Wednesday, March 23, 2011
The House that Built Me (A song by Miranda Lambert) a memory by ME
So, I don't blog often. I start to write a blog and then think...who else besides MAYBE my husband wants to hear this stuff??! But today, or yesterday rather, I think I did something that is blog worthy. Here goes...
I hear this song by Miranda Lambert all the time and I am constantly reminded of the home that built me. I dream about my childhood house constantly. There are so many happy memories of swimming in the back yard, playing hide and seek with street friends out front, learning how to ride a bike for the first time, and all the other wonderfully childish things of yesteryear. My old house, back in Westminister California is a place where time was much easier, friendlier, and happier for a lot of reasons. When we left that house, I was ONE angry kiddo. I blamed my parents (being almost a teenage girl I now realize that was the typical thing to do) and I made the choice (now I realize I CHOSE it) to be very unhappy and miserable. There where instances and situations that didn't help my adjusting to my new home (like being bullied CONSTANTLY from 7-10th grade....threats of having my head bashed in by girls in the locker room, NASTY rumors and comments by the girls at school and other organized establishments, let's just say I am grateful daily that I didn't go to high school during Facebook)
Our new home had a lovely back yard, but the pool where we spent literally EVERY day of summer with diving board plus slide was just not there. The front yard where we let our puppies romp and play was some 35 miles away. And so my dreams of my old home were always in my mind. I would go back from time to time and drive by it over the years, but that was it, until yesterday.
Yesterday we drove out to Long Beach to pick up something from Craigs List. On the way back, the boys and I were headed home on the 405 when the Miranda Lambert song started playing in my head. So we exited Beach Blvd and headed over to my old home. There were a couple of cars in the drive way, and the place looked so much the same. The thought crossed through my mind "I have two little children, surely if I knock on the door I won't seem like some crazy person if I bring the kids along!" So I carried Connor and walked Joel up to the door, we knocked, and a very nice man answered. I explained who I was and he asked "is your last name Bouslog?" I told him it WAS...he told me they still get mail for us...some 20 years later we are still getting mail there! LOL He invited the boys and me in and we were able to walk around. It was so wonderful to get to show Joel where I used to eat breakfast in the morning before school, the room where we had our very first Apple computer set up to play games on a green and white monitor. The man led us out back and I got to show Joel my old playhouse (now turned into a storage shed) where my friends and I would have tea parties and sing and dance. And then the pool...oh how glorious it was to see my old pool! And all of the dreams I have had about that pool really were correct! It is one of THE biggest backyard pools I have ever seen. I wondered in years past if it was just because I was a kid that the pool had seemed to big, but no it is about 7-8 feet deep and still had the diving board! The man asked me all kinds of questions about the house and the re-model my parents did a year before we moved out. It was so nice to take a trip down memory lane. So nice to talk with this man and see a place that had SO SO many happy memories. So nice to go back and visit a home that is being taken care of and loved. And so like the chorus in the song says
"If I could just come in I swear I'll leave, won't take nothin but a memory, from the house that...built me." And that's just what I did.
I hear this song by Miranda Lambert all the time and I am constantly reminded of the home that built me. I dream about my childhood house constantly. There are so many happy memories of swimming in the back yard, playing hide and seek with street friends out front, learning how to ride a bike for the first time, and all the other wonderfully childish things of yesteryear. My old house, back in Westminister California is a place where time was much easier, friendlier, and happier for a lot of reasons. When we left that house, I was ONE angry kiddo. I blamed my parents (being almost a teenage girl I now realize that was the typical thing to do) and I made the choice (now I realize I CHOSE it) to be very unhappy and miserable. There where instances and situations that didn't help my adjusting to my new home (like being bullied CONSTANTLY from 7-10th grade....threats of having my head bashed in by girls in the locker room, NASTY rumors and comments by the girls at school and other organized establishments, let's just say I am grateful daily that I didn't go to high school during Facebook)
Our new home had a lovely back yard, but the pool where we spent literally EVERY day of summer with diving board plus slide was just not there. The front yard where we let our puppies romp and play was some 35 miles away. And so my dreams of my old home were always in my mind. I would go back from time to time and drive by it over the years, but that was it, until yesterday.
Yesterday we drove out to Long Beach to pick up something from Craigs List. On the way back, the boys and I were headed home on the 405 when the Miranda Lambert song started playing in my head. So we exited Beach Blvd and headed over to my old home. There were a couple of cars in the drive way, and the place looked so much the same. The thought crossed through my mind "I have two little children, surely if I knock on the door I won't seem like some crazy person if I bring the kids along!" So I carried Connor and walked Joel up to the door, we knocked, and a very nice man answered. I explained who I was and he asked "is your last name Bouslog?" I told him it WAS...he told me they still get mail for us...some 20 years later we are still getting mail there! LOL He invited the boys and me in and we were able to walk around. It was so wonderful to get to show Joel where I used to eat breakfast in the morning before school, the room where we had our very first Apple computer set up to play games on a green and white monitor. The man led us out back and I got to show Joel my old playhouse (now turned into a storage shed) where my friends and I would have tea parties and sing and dance. And then the pool...oh how glorious it was to see my old pool! And all of the dreams I have had about that pool really were correct! It is one of THE biggest backyard pools I have ever seen. I wondered in years past if it was just because I was a kid that the pool had seemed to big, but no it is about 7-8 feet deep and still had the diving board! The man asked me all kinds of questions about the house and the re-model my parents did a year before we moved out. It was so nice to take a trip down memory lane. So nice to talk with this man and see a place that had SO SO many happy memories. So nice to go back and visit a home that is being taken care of and loved. And so like the chorus in the song says
"If I could just come in I swear I'll leave, won't take nothin but a memory, from the house that...built me." And that's just what I did.
