A Tale Of Two Cities

I meant to post this a while ago. Uh, before I got sidetracked with Easter, annoying soccer moms, crumbs, and adorable blurry black-and-white pictures (sigh. . .) Oh - and torrential rain. But just in case you were wondering (or if you forgot because it's been so so long), The answer is YES! We finally - finally sold our house in Dallas (April 6th) and officially "moved" into our Houston house. So here's a little taste of our epic Two-City-Two-House life this past year.

My new motto: Simplify. Simplify. Simplify.

there was a big, beautiful, red-brick house and a family who loved it. The family lived in it for three years, mowing the lawn, planting flowers, trimming the hedges, staining the deck, building a new fence, scrubbing the floor, painting the walls, and decorating to their heart's content. And the family loved the house. Then one day the father decided that he loved his career more than his house (or money). So he took a job as an appellate clerk in another city. The family was sad to sell the big, beautiful, red-brick house. But they got it ready anyway. They re-painted (over all the scribbles on the walls) and re-decorated (with more fashionable decor) and re-arranged everything in the house so that it didn't even feel like their house anymore . Then the economy tanked and nobody wanted to buy the big, beautiful, red-brick house. For a long time. So the family left their stuff and their house and moved to the other city anyway - with only the clothes on their backs. . . and whatever else they could cram into the minivan. The new house was not big, and not beautiful, and not red-brick - and not new. The dishwasher didn't work (still doesn't), the garage door was broken (still is), paint flaked off the walls (still does - except for the walls covered in obnoxious floral wallpaper), squirrels lived between the floorboards (Ugh! Look at those nasty holes). And the new city had hurricanes. But after a few months of the father finishing work in one city and the mother and children starting school in another city, the family was finally together and they were happy. They slept on air-mattresses and sat on camping chairs. They had a card table and a few kitchen essentials. They lived without beds, bookshelves, dressers, desks, couches, tables, or television for 8 months. But the family was happy. . . and worried, and stressed, and poor - paying for two houses - including utilities - on half the salary. And just when the family thought they would run out of money, an amazing thing happened. Barack Obama passed a stimulus package. And the very next day two different people wanted to buy the beautiful, red-brick house! They wanted it so much that they upped their bids again and again. Until the owners finally said, "SOLD!" And everyone was happy.
So the family went back to the beautiful red-brick house one last time with a moving truck to get all their stuff. And to say goodbye. It was hard work packing up all their crap. I mean, nice furniture and everything else that (they realized after living without for so long) they didn't really need. . . and the children were not much help. Neither was the mother. So the Father did all the work himself while the rest of the family checked into a hotel and went swimming.

And now the family only has one small house - too small to hold all their stuff. But the father is happy. The mother is happy. And all the children are happy. To be sleeping in beds, and to have shelves instead of piles of books, and a desk for the computer, and a nice comfy couch, and drawers for their clothes, and a new television, and, and, and so much more . . . oh, and to have money. And there weren't any more hurricanes for a long time (just some torrential thunder storms and major flooding) and everyone - everyone lived

happily. . . ever. . . after.

And now, back to unpacking. . . unpacking. . . unpacking.


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