23 Years Ago...

This is a picture of our house 23 years ago today!

Kerry Leigh, shown here at a whopping 5 minutes old,

had come into the world! 

We didn't know then how much laughter and joy 

she would bring to our lives.

On her first birthday,  we actually wore matching 

Laura Ashley outfits!  LOL!

At two years old, she was the life of the party. 

She wanted to be "Belle" at 3.

This "Aristocat" was the cat's meow at age 4!

The Disney theme continued on her 5th birthday!

This picture was taken before the guests arrived for her 6th birthday party!

Her 7th birthday party had a "backwards" theme.

Kerry is the girl with her hands on her knees and the huge smile!

We celebrated her 8th birthday in Alaska with her cousins.

My sister's gift was the "Spottie Dottie" blanket.

Kerry was a huge Spottie Dottie fan!

For number nine, we had a party at the swim club.

I always loved this picture of Kerry!

Annie couldn't believe Kerry blew out 

all of her candles on her 10th birthday.

No big party for eleven, but we had our favorite raspberry cream cake!

Twelve was spent in Burlington with her grandparents

and a scrumptious ice cream cake from Ben&Jerry's.

Another raspberry cream cake for 13 - no time for a big party with summer softball games going on!

We missed taking pictures for a few years,

but we managed to capture Kerry's happiness to turn 16!

  

Kerry's cousins were with us for her 17th birthday!

Cats and cartilage piercing was the theme for #18.

Nineteen was the year of Bieber (and cats)!

Twenty was the year of an odd cat cake and a trip to Sweet Frog.

We visited Kerry in Burlington to be with her for her 21st birthday.

Just last year, we had raspberry cream cake with her friends, just a few days before leaving for the move to Nashville.

Who will she be celebrating with this year?

Possibly her main man, Fletcher.

How is it possible that twenty three years have passed already?

Kerry has grown and matured into a young woman

with a big heart full of compassion for others.

We couldn't be more proud. 

We couldn't love her more!

Another New Beginning

New beginnings.  My kids have had a lot of these in the past few years.  New apartments, new jobs, new friends.   I remember how stressful it was back when I was the one with all of these life changes.  I've lived through it all and I'm glad to be more settled in my life.  

I find it exciting, though, to watch my children maneuver their way through this time in their lives.  Vance and I now have the roles of consultants.  We give support and help out in many ways,  but they are the ones who make the final decisions and do the work to carry them out.  Our financial responsibilities are also lessening as they begin careers and have a paycheck coming in.

Yesterday,  we moved Adam into his first New York City apartment.  He begins his teaching career in August at a high school in the Bronx.  Over the past weeks,  he has been painstakingly searching for a place to live in the city that he (and a roommate) can afford and where he can be happy.  He found it in Spanish Harlem.

We brought his mattress with us,  along with boxes of IKEA furniture to fill his 8.5 x 9.5 bedroom.  My job was assembling an armoire while Adam and his dad moved his things out of his dorm room.

The neighborhood was nice.  Trees lined the street.  The buildings were old but well kept and had a lot of character.

His apartment is in an old building over a small grocery.

This is the hallway outside his apartment.

You enter the apartment into the main living area which was clean and bright. The doorway to the left leads into his roommate's bedroom which is big and lit by two windows.

The kitchen is small with a serious lack of any countertop at all.  The bathroom door is in the middle of the kitchen.

On the other side of the bathroom door is the sink.  It is also lit by a large (although not very scenic) window.

Adam's bedroom is in the front of the apartment, entering through a doorway next to the kitchen stove.

The bathroom is small but nice.   It is also lacking any countertop.

It has a tiny sink and a miniature bathtub.  

But there is a window for light and ventilation!

This is the view from Adam's bedroom window.

I set to work assembling the wardrobe which he needs because his small bedroom also has no closet.

By the middle of the afternoon,  he was all moved in and a storage bed, desk, and armoire were put together. 

While his room is small,  it was cheery and bright and didn't feel claustrophobic.

He still has to put things away and work with is roommate to figure out the common areas, but he is happy with his choice of apartment.  He has only a 3 minute walk to the subway and a 15 minute ride to work.  A Target and Costco are located only a few short blocks away.  There is a definite ethnic feel to the neighborhood - which he enjoys.

I'm sure Vance and I will get to know the neighborhood more over the coming months, but we left with a good feeling that he will be happy here!