A Regular House in a Regular Neighborhood

After I divorced several years ago in 1999, I decided I wanted to keep our big house in the fancy neighborhood. But in less than a year, I realized that neither the house nor the neighborhood was "me". So, I put the big house on the market and looked for a "regular" house in a "regular" neighborhood in my hometown of Long Beach. The only condition I had was that the house I was searching for needed to have enough room for my kids to come home after they were grown if they needed to or wanted to. When I saw the house I'm now in, I knew it needed some improvements but I fell in love with it. I knew with some paint, gardening, and hard work, I had found my home.

The past several years, I've lived here with my oldest daughter, Brande. She is a busy person that loves to travel and she travels with her job a good portion of the year. Sometimes when she was gone, I have to admit, I missed having no one here, and would find myself chatting with my cats;0} In October, my son Bryce and his wife, Justine, moved back home with us at about the same time Brande's traveling was wrapping up to an end. And last week, my middle child Katie, moved back home with her husband Vinnie, and my grandchild, Riley, and her six cats!! They are remodeling the house I grew up in, the one they bought after my parents died. All of a sudden, my commitment to having a big enough house for the kids to return to has come true!

So far, so good! There are always towels to be washed, dishes to load into the dishwasher, and a slight shortage of hot water, milk & cookies, but we are all "home". The big house in the fancy neighborhood would have provided a lot more square footage for us now, but you know. . . it wouldn't be "home"! I feel really grateful to have the opportunity to be together with my family. I know not everyone would feel the same way, but I "like" my kids, their spouses, and of course my little buddie Riley! Sometimes I hear people talk about never seeing their kids or grandkids. I feel bad for them because I know what they are missing. And for now, I'm just happy living with my family in a regular house in a regular neighborhood that I can call home!