house #2

Woooooowwwwww.  My story was interupted by a little thing called a TORNADO and then another little storm 2 days later called HAIL.  Both of which suck.  Pardon the language.  I'm two windows less than I was a month ago and my roof has pock marks like a teenager with acne.  Bless.

yah, that's hail.

But we will survive.

I was reminded of this when I went for Indian food at lunch with my mama today and the owner was telling us that he had talked to his friend in Nepal and his damage was nothing compared to the devastation occurring in their country.

TRUTH.

So with a fresh perspective, I bring you chapter 2 of my story.

We moved into the house we built in a gated community in southwest Oklahoma City 13 months after we were married.  Did I mention that we had only dated for a hot minute?  We were married less than a year before our first anniversary.  We had never ACTUALLY argued before we got engaged (3 months later), much less disagreed.  So it's no wonder we were struggling to figure this whole marriage thing out.

House #2 was a cute red brick home.  It had 3 bedrooms and an office.  We put brick pavers in the kitchen and toile wallpaper in the bathroom.  Yes, that was a fun time.  I was getting to decorate a home with my "French Country" style.  I felt like a real grownup.

We were excited to move into this house, Mister's dream home plan of his bachelor days.  I was just excited to decorate.  But right about the time we moved, Mister had recently left his career in home building.  He wanted to have weekends off to spend with me and the kids we would eventually have.  So he decided that the best way to make that happen would be to go into pharmaceutical sales.

The first big pharma job he got was a contract.  He made a whopping $40,000 per year.  And I was teaching at a private Catholic school where I brought in $1500 a month.  Money was tight.  And there were many hours spent trying to figure out how to make our money stretch.  This life was a far cry from the stable job my dad had modeled for me his whole life.  I thought a man should get a job and stick with it.  And my new husband was not living up to my expectation.  I hated feeling house poor.  And the fighting continued.  I hadn't laughed at one of his jokes in a year.  We were both unhappy and plugging along at marriage.

His contract ended and suddenly my new husband was job-less.  After a few different job prospects and throwing around the possibility of relocating, I got pregnant.  We had planned this, it was no surprise.  But now?  Our focus was different.  I had never wanted to work once I had a baby and Mister was in no position to support us alone.  So we did what we were beginning to know best.  We planned another move.

I had worked in Norman, we banked in Norman, we shopped in Norman, we ate out in Norman, and we even dry cleaned in Norman.  But we had built in SW Oklahoma City.  We were out of our element.  Time to go back home.

Mister found a cute older house in an older neighborhood in Norman and we borrowed money from family to fixer upper before we moved in.  I was 9 months pregnant when we moved.  We moved on Saturday and Sunday.  I had my last day at my teaching job on a Tuesday.  We were set to induce on Thursday.  And then this little wrinkly baby made her debut before we were ready, on Wednesday morning.

We hadn't sold the house in Oklahoma City, but we eventually rented it out to a family and eased the financial burden.  We began to settle into a new life in house #3......

(We lived in house #2 for 1 year, to the weekend.)