settled!!!!!

yes, courtney is correct!! we have settled with the wicked witch of the east. that horrible woman still walks away with a completely unreasonable amount, but she was willing to settle and we were able to get 90% of what we were asking for in the lawsuit. We went this route since our attorney gave us a 50/50 shot of actually winning the trial. i think she settled b/c her attorney told her they were going to lose. we did have some pretty solid evidence. now mind you that 90% of what we were asking for was only that the 2007 will be overturned. we didn't have enough of a case to go after her for the 04 or any other previous wills which sucks tremendously. but, what sucks the most is that she is the owner of all three houses. including my beloved maine. see my earlier post on that - i called it my favorite place on earth and it's one of the earliest posts i did. in any case, i'm heartbroken that i'll never get to spend time there again or that i won't be able to take my future family there. even more sad is that this wicked witch refuses to give us a lot of the personal items. she is making an allowance and giving us some of the family heirlooms, but nothing if it looked or smelled like anything belonging to my gdad or his side of the family. including all pictures. are you kidding?! and if it was remotely valuable, forget it! but, at least we are getting some things so all is not lost of my nana's and her family's items. oh yes, and she has to pay all taxes on everything and also our lawyer fees. which i found out today were $470k. good.

overall, i'm relieved that we will have some of the things that belong to my nana and that this whole thing is almost over (it's over when we actually get the stuff). i never ever want to see that woman again unless she is dead and only then b/c i'd like to verify that she is gone. finally.