Friday, October 8, 2010
There are so many things running through my head!
Ok, so here we go folks, BLOG number ONE!
I hope you like it! So here is my thought for the day...have people forgotten how to use the English language correctly? Every time I turn on the TV, I hear, "his and I's relationship" or "between you and I" It's ME people, ME ME ME ME! It drives ME crazy to hear this all the time. I want to drag all those skinny, uneducated girls back to high school and make them ALL re-take a semester or two of English. Ok, that's it...done with the rant, and now on to....
Illness:
Some of you may know that our family has been ill for the past 5 weeks. It started out the baby and I had the flu, then Joel got it. David took some time off work to take care of all of us. The next week Connor had a really high fever and a strange rash, which led to the diagnosis of either Roseola or Hand Foot and Mouth. Either way, we ended week two of not being able to go grocery shopping and not having much house work done. Onto week three, Joel woke up one morning, asked for Raisin Bran, and by the time he was done eating, he had developed Croup! Yep, it can in fact come on that quickly. So off to bed he went for the next three days, and thus ended week three of our not so fun sick train. Then on week four it was my turn once more and I woke up with laryngitis in time to go to a conference about swallowing disorders with my good friend. While at the aforementioned conference my nose started running and I developed a head cold just in time to be down for the entire weekend of General Conference! So we are onto week five now. Just a couple of days ago, I had finally recovered, gotten my voice back, and was no longer using Kleenex like crazy. Joel wanted to spend the night at his grandparent's house, and so all was looking well! We were finally healthy! In fact, I had just said to David yesterday as he was getting ready to go to work how wonderful it was that we were all finally feeling well! The world was once again a place of health! I could do laundry and not worry about waking the kids, I could grocery shop with my son in school! Of course all of this lasted about 3 hours because when I went to pick Joel up from my mom's, he had a fever of about 103, was glassy eyed and had a runny nose. Alas, our picture perfect family was once again under the weather. I have had so many appointments in the last five weeks I have had to cancel! I truly believe people are starting to think that either a) I have developed a case of Munchhausen syndrome and am keeping my children sick because I want them to be with ME all the time...yeah right or b) I have become some sort of compulsive liar who is not very creative at coming up with excuses and keeps using the "oh my kids were sick, sorry I missed it" or c) that I am telling the truth but that I must live in a cesspool of germs and bacteria therefore no one will want to ever play with my children or come to my house again! As my babysitter said, I should just place a large BLACK X on our front door warning people to stay away from our house of ill.
I hope you like it! So here is my thought for the day...have people forgotten how to use the English language correctly? Every time I turn on the TV, I hear, "his and I's relationship" or "between you and I" It's ME people, ME ME ME ME! It drives ME crazy to hear this all the time. I want to drag all those skinny, uneducated girls back to high school and make them ALL re-take a semester or two of English. Ok, that's it...done with the rant, and now on to....
Illness:
Some of you may know that our family has been ill for the past 5 weeks. It started out the baby and I had the flu, then Joel got it. David took some time off work to take care of all of us. The next week Connor had a really high fever and a strange rash, which led to the diagnosis of either Roseola or Hand Foot and Mouth. Either way, we ended week two of not being able to go grocery shopping and not having much house work done. Onto week three, Joel woke up one morning, asked for Raisin Bran, and by the time he was done eating, he had developed Croup! Yep, it can in fact come on that quickly. So off to bed he went for the next three days, and thus ended week three of our not so fun sick train. Then on week four it was my turn once more and I woke up with laryngitis in time to go to a conference about swallowing disorders with my good friend. While at the aforementioned conference my nose started running and I developed a head cold just in time to be down for the entire weekend of General Conference! So we are onto week five now. Just a couple of days ago, I had finally recovered, gotten my voice back, and was no longer using Kleenex like crazy. Joel wanted to spend the night at his grandparent's house, and so all was looking well! We were finally healthy! In fact, I had just said to David yesterday as he was getting ready to go to work how wonderful it was that we were all finally feeling well! The world was once again a place of health! I could do laundry and not worry about waking the kids, I could grocery shop with my son in school! Of course all of this lasted about 3 hours because when I went to pick Joel up from my mom's, he had a fever of about 103, was glassy eyed and had a runny nose. Alas, our picture perfect family was once again under the weather. I have had so many appointments in the last five weeks I have had to cancel! I truly believe people are starting to think that either a) I have developed a case of Munchhausen syndrome and am keeping my children sick because I want them to be with ME all the time...yeah right or b) I have become some sort of compulsive liar who is not very creative at coming up with excuses and keeps using the "oh my kids were sick, sorry I missed it" or c) that I am telling the truth but that I must live in a cesspool of germs and bacteria therefore no one will want to ever play with my children or come to my house again! As my babysitter said, I should just place a large BLACK X on our front door warning people to stay away from our house of ill.
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