499 and Our Home

I've been writing this blog since early 2007.  This is my 499th post.  Holy cow!  I just looked back at my first post.  It seems an eternity ago that we bought our home, fixed it up, and fell in love with it.  Our home is definitely the center of our lives - and our checkbooks for that matter!  It requires a lot of TLC and it's Jared that is constantly taking care of it.  When something breaks, it needs to get fixed, when something wears, it needs  new, and when the seasons change, the garden has to be cleaned.  It's a lot of up keep.  More than we probably bargained for.  But I wouldn't trade it for the world.

When we first moved in, I fell in love with the spot in the back yard.  There is a beautiful tree fanned out in a corner with a lovely bench in front of it.  We carved our names in the tree right after moved in.  Every time I sat and look at that tree - affectionately known as the Ford Giving Tree, I thought of the children we'd eventually have who would sit on that bench and pose for a beautiful photo.  It seems like forever ago when I imagined taking the photo of two girls flanking a little boy sitting on the bench.  The girls with pig tail braids and matching sundresses, the little boy with his gel'd up hair and a little polo shirt.  I could see their chemistry and how much they loved each other and they playfully argued while I told them to sit still.  Once the glorious photo was snapped it would be made into our Christmas card for that year.  And each year a new photo of them growing up beside the Ford Giving Tree would be sent out to everyone.  The tree would be the staple of which I watched my children grow.  It's crazy because I have Lyla now and I'm so looking forward to her being old enough to sit on that bench so I can take her photo.  

Our home is the love of our life and it's become even more so now that Lyla is here to share it.