We have been living in this house for 3 years and I have not made it homey. Perhaps I didn't feel like it after losing our house 3 years ago. Then I was working all those crazy hours at walmart and had no energy for anything. But now that I am not working I should be able to do this. It took the rekindling of a lost friendship to put me in the frame of mind to make my house a home. Marie and I had worked together about 20 years ago. I was just starting out in accounting and she was a huge help to me. She showed me how to get oranized so I was more efficient. We were best friends. About the time I got my house in 1995 we started losing touch. I don't know why. We never fought, we just slipped away. I found her on facebook and we started talking again. She is also unemployed right now. Once a week we get together and go to thrift stores. She gave me a beautiful hutch for my dining room and proceeded to help me find things to put in it at very low cost. Most of the time she won't let me pay for things. She came over my house this past wednesday and we cleaned out my two back rooms that were a disaster. The back porch is the dumping zone,and there was a narrow path to walk through to get in the house. We sorted trash, recycling, and good stuff. When she heard we did not have much money for these two weeks between paychecks, she took me grocery shopping. I told her I don't ever want her to feel I am taking advantage of her. But it's a give and take relationship. We have fun together and we know each other's secrets and hopes and dreams. She is a planner. I am not. She is an organizer, I am not. She encourages me and pumps me up to get things done. We talk on the phone several times a day. We put the phones on speaker while we are working around our houses. She is my fiesty little Italian friend. I am her clumsy, awkward good listener friend. When we are together on our day together we do alot of talking and laughing. Sometimes there are tears. As we part for the day we hug and tell each other, I love you.

Marie sets goals for me. My current goal is to clean up my laundry area by the end of the month. I had a mountain of clothes there, some clean and some dirty. I am whittling that down! She has devised a list of chores for Kota, easy ones he can handle with no problem. In return we buy him a toy on our thrift store shopping days. Marie has given me back my joie de vivre! I hope I spelled that right! She is so much more than my best friend. She is my confidant, my coach, my sister and my drill sergeant!