Goodbye 711! Hello Kaitie’s Castle!

I will miss 711. No, not 7-Eleven® the convenience store. I am more of a Wawa girl myself and Tim loves Sheetz. What I am referring to is not the convenience store but rather our first home: Apt. 711. All 900 sq. ft. of Apt. 711 will be remembered with thoughts of love and frustration. Love because of the memories made there - that is where Tim and I learned how to play house; learned how to live together as one; learned how to share contact solution and toothpaste. Frustration because it is an apartment. It’s not MINE! I can’t change the white cabinets even though they are from the 1980’s or paint the walls bright pink (even though I don’t think Tim would let me) because I have to return the apartment to the original condition–per our leasing agreement. So, yes, I will miss 711, but our temporary housing, before the move across the pond, is like living in a castle. 

  

Tim’s program will be completed in one year, but after that year we don’t know where we will be living. A big question we faced was where we would store our stuff for the next year or two or 10… Well, this is where I want to introduce you to Kaitie Bug, or Kaitie for short. Next to Tim, Kaitie is my best friend. She is also a Yankee living in the South. So, just like me, she is learning to deal with bad hair days because of the awful humidity, learning that if there is even a rumor of a snowstorm don’t think about going to the grocery store (it will be busier than Target on Black Friday) and trying to understand why in the world someone would CHOOSE to eat boiled peanuts. Kaitie Bug is also my little sister. 

Kaitie Bug just did something that officially makes her a responsible adult in my mind. She bought a house. 

I am thankful for Kaitie Bug - more than just because she is letting us live with her for six weeks before we move and MORE than just because she is letting us use her spare bedroom as a storage shed for the next year. But because she doesn’t get angry when her spare bedroom looks like this:

 or this:

  

Yes, I am thankful for Kaitie Bug because she is so generous and loving to Tim and me. I love her because she is my best friend and because she is MY little sister!