Ch-Ch-Changes

Needless to say, everything up here has changed.

The first week after the death was understandably difficult. There were many instances where I would be needed to watch the kids while Amanda and Peter would go off and mourn. Amanda does most of her crying in her room and at night, while Peter prefers to express his grief at the beach and on the Piano (he had me drop him off at the Dunes every couple of days, I didn't know what he was doing out there until I picked him up early one day and heard him crying from 1/2 mile away).

Amanda has really surprised me with how strong she has been throughout the ordeal. She really wanted to get back to her normal life as soon as possible, unfortunately in a small town, people noticed that the baby she was carrying was gone, and would mistakenly give their congratulations. The mood around here has defiantly improved over the last week; in fact Sunday was the first day she didn't cry at all.

Peter has taken six weeks off work which is understandable: he really isn't in the right state of mind to hear other people's problems at the moment.

Maisy has been rather angry since the death, she is understandably confused that one family member is gone, and has been temporarily replaced with this quasi stranger (the kids have only met me once or twice [the Moore's keep their distance from the rest of my family- hence the Eureka location]). One of the first things she said to me was "what are you doing here? You aren't in our family." Since then, our relationship has taken a nose dive; she views me as this stranger who's here to replace her parents in their time of grief. Things have improved slightly between us, instead of ignoring me completely; she now treats me like a servant. I'll give it time.

Amanda and Peter are saying that Benny is crying more than before, but as far as our relationship goes, we've never been closer (apparently his favorite person is his 26 year old nanny Jessica; he has said many times over that he would like to change her poopie). (BTW, Benny really likes My Life in the Bush of Ghosts)

After Lilliana died, Amanda and Peter decided to not make any long term plans until after July 1st of next year. Their original plan was to sell this house, move into a rental until the fall, and then move to Europe, but now they've decided to let Maisy finish her first year of kindergarten in Eureka

The house was put on the market last week, who knows how long it will take for it to sell, the market has really cooled up here (frankly, the longer the better because the place that they're renting in Manilla is more than a few steps down from this place- it is however a five minute walk to the beach).

Luckily for me, the days here have passed by quickly because they are all basically the same. Wake up, eat, take care of kids/clean until naptime (my favorite time of the day), clean, insert family afternoon activity here, dinner, drink some type of Belgian beer, and watch Strangers with Candy.

Thankfully, I'm nearing the halfway point of my stay. I'm ready to get back to my own life.