Only happy times...

We signed the lease at the end of June 2007. I moved in July 1 and Craig in early August while I was home in Avon, CT preparing for our August 5 wedding. We stayed in the apartment together for the first time on our first day/second night as a married couple.

I don't quite know to whom to attribute the well wish, but I know I heard when we moved into this apartment, from which we are moving out on Monday, "May you only have happy times while you live there."

Thinking about our four-plus years here, we really did have many good times. This apartment served as our first marital abode. It's here where we celebrated Craig's brother Mitchell's engagement to Julie. In fact all of our brothers and sisters-in-law, as well as our four parents and four grandparents, enjoyed wonderful visits here. We celebrated each of the three of our birthdays in Apartment 10D at least once, and Craig and I celebrated four anniversaries here. It was in this home that we planned our around-the-world extravaganza. Here is where I labored through Belle's impending birth, not knowing that it was Belle who was about to be born. This apartment served as Belle's very first home, and it's where Craig and I began learning how to be parents. Nearly two-dozen different people from at least four countries spent the night here; I can tell from the notes in the guest book I started once we started hosting overnight guests.

I know Craig and I had our tiffs, and I'm sure we were all sick from time to time. Those first few weeks of motherhood sure were challenging, of course, and there have been other times of stress (now, for example, as we prepare to move). But overall, I can almost only recall wonderful, exiting, truly life-changing times that we enjoyed in this apartment.

So, to whoever wished us "only happy times" in Apartment 10D, thank you. Your, and our, wish came true.

And we are soon to greener pastures....