Places I have lived...

You may be wondering why I have all these posts of cities and all the fun information. It all started from a friend. We went to high school together and she forwarded me the link to the fun facts about our town, Jenison, where her and her husband met as well as Andy and I. Interestingly enough, we all met up again in the Chicago area where we all lived in the area. Anyway, it got me interested in looking up fun facts about other places I have lived and so I thought it would be fun to post them. I've lived in quite a few places growing up.

I was born in Grand Rapids, MI and lived there until I was in first grade.

In first grade, my family moved to Dutton, MI where I attended Dutton Elementary and then went on to Caledonia Junior High where I only attended for a couple of weeks before my family decided to move.

Shortly after 7th grade, my family moved us to Wayland, MI. It was a cute little town and we had the cutest house. We were all really happy there, but 6 weeks before the end of my 11th grade year my Dad got the itching to move.

So, right before my end of my junior year we upped and moved to Jenison, MI. I hated it at first and I'd come home and cry because I missed my friends and it was an awkward time of the year to try and meet new people when there was only 6 weeks left of the school year. If it wasn't for band I would have been lost...all my closest friends and my first boyfriend came from band and the fact that we were always together helped me to form friendships that bloomed. That was also where I met Andy although we were nothing more than friends then. He used to pick me up for band practices, competitions, and football games and he lived right around the corner. My senior year of high school went very well though, but I owe it all to the friendships that I formed from band. Unfortunately, my parents hated it there and my Mom still says to this day that everything happens for a reason and that move was for me to meet Andy. I owe some really good friendships to that move as well.

In 1996 my parents moved to Red Oak, TX, but I didn't want to come down. My Dad was pretty upset with me for it as I was really already supposed to be down here. I had talked to the Air Force recruiter and was supposed to go to boot camp in San Antonio in 1996, however I needed to lose 20 lbs first so they wouldn't take me. After the fact, Andy and I'd relationship really started and I didn't want to move.

So, on my best friend's wedding day, we went to her reception and I got an emergency phone call saying my parents were leaving for Texas....they weren't waiting until the next day like they said they were...my Dad had the itch to get on with it and since all their stuff waas packed they were on their way. I stood crying in a pizza parlor and came back to my best friend's reception that had just started crying. She was sweet and took me into the bathroom with all the other bridesmaids tofind out what was going on and when she hugged me I got my mascara all over her dress. My Dad wanted me to leave the reception, but I wasn't going to leave her since I was in the wedding and the reception had just started. So, they left and I didn't see them for a good couple of years later.

I started out living with my Aunt and Uncle in Jenison, MI and later moved back to Wayland, MI to live with my friend and her Mom.

In June of 1998, I moved to Chicago, IL, to be near Andy. I had a little studio apartment that he found for me in the Gold Coast so that I could walk back and forth to work. I paid $549 for my little studio apartment. I worked at FAO Schwarz on Michigan Ave and got to see some famous people, Noah Wylie, Anthony Edwards, Dennis (I just forgot his last name...but I thought he was rather rude), Oprah, and there's a couple others I can't remember. We also saw movies being shot and an episode of ER being shot. It was fun, but I was in major culture shock and I didn't like being alone much. Andy was in his last semester at Columbia so he used to come over after school all the time and he used to come get me from work so I didn't have to walk alone. On the 4th of July, he proposed to me on the way back from fireworks in the rain along the lake. We married on September 12, 1998.

We moved up the street to get a 1-bedroom apartment and we paid $1075 for our 1-bedroom. We stayed there for a year and then moved a couple streets over.

We wanted to get a nice 2-bedroom that we found. It was $1250 for our 2-bedroom plus parking and we had the hardest parking spot to get into of all the cars. Andy actually got us wedged in once...we laugh about it now, but man was that spot stressful.

When we found out we were expecting Deidra, we couldn't imagine trying to raise a child in the city, so we moved again. We bought our first house together and moved to Hanover Park, IL. A few months after Deidra was born, Andy's company was bought out by another company and he was laid off. It was very stressful to say the least and he had a hard time finding a new job. A good 7-8 months later he was able to find work again, but the job didn't pay nearly as much as what the other one did and so we were still really struggling. A bunch of stress and a bankruptcy on our record, we chose to move to be near our families as we really felt we needed the extra support with everything that we had been through.

So, in October of 2003, we upped and moved to MI. Andy's dad had built a new 2-story house and since he was hardly ever home he offered us his lower level to stay in. He was exceptionally generous with letting us stay there, but I was anxious to get back into a place of our own after a year went by and it was hard to discipline Deidra and so forth with trying to keep her quiet so his Dad could sleep in the afternoons and after the first year of staying there it became hard on our marriage. We also wanted to add to our family and Andy began looking in Texas for work, although I didn't know that at the time. A few months later, he told me and we put a plan in place to move. We needed to line some things up first. My transfer with Home Depot went through alot sooner than I originally thought it would. It took less than a week to go through.

In April 2006, the day after Easter, Deidra and I drove down to Texas to find a place for all of us to live. My Mom found a place in Waxahachie for us that was close to the church we planned on going to and we met with the landlords and we took it. I spent the rest of the time cleaning the house and getting it ready for us to move in. I flew back to MI on the first of May to help Andy move down and Deidra stayed with my Mom. We really enjoy living here.

In May 2007, we decided to build the house that we fell in love with the floorplan of. We put money down on our lot and they started building a couple of months later. October 11, 2007 we moved in. We don't plan on moving again. We really love our little neighborhood and the people are friendly and Deidra has more kids to play with here than she knows what to do with. We always have a yardfull of kids. :-) We're very happy here and really enjoy it.