming, but easy. That thought is wrong, so very, very wrong! Surprisingly, memories were unearthed with every cabinet, closet, drawer, nook and cranny that was excavated. So many memories of the children growing up on Timothy Lane. Each piece held a snapshot of that time. Multiple pieces formed a moving picture of sorts, much like the templates of a cartoon when placed together create a motion picture.
Some days I would make great progress, then others would be lost in tearful emotion. Visions of our many ventures in homeschooling as well as family trips and events celebrated would emerge. In hindsight, we tried to give our children the foundation of a beautiful childhood, the vision of it, carrying them through the challenges of their individual lives. Timothy Lane will be the vault of those memories forever.
We eventually filled 2 storage units @ Catawba Storage on Muggy Road, with that that we wanted to bring forward into our new life. The rest, from furniture to trinkets was sold @ an estate sale done for us by S. Sterling Estate Sales. The third week of March the sale commenced and everything was summarily dispatched within three days. The house was empty!
March 1st Rick and I began a 30 day novena to St. Joseph with the intention of a smooth transition into our new life as well as the timely sale of Timothy Lane. His image, in a little plastic statue, was buried in the garden by the front door...a Catholic tradition, placing the venture in his hands. The last week of March we enlisted the help of Vicki Sedlak, ReMax Masters Real Estate agency to help us with the sale. The for sale sign went up Holy Thursday. Her caveat was not to expect much with the Easter weekend directly before us. She assured us that the push would begin after Easter. The housing market was very slow with the poor economy, but she was confident the house would sell.
Good Friday she called informing us of a showing to a young couple on Holy Saturday. By Easter Monday we had an offer. By that same night we had a competing offer from a second couple interested in the house. The following day we accepted the first offer. So, thanks to the intervention of St. Joseph, the house sold in 5 days, a few thousand dollars from our asking price to boot. The formal closing, with papers properly signed and transferred was 25 May 2012.
....submitted, by the Baroness von Thomas Haus, Queen Yours Truly!