Once we moved into our rental house, an idea took shape - furnish the entire house from recycled/reused items. I decided that would include all the kitchen items too, right down to the utensils. A couple of exceptions that occured to me right from the start were mattresses, sheets, and towels. Although we accepted used sheets and towels from our family members  Somehow that was more palatable than sleeping on items that came from total (and possibly gross, creepy, wacky) strangers!

I had already been shopping at GW* at least once a month for the past year or so, and scoring some incredible finds. So I was able to increase the GW trips to 3 times a month once we moved into Tempe. With every other week a 50% off Saturday, I was able to furnish  our house and my closet with many many things at a super-comfortable price. Not far from us is a GW that is dedicated to furniture, mattresses, and then other small home furnishings and knick knacks. Plus, they have TV's. We found a beautiful dining room table($40.00), seats 6, that can expand to seat 8. It had it's own custom table pad, which was good because there is a fairly large gash right in the gorgeous table top. I intend to refinish the top in the near future, and get out that gash, but even so, the table is in excellent shape overall. From here, I decided to pull together a collection of dining room chairs all in the same shade of wood stain as the table, but all different designs. I love that look. And with the help of my mom, we've come up with 10 chairs. We all love having a large dining room table; our kitchen table at home is round and small, though charming.

*Good Will

Not long after we moved into Tempe, I was able to find a temp job at MCC in the college bookstore. Min.wage but I was happy to be bringing in some money! Up to that point I had not worked outside of our own business for 15 years. I was nervous to start again, but it all worked out fine. That job ended on the last day of August, then I was interviewed and hired by September 20th for my current employer, none other than the virtual charter school that I had my daughter in for the last 6 years! It's a great job, I love it, work with students 4th grade to 12th grade. Technically I'm a paraprofessional teacher, since I don't have a teaching credential. Hopefully I'll have that credential sometime soon; I'm just barely starting the process to take the classes to get certified.

Before I was hired at my current job, I interviewed with Nordstroms. I wanted to give sales in a department store a try, and I was surprised that they called me in for 3 interviews. I think I was close to being hired, but everything always works out for the best; I was hired by the school, and not offered the position at Nordie's. But I was still proud of myself for making it through 3 interviews with them. I figure when I'm an old lady, I'll work for them  They won't be able to resist me!

I was a little apprehensive to spend our first night in our new rental house...the only reason was ghosts! I wondered if there were any residual hauntings, or perhaps self-aware ghosts lingering there. Over all, the house felt good, even all the closets, but one felt perfectly normal. Our daughter had her own bed/bedroom, but we only had an aero bed temporarily, so my husband slept on that in the master bedroom, and I slept in the LV on the couch.

I always ask spirits to stay away from us at night, plus I put out the 'Closed' sign, to let them know that I won't be receiving any information during the night. But I was not sure if they would heed that request, considering we were new in the neighborhood. I kind of felt that 'they' would be very curious about us.....and sure enough, they were. Shortly after I turned the lights out, and closed my eyes (I was exhausted after moving in 117degree heat), I felt someone staring at me. And it wasn't my husband! Anyhow, I turned my head to 'see' a group of spirits staring at me, standing over me, examining me with curiosity. It was frightening, but I needed to control the fear, I didn't want to attract anything dark to the  fear. They were all former tenants of the neighborhood, had spent many happy times in the houses around us, and just wanted to check us out. I spent some time asking them to keep their distance, communicating my boundary rules, and eventually they left me alone and I was able to sleep through the night. Periodically since then, I've felt some of them intruding, but they have retreated once I called them on it.

It's an interesting dynamic, and one that makes sense, after learning more about the neighbors, and neighborhood. Evidently my neighborhood has a history of camraderie, and families working together to make the area nicer. We have a lot of students living here during the school year, too. There is a small dog park close by, and an old elementary school that was saved years ago and turned into a park. While there have been the usual nieghbor disagreements, overall, it seems like a lovely  place to live, with a diverse population. I really like it here.