The Houses That Built Me

I grew up in Pennsylvania …and yes, I have seen The Office, The Vampire Diaries, and Pretty Little Liars.

I wasn’t born in PA, but I spent most of my youth there. I am the fourth of five kids in my family. I have two older sisters, an older brother, and a younger brother.

I was born in Texas, and when I turned 5 years old, my family moved almost every summer to a new location due to my dad’s job. He was not in the military. He was the manager of a plastics plant (a group of factories that create things like plastic pill bottles) and was relocated each year to supervise and manage the next plant.

We are a road trip family and have been just about everywhere in the 48 states here on the main North American continent. I still have not yet been to Hawaii or Alaska.

On a big ranch in a small town in west Texas…

1997 – 2002

I had horses, cows, pigs, and dogs. I don’t remember much of what we did with those animals… I only remember that we had a horse named Prissy and she was a sassy girl. When my older siblings would saddle her up to ride her, she would stubbornly fight them and they’d fall off. That’s when I learned I am afraid of horses.

Then we moved to Henderson, Nevada

2002 – 2005

I remember that our front yard had no grass, but had red rocks instead. It was so hot that we couldn’t grow anything in our garden, and the nights were warm and humid. My oldest sister was always told to babysit the rest of us anytime my parents had a night out. We would always play murder in the dark, hide-and-seek, spoons, and manhunt if we could find a park.

• Murder in the dark – this is basically the game of “Mafia”, but with a family-friendly name. I mean, I was only 7!
• We all know about Hide-and-Seek
• Spoons – a card game: Players take turns trying to collect a four-of-a-kind. There is a pile of spoons in the middle of the circle of players, one spoon less than the number of players. Once someone collects four-of-a-kind, everyone tries to grab a spoon. If you don’t get a spoon, you lose. You can keep track if you want to, I don’t think we ever did.
• Manhunt – hide-and-seek outside in the dark, but if you’re found, you have to try to run to the agreed-upon base before getting tagged. If you’re tagged before you get there, you’re it next.

I was a dancer. I went to my ballet and tap-dancing classes and had little recitals and everything. I was so cute 🤭 The two songs I remember most are “Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head” by B. J. Thomas, and “Dancing in the Moonlight” by Toploader.

Next, we headed east to Pennsylvania

2005-2007, 2008 Jan – May

For the first time in MY life, we moved into a rented new-build house. We were the very first tenants of that home! It was like a dream, I LOVED how new and clean it was there. We were lucky enough to stay there for two whole years! but then we had to leave… My dad was sent to Ohio on what was supposed to be a temporary assignment. However, he was gone from home for so long that we all decided to move from this new home in PA to a trailer park in Dayton, Ohio.

We all hated it there

2007 summer to winter

Imagine being 9 years old, living in a beautiful new home with your 4 siblings, 2 parents, and 2 huskies. You stay in the area long enough to actually make friends, and then you have to leave to go to a stinky, polluted, gross trailer park in Ohio. Remember: 7 humans and 2 high-energy dogs. AND we attempted cyber school, so we had big computer monitors (this was before everyone and their dog had a laptop) scattered in the trailer wherever they could fit. It was certainly not ideal…

We stayed there for 6 months before we called it quits. The new house we left in PA didn’t sell while we were away, so we moved right back in! But just for one more year…

On to the next…

2008 – 2017

That summer, my dad was relocated to a different plant in PA, so we didn’t go far.. but it was far enough that we had to change schools again. Even worse, we moved days before my 12th birthday, which felt like the end of the world. I was never very good at making friends anyway, but now I was CERTAIN that no one would come to celebrate my birthday. I was right.

This house was old. It was built in 1885, was on 8.46 acres, and had a LARGE pond. It was a fixer-upper through and through.

Though I NOW appreciate the beauty of this home and the life skills it taught me, I hated it with my entire being when I was 12. The first thing we did after moving all of our boxes in was scrape off the wallpaper from all of the rooms in the house.

Have you ever scraped off wallpaper??

To remove wallpaper, you have to mix white vinegar and water in a spray bottle and spray the wallpaper to dissolve the adhesive, and then take a putty spatula and scrape it all off inch by inch. I did NOT want to spend the week of my 12th birthday doing this…. but my parents ordered pizza so we could enjoy some family time. We scraped the paper for a few hours and then had pizza picnics on the trampoline in the backyard while we watched the fireflies glow.

This is the house that built me. We lived in this fixer-upper from the time I turned 12 until after I graduated high school. My dad used this house to teach my siblings and I how to hang sheetrock, install insulation, use power tools, cut and lay tile, roofing, landscaping, electric wiring, appliance replacement, sanding, priming, painting, and MUCH more.

When I left home…

2015

I went to college in Idaho for about one month before I had a stress-induced reaction and wasn’t able to use my hands or feet due to swelling (that’s a story for another time…). I went home and took a few months to work and save some money before heading back to college for a second try. I stuck it out and finished my first semester by April 2016, and had made some pretty cool friends out of my roommates, too!

I returned home for the summer break and saved some money. I decided I would go on a mission for my church. You’ve guessed it – I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (improperly known as Mormon).

I was assigned to Peru

2016-2018

I left on December 27th, 2016, and returned on June 27th, 2018. I will explain more about my experiences in Peru in several other posts, but for now, just know that while on a mission, about every 3 months or so, you’re moved to a new area within your assignment.

I was used to the movement and consistent changes. I had grown up moving around the country almost routinely, so it didn’t bother me much.

My parents moved when I was in Peru, so I came home to an unfamiliar house in Pennsylvania. And then, 3 days after I returned home, we moved to Texas.

Everyone in my family was born in Texas

2018 – 2021

Each time we had moved growing up, my dad had always been hoping to be relocated to Texas. He has BIG Texan pride. In 2018, we finally made it! We moved into a cute little house at the end of a cul-de-sac in Houston, Texas.

I enjoyed this neighborhood while I was there. I was moving around on my own, between college in Idaho and visits back to Peru…

We spent the COVID lockdown in this house. The neighborhood was beautiful and we would often take bike rides and walks around the streets and the pond.

In 2021, my parents were ready to buy their own home

After lots of searching, they finally found the house that they now call home. I moved there with them before I was able to officially move out for college long-term. I moved to an apartment in Idaho, and then to a shared house.

After graduating in April 2022, I decided to follow my now fiancé to his hometown. Even now, we are looking to move again to find our home so we can settle down.

Each of these places has had a special impact on me and who I’ve become. Miranda Lambert’s song “The House that Built Me” really touched home for me, even though I had multiple houses… I know what each home offered me and what I learned in each time period between moves.

I’m grateful for everything I’ve experienced in each home and wouldn’t change a thing