{"id":56022,"date":"2025-03-20T20:59:51","date_gmt":"2025-03-20T20:59:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/?p=56022"},"modified":"2025-03-20T20:59:51","modified_gmt":"2025-03-20T20:59:51","slug":"while-decorating-a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/?p=56022","title":{"rendered":"While Decorating a>>>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"512\" height=\"640\" src=\"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/image-942.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-56023\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/image-942.png 512w, https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/image-942-240x300.png 240w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 512px) 100vw, 512px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>When my daughter compared our gingerbread house to the &#8220;secret house Daddy takes me to every weekend,&#8221; I laughed\u2014until she mentioned a pretty lady with candy. A few days later, I followed my husband.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As a surgeon, my job demands absurd hours. I love saving lives, but I miss too much at home. Mark, my husband, works remotely and takes care of our energetic six-year-old, Emma.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One rare evening off, I helped Emma build a gingerbread house. She beamed, saying, &#8220;It looks like the secret house Daddy takes me to\u2014with the pretty lady who gives me candy!&#8221; My stomach dropped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That Saturday, I pretended to work and secretly followed them. Mark drove to a beautiful, snow-covered house. A woman greeted them warmly, hugging Emma and handing her candy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Heart pounding, I confronted them. &#8220;Who is she?&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The woman, Lily, smiled. &#8220;I&#8217;m the contractor.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mark sighed. &#8220;This house is for us. I used my inheritance to surprise you.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Tears welled in my eyes. I had assumed the worst, but he had been planning our future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/?p=56002\">also read&#8230;.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When my daughter compared our gingerbread house to the &#8220;secret house Daddy takes me to every weekend,&#8221; I laughed\u2014until she mentioned a pretty lady with candy. A&#8230; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":56023,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56022"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=56022"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56022\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56024,"href":"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56022\/revisions\/56024"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/56023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=56022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=56022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=56022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}