Our life together!

So, Jamie and I start our new life together!

We moved around ALOT during the first few years of our marriage.

Our first apartment was on Burdick St. It was an older "house apartment". A nice single mom and her daughter lived above us and we lived on the lower level. I must admit, I didn't always feel totally safe there...especially when Jamie was working third shift. It wasn't a "bad" neighborhood...in fact we knew several of the neighbors around us. There was another single mom, Cindy and her two teenage kids next to us. There was the landlord and his wife across the street. There was a middle age woman next door who seemed nice, yet eccentric...as she lived with about 25 cats! She was sweet though...she'd always snip fresh catnip from her backyard and give us some for our kitty. LOL! While we lived there, Jamie worked at First Assembly and then eventually his part-time job at Bronson Hospital turned full-time. That was a huge blessing. That provided a good income and great health benefits. During this time, I worked as the lead toddler teacher at The Learning Village. We were enjoying our new life together.

Then...Jamie discovered an apartment opening! It was an older complex...yet very well maintained and nice. We got it! We moved into Keenway around Thanksgiving I believe. It was great. A two bedroom, nice sized place for the two of us and kitty! It was quite a mix of neighbors there. Across the hall from us was an older man and his thirty-something son. They had frequent shouting matches. Then on the second floor...there were two older couples. Both were nice. I will never forget the one woman...Betty...she was always soooo nosey. Always peeking out her curtains! LOL! We'd go for walks at night and so would her husband Joe...she'd always be peeking out the curtains watching for him as he made each circle! LOL! On the lower level was younger gals...always smoking...not the most pleasant. But everyone got along. It was a nice place to live.

Then we had a big change! We got jobs as innkeepers at The Stuart Avenue Inn Bed & Breakfast! We had a great apartment in the Chappel House. The inn consisted of two homes built in 1886 and 1900, and also a carriage house. Our bosses turned out to be...how shall we say..."not what we had hoped for"...so things were about to change again.

We than got jobs in Holland at Prince Corporation. We had a nice apartment on Burke with great landlords. We loved Jim and Phyllis. All was great at Prince till JCI took over.

We had three more moves during this time. We bought a mobile home and lived in West Olive Estates for nearly two years. We were very lucky to have sold and broke even on that deal. We were fortunate to get out before it started going downhill. We then were able to purchase our home on Byran Dr. It looked like a dollhouse from the front. We really enjoyed our home. We lived there for approximately two years as well. We ended up selling there right as some subsidized housing was coming in. We were then worried about the value of the house and thinking about...school districts!!! We were very fortunate to have found Sundance. Our current home in Zeeland. Zeeland has awesome schools. We're close to Holland and Grandville. Great neighborhood.

...Which will bring me to my next subject in the next entry...

"OUR FAMILY"!!!