So. We're into the new place. I have wine. I have cable TV. I have my computer hooked up. I have a very comfy queensize bed, though I wake up at the slightest sound during the night, nervous.

I remind myself that there is a very nice man living right upstairs; should an intruder cause me to need to call out for help, my new friend would surely hear me and come to the rescue.

Everett is in school, but having much difficulty catching the right buses. The walk to pickup and dropoff points is ridiculous (1.4 km for one, 2 km for the other), on dangerous roads too, so I am driving him to the bus stops both morning and afternoon.

They still haven't hired an aide for Emil so he is home with me, sleeping in till 10:00 and spending the rest of the day listening to his CDs in the bedroom.

Mom's weekly drug treatment was to be today but because she is so exhausted and shortwinded, her medical team did not give it to her. Instead she is going in for a lung scan tomorrow morning.

Poor Dad, he is so worried. We all are, of course, but we have children and work (and for me and Karen, new homes) to think about, too, so we have some distractions.

Dad is doing all the cooking and I'd like to help him out by preparing some frozen meals he can quickly thaw when he can't think of something to make. If you have any tried and trues, please send them to me. I didn't bring all my recipe books along, only the ones I couldn't live without for the next 10 months.

I've been at their place about four times since I got here, and it is not enough. I wish I lived closer than a half-hour drive away, so I could be there in five minutes and go more often. Could yet happen. Am not sure how long I will stay in this suite — the roads to it are steep, the driveway is steep (not the best for Emil in winter conditions) and Mom, too, keeps saying she wishes we were closer. That's good enough for me. I can't help it. Whatever Mom wants, she is pretty much going to get.

Meanwhile, the suite is bright and spacious and we are settling in fine. I miss my sweetie though; however, not as much as he is missing me and the boys. The house is Way Too Quiet, he says, when he phones once or twice a day. The weather out there has been such that it is delaying him getting his work done, so he is disheartened. It means he can't get out here as soon as he would like. And he's lonely and forlorn ... or so he claims.

Thank goodness I have the boys with me, that's all I can say, or I would be quite miserable. They have been a huge comfort to me during this upheaval. I don't think I could have done it without them.