My House Obsession History

Did you know I am house obsessed?
I have been for as long as I can remember.
My Mom had this friend - Jenny Doan (who is now pretty famous I might add)
who had this house....sigh.
This house was amazing.  Like dream-a-little-dream amazing.
It wasn't in the perfect shape, it was out all by it's self on a lonely old highway, and it had a leaky upstairs claw foot bathtub that made water marks on the kitchen ceiling down below it.
But.....
I fell in love with that house.
I can still recall every nook and cranny.  Every secret little room hidden inside every closet.
I remember the built in white cabinets that held the china and was also a look through to the dining room.
My favorite was the servants ramp that went up from the kitchen to the second floor.  It was a ramp, like add a flattened cardboard box and you can slide down it kinda ramp.  Uh, yeah, we did that....a lot.
It had a very large grand mahogany staircase too.  But that wasn't near as fun.
I think it had seven bedrooms and only one bathroom on the second floor.  That's how they did it back then.
This dreamy house also had a very large laundry shoot that maybe, possibly, some children slid down instead of laundry.  Not me of course!  I would never do that.  (my three brothers may have though)

I would babysit kids while my Mom and Jenny went and played.  I think I had just as much fun playing as the Mom's did.  Talk about the best hide-and-go-seek house ever!
I remember it had huge eucalyptus trees that surrounded the property.  Every time I smell eucalyptus it brings me back to that house.  

Jenny's house was a cross between these two houses below.  

Dreamy huh?

I think the obsession was fueled by where I grew up.  

I mean I did have this house two blocks from my house, 

walking by it everyday on my way to school:

 John Steinbeck House

And the house in a town filled with houses just like it was not far away:

The Seven Gables Inn

Oh and my favorite place...ever:

 Carmel-By-The-Sea Ca

It seems I was destined to be a house lover. My Mom was and I have taught my girls to be. We love to drive around different neighborhoods to look at the houses and pretty landscaping.  It's a little harder here in Arizona.  We live in the land of cookie cutter homes and desert plants galore but sometimes, I find a gem here and there.  It makes my day!

Here are a few sites I like to look at when I need a little house obsession fix.
Enjoy!

Dwelling Gawker
Hooked on Houses
My new favorite - Tales from Carmel - up close and personal tours of houses in Carmel Ca.
My favorite little neighborhood that I can't get enough of - Agritopia
I even like this little blog - Tiny House Blog - because you never know when you may need to build a tiny house somewhere.  And man!  Can they fit a lot into a teeny tiny space.
The Lettered Cottage - has great ideas on adding charm to your house.

Embarrassing Moment #437

 This picture reminded me of my Dad playing the piano.  He played the piano beautifully and always practiced for church on Sunday.  He played the organ for church services for 37 years and then played for the Primary children until he passed away.  He also played the piano every night after we went to bed so we could fall asleep to his sweet music.

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Sunday we went to Miss Amberly's very first piano recital.  She's only been playing for a month and a half but is loving every minute of it.  The recital was something special her teacher thought up called "A Night of Hymns"  It was in her home and it was amazing.  We started out singing a beautiful song and when the song was over Cassidy leaned over to me and whispered...."Mom that was a-m-a-z-i-n-g!"  And it was. 

Amberly was first on the program and before she went up she said to me, "Mom my tummy hurts and I don't feel good."  "Ah baby, that's just nerves" I told her.  When she went up to play this is what she told the audience:

"My name is Amberly.  I will play "I Often Go Walking" This song is about gathering flowers for mother, and that is special for me because my mom especially loves flowers.  She grows many kinds of flowers at our house, Gardenview Cottage."

What a beautiful thing to say!  I melted my heart because I had no idea she was going to say that.  Then she sat down and froze.  Poor thing.  Her teacher had to come help her get started and she did pretty well for having to play in front of 50+ people.  When she was done she came over to me and cried because it wasn't perfect. (she does that - little miss perfectionist)  After a few other students went up and she saw that they made mistakes as well she felt a little better.  We were so proud of her and thought she did beautifully!

Now for my embarrassing moment. Half way through the recital this boy sits down to play a two song arrangement that he did himself.  It was amazing!  Simply put, it took my breath away.  As I was listening to his beautiful music (he's quite gifted) I couldn't help but start to feel sorry for myself that my parents weren't around to play their beautiful music in our home anymore.  Then I started to really feeling sorry for myself that my kids will never hear my dad practice the piano every night for Sunday or learn fun songs from my mom.  We wont have choir practice or voice lessons or singing around the piano on holidays.  All the things I grew up doing.  Then the tears started and wouldn't stop.  I was crying uncontrollably during this boys beautiful song.  I'm talking...the ugly grief cry people with heaving and snuffing and my body was shaking and I couldn't stop.  This coming from a girl who doesn't cry...ever!  To make matters worse I was in the front row and everyone was sitting to the right of me in a different part of the room and they all had a perfect view of my breakdown.  Embarrassing.  My girls were holding my hand, rubbing my arm and just looking at me in wonder because like I said...I-don't-cry. 

