Thursday, September 9, 2010

houses....and blessings...

I love houses...I love house quilts and I love looking at home design magazines. In another life I would have been an architect...

Monday when we took our little trip to the Arch and then to Fitz's we found ourselves only blocks from a house that holds many memories for our family.


This is the house that my husbands Grandparents and Uncle lived in before I met him. His Grandfather was a Pharmacist and owned a drugstore about 2 blocks away. After his grandparents passed away, his Uncle lived there alone for many years. In due course, I met my husband (at a drugstore, no less) and we got married. After his Uncle passed away, his mother became the owner of the house... That was the same year that my husband started Pharmacy school and our oldest daughter started Kindergarten.

My mother-in-law was nice enough to allow us to live here rent free and she paid for all the updates....new carpet, new kitchen, rebuilding the back porch.. Husband did all the work and we reaped the benefits. After he graduated, we decided to buy it from his mother.

This was the first house we ever bought... It was small.. two little bedrooms, one bathroom and an itty bitty kitchen.... and the steepest basement steps I have ever seen. Our oldest fell down them on the day we moved in and our second daughter was born to this house and fell down the steps before she was 18 months old ( I remember calling the ER at one of the largest hospitals in St Louis and asking if they had a doctor there,lol). Once we even had a swat team surround this house. I still remember my husband calling me at work.. He said "when you come home, drive around to the other end of the street and come in that way". When I asked why, he said " you might have trouble getting past the cops in the front yard". Apparently our neighbors son had run from the courthouse while being sentenced and came home...(which shows you his intelligence level) and the swat team found him holed up in the attic. We might have had something to do with that...I'm just saying. Our oldest daughter had her first (and only) ambulance ride from this house.. (she didn't clean up her room and crawled over a dish, breaking it and splitting open her knee which wouldn't stop bleeding)..

We moved from this house 28 years ago. Every so often I think about this house and realize that we have come a long way since then. We have moved 8 times. We have lived in 4 different states and raised 3 children. I went to nursing school, our oldest daughter went to college and then nursing school, our youngest daughter went to nursing school and this year our son started college. We have 5 wonderful grandchildren and have all we need in life...

I am so blessed.

Nancy

10 comments:

Tangos Treasures said...

Awww what memories!!
Yes you are blessed!

quiltingnana said...

great memories....I hope you write them down for your children to keep

Cindy said...

Lovely story!

Pat said...

What a wonderful post...and I love that little house!

Jocelyn said...

Nancy, what beautiful memories that little house holds for you. We have only moved once in over 30 years of marriage, and that was just this summer. Thanks for sharing your sweet story about your "little" house.

Diane said...

Beautiful memories. I need to write about our first house - thanks for the idea!

Carolyn said...

That kitchen was itty-bitty - you have come a long way!!!

Carolyn

Sharon said...

Great story. Sounds like you and your hubby have had many good years together and have raised some fine children.

Sharon (Stitches on Mars) said...

Hi Nancy
I love this post...thanks for sharing it :)
Hugs, Sharon

Anonymous said...

Nancy, I REALLY enjoyed your sharing about your little house! We raised our 3 children in a 1929 house, and we were so blessed to have a wonderful experience in it.