Andrea & Amanda

Age: 36

Arab, Alabama

Meet the twin teachers of Arab Alabama! Affectionately known as, “Amandrea,” this “twister” duo is big on personality, energy and sentimental silliness. Even their own children have their same middle names. These sisters have sister dates where they dress up and cook for each other. They share underwear, have found themselves on the same menstrual cycle, tell each other graphic bathroom stories and send each other photos of their tonsils and kidney stones. They work together as teachers and have classrooms just down the hall from one another.

They even have eerily similar husbands: both are tall, have black hair and blue eyes. Amanda’s husband Pete is a chicken farmer and Andrea’s husband Cody is a helicopter pilot. Amanda and Pete live in a converted barn on a massive chicken farm with over 100k chickens! Also, their home is part-time event/party center with a movie theatre, basketball court, space for inflatable bounce houses and a, “red-neck water slide.” Cody, Andrea and their two children live ten minutes away in a home that they constructed using shipping containers. The only one like it in the entire state of Alabama!

About two years ago Amanda gave up a lucrative tenured teaching position at her former school district in order to accept a position at the school that Andrea works at. Amanda viewed the opportunity as a sign and a gift from God. Once she received the phone call, she knew that she was meant to take the position in order to be closer to her sister. However, moving school districts meant moving her children from one school district to another. It’s been an extremely difficult adjustment for the children, as her son has had to sacrifice his close friends and social circle to move to a school district where he is bullied. He hates his current school. He feels like an outcast and has had difficulty making new friends. Amanda has sacrificed her children’s happiness in order to be closer with her sister. She’s conflicted as she loves her job and working with Andrea, but she also feels like a failure as a mother, putting her wants and needs before her children’s. She’s struggles with the decision and admits that it’s hard to be happy where her children are miserable. Even their respective husbands get jealous of their super closer bonds- feeling that they need to share their wives with their sister’s in law. It’s a tough situation that the sisters are trying their best to manage fairly without hurting people’s feelings in the process.

The future for Andrea and Amanda is unknown- will Amanda truly be able to thrive while her children are miserable, and will she move back to her previous school system? Or does Andrea come first? Perhaps the family will need to find a way to split their time between the schools with husband Pete and Amanda’s son living part time in one school district so that Andrea and Amanda can be together. Only time will tell where they all end up.