I don't live with my parents! ;o)

My dad retired in June of 2010, and he and my mom were going to spend their time between all their kids who have been scattered to the four winds. Their home-base was going to be in Utah with one of my brothers, so they moved away from Oregon and headed east.

Meanwhile...

I was eight months pregnant and staying home with my one-year-old and TheBoyScout was about to leave for seven weeks of Boy-Scout-Camp-directing fun. {oy.}

So I said to my parentals, "come and stay with me for the summer, and then go to Utah..."

They did and we all liked the arrangement so well that they stayed. In my house. The one we purchased in 2007. {read: I'm not a vagrant waif!}

Fast forward ten months, when we got word of a potential transfer to Portland. In HIGH hopes of living in the northwest again, I "staged" my home and put it on the market for an inevitable and unavoidable short-sale.*

We got a job offer in Portland, found a buyer for our home, got approved for the short-sale and moved our butts outta Pocatello as fast as our three vehicles could take us! within a six week period.

Because we SHARE a home with my parents, as my mom likes to word it, we are all able to afford a nicer home than we could separately, I have the distinct priviledge of staying home with my kids, and we are all living happily ever after.

People are boggled by our living arrangement. They delicately ask how it works. So, being the shy, reserved, mincer of words that I am (!) I tell them:

I run the house so my mom doesn't have to.*** Which suits us both perfectly. My mom and I combine our decorating resources and furniture to our mutual taste and satisfaction. My boys have a room, TheBoyScout and I have a room, my parents have a room, and we have a bonus/craft/guest/writing room to boot.

If it weren't for the fact that our prayers were all answered by this arrangement which was by no means sought out but never-the-less fits us all like a glove, I wouldn't have believed it possible myself.

My parents don't have to worry about upkeep**** and are free to serve as Employment Resource Center Missionaries, and come and go on day trips and road trips as they please.

I am free to stay home and try to figure out the whole "nurturing of children" thing.

TheBoyScout, being the magnanimous, ever-patient, and wonderful man that he is***** gets along perfectly with all of us, including his mother-in-law. Who, of her own right, is an awesome and amazing person too.

I'm not exagerating, and I'm not sugar coating. I wouldn't recommend it to everyone, but when Heavenly Father answers a prayer, its better to take the answer and run! ;o)

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*We all felt SO blessed to have everything click into place as if it was all meant to be, despite the lousy housing market and the fact that we purchased our second** home during the height of the property value bubble.
**Please believe me when I tell you I am not a vagrant waif! :o)
***She has health limitations that preclude her ability to do all the things her willing little spirit wants to do!
****Though my dad (bless him!) does the dishes and the yard work more than any of the rest of us...
*****Seriously don't know how I got so blessed as to rope him into marrying me and LIKE it too!