Thankfully I was able to compose myself after two songs and apologized to the boy and left as soon as possible when it was over.  I'm sure everyone thought I was nuts.  I am a little nutty but mostly I'm just a girl who misses her parents and wishes she had them back.

52 Blessings Week 7

This Week I am thankful for my Mom. She is no longer with us but I am who I am because of her wisdom and teachings that she instilled in me. The other day I broke an egg and went right for the salt to help with the clean-up. The girls have been sick and all my little motherly ways of making them feel better are things Mom did for me when I was sick. I am a good baker and have a ton of common sense because of her, along with a crafty side, a fun social side and a very independent side. Too bad I didn't get the musical talents that she had - oh well.

I hope I can pass some of these things on to my girls and they can grow up with confidence, huge talents and a love for the Lord and the gospel as strong as my Mom.

(I'm a week off because I missed last week so I will do another post sometime this week)

Memory Lane Monday

Tonight for FHE we all sat down to watch Dancing with the Stars. I am loving this season for two reasons, most of the dancers are dressed modestly and we are voting for 4 different stars!!

As always my girls had to go get their "dancing dresses" on so they can dance while the dancers dance. They are so cute. It's almost more fun to watch the girls than the stars! Go figure...isn't that what a parent is supposed to say??

Anyway, tonight as I was watching both sets of dancers it brought back a flood of memories of when I was young and my family used to sit on Sunday nights and watch this:

My brothers and I would dance the night away to the music on this show. We had tons of, "watch this Mom," or "look at us!" My brother Matt was very good at leading me around the living room floor doing the waltz or the cha-cha. We sure had a lot of fun and I'm sure my parents had as much fun watching us as I do my girls. Too bad less clothing is "in" now days and each week we have to have the modesty talk. However the music is a lot more jazzy and I am sure liking that!!
We did grow up in a house full of music. My Dad was an amazing piano player and my Mom was a music major and a very famous singer when I was young. She was always rehearsing for some performance or another and there were always practices going on at the house. I grew up in the 70's and my Mom thought all 70's music was evil and had no soul. So we listened to a lot of classical music, show tunes and of course 50's music. There was ALWAYS music playing of some sort ALL THE TIME!! I remember we were listening to My Turn on Earth and of course dancing around the house and the doorbell rings. We answer it and it's the missionary's. They said, "Oh you must be LDS we can hear your music down the street!" Um, yep that would be us!
I wish I could say I inherited the music gene from my parents like my brothers did. I did not. I did inherit a love of all kinds of music especially piano music. I love to hear someone play the piano. It reminds me of my Dad. I could always tell who was playing the piano even though I wasn't in the room. My Dad would never make a mistake and my Mom would mess up a little here or there. That was my clue. I'm so thankful that my parents taught us their love of music. I hope I can pass it on to my kids even if it is in the form of "Dancing with the Stars!"

Mom's Twin

Tonight (after a LONG day) the girls and I went to Chipotle for dinner. Yum! We were standing in line and I happened to look to my right at the lady standing there. I looked, then looked again. Then my heart stopped. It was my Mom. Well, my Mom's twin. Same clothes, same hair color and cut. I swear it looked just like her and I know this for sure because she was about 1 foot from me in line. I was afraid to look again. I didn't know what kind of emotions would suddenly surface. Melancholy? Sadness? Tears? I had a rush of all these emotions and more. Cassidy saw her too and said, "I miss Grandma," without me pointing out that this lady looked like Grandma. That was a heart wrencher!
I stood there waiting while my food was being pre-pared- numb, frozen and a little in shock. I didn't know what to do. So I looked at her and said, "you look just like my Mom." She said, "Is that a good thing?" and I said, "yes!" We both laughed a little and parted ways. Wow, I had no idea how hard this would be. I mean it's been over a year since her death. Why did I freeze? I know I didn't properly grieve for her properly because, a)her death came as such a shock. b)we had so much to do after her death that there wasn't much time to sit and mourn and c) I was mad that she died. I thought I was over this but apparently not.
So there is a lady in town that looks like my Mom who I'm sure I will run into again at some point. What will happen then? I guess I need to work on this so I don't have a meltdown in Target or Jamba Juice. O.K. then. I guess I will be working on that this weekend.