Remembering our First Place

As we were driving home recently, Michael and I began reminiscing about our very first apartment.

It was probably just under 500 square feet.  The kitchen was so small, there wasn't even enough room for a full-sized stove.  It was hard for both of us to even stand in there together.  All the easier to clean though.

Ardeth was our landlady, or AJ as Michael lovingly referred to her.  

For almost three years, we rented the little apartment that took up half of her basement.

She was a very sweet, kind and organized widow who had been renting the apartment forever.

 Actually, she was a fire-ball and was never afraid to tell us what she thought.

She made sure we kept the blinds open, vacuumed enough and swept the leaves in the breezeway.

But of all her renters, I think she loved us the best.  

Michael killed a ton of mice for her when a new construction project began just down the road.

I think that got us started off on the right foot. 

We reminisced about the good old days.  We remembered all the fun we had while living there.

We were newly married, working and attending school full-time.  We were poor and every penny counted.

That was back when our grocery budget was $65 a month.  I know we ate a lot of macaroni and cheese, spaghetti and frozen vegetables.  I usually didn't buy meat and ground hamburger was a rare treat.

We remembered cleaning that little apartment.  We would turn the music up loud and clean together.

We took a lot of walks all around the neighborhood and down to the campus and talked about everything.  

We had wonderful neighbors and made some good friends while living there.

We swept a lot of leaves and shoveled a lot of snow.  We road our bikes, and then had our bikes stolen.

We picked the tomatoes that Ardeth planted just for us.

We convinced her to let us paint the brown paneled walls, put in new light fixtures and a ceiling fan.

We went to the laundry mat every week to do our laundry.

We sat on her deck that overlooked the college area and did our homework on warm days.

We convinced her to let us get a cable line put in for high-speed internet.

We pulled our mattress into the living room and watched movies late into the night.

We had an old blue couch, an industrial table, a full-sized bed and dressers given to us by various members of Michael's family.  We always joke that I didn't come to marriage with a dowry.

We read Micheal's acceptance letter for Pharmacy School on that same blue couch.

There were sensor lights above the front door that always turned on when it was windy.  

And one night, we saw someone running away from our front door.  We always wonder who that was.

We remembered when an ambulance showed up to take Ardeth to the hospital in the middle of the night. 

After we moved to Boise so Michael could finish his third and fourth year of school and clinical rotations, a sweet friend threw me a surprise baby shower, and Ardeth kindly hosted it on her deck.  

She has since sold her home and moved to be closer to her children.  

We send her a Christmas card every year, and she sends us one in return.  She loves that we stay in touch

We loved those first few years of our life together, spent in AJ's basement apartment.

And we love reminiscing about the good old days.