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359 to go. September 1, 2040 that house is mine!! MINE!!!

My house, that I do not live in yet, is in Midvale a few blocks from my folks place. It is the house my Mom grew up in. My grandparents owned it for years; my aunts have lived there for a long time now. My name is now proudly on the title and I just made my first mortgage payment. My aunts will still live there until July when they will move out to live in an apartment or retirement community and I will take up residence there permanently (well until I move to Delaware for my high paying dream job... just kidding... I am not going anywhere.)

This house is old, it needs some fixing up, but I love it and could not stand the thought of it leaving our family. I have so many memories of walking in the door and smelling cinnamon rolls that Grams had just baked and she always had cookies in the jar, or playing Colored Easter Egg with my cousins on the front porch, and even being told to behave or I would get the strap. The smell of the shop out back is what I always imagined is what my Grandpa would smell like (I never met him.) The only really bad memory I have in this home is once I was asked to go out to the shop and get something. What I was not told is that Uncle Jim had shot a deer and he had it in the shop to bleed out. That was terrifying. You would think it would have put me off of deer meat forever, but I actually love it. I remember fondly sitting with Grams a few days before she died. She had been sick for a while and we took turns sitting with her so Aunts Colleen and Della could get a break once and a while. She turned to me and asked why Uncle Lee was in the light bulb. I knew the veil was thin and she was going to leave us soon. She died a few days later and I can still remember the mortuary taking her body. And while this could be a bad memory, I hold it dear to my heart, because I had so many good years with her and it was time for her to rest. I remember working in the garden as a kid and now as an adult I take pride in it. We had some of the best tomatoes this year and, child please, that cantaloupe that Aunt Colleen grew... oy it was good.!

So this house is mine, and while I do need to preserve these memories, in time I need to make it mine; make new memories. I am excited for the house, sad the aunts are moving out sooner than later, and anxious for a new chapter to start.