Well, 2013 has certainly not been fun around here. Feb 22, got a call at work that nobody wants to receive. It was from my wife, and it started with, "I think the house is on fire."
It was. It was burned to the ground. We lost *everything!* Well, not really, the exterior of he house actually contained the fire, but the inside was nothing but charred remains. It was weird.
Two of my daughters had moved out, so we were only a family of 4. We lived in a small motel room (within sight of our ex-house) for 2 months, and now live in a small furnished apartment. They tore the house down a week after the fire, and started demolishing the foundation today. (And the crazy neighbor lady complained about the noise!) We're soon (crosses fingers) going to begin building on the same site... A house that looks alot like the old, but with all those "I wish this was different" things we all want to do to our homes. We're still mostly wandering around in a haze of complete disbelief, and are homesick beyond comprehension. For example, today, I accidentally dropped a glass that my wife found in the rubble of our home, and it broke. She cried for almost an hour.
On the plus side... Both my two daughters graduated college in May, and have both already found decent jobs.