The first thing we did was to build a fence across the front yard because our 2 year old's latest hobby was touching cars... big ones, little ones....moving ones. And he was fast. One moment Luke was trying to put lipstick on the dog in the bathroom and the next minute he was streaking toward the busy street in front of our house in a quest to "touch da tars, Mommy!"
Over the years, we have painted, sanded, gutted, adapted and modified the house to suit our changing needs as the boys grew. For a time, my brother rented out the garage apartment. We refer to those years as "The Slob Years", but he was a good tenant and my boys sure missed their Uncle Jim when he left. When Jacob got older, he moved out to the apartment, where he reveled in his new found independence during the day and laid awake listening to the scary, weird sounds from the alley at night. Several months after he moved out we discovered that he had used the wall in his closet for paintball practice. It was a good thing he was in Iraq because I think his dad wanted to wring his neck. And last year, we took down the fence because Luke was 21 and we figured that if he decided to "touch the cars" he could just drive himself to the hospital.
We have built walls, taken down walls, planted gardens, grass and hidden treasures in the yard. The walls have been painted Country Blue, Hunter Green and now Mocha Delight. We have celebrated many Christmases, birthdays, anniversaries and graduations. We brought my youngest son home from the hospital to this house and I have chased my boys around the house with a big wooden spoon after they colored on the walls with Sharpies. The memories of family movie nights, science projects, basketball games in the backyard and Halo tournaments are here. There are some sad memories too. Hard times as we struggled with finances, depression, and loss. It's all here in this house.
Last week we moved to a nice brand new house. No one has ever lived here before us. We got to chose the paint and the counter tops. It even has that new house smell. And today we celebrated our First Thanksgiving in the New House. It was a good day, full of food and laughter and lots and lots of noise and pie. Everyone is in bed now, and as I am sitting here in my recliner recuperating, I think of all of memories we will make here. Hopefully mostly good, happy memories.
