THE HOUSE THAT BUILT ME...

The house I was raised in and have the best memories. I have the best parents ever...and my siblings are pretty awesome too. I am so proud of where I came from and what I went through to become ME. I may not always be perfect and I my not have a lot but that is okay because I know I can always turn to my family. I also have the best husband and children!!

I know they say you can’t go home again

I just had to come back one last time

Ma’am I know you don’t know me from Adam

But these handprints on the front steps are mine

Up those stairs in that little back bedroom

Is where I did my homework and I learned to play guitar

I bet you didn’t know under that live oak

My favorite dog is buried in the yard

I thought if I could touch this place or feel it

This brokenness inside me might start healing

Out here it’s like I’m someone else

I thought that maybe I could find myself

If I could just come in I swear I’ll leave

Won’t take nothing but a memory

From the house that built me

Mama cut out pictures of houses for years

From Better Homes and Gardens magazine

Plans were drawn and concrete poured

Nail by nail and board by board

Daddy gave life to mama’s dream

I thought if I could touch this place or feel it

This brokenness inside me might start healing

Out here it’s like I’m someone else

I thought that maybe I could find myself

If I could just come in I swear I’ll leave

Won’t take nothing but a memory

From the house that built me

You leave home and you move on and you do the best you can

I got lost in this old world and forgot who I am

I thought if I could touch this place or feel it

This brokenness inside me might start healing

Out here it’s like I’m someone else

I thought that maybe I could find myself

If I walk around I swear I’ll leave

Won’t take nothing but a memory

From the house that built me

*Thanks Lynn for sending me the pictures of the house.

LAW ENFORCEMENT MEMORIAL...

Jenna and Layla took a trip back east with a friend and her kids. While she was there she went to the Law Enforcement Memorial and looked up an old friend for us.

Layla running around enjoying life.

Running around where all the names are...
Our dear friend Larry Penrod
Larry was a friend of my parents, he went to church with us and was a great man who loved the youth and was always there for anyone who needed him. Larry was the one that got Pete and I together and I will always be so grateful for that. I know he is looking down on us and is so proud. I hope you are doing well Larry and I am sure you are visiting with my sweet mother.

Thanks again...I couldn't have asked for a better husband.

CHILDHOOD MEMORIES

Alka Seltzer...My mom always used this stuff and I thought it was disgusting.

The good old green stamps. My mom saved a bunch of these so she could buy me a ukulele for 3rd grade, I had Miss Wells and she taught us all how to play. I still have the ukulele, I wish I would have kept the file folder of music that went with it.

Outhouses...(Don't have a picture of ours but still have the memories. I will have to ask the aunts if they have a picture)

Drive in: (Mom used to be a car hop at this one. Always the place to eat when we go home. Although the original owner does not own it anymore. Still has the nostalgia.)
45 rpm spindles. (When my kids were young I pulled out the record player and records to show them, we played them and danced. Matt looked up at me and said " Gee mom, you guys had big CD's...ouch!!!)
Metal ice cube trays. (We bought our new fridge about 4 years ago and the saleslady could not believe we did not have an automatic ice maker.)
roller skate key. 
Drive in movies...the best of times. I have a lot of great memories, Mom used to put our hair up in those darn pink rollers on Saturday night, then we would go to the drive in. We usually fell asleep but is was so fun to be outside and enjoy a movie. I also went there alot as a teenager on dates and with friends. If Toot is reading this....you know what I am talking about, and just in case you don't here is a reminder...the roof!!!!
The old washtub ringer. Both my grandmas had one of these and it was so fun to watch them do laundry.

Penny candy. When at my Grandma Starich's house, she used to take me to this house and they had a store in their basement that just sold candy...She used to let us pick out one thing and it was a BIG decision. (That kind of sounds creepy now, that this man had a candy store in his basement. Thank goodness grandma was always with us)
We thought we hit it big time when we got jiffy pop instead of making popcorn in the old wire popcorn basket we used to use over the stove or fire. 
snail mail...
I loved these but never learned how to make them. 
Flash bulbs...I remember mom always having to buy flash bulbs for her camera. In fact my first camera had the square flash bulbs, it would turn automatically when you took the picture, then after four pictures you needed a new flashbulb. I love my digital camera!!!!!
Old Yeller...*tear tear
Fire escape tubes.
Lassie...everyone wanted a dog like Lassie
Ding Dong...Avon calling

Aluminum Christmas Trees...My grandparents had one of these. Grandma gave it to me a few years before she passed away. This is also the kind of tree Pete had when he was a little boy.

If you can remember most or all of these, then you have lived!!!

THE SPOILED UNDER 40 CROWD!!

If you are 40 or older you will think this is hilarious!!!! 

When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious diatribes about how hard things were. When they were growing up; what with walking Twenty-five miles to school every morning....Uphill... barefoot...BOTH ways 

Yadda, yadda, yadda 

And I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was no way in hell I was going to lay a bunch of crap like that on my kids about how hard I had it and how easy they've got it! 

But now that.... I'm over the ripe old age of forty, I can't help but look around and notice the youth of today. 

You've got it so easy! I mean, compared to my childhood, you live in a damn Utopia! 

And I hate to say it, but you kids today, you don't know how good you've got it! 

I mean, when I was a kid we didn't have The Internet. If we wanted to know something, we had to go to the darn library and look it up ourselves, in the card catalogue!! 

There was no email!! We had to actually write somebody a letter - with a pen! Then you had to walk all the way across the street and put it in the mailbox and it would take, like, a week to get there! Stamps were 10 cents! 

Child Protective Services didn't care if our parents beat us. As a matter of fact, the parents of all my friends also had permission to kick our butts! Nowhere was safe! 

There were no MP3' s or Napsters! If you wanted to steal music, you had to hitchhike to the record store and shoplift it yourself! Or you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio and the DJ would usually talk over the beginning and @#*% it all up! There were no CD players! We had tape decks in our car. We'd play our favorite tape and "eject" it when finished and the tape would come undone. Cause - that's how we rolled, dig? 

We didn't have fancy crap like Call Waiting! If you were on the phone and somebody else called they got a busy signal, that's it! And we didn't have fancy Caller ID either! When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was! It could be your school, your mom, your boss, your bookie, your drug dealer, a collections agent, you just didn't know!!! You had to pick it up and take your chances, mister! 

We didn't have any fancy Sony Playstation video games with high-resolution 3-D graphics! We had the Atari 2600! With games like 'Space Invaders' and 'Asteroids'. Your guy was a little square! You actually had to use your imagination!! And there were no multiple levels or screens, it was just one screen... forever! And you could never win. The game just kept getting harder and harder and faster and faster until you died! Just like LIFE! 

You had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what was on! You were screwed when it came t o channel surfing! You had to get off your ass and walk over to the TV to change the channel! NO REMOTES!!! 

There was no Cartoon Network either! You could only get cartoons on Saturday Morning. Do you hear what I'm saying!?! We had to wait ALL WEEK for cartoons, you spoiled little brats! 

And we didn't have microwaves, if we wanted to heat something up we had to use the stove! Imagine that! 

That's exactly what I'm talking about! You kids today have got it too easy. You're spoiled. You guys wouldn't have lasted five minutes back in the 60's or 70's!