Moving On

(It's no longer for sale, by the way)

Excuse while I reminisce a bit about the house I grew up in in Delmar, Delaware. I guess I spent the other half of my childhood equally in our house on Homer Street, but naturally this is the one I remember the best! When my dad first told me about his new job, and that they would really be moving to PA this time, I have to admit I got sad! I didn't really think I had formed an attachment to the house, but I guess I did, and I suppose its natural, if you live in a place for 8 or 9 years (and I'm a girl, so I have an excuse to be sentimental. Here are some memories I have of this house. It will probably be funny more my parents to read this, since my memories are probably completely different from what they remember (or I just remembered them wrong!)

1---I got my own room for like 6 months! That was exciting, since I've almost always had to share with Jess. I remember that I kept it pretty messy. Then I learned I was getting a new baby brother (which is an entirely different story), and Jess and I had to bunk up together again.

2--Speaking of Jacob, I got really mad when mom and dad told me we were getting a new sibling. I was 14, and totally selfish! I remember they sat us all down on the floor, and told us, and I got so upset! I didn't want another sibling, I had plenty! The house was too small for another runt! I would have to share again! I remember being on a car ride with Mom, though, and she talked me down. Luckily, Jacob turned out to be a pretty cool little brother, so I guess it's okay.

3--When Jess and I did move in together again, my mom painted the room like a sky. It was really cool. I remember her texturing with the white paint, and I was impressed.

4--I remember this huge snake we found in the backyard once. I was totally disgusted, and completely fearful of going back that far in the yard again. There had been quite a bit of construction, and so we were displacing the animals, and I guess this snake came back for one last look before he found a new home. Gross.






5--I remember being in the living room once, and Mom and I were arguing about an advanced math class that I really didn't want to take (it was geometry and trig, who WOULd want to take it?) I got all dramatic and threw my math book on the ground. Me-1, Mom-0. Every once in a while, I wish I had taken the math class, cuz I think I would have been fine. Me-0, Mom-1(plus a gillion).





6--My dad built a small playset in the backyard, and at one of my birthday parties we played Titanic. I'm not really sure how that worked since we were all girls, but I remember my friend Lauryn insisted on being Rose. I don't know who Jack was. Girls are so funny.








7--We had a small pool for a while and I was totally into the British boy band BBMak (TOTALLY into them). Anyway, I would go outside for some peace and quiet (brothers are SO loud!), grab my pool float, turn up the BBMak and dream of being swept away by a cute guy from a British boy band. Ha. British people have gross teeth, I have come to realize, so I'm glad I didn't press that any farther).





8--I remember watching thunderstorms from the windows. I remember Mom telling us to stay away from the phone line because she had seen lightning come through it once (is that a true story? I don't know...maybe she just said it to scare us!) I still love watching thunderstorms. We would always have to run out and grab all the pool and toy stuff and throw it in the shed so it wouldn't blow away. We would count seconds in between the thunder and lightning strikes, and watch the rain drip down the windows. Todd and I did a lot of that in Tulsa, and it reminded me of being in the house and doing that with Mom.




9--I remember mice. Were there mice? I think Dad had to go up in the attic once and set mousetraps and we could hear them scurrying around up there. Also gross. My dad did other things that I thought were gross, like cleaning the gunk out of the sink after we had washed the dishes (we didn't have a disposal. I didn't realize that was weird until Todd told me it was. I didn't know what a disposal was for until I moved to Utah).

(cute mice. I doubt the mice upstairs were this cute).

10--I would play this game with my brothers. I don't know if we named it or anything, but it involved sitting on the couch and pretending we were on a ship. We would pretend there were sharks in the ocean (the carpet), and we would pretend to fall overboard and try not to get eaten. We would try to save each other from falling overboard if a big wave came. This game lasted for a while.






11--I set the smoke detector off once boiling water. That is a Megan "classic." I ran around throwing open the doors and couldn't get the darn smoke detector to turn off. It was crazy. I still get made fun of, although I have made great progress!






12--My mom grew sunflowers in the backyard. They were cool! I was always surprised at how tall they grew. We also had a compost pile outside that looked really gross, but would eventually grow really cool things in it.







12--We were desperate for hills, so we would go sledding in our ditch. It would probably look very very sad to anyone from the West, where they actually have snow and hills. Even for us, it didn't quite do it. We REALLY wanted to sled. We did get a blizzard and got out of school for two weeks. I'm pretty sure Mom wanted to pull her hair out by the end of that time, and I think even we were ready for school again (but midterms got cancelled, which was SWEET!)







Anyway, its obvious I have a lot of memories in that house. I will only be a visitor in my parents new house, which will be a little weird I think! I think the best thing about that house, though, was that it was a place that I always felt safe. Church leaders have told us to make our homes temples, and I think my parents did a great job (it was us kids that made it anything but a temple sometimes!). Sometimes I think the only reason I survived high school was because I had such a healthy support system at home. My parents did everything they could to make sure that we knew they loved us, and I think it's worked, cuz we've turned out pretty well so far! (I don't want to jinx Ian or Jacob or anything). Anyway, they set a great example for Jess and I as we've started our own families, and I am so grateful for them, and for my house on Brittingham Road.