Some wonderful, amazing, and generous friends offered to let us live in their duplex while our house was being repaired. They even let us bring Holly and Sarge! This place had everything we needed - 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, fully furnished, washer and dryer, not to mention the coolest neighbors in the world! We moved in less than 24 hours after the crash, and were incredibly thankful. My parents were supposed to come up that weekend anyway, and they helped us settle in and let me take Cade to a birthday party that he didn't want to miss. 7 and 8 year old boys are super silly after big cupcakes!
Since the duplex is normally a game day rental, it has tons of furniture to accommodate lots of guests. Annie loved all of the spinning and rocking chairs!
Pastor John and I had a long chat on Ash Wednesday, and he wisely said that situations like this are an interesting adventure or vacation... for a few days. And then reality hits, and you just have to embrace it. He was right! We tried to keep things light-hearted and fun, but there were definitely some tears and frustrations. One aspect that was like vacation is that I hardly cooked any meals for about 3 weeks. Sweet friends and co-workers blessed us with meals and gift cards. Chance and I were very resistant to help at first because we are much more comfortable giving than receiving, but then we decided to graciously accept the assistance. Honestly, it really helped! I was perfectly capable of cooking, but not having to do it a couple times a week allowed time and energy to be spent on other activities, and that was great. There was a stocked pond across the street from the duplex where Cade, my dad, and Chance got to go fishing a couple of times. The kids and I also took Holly on lots of walks and figured out that we could even walk to the park where Cade had his 5th birthday party.
On Zoe's birthday, we took a family selfie in our "new" house and sent it to her.
No matter where you are, homework has to get done. Annie even had some one night!
Nana and Papa watched Annie so I could take Cade to an Aggie basketball game. We were waaaaaay at the top!
We watched the Super Bowl and enjoyed pizza and Bronco's colored cupcakes.
Annie really embraced her girly side in February and got very into princesses. She even wanted to share her love of them with Sarge (who loved the duplex so much we didn't think he would go home with us). I'm happy to report that he did!
Happy Valentine's Day!
One thing the kids loved about being a the duplex is that we were a little more lenient with technology time than usual. They definitely loved their time on the tablets in the mornings! And I'm not going to lie... I loved the time where they weren't screaming at each other!
No matter where you live, Research Park is always a fun outing.
Continuing our trend of avoiding home-cooked meals, the kids and I went to Blue Baker one Saturday while Chance was at a powerlifting meet. The each ate almost an entire pizza!
And just as quickly as it started, our adventure in the duplex came to an end. A short 6 weeks after moving out of our house, we moved back in! Our builder was truly amazing (more on their work in the next entry). On a rainy Wednesday night, we packed everything into our cars and said goodbye and thank you to our wonderful neighbors and friends. Even though I work with these ladies every day, living next to them was such fun! They took our picture on the porch and sent us off with lots of promises to still visit each other!
Our Rock Bend neighbors welcomed us home with pizza coupons and a "no parking" sign for our yard. Having a sense of humor definitely helps in times like this!
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