Changing the Big Red House

Well we have been living in a Big Red House as my grandchildren call for all these years. It has been red since the time it was built about 1912. We really liked the color but it always looked dusty and dirty and it was to big for us old people to paint. Joel had painted the south side once and it's 3 stories on the back side behind the living room and he was pretty nervous on the ladder. It needed painted very badly again so we decided it was time to have it sided. So we choose a red not like the red that was on it but a little different, got to looking at each other and about the same time said maybe we should go a lighter color. Went through the samples and found one we liked called coastal sage with a light tan trim. Ok that was done felt pretty good about it and couldn't wait for them to get started.

So of course they are going to call before coming, which you know never happens. They show up Sat morning, my granddaughter comes in wakes me up and says they guys are here. Of course I think she is kidding, but of course not, then the door bell rings. I have not had a cup of coffee yet my eyes are hardly open and he wants to do a walk around and ask me a bunch of questions I don't now the answers to. Husband of course is working his Sat morning shift, I call can you get away for a few minutes? His reply is no I don't think so, Oh I need you home and explained the workers were here and I didn't have all the answers for them. He of course came home like a good husband who's wife is having a melt down. To much to soon in the morning for me. Got all of that done and he went back to work. They begin project, pulling everything out of there truck and the first siding is not the color I picked and I tell them, don't worry he says that is left over from another job, thank goodness because it was pretty ugly. Any how they begin the pounding the ladders all over, boxes of supplies all over the front yard and then it finally dawns on me that I'm really changing the color of the house I love so much and I'm I going to like. It's a lot of money to spend to think maybe you have made a mistake. Then as Heather and I are sitting at the table the tears come, complete melt down. Heather being the wonderful daughter she is wants to know what is wrong, Oh nothing I guess I just hope they know what there are doing and that we are going to like it.

That my sound really crazy, but my grandchildren have always said grandma and grandpa live in the big red house and Samantha was with us when she was small and we bought the house on vacation one year, so it has been a little harder on her than the others. Heather wasn't real sold on the changing the color either, she had her own joke about sending us to Acorn Acres to live one day and saying she lived the big red house and we lived in the small red house now. So no pressure on us about the house color.

Another thing about me is I'm very easy to cry, for no reason sometimes, or when someone else is crying, something on tv just about everything makes my tear ducts work. Not always a good thing.

It has been 5 days of hammering and pounding and the work is almost done, and I just love the way it looks. Love the sage green only one in the area that color and really make the house look even bigger. Heather and the kids seem to like it but it's not the red house any longer and that does make us all a little sad. But it is ours and changes are good and we never have to worry about the up keep on the out side.

MOVING TO A SMALL TOWN

It was not hard to move to a small town, it certainly out weighed the options we had in CA. One of the most difficult things was leaving every friend you had ever known and everything you were used to, shopping, restaurants, all convenience of living in a large town, also living where we did we could be in the mountains or at the ocean in about an hour. Really miss the sounds and smells of San Francisco. But we did move and I try not to look back because we really are happy for the most part.

Well a few things I never realised about small towns is how they are not real excepting of outsiders. Real important to everyone is who you are related to and how that relationships goes, mother side fathers side and so on. If you have a well know name it makes things much easier on you and if you have a large sum of money you can be excepted pretty fast. Seeing how we didn't have either one of those things going for us we were on our own with just a few family members.

Things do get better when you get out and work, people are a little curious about the new people. Always seemed funny to me that people would tell me where I lived when they meet me, a little scary, are the stocking me or is it just word of mouth.

Joel and I have made some very good friends, our church family is amazing. Thank goodness for them in small towns, they will always make you feel welcome and wanted in the community.
After 10 years people just get used to seeing you around and realise you are staying and they are a little more friendly. I will always be grateful we made the move, we never would have found God in CA. God is so working in the mid west. You pay so much more attention to all the things he gives on a daily basis, sunsets, sun rises, thunder and lightning storms and all the beautiful sky's he gives, I'm in constant amazement at the world he has given us

The beginning of my Journey

My journey began in Alameda, CA where I was born. I was born to very loving parent's and already had a sister she was 4 years older than I. After I was born there came 2 brothers.

Growing up at the time I did was very easy. We played outside with out worry from our parents about something happening to us. Those were wonderful memories, playing in the neighborhood with all the kids, taking family vacations and always having one of my parents home with us.

I grew up in a home without a christian up bring. I always believed in God and went to many different church's growing up. always with friends or to the one by where we lived I could walk to. It's not that my parents were against us going it was just not something that they did. My father had enough of it growing up from his stepfather. Sadly we never did discuss church in our house and don't really know what they believed or didn't believe in. Funny as you get older and no longer have your parents what you would give to be with them one more day for all the questions you think of as you get older. It bothers me that they may not end up in heaven, they were wonderful people and I can only hope they came to terms with there savior before they passed on.

I went to high school and meet someone that was as I thought the love of my life. I married when I was seventeen. That lasted 5 years. Went to work for a factory and meet my sole mate Joel there. We married in 1969 and have been together 39 years. We had a wonderful baby girl about a year later and life was good.

We both worked and raised our daughter with the help of baby sitters unfortunately. We had great times though, many nice vacations and wonderful memories with her grandparents and cousins. When time came for us to retire we knew where we wanted to be, Red Oak was my mothers home town and we had spend many vacations here. In 1998 I moved back and 6 months later Joel joined me. We where very thankful our daughter loved it as well and being a single parent it was a great place for her to raise her children. She came 1 1/2 years before we did and started her life.

We are very glad we made the move, it has been an adventure, much different than living in CA. We also have become Christians since moving here. That has been a wonderful and always growing adventure always seeking and trying to be still and listen. Not easy when you have always made all the choices yourself. But I will continue to try and be still for his direction