Waxing Nostalgic- The Dardanelle House

It's so weird when you move 3 times in 8 years.  The memories of that first house slowly start to dissolve.

This is the house where Tim and I met.  
It's where we had friends over.  It is where I lived when I graduated college and started working.  
It's where I lived when I first got married.  
It's where "the running of the bears" happened (sorry inside joke). It is where we had a million cats.  
We celebrated our first Christmas, Thanksgiving and other holidays there.  
It is the house with 3 acres that took 2 1/2 hours to mow and weedeat.
It is where we had a spectacular view of Mt. Nebo.  
It is where our friends Rick, Johnathan and Greg lived before I moved in. 
It had a pool and many memories were made there.  
We had our first joint family gatherings at this house. 
It's where we lived while Tim had a 40 min commute to work for 4 years.
It's where we cooked lovely meals and Tim introduced me to so many foods that I now love.
It's where I learned to be a wife.
It's where I found out I was going to be a mother.
It is where I sat on bed-rest for months during two pregnancies.
It is where we brought our babies home from the hospital to.
It is where first baths and first steps and first words happened.
Our two babies chased each other down the hall, one running and one crawling.
Plastic bowls were placed on toddlers heads as they played.
Two dark green recliners sat facing the TV in the living room.  
A beautiful, live Christmas tree was lovingly decorated in the living room in front of the window every year for all to see.
A first birthday party for a sweet little girl happened there.
I met my sister-in-law, Veronica, for the first time there.
I prayed and worried there while my brothers were deployed to Iraq.
The wasps on the back deck stressed me completely out every summer. 
Koonta finally had a home with windows and room to run and do whatever she wanted.
Christmas parties were held there where all our friends attended.  
Maybe some pots and pans were banged there once.
It is where we came home to after nights at Romedio's with our friends.
The yard and deck and pool were so much work.  We spent a lot of the summer doing this kind of stuff.
This is where our lives intertwined and became one.  
This is where our family started and still continues on today.
A house is lovely, but a family is what makes a home.  
It was our home, but now we are making our home in a different house.
The love here is still the same, if not more, than the love that was there in that Dardanelle house.


******From my husband:
Don't forget- the turtle that would (somehow) climb onto the deck, then into the cat food bowl to eat before lumbering to the edge of the deck to "dive" off...the various animals we found in our pool (both dead and alive...like the road runner (alive), the poor dog (alive) on the rainy night, the armadillo (not alive)...relaxing (and not ;) relaxing by the fireplace)...what about the "washer pit" and all the "competitive banter" (a.k.a. trash talk) that would ensue...great post, great house.