I’m not much of a haggler. If there is a price, and it’s too much, I walk away. I don’t like to haggle. Some people do, and they thrive on it, I don’t.  This last week I haggled, not because I thought I had to, but because it just seemed to happen.

That haggling saved me 500 dollars a month in rent. Score one for the home team! So June 1rst we should be moving.

9 months ago our family run company was sold to a major United States Bank.  9 months ago, our former company gave us 2 weeks (can you imagine, 2 full weeks, oh the generosity!) to pack our 3000Sqft house in Ohio and get our butts to California with our jobs intact, but not our minds.  Those 2 weeks broke me.  I was happy in Ohio, happy with living close to my cousin (who has become one of my best friends) and my friends I had made. HAPPY. And in 2 weeks it was suddenly all taken away.

I’m not sure exactly when the sun peaked through.  I know that I had the emotional equivalent of drowning for quite a while.  Life has never hurt that much, and looking back it still brings tears to my eyes, though not because I’m sad, but because, god, life really hurt.  I didn’t know you could feel that way.  But you can, obviously, and left untreated it does end many good lives.  I’m not sure when I decided that “enough is enough” and I was not going to live that way.  I know the pain didn’t last that long in the grand scheme of things, maybe a month? Maybe 2? but it felt like forever. 

Then slowly, like the tide, the hurt started to recede. Slowly the ocean pulled back and I was finally able to breath.  My true self emerged once again, changed maybe, but still me, and pulling myself up by my boot straps, dusting myself off, I resumed my life how I wanted it to be. Life has definitely started getting better and now, I can honestly say I wouldn’t have changed a thing.

I could never have made it through all of this with out the love and support of my family.  I come from a family that, while we love each other as all families fundamentally do, it wasn’t the way in which my husband’s family loves.  My mother in law in particular has a way of reaching deep into the very depths of you and wrapping your heart in love.   My father in law props you up, dusts you off, and pushes you forward.  He asks the hard questions, and forces you to move with the tides, all the while he is there to catch you if you should trip. 

My husband, he’s my savior. my rock, my best friend, my heart and soul.  With out these people especially, (There were others no doubt!)  I wouldn’t have been able to make it. I wouldn’t have been able to find the surface.  I will eternally be grateful that I was allowed to have these amazing people in my life in an absolute time of need.

Last night talking with my mother in law about family and how they are different (even if they don’t think so, I mean come on people, they really love you, unconditionally, no matter what, under any circumstances) and how we are finally all un-circling the wagons. It took us all about 9 months, first it was me & Matt basically getting kicked out of our jobs and our house, then Ally’s had to build an ark just to make it out her front door with her child and husband in tow and finally, we are getting back to normal life.  It really makes you see that family is what really matters. No matter what, they are going to be there.  I’ve also learned that when this family accepts you into their flock they do so completely.  What a new feeling.