Tuesday Tell All - Home Sweet Home

Well, now that I have a dull ache in my chest from all the nostalgia I guess I better write this thing. Marcie, Sally, be careful what you ask for. I figure this blog may have to serve as my family history some day, so this might be a long one.

This is a picture of the home where I grew up, in East Millcreek (Holiday) Utah. This is just as it was being finished (1975), the year I was born. It took several years to finish the landscaping and basement, but I love EVERYTHING about this house. Not because it was the most beautiful, or because of the "stuff" in it, but because this is where my whole childhood was spent. I lived in this house until I graduated from High School and went to BYU. (The dull ache has turned into tears streaming down my face) It will always be my home. Even now, when I drive by it, I get a tangible wave of emotion, and will never be able to call it anything but MY house. My parents sold it shortly after I graduated (I'm the youngest of six). Paul is sick of me crying every time I recount something about the house.
This is the house I built forts in with my brothers and friends. (nice shirt huh?!)

This is a view from the back yard. It was built on a gully, so our back lawn was actually lower than the basement. We had many wedding receptions back there, and it was ideal for exploring. This picture is me with one of my older brothers and sisters.

This is the home that we grew up doing the Nativity in. (I'm baby Jesus)

I included this picture because it shows the incredible view we had of Mt. Olympus from the kitchen, balcony, and dining room. There is NOTHING like it. I miss it SO MUCH!! During my Junior year in High School I lived in Washington D.C. for a semester and worked as a Senate Page. I had a picture that I took from my balcony of the mountain. Oh, and my Dad looks cute blowing out his candles!

This is me jumping off the back balcony into a pile of snow. With so many levels in the back yard there was always something to do. We often rode a sled from the balcony, to the patio, down to the grass, and then even further down to the gully. Good times!


This is our sand pile. On this occasion it seems we were trying to create a pool. We would have castle making contests often with the neighborhood kids. Once we cut the cable line while digging in it. You can't see in this photo, but there was a hammock tied to two trees in the background that I LOVED to snuggle into and take a nap. The other thing you can only see the edge of is a drinking fountain. I always thought that was SO COOL!

This is a picture of some of my family (I'm the small one on the far right!) around THE BEST KITCHEN TABLE IN THE WORLD! I'm trying to figure out how to emphasize that enough. I have actually been wanting to do a whole post on just this table. Because this picture does not do it justice, I will describe it. NO, it is not the most beautiful table in the world. It was round, with 8 seats that swiveled out and attached underneath. So, there were no legs on the seats.......nothing to move while vacuuming/mopping/sweeping etc. It also had a lazy susan where all the food and such was placed during mealtime so when you needed something, you just spun away!!! Wish I could find one for my table, but maybe when the kids are older because my brothers also liked to put me on top of it and spin away. They thought it was funny to watch me try to walk afterward. Many an item took flight on that ingenious little contraption. This table is the reason I was so adamant about wanting a round table. I LOVE the feel of everyone being together. You could really look at everyone, and we were all in on the conversation. Okay, enough of the table.

The next place I lived was in Provo, Utah at BYU!! I know Marcie will gasp, but I don't have any pictures of me other than inside my sweet dorm at Heritage Halls.
This picture is of me at my next home.....The Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies in Jerusalem, Israel. I was so lucky to be able to live and study there for six months in 1995. I can honestly say it was the best experience of my life. (other than being a wife and mother of course)

This is a picture of Paul and my basement apartment on Princeton Avenue in Salt Lake City, Utah. All you can see in this picture is the railing of the steps leading to our front door. It was a perfect little one bedroom for our first years of marriage. We moved in with my Grandma one street away on Harvard when she was needing extra help a couple of years later. We were there for only about 7 months before we moved to Kentucky.

This is our home in Kentucky. It is the first home we owned and we loved it SO MUCH! It was a 2 bed, 2 bath, and it was perfect. It is the home we lived in when both Ella and Jack were born. I could go on and on about Kentucky and the great experience we had there and the friends we made, but I will spare you.

This is our home in La Crosse, Wisconsin. I loved this house...even though it didn't have a dishwasher. We were in this home when Max and Nora were born. I LOVED the yellow. It made me happy each time I saw it. No comment on the yard sign.

This is one of the things I LOVED about La Crosse, and where we lived. The Elementary school was at the bottom of the street, and we would walk down there a lot to play on the playground, ride bikes, or fly kites. This is a picture of Ella and Jack running home from the park with the kite trailing behind them. I love this picture and I am now crying again.

I loved our backyard in Wisconsin. It would have been nice to use it more than a few months of the year. (Too freakin' cold in the LONG winter, and way too hot an humid in the dead of summer) We fenced it in and the grass would get so green. Our neighbors gave us their old swing set as their girls had long grown out of it. This is a picture of Ella sitting at her little picnic table painting. I was in the habit of sending them outside to to EVERYTHING if the weather was even a little bit reasonable.
So, now we are settled here in sunny Arizona. I don't have a good picture of the front of my house. I guess I should take one. I LOVE our back yard and there is so much to do. Yes, it is sweltering here 4 months of the year, but that's where the pool comes in handy. The other 8 months are awesome, and the kids love to play outside. I am happy here and have felt blessed to truly love everywhere I have lived for all it has offered me and my family. I guess that's why they say Home is a feeling, not a place.