Troubles

In our four years of being married, AJ and I have had our share of troubles. We started out in a small one bedroom apartment, like most newlyweds. Within a few months, we had my teenage sister living with us. She lived with us for a short while, until we were eventually forced to ask her to leave. Not long after she moved out, my brother took her place. That was even more fun. He lived with us for a year and a half before we were able to get him out of our now over-crowded home (we had moved to a larger place, but we had three extra people living with us).

Our "larger place" was a fourteen-by-fifty-six-foot trailer on about an acre of land. It was great for our dogs, and my brother (there was a HUGE shed on the property that he was able to be in comfortably--and I do mean huge, this thing was as big as our trailer) could live with us without actually living with us. About a month after we moved there, AJ's mom, as well as her teenage son and (then) twenty (NOT an exaggeration) cats, moved in with us for reasons of their own. I didn't have a problem with my mother-in-law, or even with the number of cats she had. My problem was with the undisciplined thirteen-year-old living in my house. About that I will only say that anyone else's parents would probably have beaten their child senseless for half the things the kid did. Not too long after that, my sister-in-law came home from her mission in Canada (eh).

Not long after they all (finally) moved out, we got some very good news. We could expect our first child early the following year. We also got some not-so-good news. Our home had been burned and covered up, and the charred wood could have ill effects for our unborn child. We had to leave our home, and demolish it, for our own good. We ended up moving in with my parents for a little while, until we could get back on our feet, and we were able to move into our current apartment a little more than a month before our little girl was born. (You can see her progress up to now in my previous post). We just renewed our lease for a year, and we couldn't be happier.

AJ and I are both in school at the local community college. He's got his Associates and is working toward becoming a teacher, while I still have a long way to go before I have my generals done. AJ works for a pest control company, so his hours fluctuate throughout the year, but we always have enough to get by. I have the luck to be a stay-at-home mom, and I love every minute of it. We love getting to spend time together and with our little girl, as she changes so much from week to week, let alone from month to month.