I don’t remember the last time writing about the fact that we’ve been living in this house for X amount of time. But here goes!

May 2, 2008 was the day that Melissa and I first bought our house.

This house.

I vaguely remember that day. Mostly bits and pieces.

I know we had a walkthrough of the house, went to go sign our lives away for this house and then we finally owned this thing!

I remember coming to the house, which had (and still does have) a flag pole. I raised a pirate flag that first day (claiming ownership of the house).

We have officially owned this house for 12 years.

In those 12 years Melissa and I have grown a lot as a couple and as adults in this house.

I honestly think we’ve grown so strong. We’ve been together for 19 years as a couple (not married – 13 years married this year). While outwardly we may not seem to see eye to eye on things; we are an extremely strong unit.

Owning this home was one of the first things we had to do as a couple to grow. (You could add, pay bills, feeding ourselves, keep a rabbit alive…but I argue owning a home is larger!)

When we first bought this house we had just lived in the same apartment for 3 years. With that apartment came out first pet Peanut Chew (the rabbit I named in the above paragraph).

He came to this house for a visit a few days after and was exploring. He’d go up and down the stairs.

Ultimately, claiming what we would dub “the green room” (because of its ugly green carpet – a left over from the previous owners) as his own. He’d love to go up and wander in that room. He would continue to do this until 2014 when we re-did the green room (which amounted to ripping out the nasty old carpet, painting the room, putting some new furniture in there). He lost interest in going up and down those stairs. But he was still an interesting rabbit.

We also called the other room “the blue room” because it had blue curtains on it. We stretched ourselves pretty thin early on for creative names, I tell you. Truth be told we have three bedrooms upstairs – Master bedroom, the blue room (which would become Miles’ room) and the green room (which would become Aubrey’s room).

But I digress, as I’m sure I will do a lot during this piece.

We made good friends of friends with our neighbors Bill and Sherri. I think they will be forever our friends even when we leave here.

They have both been so helpful during these last twelve years. They’ve gone above and beyond what I, myself, have come to know as neighbors. They would give their right arms to help with anything, or give advice on something around the yard or house.

I can only hope that we always have neighbors like that.

In July of 2008, we tried our luck with a chihuahua that we named Rocket Dog Jones.

Didn’t work out.

Melissa’s parents ended up taking him after two weeks.

He’s still around. And he’s a little gremlin of a dog. But he goes by the name of Rocky now.

And, honestly, it would have never worked out.

That does lead us to later in 2008! 

We got Cassie, my first (real) dog and our first golden retriever.

She was born and raised in Mine Hill. Not too far from where we live now. 

Melissa once said, I kid you not, that if I ever saw golden retriever puppies for sale at the local supermarket bulletin board she’d get one.

One evening, I’m walking out and I see this flyer and take a picture.

It was an almost immediate decision and later on that night we went and saw the puppies and not too long later we had Cassie.

She’s awesome.

Despite all the food stealing and clothes hoarding she really is a great dog.

Before this I never saw myself a dog person. I had a cat and (at this time) had a rabbit. But she changed my mind. We took her everywhere. 

Some time went on and in 2010 we got Chloe.

100% a true sister to Cassie. She was born in Alabama and driven up to NJ in the back of a pickup truck.

She’s our sweet, excitable, happy, forever puppy. As old as she is, she will always act like she’s a puppy.

Things settled down for a few more years. 

And then in 2015 we welcome our first child, Miles!

Miles was eye opening for us. How you could love something so immediate is utterly amazing. He, himself, has always been amazing. 

We all grew a bit more. Lost some. Gained some more.

Finally in 2018 we had Aubrey! Our little girl gave us the jelly to our peanut butter, the pepper to our salt, the mustard to our ketchup.

I am grateful for this house that we’ve all called home for these twelve amazing years and we are looking forward to seeing what the future holds for us.

Thank you, Home.