Welcome to our home… um our half anyway…

I can picture it like it was yesterday and not 3 ½ years ago… lying in our bed, in OUR adorable townhouse that we (newly named Mr. and Mrs. Zach and Deni Jovanovich) were renting. It was my first night in our new place and I was so excited! We snuggled up and chatted about how great the wedding and honeymoon had been but how ecstatic we were to start living our independent, grown up life. I had a lovely nights sleep and then the reality alarm went off in the morning. I woke up and as any normal human would… I had to tinkle.

The second I sat on the toilet I knew there was trouble… the pain was raging. So I hopped into the shower, relief flooded my body and mind.  That lasted about 10 minutes until I realized I was chilly and turned the heat up… then again a few minutes later… and a few after that… until finally the knob was turned as far left as it could go, I was shivering and in more pain from the stress and cold than before.  So I reluctantly got out of the shower and back into bed…

It went like that for 3 months… Obviously some days were better than others but on tough days I would wake up, walk directly outside to my car and drive to my parents’ house to go potty and shower. (Most of the time I didn’t make it and would have an accident on route) Some times I wasn’t even up to driving and would have to have some one pick me up and drive me. Then I would stay there for a few hours in the shower and try to get home before Zach got home from work. Such a normal, wifely life I was leading. Our little house was always mess, laundry was every where, we never had groceries, and we lived on top ramen and popcorn.

We were also struggling financially with me not being able to work so we didn’t want to waste money on heat… we made fires to keep us warm and when we ran out of wood we burnt all the boxes and packaging from our wedding gifts. (We never admitted to the neighbors it was us who caused the soot all over the nations… oops.)

Then the final nail in the coffin, the straw that broke the camels back, the um… well I don’t know but you get what I’m saying! Zach lost his job and after lots of prayer and pondering he decided to go back to school and get a part time job. I was very proud and in full support of him! We both knew that, athough this was an exciting time in our lives, we would no longer be able to live in our precious townhouse that we had made our own.

My parents had just bought a 2^nd house in Arizona and were living there for 2 months then here for 2 months so they offered us the opportunity to live with them for free while we got “back on our feet”. I don’t think they knew what they were getting themselves into… We took over my old bedroom, made it a newlywed suite and turned the “bonus room” with the big screen and pool table into our family room.

Later that year, my Dad’s arthritis took a bad turn and forced him permanently in a wheel chair so they sold their Arizona house and moved back to Ravensdale for good. So there we were… one big happy family. Zach went to school all day then delivered pizzas at night, my parents ran their company out of the house and moved their bedroom downstairs so my dad could sleep in their bed, I spent most hours in the shower… oh yeah and Zach and I had a little 3 lb yorkie-poo that moved here with us too! You would think it would have been straight up cray-cray but it was great! Zach helped out with things my Dad had a harder time doing in his chair, I did what I could for my parents when I felt okay, my mom helped me when I was hurting, I got my precious shower, and we had lots of fun game nights that made it even better! It wasn’t always easy merging two families, one brand new and one… no offence… kind of old. But overall it worked out, kind of surprisingly well!

Next thing we knew Zach was graduated and I was knocked up! We turned one of the guest rooms into a nursery and we were ready, what’s one more person in this big ol’ country house!

Turns out… moving here was the smartest most necessary decision we have ever made. I thought taking care of myself with IC was hard but taking care of a baby by myself with IC is impossible. There are days when I can’t get out of the shower until 4 or 5 in the afternoon and my Mom happily keeps Titus all day with occasional stops by the bathroom for visits and freshly pumped milk. The best part is I can focus on me and my horrible staff of bladder workers because I know that Titus is just as well loved and taken care as if I had him!

To make myself feel smart I wanted to add this snippet from an article about multi-generations living together… A multigenerational household is defined as three or more generations living together. While such living arrangements have been common among the Asian and Hispanic cultures, only 4% or 4.2 million American households are multigenerational. However, between the years of 1990 and 2000, multigenerational households in the United States grew by 38%. Since 2000, housing preferences lead experts to believe that the trend has accelerated. 

See! It’s not that weird! It’s maybe not the most stereotypical living arrangement… but really, when is my life typical!? We make it work and in fact, I would say we are blessed by our situation. My parents get to see Titus every day, they get to be around for my all hilarity, I get to learn more hilarity from my funny mentor- my Dad, my mom makes delicious dinners, I bake tear inducing stellar treats, Zach gets a nice garage to keep his motorcycle in, and he goes to the dump for them! Its really a win, win… my parents help us and we help them! Speaking of help… maybe I should look into some help with humility after reading that sentence… Oh well!

All of these things are great, grand, and wonderful but what really matters…  I have my dear friend, my beloved shower! Not to mention the ones who enable my mildly creepy and unhealthy relationship with said shower… the team of water heaters!