Moving. Still. In 2012.
After 23 years of marriage, when will this end? We're not even a military family! Will we ever be settled? I have serious doubts.
Let's retrace our history of house hopping by going back in time to 1989. After getting married in June, my husband and I skipped the whole honeymoon thing and instead moved to an apartment in Fargo, North Dakota - move #1. For two months, we looked for jobs and went to the community pool.
We left that nonsense behind and moved to Minnesota - #2, where I am from, to a garden level apartment in Uptown, Minneapolis where we were welcomed in the parking lot by a screaming, eccentric man dressed only in a leopard thong. After that, the move was easy - we only had three boxes, a couch and a bed. We finally got jobs and settled in for our new life. We didn't see much more of the bikini clad screamer. Scott and I both worked at Dayton's Department Store - he sold suits and ties, and I sold juniors' apparel. We eventually got different jobs, he was a loan collector and I was a receptionist. With only one car, I was usually the one riding the bus to work.
After one year in the apartment, along came a positive pregnancy test. Fearing for the health of our unborn child's lungs from inhaling city bus fumes, we moved 5 blocks East to a second floor sixplex - #3. This is where Andrea was born. This is also where the laundry was in the basement and one day there was a sewage leak. This is also where we hauled our dried-out Christmas tree down the carpeted steps and didn't clean up the 2 inch layer pine needles we left behind. This is also where we called the cops to break up the fighting between the couple living above us. It was time to move again.
We had acquired a lot of things by this point what with having a baby and everything. No longer, would our stuff fit into just three boxes so we rented a moving truck. The moving truck brought us to our new bungalow in Edina - #4, on a busy, busy street. This is where we survived the Halloween Blizzard of 1991. This is where I dug up "weeds" which I later learned to be perennials, hostas to be exact. This is where Scott worked for a pharmaceutical company and we never had to pay for baby formula. This is where I was a working mom with a baby in Diane's Daycare. Diane was an ordained minister and loved to play the organ for the babies. However, Diane didn't have cribs for the babies. The babies slept in laundry baskets. And I was okay with this?
I think we lasted one year before moving on to a townhouse in Plymouth - #5. It was a decent place, but I had to change daycares because of the distance. This is where we found out we were expecting our next baby.
Because our family was growing, it only made sense to buy a house. Which we did. It was also in Plymouth - #6. This is where Madeline was born. Well, technically she was born in the hospital. I continued working and now had two kids in daycare. We made it two years in this house, until Scott and I had some issues and I moved out with the girls. Another one bites the dust.
Taking a major step backwards, I, alone, rented a two bedroom apartment in Vadnais Heights - #7. Scott and I finally resolved our issues and he moved in with us. I think we were in that apartment for one year. This is where we started a solid relationship with my step-daughter, Taylor who lived with her mother in North Dakota. Before that, we didn't see her often enough. This is where Andrea started preschool. This is where I was finally able to quit my job and become a stay-at-home mom. This is also where our family started growing again leading up to the addition of a baby boy.
Scott took a new job which now brings us to Barrington, Illinois - #8. We rented a cute little house on a cute little street. This is where it took a little time, but Scott's job slowly began to bring in a livable income. This is where Andrea fractured her skull and started Kindergarten. This is where Jackson was born. This is where Jackson cried for one whole year. This is where I started to make a few new friends. This is where we spent a lot of time with Scott's mom as well as his dad and step-mom. This is where I started missing my parents.
Two years later I said goodbye to my friends and we were off to Londonderry, New Hampshire - #9. We owned a home again which Scott picked out for me sight unseen. It was wonderful, but very far from the home of my youth. This is where Maddie went to Kindergarten. This is where Jackson would never stay in his bed at nighttime or in the house at daytime. This is where Andrea's best friend was Kristen. This is where we acquired a tan and white cat named Max. This is where I made lots of friends named Cheryl. This is where I said goodbye to those friends after two years. Scott took a job with a new company and I was so excited to get back to my home state where my family was.
So after two years in New Hampshire, we moved back to Minnesota to a freshly built house in Woodbury - #10. Back to the state of the home of my youth. We were on our way to planting our roots and stayed in this house for the longest of any so far - three years. This is where Jack learned to ride a bike. This is where Madeline went to gymnastics. This is where Andrea joined a swim team. This is where we all made lots of new friends. This is where we decided we wanted our kids to go to Stillwater schools. Stillwater was the next town over which required another move.
Moving on. Stillwater was next on the journey of root-planting - #11. But, from the minute we moved in, we wanted to move out. The neighborhood was adorable, something out of a Norman Rockwell portrait. But it wasn't suiting us. We put the house on and off the market about five times before we actually meant it. Eight years we stayed here. This is where our cat, Max died. This is where we acquired another cat named Summer who attacked the housekeeper. Summer went bye-bye. This is where we got our dog, Napoleon. This is where the kids had most of their life-forming experiences and will probably remember as "home." However, a chance opportunity came up for Scott to transfer to the state of his dreams, Arizona. We said good-bye to family and friends again and packed our house and our dog and moved to the land of sun - #12.
Once in Arizona, we shacked up in a hotel for two nights including New Year's Eve. I remember we spent that night watching UFC fighting and a Bette Midler comedy show. I won't count that as a move.
We were then temporarily stationed at a corporate apartment with, ironically, a broken heater. It was freezing that month of January in Arizona. I won't count that either.
After two weeks of living the apartment life, we rented a house on a desert golf course in Scottsdale - #13. Ironically again, the heat was broken. Once that was fixed, the house was fine, but not ours. The houses were really spread apart so we didn't meet many neighbors. However, we started to really enjoy the creatures in the surrounding area. The quail we nicknamed Do-Dos, the bobcats that would frolic on the golf course at dusk, the coyotes we would hear howling at night and sometimes see on our driveway. One night we even saw a Mexican Greywolf soldiering down the road nearby. I wasn't so fond of the mice that would drown in our pool once a week.
Scott started to worry about not getting a tax break as renters so we decided it was time to own. So after our one year lease was up, we shopped around and bought a house of our own in Cave Creek - #14. It was on the side of a mountain in a serene setting. Again, the creatures were abundant, which by now, I was becoming a ball of stress that everything wanted to eat my dog. And all the plantlife wanted to stab us to death. We also settled on three bedrooms, when we actually needed four for when all the girls would come and stay at once. That never happened anyway. The kitchen was ridiculously small which grew more apparent and difficult every day. The sink was cornered between the dishwasher and the garbage can cabinet and you needed a peg leg to operate in it. We never met any of the neighbors. It proved to be an area of town where people go to seclude themselves from all other humanity. This is where I had the worst seasonal allergies of my life. This is where a tarantula appeared at the front door sending me into the closet crying for 2 hours. It was time for the nervous breakdown to commence. The next day, we called the realtor. It had been five months.
Where did we plant our roots next? The saga continues as #15 unfolds. We searched for a rental home in several areas and as a last resort before the closing date on our secluded mountain home, ended up going with the one that was right across the street from an ex-sweetie of Jack. Sorry, Buddy. But you can't even see her house from the backyard. Nevertheless, he doesn't come out of his bedroom or even leave the house on foot for fear of coming in contact with her.
I really like the house. The kitchen makes a lot more sense. I no longer wish for a peg leg. The backyard has a stonewall fence so I'm not as worried about coyotes for my dog though I never let him out of my sight. We still have to watch for owls and hawks, of course.
Like the old saying goes, "home is where you hang your hat."
