The House That Built Me...

As I sit in the house that I grew up in waiting for my children to wake up, I can’t help but get sentimental and feel so very blessed especially around this time of year. For those who may not know, when we moved over the summer it was into my parent’s house and are purchasing it from them. With all their children grown they have out grown four bedrooms, a family room, and a pool, and with our growing family we have grown right into that perfectly. They had a large lot and ended up dividing it to build a beautiful brand new house for themselves. I know it sounds like “Everybody Loves Raymond” (which actually our lives are quite similar we have the older daughter and the twins lol but having your parents that close may be too close for comfort for some, but for our family it works. We’ve always been close, and the kids are extremely close with my parents so it works. It is close, but not too close like living together, it works magnificently! I indeed would not be able to be back in school if it wasn’t for the help my father graciously gives with watching the children around my class schedule. I literally bundle them up and send them across the back yard to Papa’s when its time for school! For this phase in our life I am loving where we are at.

So last weekend I took the back roads up to Plaistow, NH to go to Walmart to grab some wrapping stuff for Christmas. These back roads are the roads I literally learned to drive on. These are the roads I drove to my first job - I was a jewelry sales girl at Service Merchandise (remember those stores?) that coincidentally was where my husband now :) boyfriend then ;) and I both worked. Surprise surprise I worked in jewelry and him in electronics… some things never change. These roads are where I got my first flat tire in my red two door Nissan Sentra that I HAD to have because it had a sunroof lol – not a automatic sunroof like we have now, but the old school ones that you just really lift up and sit on a latch haha. That Nissan I must say was my pride and joy, mostly because I paid for it entirely myself - a whole $900 lol that was a lot at 16. AND I taught myself how to drive a stick in it, many whipped necks later, but I learned. These were the same roads that we took to go to Dandelions for an ice cream cone, the plainest ice cream cones ever but still worth the ride. The same roads we took to go up to Early Bird for the Lumber Jack Special (man I liked to EAT breakfast foods even back then). These back roads that I thought I had grown to despise, the back roads that I couldn’t have been happier to get away from.

Moving from your hometown even if it’s only a few towns over seems like the best thing ever when you are in your teens. Moving out of your house seems like the best thing ever. But here, 13 years later living with my family in our house it really has started to fully sink in how incredibly blessed I am. I always feel blessed, but for some reason that drive on the back roads that built the life I have now, in the house we have now, meant so much to me. As I was driving looking at the Christmas lights, I was just taking it in… inevitably I went too far and missed my turn and needed to turn around (cause that’s how I roll) but a little longer time in the car was okay with my thoughts and then this song came on… Miranda Lamberts - The house that built me. Not gonna lie I am SO NOT a crier… I’m just not. It usually takes a lot to make me tear up, but driving, reminiscing, feeling blessed AND (it was that time of the month, not to ruin it but it helps with tears) I started to tear up. Happy tears of course, blessed tears, and tears that still make me say PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE do not let my daughter be as stubborn of a teen as I was! lol I NEVER EVER pictured my life this way, but am so thankful this is what I have and where we are. If anyone knows what a trouble maker and true BRAT I was in my teen years, I have been more than blessed! Sometimes… I wonder... HOW DID I GET SO LUCKY?!





At 3yrs old: "Mom & Dad, I love you".
At 10 yrs old: "Mom & Dad whatever!"
16 yrs old: "My Mom & Dad are so annoying!"
18 yrs old: "I wanna leave this house".
25 yrs old: "Mom & Dad you were right".
30 yrs old: "I wanna go back to my Mom & Dad's house".
50 yrs old: "I don't wanna lose my Mom & Dad".
70 yrs old: "I would ...give up EVERYTHING for my Mom & Dad to be here with me"