the house that built me....

well easter has come and gone,another week in pa has come and gone.asher and i got back from pa a week ago after a relaxing fun yet bittersweet time in pa,bittersweet because my parents are selling there home...a very hard thing for me to even voice:(i have always been very sentimental ..and when it comes to "home"..the place i grew up and have all of my favorite memories stored at,i am very sentimental.last week wen we were there,we cleaned out the attic,found old toys and books that brought back even more memories.just the idea of this not being my home anymore made me think about everything that i appreciated most about the place...the big pond that we spent hours swimming in when we were little,then went through a stage where the pond was "gross" .Then when we all had kids,the pond was once again a favorite for all of us!When i worked at dienners in the summer,i would come home sweating and smelling of food,i used to jump in the pond,swim across it a couple times,fully dressed,just cause i felt like it.Yes there was some skinny dipping in the pond to of course.:)some in broad day light!The raft was always a hit,many many sundays youth kids would come over and go out on the raft and someone always got thrown in!

Mom asher and i walked around the pond one night last week,and i was telling mom how as a kid i spent hours playing outside,using my imagination,i still remember my imaginary friends names:),theres a tree on the far end of the pond that i hammered a short peice of wood on and would pull my golf cart up to the tree and pretend i was "filling my car up with gas".All my pets,my goat,the sheep,my horse, used the out around the pond grass as there meadow.Me and cookie,my pet goat as a kid,would walk around the pond..cookie would follow me from one end to the other.If i went up on the high dive,cookie went with me.I used to love riding my horse up the steep hill on the far side of the pond and pretend like i was the man from snowy river:)riding up and down steep hills.until one time the saddle came loose when i was galloping up the hill and i had a pretty bad concussion,my neighbor actualy took me inside,which i have yet to remember.:)He just told me about it later.

Theres a bench on the far side of the pond to, that i think all us kids took our dates out to at night,it was sooo romantic,the moon would reflect off the pond and noone could see you since the house was on the other side.ahh,takes my breath away thinking about it:)

The high dive was another place we loved to go at night. I have so many memories of me and my friends up there my best friend in grade school,marlene sensinig,and i would go up there to trade stickers,as i got older,my friends and i would go up tehre late at night and talk until mom would shine a flash light out at us and tell us to come in:)i remember a icture of raym and jo when they were dating ,sittnig on the high dive.Raym and Allen used to do crazy stunts off the high dive ,flips hand stands and whatever else they could think of.

Then theres the roof of the shed that i used to play on,that was my house.i even took a bunch of rocks up there and made a "campfire",never lit of course.

The shuffleboard out back that mom and dad had weekly shuffle board parties at,i always looked forward to that.The old folks that came were so much fun to watch,it was like movies for me(which is something i didnt get to watch much of growing up)

In the pavillion up in the rafters is a tiny little spot that us kids would crawl up in,im sure there is stil blankets and who knows what else up there.One sunday somehow the ladder fell and i was stuck up there with a friend Kayla i think:).My brothers kind friend came out side after a while and we screamed untill he came and put the ladder back up.The pavillion was also the place where anytime it rained adn we were having out side parties,we all ran under there.I have a video of me and a bunch of my friends(i dont even remember this!and i was like 16 i think)playing guitar and singing country songs in the pavillion while it was raining,we were packed in there.I always liked to invite everybody and there brother to my house:)

In the winter time when the pond would freeze over, ice skating was a hit!we havent done that for a couple years cause it hasnt frozen over that well.But when my brother and sister were in the youth group the guys used to come over and play hockey on the ice.We had skating parties for the youth group.One day i was out ice skating and i was tryin to do fun twirls and stuff like the profesional skaters did,and i fell and hit my head so hard the ice cracked a little.I remember screaming for mom to come get me,she finaly heard me and helped me inside,i then gave up my dreams of becoming a skater:).

Mommy(grandma.) always lived out above the barn,she was always around,except for in the winter time of course when she went to florida.But i always loved in the summer time when we'd be out playing and she would bring out her famous meadow tea.I used to go up to her house and we'd sit and talk or i'd count her pennies.But she was always around.She still is. Now she lives in with mom and dad and as of now, at the new house, thats where she'l be also:) So at least something wont change:).

The garden,the beautiful garden that mom and dad slaved over every summer,was my favorite imaginary spot.I loved playing in the garden after school,i'd pretend it was the secret garden,or my high school that i was in (yes at the age of 10:)) or my mansion that i lived in.

And then the gazebo where i would have my pretend wedding, or used as my kitchen area.

The front yard at mom and dads is pretty big,when i was in school i had to walk across the front yard everyday since i got dropped off down the road from the bus.Dad used to play ball with the kids out front sunday afternoons,i rode my horse out there,we played volleyball, wiffle ball,bocce ball,you name it.Allen used to ride his forwheeler across the front yard and do a wheely the whole way across just to show off to the people driving by:) I always loved our front yard.I remember one summer i went through a phaze on sunday afternooons id take a lawnchair out front and sit there for hours just watching people go by and talkin on the phone(this was before i had my license of course.)

the screened in porch was another place we hung out allot.We would eat sunday lunch out there in the summer.When we were kids we would have sleepovers out there.The was a sky window and me and a friend were out there in out sleeping bags one night when someone popped in the sky window .scared us half to death ,here it was karen with her hair flipped up over her face:)Matt and i had a few dates out there as well.it has the most beautiful veiw over looking the pond:)

I think all the memories that i have of being outside our house was why it was sooo important for me to get married there. When matt and i had started dating mom and dad were thinking about selling then,they sat me down one night and expressed possibly putting it up for sale,i cried.yes i was 19:)I beged them to wait until Matt and I either broke up or got married since at that point we had JUST started dating and i didnt know where our relationship was going.They agreed ,but mom said,"ok if yal break up,were not waiting on the next guy,were selling.:)"Well they waited and 2 years later we had a BEAUTIFUL reception held out back at my parents.We took our pictures there that morning.My wedding was so special for so many reasons but one thing i will always cherish is those pictures my photographer took of little details at mom and dads.

I think that since ive been married my memories there are even sweeter.Probably because i knew selling time was coming and i wanted to drink in as much of the place as possible. Last summer,mom and i went ouside every evening i was there after dinner,mom would swing with Asher on the swing under the windmill until he would fall asleep.:)Poppy has taken asher on many golfcart rides and Easter egg hunts were always a blast cause there were soooo many places to hide the eggs.Last summer or mom and dad got a peddle boat:)It has been a hit in the summer.The first time asher and i went up after they got it,i took him out on a ride:)

Now all 5 of us kids are married and have kids of our own.Most of the our kids wont remember mom and dads house,or the fun times we had there,but i know that in 20 years when we go up to pa with our family and drive by that house i will tell me kids thats where i grew up.Hopefuly the place will look somewhat the same:)Im so scared that someone is gana buy the place and turn it upside down.:( I am so extrememly happy for mom and dad to move into a smaller house that requires much less work,much less taxes and doesnt tie them down so much.And i know there new house will be cute and we'l build new memories there.but this place,will always be,"the house that built me"