The House That Built Me

This weekend was an emotional rollercoaster to say at the least. I was almost relieved to be home... almost. My parents officially moved to Pennsylvania yesterday. I knew it would be hard, mostly because I haven't been home much to see the house get packed up. It didn't seem real to me so I knew this weekend it would all come crashing down.

Twenty-five years is a long time to be in a house. There are so many memories there: holidays, surprise b-day party that my sisters and I planned for my mom when I was only 9, my youngest sister was born there, learning to play basketball with my dad, sharing rooms, lemonade stands, etc. I did better than I thought till it was time for us to leave. I went inside to get a drink and was alone in the house and finally broke down. It's bad enough knowing you can't back to your "home" but knowing my family will be 25 hours away, compared to 3. It was a lot. And saying good-bye was not pretty. Poor Brock, he had a mess to deal with. We had to leave Saturday (instead of staying till sunday when my parents were leaving) because the elders at our church were supposed to be introducing the small group leaders. Brock and I are leading our group and the other co-leaders are in Europe so we wanted to make sure our group was represented. So I didn't even get to see my parents off or spend as much time with them as everyone else. It was so hard to leave. There were great times as well though! We got into town just in time to see my brother-in-law get baptized! We're so proud of him and happy to have him in our larger "family". My amazing aunt and uncle also hosted us for dinner and breakfast and we celebrated my sister's 22nd birthday. I'm glad there were some good times to the weekend as well! Here are some pics of the home I grew up in and a link to the video my sister Kaytie put together.

our home

the door from our garage to my parents' room

the piano my mom and i grew up playing, now in my living room

love notes from Mom :)

all packed up :(

mom's favorite swing we got her for Mother's Day

good bye little yellow house

leaving our marks

http://www.facebook.com/#!/video/video.php?v=457241488017&ref=mf

Christmas in June ;)

Some of you may have heard me say before that I enjoy seeing our flowers bloom so much it feels like Christmas! :) It's true! Mostly because we aren't the creators of the garden in our backyard and we're still learning what all is back there! Lol, we are finally getting around to spending the time we need fixing it up. I never knew how much work goes into a garden!!!

We have cannas, catmint, daises, tiger lilies, honeysuckle vines, mint, and several others that we are still clueless about.

Daisies

Please ignore the weeds in this picture. I haven't gotten to this side of the yard yet. :) Anyone know what this flower is?

Our rose bush. It's actually pretty pitiful right now. We need some serious clippers.

???? I know that's catmint in the back but have no idea what the yellow flowers are. Gracie LOVES them though!

Tiger Lilies


Going outside is now one of Gracie's favorite things to do! I can't even say "outside" if it doesn't mean actually going outside. She'll run to the back door and cry, saying "side!" until I take her out to play. Here are few pics of her having fun in the yard.

But Mama I always pick all the yellow flowers at the park!

AND back to the yellow flowers. :)