Hello All,

It’s been a while.  Not sure where to start.  Left off on too many things.

I can’t tell what I want to. Stories of the people who have contacted me and gone through too many things.  Not my story to tell.

OMG.  Seriously, OMG, too much too say.

In nut shell, what has this done to me?  II had my day in court, and I lost.

This is what it has done to me, I am seriously trying to forget everything and get control of my heath. I have high blood pressure, which is a direct result of this situation.  My husband has  pre-diabetes.  Again, I feel, is a result of this situation.

Our second child has been most affected.

Thought about everything tonight at dinner, thought about you that took our house.

_Susan

I recently re-read my blog.  It was quite interesting, because now I am settled in my new house.  For a good period of time.  This summer, in June, it will be two years in our house.

I cannot describe how it feels to be in “our house”, “my house”.  Not a rental. Those years in our rental seem so distant and unreal.  Like a dream.  Albeit, a lot of work.

Long story with moving out, don’t want to go into details.  But, when our rental home went on the market for sale, things changed.  We ended up leaving all of our plants and flowers at that place.  Can’t call it home, it was only a temporary stop for 2 1/2 years.  Everyone was on edge, us, the owners and the realtor involved.  My plants/flowers/raspberries were important, to a point.  At least I saved them, right?  I guess I gave them a new home.  I thought I would take them with me again, anything from 4020 right?

No, they helped sell the property and in the end they stayed at the rental.  The rainbow plaything and shed were sold on craigslist.  It was a crazy time, once again, leaving our rental.

I don’t think about this like I use to, but it still is there.  I left out so many things trying to be “politically correct “.

Like the tree.  Yes, I left out talking about the tree at 4020.  Crazy story.

About a year to six months before we had to vacate 4020, we received a letter from the city of Minnetonka about a dead elm tree that needed to be removed.  I called that department  and advised them that our house was condemned and that that tree, along with every other tree on our property would be coming down. That department had no idea and then spent time on who should pay for it.

Well, do I even need to explain?  Of course, that department had no idea of our situation and we had to pay for the tree to come down.  To the tune of about $2000.00.  Yep, they had to basically put a crane on our neighbors driveway and go over his garage to get to this tree.

The neighbors who were also condemned.

This was so messed up.

And, I haven’t really told much…just the basics…

~Susan

My last post apparenty worked, because I have got some feed back.  Most are from people outside of the USA.

Yes, this actually happens here and no, it is not from our current administration.  We found out that we may loose our home in 2005.  It was a long process and we were able to stay in our home for about eight more years.

Yes, it affected our kids in different ways.  I don’t want to say too much here, but it is a very valid question.  One of kids was greatly affected and the County said there would be services available such as counseling. We did have to go that route and the County denied that claim.  That is one probably one of my biggest disappointments.  I feel we were lied to and that they really didn’t care about our mental well being.

Interesting that one of the recommended counseling centers had our formal mayor on the board of directors, decided not to go there.

Yes, it does make you feel jaded and the cards stacked against you.  But, I will say this, you cannot have this ruin your life.  That is why you have to vote and know who your local people are.  You have to move on.  It’s not easy.

xoxo, ~ Susan

Okay, so I’ve been thinking.  Recently, I have been getting a lot of users.  I mean a lot when you don’t have to be a user to read my blog.  From the email addresses, I can see that people are from all over the world.  Besides the United States, I see email addresses from Poland, the U.K. and Canada.  Which, is really fascinating to me.  At first, I thought most of the users were probably spam.  But, that doesn’t make any sense, because I don’t see how any user could do anything weird to my blog.  So, I started thinking about this and realized that maybe people were genuinely curious as to what we went through.  I also know that if you are going through this, you probably do not want to talk about it, especially on any time of blog or forum.  I have had a few people that did comment and I started to email on a different formant to them.  I am done with my saga, it is only personal now and I truly want to help others.  I am not done talking about it, believe me.  But, my story is really over.  But, if you have questions, here’s how my blog works:  you write a comment and I can decide to post it or not.  So, if you have a question and you do not want it posted, just tell me in the post that you do not want it public and ask me your question or tell me your comment.  No worries, I am not going to try to “find you” or look you up.  Why would I?  I have nothing to gain and I have already lost, now it is what I do with what we went through.

Believe me, there is a lot I am not saying.  What I am not saying will either be for a book or be buried in our families history.  Maybe it will just be passed down orally as part of our families story.  I don’t know.  I’m still trying to figure that out.

