In the beginning...

There was a girl and a boy who met in college, got married, bought a house, had 2 children, a golden retriever, a cat, 2 birds, and a tank full of fish. There was a minivan with automatic sliding doors. It seated seven.

The girl volunteered at school and for community projects. Kept the books for her husbands business. And generally kept up appearances of prosperity, taking the kids to gymnastics, dance class, art class and playdates.

But that all came to a crashing end as the business floundered and went bankrupt. The house that they renovated completely from the inside out, was going to be lost. The sporty minivan was only to be theirs for a short while longer, before it was going to be reposessed.

At Christmas the dog developed cancer and died shortly thereafter. Both of the birds died of illness, and it did indeed seem that these were signs pointing to something. The chain of events seemed almost too tragic for even a country song.

The housing market was floundering and the boy was unable to find work. There was an offer from a relative in Colorado to do some work, so the boy left his family to go West.

Seven months passed and the girl started to wonder if he would ever return. But the boy had fallen in love with the mountain lifestyle and fun of the ski town. He had made new friends who didn't know of his embarrassing business failure or house foreclosure.

Knowing she and the kids would have to move anyway, the girl decided if the mountain wouldn't come to Mohammad, Mohammad would go to the mountain. So she prepared to move the remainder of the household 2000 miles, in hopes that she could reunite her family, repair her marriage and renew herself.

She arrived with 2 kids, a cat and the largest Uhaul available, crammed with all the things the IRS hadn't taken, to a house rented sight unseen. It was purple.

The boy is back in the fold, but can the damage done ever be repaired? Only time will tell...