The Beginning: Life Lessons from a Double Wide Part 2

* see "The Beginning: Live Lessons from a Double Wide Part 1"

It was moving day.

Not the kind of moving where we pack up all our belongings and move in. It was the day that we moved the trailer. They actually picked it up from it's perch in trailer park heaven and drove it 20 miles to our little slice of land in, what came to be known as, The Grove.

A little background information on "The Grove". Jamie's parents had some land that they were going to let us "set" the trailer on. It was in the Grove. This is a special place. Far, far away from any form of normal functioning society. The man who lived in the house across the street was named Greasy. I promise you, I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried. There are no stop lights. One gas station/grocery store owned by someone who only goes by his initials. There is a post office and a pool hall/restaurant/church/hair salon (all in one building). We were going to fit right in with our double wide beauty.

We got the trailer moved successfully. It really is true what they say, "It ain't home 'till you take the wheels off." This now was our home. Help me Jesus.

The next several months were spent working as hard as we could to get it fixed up. And Lord did it need a lot of fixin. The first order of business was removing the LARGE TREE from the bedroom. My darling husband assured me that it was going to be great. We would make the back bedroom into a screened in porch. We would build a big deck off the back of the house. We would have lots of people over and grill out in the spring and summer. It truly was going to be spectacular. He had a way of putting things that made me somehow forget that it still was indeed a DOUBLE WIDE.

We did so much work to the inside. We painted, we put all new floors in, we scrubbed and cleaned until it almost looked like a real house.

We also had a wedding during all of this.

I know, I know...you're surprised that I still married him after he bought us a trailer. But I have to admit, I do think he is the sweetest man to walk the face of the planet. Even if he did have a temporary lapse in judgment.

Two months after the wedding, we finally got to move in. Everything seemed to be going smoothly until I washed the first load of whites in my new washing machine. They came out adorning brown and orange streaks. How was that possible? I followed the instructions that my mom had given me. I did everything that I was supposed to do. What had happened?

My clothes were RUINED.

I was mortified. I had just embraced the fact that I was going to be doing all of my own laundry (high maintenance...remember). Now, somehow my washing machine was turning my clothes colors. My precious, expensive clothes (I was still wearing the clothes my mother had purchased for me...therefore they were expensive, the wardrobe changed dramatically when I started buying my own clothes.) Well what had happened you may ask? I tell you what happened. Not only did my clothes turn colors from the water....

but.....sigh.....my hair also turned red.

RED. Red like Chuck Norris in Walker Texas Ranger.

Yes it did.

It didn't happen all at once. But ever so slowly the blond started fading away and I had a full head of rusty red hair. The funny part is, Jamie's hair was the exact same color. It's like we were living in an episode of the Beverly Hillbillies, but we had struck RUST instead of oil.

I had the water tested.

Iron and I know you're not going to believe it.....Sulfur. That's right. We had sulfur water. And I had been blaming that smell on Jamie.

In the next few months we did all that we could to fix the problem. But I failed to mention that when we got married, we had $500 to our names. We spent that on the honeymoon. We were broke, living in a double wide, had rusty hair, and everything our water touched turned dingy. So needless to say there wasn't much we could do to fix the problem. We did get the Sulfur part taken care of. But the iron was there to stay. And this was the element that was causing all of the color mishaps.

Life Lesson Number 1:
Learn to see humor in every situation. Even if you can't control the color of your hair, you live in a double wide, are broke, and you can't replace your rusty clothes with new ones.

Life Lesson Number 2:
Husbands make BIG mistakes. We must forgive them.

I was seeing the humor, was ever so slowly letting go of my obsessions with my looks, was getting used to the fact this was our life. I had forgiven Jamie and we were actually starting to enjoy our little mobile home.

Then....the dogs started showing up.