805 Spring Brook Lane

Today my parents are moving out of their house of 14 years! They are getting to build their dream house in Georgetown, and I could not be happier for them to be able to do that. BUT, the part where we say goodbye to the home that holds so many memories is very hard.  I still remember the day that we moved into the red brick, two-story house in the middle of the cul-de-sac.  Emily and I were picked up from school that spring and I remember coming inside and eating a snack with Emily in the kitchen.  I was in awe of how big it was (compared to the little bitty rent house we lived in previously) and how amazing the backyard was.  We had a bar area in the kitchen, and Hunter was so little when we moved in that he could walk underneath it and hold his arms above his head, barely skimming the bar counter.  It's crazy to think how much growth has occurred in this house! Some of my favorite memories of being in our home are:

• Christmas mornings, coming down the stairs in our p.j.'s and opening gifts, always having a big breakfast together at the kitchen table.
• Our little black schnauzer, Drew
• sliding down the stairs in sleeping bags (especially Kristina)
•  learning how to cook in the kitchen and making pancakes with Hunter on Saturday mornings
• SO many birthday parties and slumber parties with lots of loud little girls who stayed up way too late
• receiving my favorite Christmas gift ever when I was 13- a little black kitten named Noelle
• surprising Emily with a brand new car for Christmas one year
• high school days when there were always friends over doing something
• my junior year of high school we had 3 or 4 days of "ice days" from school- I read the book "Dear John" cover to cover and we made smores by the fire every night
• being named homecoming queen and prom queen
• making football t-shirts, homecoming mums and another football season stuff with Cara
• coming home after Trevor proposed and telling my family all about it
• spending my last summer as a Thompson in the house with my family
• sleeping in my bed the night before our wedding and soaking it all in

I will always have such fond memories of this house and the people and things that went in and out.  The family that is moving in is a young couple with a baby girl.  When I think about how their family will grow and thrive during their time at the house, I know that will grow to love that home just as much as we did. They will get to have first day of school pictures on the porch, bring home new babies, and have fun memories of birthdays and Christmas.  It makes me hope that one day Trevor and I will have a home that I have loved as much as this house.

Now that I've made myself cry while typing this, I will leave you with lyrics from Miranda Lambert's "The House That Built Me"
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 could walk around I swear I’ll leave
Won’t take nothing but a memory
From the house that built me