My Childhood Home

My Childhood home...

This post comes at a odd time all around. Just yesterday I went to a bridal lunch for my best friend from childhood. Kelly, Jennifer (my other childhood best bud) and I sat around with our mom's reminiscing the good ole' days. We talked about the clubs we created, the slumber-party's we attended, and the great outfits we'd dress up in to play teacher.

This post also comes just days before my dad puts my childhood home on the market. This is bittersweet for me. I haven't been in that house in years! I guess the last time I was there would have been shortly before my wedding before my parents divorced. So...3 years ago.

It wasn't anything special. It was brown, dark brown with tan bricks. It was a small one-story on a street full of one-stories. Now that I think of it, I'm not even sure if there was a two-story on our street. It was diagonally across the street from one of the greatest friends I have ever had...still have actually.

We had a cute front yard. Nothing extraordinary, but cute all the same. We had an awesome garage. It wasn't your typical concrete garage, but a slick painted/stained one that made for the best-homemade-skating rink EVER! Kelly, Jennifer, and Ashley (my bestest from across the street) and I would skate for hours in my garage. I can still remember coming home from school after "rodeo week" and trying to line dance to Achy Breaky Heart on roller skates. How we never broken any bones, I'll never know.

The inside of our house was as simple as the outside, and matched as well. We had the ugliest brown carpet imaginable. I wouldn't be surprised if it's still in there. Actually, I'd be more surprised if my dad had replaced it. I can remember him always saying, "We are not replacing this carpet until these kids learn to stop spilling stuff!" This was obviously before Playtex made their fine spill-proof sippy cups!!

We NEVER used the front door. It was always locked and it wasn't until I was in high school that we ever opened it for anything other than solicitors. My parents finally put a storm door on it and we actually went in and out of it occasionally. My room was on the back half of the house and my sister's was down the hall on the front end. I don't know who had the bigger room. Maybe they were the same. All I know is my sister's room always looked like mine. This was not due to my parents either. This is because my sister copied every little thing I did. I'm almost 7 years older than her, and she was my shadow for many, many years. If I got flowers from a friend or boyfriend, I always hung them to dry on my walls. Shannon would then pick her some wildflowers and do the exact same. Then I hated it, now it's a wonderful memory.

My room changed only a few times growing up. When I was little in was hearts. Everything was primary colored hearts. As I got older it turned from hearts to flowers. Mauve and sage flowers. I always had a day-bed. This was great because when anyone spent the night, or every weekend when my sister slept in my room, we'd pull up the trundle and she had her own space. I'm not sure how much time I actually spent in my room as a young kid. I think we were usually outside.

Our backyard backed up to an open field. It was the source of entertainment for my friends and I. We'd pick blackberries and dig up strange palm-tree like plants to give to our mom's for mother's day. We'd come home in bug bites and sweat, but never complained.

We also had an awesome playset my dad made. We never even called it a playset, it was always "The Fort". We played in that thing for hours. Well, that is after it was fully built. My dad started it one summer, but then didn't finish it for well over a year. In all honesty, it could have been 6 months for all I know, but it felt like several years. It didn't really matter either way. As an un-finished fort, we'd walk along the beams high in the air. This was a very tall fort (our HOA was never very pleased) and the unfinished beams were well-over 10 feet high. Once again, how we never broke any bones I'll never know.

We also had the notorious swimming pool. No, we were not fortunate enough to have a nice in-ground swimming pool. But we didn't care. We had the small baby pools with the whales and turtles decorating the plastic lining. We'd swim for HOURS! I'm not sure we ever left the swimming pool in the summer. Well, maybe at night to play flashlight tag. Another great about my house. It was the perfect house to play flashlight tag! I can still remember getting my mom and dad out there and playing for hours.

As I got older, my house became a pain. Most of my friends moved away by mid-high school and I was all by myself there. It wouldn't have been so bad, but our neighborhood was 20 minutes from our high school. And I didn't turn 16 until my junior year and didn't get a car until that Christmas. This meant I was a pain to pickup or take home. Either my mom chauffeured me around or friends had to make the 20-minute hike! When I finally got a car, I did A LOT of driving!!!

Looking back, I had so many wonderful memories in that house. Most are from when I was much younger. The older I got, the more I saw the ugly things in my parents marriage. Easter my junior year we moved out. My mom left my dad and we moved into an apartment around the corner from the school. This was much more convenient, especially since I had just totaled the car I'd gotten a few months before.

We stayed in the apartment until I graduated. At that point my parents had gotten back together and I moved back into the brown house for a few short months. Once I moved out into an apartment of my own, I never moved home again.

Even after all the hard times, it was still such a good home. I met 3 of my closest childhood friends living in that house. Two, which are both getting married in the next month and the other who's more like a sister to me than anything.

Now that you know where I grew up, it's your turn...head over to Mary at Owlhaven's for more information!