Happy Three Years on H Lane...

Three years seems like a long time when I think

of it. Guess it's not really.

The to-do list is still a mile long. And with a Sweet Sixteen, Linus' wedding and throw in two more significant weddings, a 70th birthday and a confirmation...I would imagine the list will have to stay long this year. Sometimes it bugs me. Like now when I am in the house a lot. I guess once the spring thaw hits and I am outside planting and digging in the dirt I won't be so bugged about what's going on or not going on inside. I will do some painting that must get done or I may have a fit. (we don't want THAT!) But all in all can't complain. The taxes could be a little less thanks, but I guess everyone can say that.

It's been a rough year all around us, with the economy, people passing and a few more downs than ups. But at the end of the day I think we are all happy to come through that door and know we are home.

Home where there's enough room to be alone if you need to. A comfy chair to sit in by the fire and read. Friends of every size who come in and out during the course of the day; whether it's to play with toys in the basement, or play video games in the family room, or to run giggling upstairs to the teenage cave full of clothes, cd's and makeup. Or maybe it's to borrow and egg, or just to do a drive by for a cup of coffee. We have had all five birthday cakes and parties, poolside "gatherings", marshing mellows by the fire. Post trick or treating pizza with a "few" (ok 25 or so), an impromptu ice cream party after a Friday night school function. Out of town family staying for visits. Waking up to other people's teenagers sleeping on my couch. Christmas trees, Easter egg hunts, Red dinners on Valentines Day. This breaking and that needing to be fixed. Thousands of loads of laundry, floors filthy from a New Year's crowd of about 50 that need to be mopped. Some tears and some raised voices. But lots of laughing and lots of love.

I do intend to grow old in this house. So I can watch the trees I've planted grow tall, and other people's children at the bus stop. So when it's just the two of us rattling around in this house...that we still fill it with children and grandchildren and friends who have been coming here for years and years.