Lillian opening the door of our new home last weekend

Good morning!

It’s been awhile since I’ve checked in. Things have been crazy busy over here. Tomorrow I fly to Pennsylvania for a five week stay to….drumroll…close and move in to the new home we’ve been building since last summer!

We’re super excited. It’s truly our dream home and we will be moving in from the country and all that goes with it, to the exciting but smallish community of Lewisburg, PA. I fell in love at first sight with this town as we drove through it, stopping to get gas on our way to someplace else. It’s a charming, small town with sophistication, as it is also the home of Bucknell University.

“Can’t we move here?”, I asked my husband, who knows the area far better than me. Initially he said it was too far away from his work, our Lillian, etc. Then, out of the blue one day, he had a change of heart, we started looking and voila, we found our Rafferty Manor.

Why do we call it that? Because our address is on Baker Street and we just, you know, it just happened. I haven’t seen it in months, but John has been sending lots of photos. Our walk-through is this Friday, on both my husband’s and father’s birthday. Imagine that. We close next Wednesday. Whew!

We picked everything out of course, from cabinets to carpet. Upgraded some things (I needed my antique white kitchen, you know). We buried crystals and coins in the gravel foundation before it was poured and wrote notes, poems, drawings all over the framework. We’ve been nurturing this home from its inception. It is really perfect for us.

I’m almost packed and working up until the last second, taking my Dad out for an early birthday dinner tonight, then fly out in the morning.

I’ve been in the process of restructuring my life for a few months and that starts in 3….2….1…

I’ll be living about 2/3 of my life in PA and commuting to AZ to work and check on my family, etc. the rest of the time. I was able to work it all out. My brother has been stable for over two years now, actively singing with the Phoenix Metropolitan Men’s Chorus, working out with a trainer and other structured activities I’ve set up with him, so I will worry less about him. I’ll keep my townhouse right across from where they live so will be here for them every month.

Most people start their marriage with that, the marriage, being their focus then build around it. We are kind of doing it hodgepodge and it’s all working out great. I’ve often thought that, after 20 years of singledom, if I had to adjust to living with anyone 24/7 all at once, well, that would be incredibly stressful at this stage of life.

This way, we got to ease into to our marriage together at a relaxed pace (as strange as that may sound for a cross country situation) and it’s been lovely. We are ready to live together most of the time now (John will travel back with me most of my trips back here too). We’ve been able to pull this off, of course, both being self employed.

I’m chompin at the bit to get there, paint walls (I’ve spent hours researching gray paint colors over the last months), pick up our new furniture, decorate and be a wife and stepmommy for the next 5 weeks solid, then most of the rest of my life going forward!

AND, Rafferty is where I will pick up writing again. Not likely immediately because there is so much to do, but it’s where I will finish the book. We are on the hunt for an old farm table which will be in front of large doors, facing a gorgeous view of the woods toward the back. I’ll find a comfortable chair,  sit my butt there and finish bringing my story to life.

In the meantime, I have some things to share. I entered a contest in American Way Magazine (it’s the one in all the American Airline planes) and they published my letter to the editor! They get over 35000 entries a year and publish about 3-4 in each issue and mine was selected. A friend from Canada of all places, sent me a copy as I completely forgot about it being published in January. Here’s a picture of my little contribution:

January was kind of hot month for me in publication, as I was interviewed for a story in Phoenix Magazine, about Cindy’s case. There is a kind of creepy illustration, that oddly looks more like me than Cindy, but nonetheless, people are still interested in our case after all these years. You can read it here. It’s called Podcast PI’s.

Oh, and I wrote a pretty long blog the other day over on the other location. It’s about racism and how it has impacted my life. You can read that here.

Hope you are all out there keeping warm and happy.

More soon!

Kathy

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