We spent many nights filling out paperwork and finding information for our loan company. It seemed everyday they needed something else.

In the rush of getting this information I received a phone call from my mother informing me that my great grandmother had passed away. She was 98 years old and in a nursing home, so I wasn't really surprised. I was, however, saddened by the event. She was always close to my mother and I and it was hard to know she passed away.

I found myself at her funeral a couple days later. The tears didn't come as I thought they might, but I did feel a sadness in my soul. The ceremony was very elegant. The priest, a friend of my grandmothers, performed the ceremony. He handwrote the ceremony and customized it as my grandmother had requested.

When I came back from my trip I received a notice from my employer informing me that I was being laid off. They told me I had five minutes to clean up my desk and get out of the building. I packed up my belongings and left as they requested.

Since we were closing on a house in two weeks I was really anxious to find another job. I began my job search right away. I had my first interview less than an hour after this incident.

I thought I was going to find a new job right away, but none of my prospects panned out. I found myself jobless one day from closing on our house. Fortunately everything worked out in our favor. We were able to close on our house as we had planned.

Our summer seemed to be turning around for us, until my wife's neighbor started causing problems for her. The neighbor started stalking my wife and sending threatening letters. My wife and her mother were afraid that something horrible was going to happen. It seemed every night the police were at their house for some reason.

At this time my wife's father showed back up in the picture. He was an abusive man who had done horrible things to my wife and her mother. He left threatening messages on the answering machine and attempted to break into their house. It seemed our summer was cursed.

My wife agreed to meet her father and eventually sorted everything out. He stopped the threatening phone calls and hasn't bothered them since. The neighbors on the other hand stopped their wicked ways for a month or so, but still continue to be a problem.

I finally found a job the week of our wedding. They were nice enough to let me have a week off for our honeymoon. And except for a car accident I was in the night before the wedding, our wedding was a fairy tale of an event.

I guess I learned alot from the experiences I went through that summer. If I could do it all over, I'm sure it would be exactly as it was.