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I asked Me_7 what I should write about, and she suggested Holland, or tulips, but since my nearest experience with the above is with Holland, Michigan (where I've never been, but they have a tulip festival every year - close enough?), I decided I Am No Expert, and I'd better pick another subject :)

So...Doc is moving into his new home. Now there is a subject near and dear to my heart! Not only because I am (marginally) involved in the real estate business, but because I've lived in 4 different family houses (5 if you include the one I don't remember, because we moved just before my first birthday), 2 apartments (3 if you count the fact I moved from a downstairs flat to an upstairs one in my second complex), and finally, a home of my own, where I've lived for (wow!) 4 years now.

One of the houses we moved to, when I was 11, was a brand-new house. I finally got my own room (!) after having to share with my sister - UGH - most of my life. She used to have night terrors when she was very small; she would wake up screaming, turn on the lights, and run to my parents' room, leaving me bolt awake and terrified myself. My parents worked a little "tough love" on her, taking out the lightbulb and putting a hook-n-eye lock on the outside of the bedroom door; I don't remember if that worked or if they tried it and gave up after one night of listening to her screams. I have a feeling they gave in after one try; my sister always had that horrible, demonic touch when it came to getting her own way.

I was able to decorate my own room in the brand-new house. I had read a book once where a girl went to live with her grandparents - or was it aunt and uncle? - anyway, she spent 3/4ths of the book wanting wallpaper with yellow roses in her attic room (maybe she was from Texas); by the end of the story her guardians turned kind and she got her wallpaper. One of those little-girl-lost-happily-ever-after stories. Anyway, I found a beautiful wallpaper with vines of yellow roses and twisty cord stripes, and was allowed to have it in my bedroom. It was only on the top half of each wall; the "thing" at the time was to paint the bottom half and put a strip of moulding all the way around halfway up, dividing paint and wallpaper (the "country" look). It was a very bright, happy bedroom and I loved it all through my teen years. We moved out when I graduated high school.

Having a new house, that no one else had ever lived in, was a dream come true for my parents. I hope Doc and his family are happy in their new home for longer than we were (we only lived there 6 years) and make the best of memories there.

- Denise