127 Days. 4 months and 1 week. 1/3 of a year. We survived!!! After 127 days, my Dad has finally moved out! He was living with us while construction on his home in Northampton was going on. And as typical with most construction projects, he experienced delay after delay after delay. When he first moved in, I honestly thought he would only be staying with us for a few weeks, a month at most. So, as you can imagine, it was quite a shock when the pages of the calendar kept on turning and he was still there. All in all, now that it is over, I have to say that it wasn't too bad. He helped out a lot with Bailey (who he admitted has achieved "favorite granddog" status...sorry Peanut!) and he cooked dinner a lot for us. Although I did have to yell at him a few times for tracking dirt throughout the house, he was a relatively neat house guest and always cleaned up after himself, which was good because John and I are both a little freaky about keeping our house clean (especially John!).
The whole situation did have it's difficult moments, though. The biggest issue was definitely the lack of privacy. He was ALWAYS there! This can be a little tough for newlyweds! Also, my dad, bless his heart, likes to talk. A LOT. And his favorite subject? Himself. So, pretty much every conversation in the house, whether he was involved or not, ended with some story about how he did or experienced the same thing we were talking about. Sometimes his stories really wouldn't even relate at all to what we were discussing, but we heard a story anyway. Oh, well, I guess he's got a lot more stories to tell because he's got a lot more life experience.
The bottom line is that he is my Dad, we love him and would do anything to help him. Although at points it seemed like it would never end, I can now look back and be glad that we had an opportunity to help him and to spend time with him. I am, however, very glad to get our lives back to normal. I think it will take a few days to readjust to being just John and I again, but I am ready for that adjustment and I am really looking forward to all that time alone ;-)
