Life turns on a dime.

Sometimes for the better and sometimes for the bad, or at least what initially seems bad. The best we can do is try to be prepared.

I wasn’t prepared for the news I got on Monday. It knocked me on my butt.

I’ve been renting my home for seven years, from a wonderful couple. Salt of the earth folks.

On Monday morning I got an email informing me that they have decided to give the house to a daughter who has been having a difficult time with life and needs their help for someplace to live.

I have 60 days to move. In my head I'm sreaming why the heck can't she find some place else to go. Why my home? Why now?

The news came to me and the boys like another death in our family; absolutely devastating. We love our the home we’ve made here. It suits our needs so perfectly. It’s in the right school district. Our neighbors are our friends, kind and thoughtful. We’ve built our lives around our location. we’ve filled the house with lots of cool stuff and put it all in the perfect place. It’s warm, room and comfortable. It’s everything we want.

If I hadn’t been at work, I’m sure I would have broke down in tears. Instead, I went into mama bear mode. And thought, I never want to put my family through this again. God willing, I never want to rent again. I never want to be at the whim of another’s life needs and decisions again.

When we decided to rent it was a great idea at the time. When the economy went south, it seemed a brilliant idea. Real Estate experts were telling people to rent rather than buy. The market had tanked. We were in a great position. Then Ceaser died and I realized, nothing is promised and life truly turns on a dime. But we had the house and we loved it. Now that’s gone too.

So now I’m in the market for something new. I’ve never done anything like this without the brilliant research and negotiating mind that Ceaser had, backing me up. This will be a challenge of mega proportions.

Friends have said, maybe this is a good thing. Think positive. They've said this is a good time to buy. The market is in the buyers favor, they’ve said. There are people out there who have been trying to sell for years and will be happy to have someone interested in their property. I can really negotiate a good price. Find something nice at a nice price. I wish I were as confident as they are. Of course I’m the one on the outs with a time limit hanging over my head. So, not to be ungrateful for their advice, but it’s easy for them to say.

The boys were just heart broken. They were so sad when I came home from work they offered to cook dinner. They did a great job too. At least dinner was delicious.

Trey even went out at bought a bunch of boxes and had already started purging. He has offered to come home from college on weekends to help me pack.

But finding another house is gonna be on mama. Moving is so stressful. Moving at a moments notice, when you hadn’t planned or saved for it is beyond stressful, its devastating. At least for me it is.

I know I have to stay in the vicinity because I don’t want to pull Jordan out of his high school.

I know I’ll have to dig into savings, and probably exhaust them for this move. Bummer. I know I’ll have to make sacrifices and give up some things that I love. I’ll start with foregoing a trip to New York for my high school reunion. I’d already planned to look sooooo hot for that event. Oh well, I guess that means I can eat what I want. No need losing those extra pounds so I can rock some slinky dress. That’s not going to happen. Tae Kwan Do, take a back seat for a while - no longer in the budget.

I’ve gotta focus, and my head is already hurting. Sometime I hate having to be the mom, the one who has to be strong and pretend they’ve got it all together. It just take so much energy. I keep telling myself, that which does not kill you will only make you stronger. Have you seen the muscles in my arms. They are popping.

Life was just zipping along at a nice clip. I knew that it just had to be too good to be true. To tell you the truth, it worried me. Now I know why. Don’t you just hate those mama instincts that yell at you; slow down, chill out, be afraid, be very afraid, long before you have any idea what your head it talking about? Not that I could have done anything to change the direction of this storm.

So now I’m hunting for a home, and dreading having to pack an entire house. What a drag.

But I keep telling myself, you’ve been through tough times before. You got through those, you’ll get through this. Life’s a series of rollercoaster peeks and valleys, I guess I better hang on and ride this puppy out.