I do know, that I have a lot of dreams still about 4020.  I have a lot of dreams about loosing my house.  Water is usually in the picture.  It doesn’t ever leave you, that was my last post.  But, I’m not angry or vindictive.  It is what it is.  I have to move on.

I am also pretty sure that attorneys are looking at my blog and/or signing up as a user.  Why not?  It was a friend of mine that is an attorney that advised me to start a blog in the first place.  Same thing goes for you, I will not post if you do not want me to, but feel free to ask me questions.

Do I think my counsel did things correct?  I will only say, I would of done things different.  I was too distraught to not let them take their path and at that time, I felt I did everything I could before hiring them.  But, yes, looking back, I would have asked them to take a different approach.

The politicians involved, well, let’s just say I tell every to vote down to their city council.  Some that made my fate are still on my city council.  You bet I’m involved and vote. That’s were I can make a difference.  After all of these years, I now know people that are running for State positions.  I’ve always been a “behind the scenes” person.  Don’t want to make waves or be in the spot light.

I can say so much more, but enough for tonight!

~Susan

I thought I had the best ending to our saga.  I posted a video of the music group “the cranberries” with their song “here’s where the story ends” on Facebook.  It seemed perfect. For all of my friends, it was perfect.  I know my friends are not following my blog.  I am sure most haven’t looked at it for years.  No need to.  They talk to me and know my story.  This blog isn’t for them.  It is for me and you.

They (my friends) know me better than this.  Thank gosh they have been there for me.  I mean that so sincerely.

No, this blog is for you.  You that just realized it is real and they are going to take your home.

That was me.  Over ten years ago.  That was me.

I cannot believe what we went through. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night and still think I am at 4020.  I know what it has done to others.  I have written about it.

My question is, why am I  getting so many people signing up? What are your questions?  I will answer, I am here.

~Susan

I recently posted on my facebook page the same title. So much too say, but not on this blog.

As I said, we lost.  No appeal.  It’s over and done.  My story is done here, no more blogging.  My story is not done, it just is changing to a personal journal and maybe a book.

Please still feel free to contact me about your story.  I am still here and will monitor comments and stories.

I will be here.  I promise.

~Susan

The Good:  We found and bought a house!  Finally homeowners again.  This part is a story in itself and I will write more about it later.  This is our saving grace of our saga and really quite amazing how it came together.  I will say we are moved in, house is put together and we are not moving for a long, long, long time.

The Bad:  We lost.  Yes, we lost.  As in we lost our trial.  Judge ruled against us and for the County.  Not one cent more.  I feel sick and want to throw up.  I am mad and angry.  I feel the same as when I started this blog.  I was so hopeful and optimistic.  Now, I have become jaded as I realize what was really stacked up against us.

The Ugly:  We are not going to appeal.  Based on our attorneys advice and more for the fact that it would be 100% on us financially.  We have already lost so much.

Yep, this is Eminent Domain.  Anyone reading this really would not believe it unless they are going though it or just found out they maybe will be going through it.  Who else would randomly find this blog or look up eminent domain?  Even though we lost, I am not giving up on it and I am still going to write.   This will never leave me or be done until I can help with change.  No one should ever go through what we did or others did regarding losing our property.

~Susan

I do not know how to describe this time. I have been advised not to write/blog and I understand.  I will not write much, I understand.  I keep a journal and I understand.  I do think about freedom of speech and when you are caught up in this system of justice, how every word means something and best not to speak.

However, i just want to say, I am homesick.  Since trial, I have been so homesick, with no home to go to. My parents are both gone as well as my husband’s.  We have no home to go to.  Our home is gone, our parents homes are gone and I have no where to go and cry.

I am so homesick.

~Susan

Finally, trial is over.  Cant’t write much, but trial is over.  Judge has 90 days to rule.

~Susan

Here we go again.

Seems like just yesterday I was going through drawers and cleaning things out.  That was two years and four months ago.  Need to be ready to move again.  Not sure where.

So I am going through drawers and closets and cleaning/donating again.

Our lease is up in May and our rental home is going on the market next week.   I hope it sells, I want the owners to be happy.  They have been wonderful to us.  However, it is stressful for us.

The vacancy rate in our area for a four bedroom home that takes dogs is 0%.

Yes, zero percent.  We were so lucky to find this home.  I do have a few things in the works, just can’t talk about it.  We will be okay.  It always works out.  At least that is what I keep telling myself.

I have learned so much over the years and now know what is important to us.

Best not to explain right now.  I will write more again after trial.

~Susan