Chapter Two

Chapter two of my so called story involves me and Jarrod living out of a suitcase for many many months.  When we decided to move back "home," our original plan was to rent a place.  No, I take that back, it was to live with my mom just until we could find a place to rent.  So, two months tops.  That was before we realized that there are no apartments to rent.  Okay, maybe a couple (as in 1 or 2) but nothing that we liked.  We were use to living in Nashville, where there was an apartment on every block.  We got back and hit reality.  Okay, no problem we thought.  Just find a house to rent.  Surely that would be easier.  We got the newspaper every night it came out...nothing.  We talked about it, and decided if we were going to be living here for a least a good amount of time, long enough for Jesalyn to go to school, we should probably just look at buying something.  So we got ourselves a realtor (a really awesome one at that: hi Julie!) and started the hunt for a home to call our own.  We relinquished to the fact that this would mean staying with mom a little longer.  You know, "just until we found something.  Surely that wouldn't take too long."   Needless to stay, we are still looking at houses.  The few that we've even liked enough to consider turned out to be less than spectacular. 

This all doesn't sound too bad right?  I mean, staying with mom.  Home cooked meals, free child care, and even a free laundry service.  We pay a little in rent each month, but we don't have to pay for utilities and anything else that comes with having your own place.   But, let me set up the arrangements.  Did I forget to mention that my little sister is living there too?  Oh, and did I tell you that she has a one 1 year old that also lives there...and yeah, and her boyfriend too?  So lets count that up shall we.  1 house + 8 people (is anyone good at math?) = CRAZYNESS.  Not to mention that my sis was there first, so out of the 3 spare bedreooms, she had two of them occupied (one for her and one for my neice.)   That left one room for Jarrod, Jesalyn and myself. The good thing is that the bed in the room is a queen, the bad thing is that the bed takes up the. entire. room.  Literally you guys.  We have maybe a 4ft x 3ft space to walk around.  Oh yeah, how could I forget.  My sister also has a dog, a partially inside dog until we got there.  Ten cool points to whoever can guess what this dog picked up about 3 weeks after we moved in?   Yep, you guessed it.  Fleas!!!  And fleas and I do not get along.  In a matter of days, my legs were covered in bites (update: after many, many different treatments, we think we got rid of most of them, but every so often I find one on me just teasing me with another outbreak.)

We were able to fit one dresser in the room for clothes but really, how many clothes can you fit in 5 drawers?   So it basically breaks down to Jesalyn getting 2 drawers, I get two drawers and Jarrod gets one.  I have a duffel bag for my undies and bras and the rest of Jarrods clothes we try to keep folded and layed on the floor.  I know I don't have to tell you that the clothes do not always stay folded so you can imagine the mess.  

Let me preface this by saying I love my momma.  If you've read any of my blog you know how much she has helped us out.  I even love seeing my sister and adorable niece every day. The first couple of weeks were actually kind of fun, but what's that phrase? Twos company, threes a crowd?  I don't even know where to start on eight. 

This has been our lives the past five months. Things are looking up though.  My sister and her boyfriend found a place to rent last week so I've been able to move Jes's clothes to another room.  That gets mine and Jarrod's clothes off the floor.  Also, we are looking at another house this weekend. Cross your fingers for us?!