T Praying

This has been the highlight of  my day for the past week.  It is seriously the cutest thing ever to see T sign and pray with his sweet voice! I hope this isn't sacreligious, but it is just so special!

More About My HomeTown

Ok, this is not so much about my hometown as it is the home I grew up in.  It isn't fancy, but now that I have kids of my own, I see how wonderful it truly is.  First of all, it is not on a busy street, as my current townhouse is.  It is at the end of a road in a tiny town, two blocks from Main Street (anything is two blocks from Main Street there), and in the back yard there is a small creek, and field after field after field after field.  The neighbors are close, but you can't hear when they drive into their yard. 

There are two huge pine trees in front of the house that provides plenty of privacy, and all of the ancient cottonwood trees give shade and shelter from the sun.  You can see part of the yard, at least the part on the West side of the house, and some of the front yard.  Perhaps the yard, or the space outside, is my favorite part.  When we were visiting there, E kept saying, "I feel so free at Grandma and Grandpa's house. I can go in and come out of the house as much as I want. I can play outside all day without you checking on me."  (though I do watch out the windows to be sure she's fine)

Then, there is this amazingly huge back yard, with the creek just beyond it and the fields all over the place. I remember exploring through the fields, following the ditches and creek and picking asparagus there.  Believe it or not, I didn't know you could buy asparagus until I was 20years old! My parents have a great 'crop' that yields so much, and they don't have to pay for it or fight anyone for it because it is on their land! This is a shot kiddy-corner from their back porch. You can see the corral, and many of the fields! We pick asparagus in a field more to the east of this picture.

And there's no way to forget the back yard. There are these awesome hills for riding bikes and rolling down inside tubes in the Summer.  A slip-and-slide was also a favorite thing way back when.  And in the winter, you wouldn't believe the jumps and other crazy things that were built on those two hills! The best part is they are literally just off the steps from the back door.  This next photo is of the length of the back portion of the yard.  I was standing near the corral for this picture, so you can see just how far it goes! I remember when the pine tree was planted and it was only a few inches tall!

My Hometown

Well, after spending more than a week at my parents' house, I became nostalgic and decided to take several pictures and tell a little about where I grew up every once in a while here.  It all started because I helped my dad mow his huge lawn (it takes an hour on the riding lawn mower, and about an hour and  a half of trimming), and then watched him as he watched my three nubbins jump on the trampoline. As I looked around at the place I grew up and knew best, it felt important to write somethings down. 

First of all, I want to show the burn pile. This is a place way behind our house in between the fields and a creek, where my dad stashes all the branches that fall from the trees and the grass clippings (he even lets the neighbors put their grass clippings in there!) and once or twice a year, depending on the tree carnage, he burns it.  I remember as a teenager begging him to burn it so I could invite my friends over for a bonfire. It never happened. He always seemed to burn it when I wasn't around, so I've honestly never seen the huge fire that happens. This spring my family spent several hours helping to clean up the old orchard, and we pretty much built this burn pile in one day.

The trees that surround my parents house are huge HUGE HuGe HUGE. They are so old that when there is any kind of wind, we hurry to move all the cars down the hill behind the house so when the branches fall there is no vehicular damage.  On Tuesday morning of this week I went to get in my parents' van and found a branch about 4 inches in diameter and 3 feet long that landed just behind the car.  And, on Monday we saw a massive branch that fell down while we were celebrating the 4th of July that morning. It was probably 2 feet in diameter and 30 or more feet long. No major damage there, though!

I hope you enjoy seeing these photos and learning about the place I still call home.