When I woke up this morning it was snowing. It has since slowed down to an occasional flurry, but when I actually looked out first thing this morning it was coming down pretty good. I had to smile. I know that a lot of people are tired of the snow. A lot of people were disappointed that Phil saw his shadow and scurried back into his nice warm home. I, on the other hand, don't mind snow in February. (Snow in April is a different matter - it shouldn't snow for Easter.)

Reflecting on the snow falling outside, I mentioned to my kiddos that it's been 6 years since Daddy bought our house. He looked up at me from tying his shoes and said, "Yesterday was 6 years exactly!" It made me think about how far we've come...and how much things have changed.

My husband is not a romantic guy. It's kind of sad, really. I'm such a hopeless romantic - I'm a sap actually. My husband doesn't do much that can even be considered kinda romantic...of course that doesn't include the occasional sweet comment or glassy eyed look when he realizes how good life is...but the way he bought our house was really romantic.

We had looked at close to 25 different houses. This little house was the only one that we really liked, was in good condition and in our price range. To be honest with you we probably wouldn't buy this house again - only because we now know that we need a lot more room than this little place has to offer but as soon-to-be newlyweds it was PERFECT!!! I remember that we actually had too much room and not enough furniture to fill the place when we started out! hahahaha

Anyway - we had looked at a lot of houses and had pretty much decided this was the one. We made an offer lower than our maximum price...they countered with a price still a little under that maximum price. We accepted and were all set to close on February 3, 2004. The day before was a busy day but nothing out of the ordinary. Jerry had mentioned that we were going to go down and look at the house one more time before closing. He swung by and picked me up at my parents house and we headed down. The house was dark and Allison, our Realtor, was nowhere to be found. Jerry convinced me it would be okay to go up on to the porch and wait. Then he pulled out the keys and opened the door. I didn't know but he had actually bought the house that afternoon!!! He had a blanket and a bottle of wine in what would become our living room and we celebrated together.

It's hard for me to imagine what this house looked like with nothing in it. It was empty when we bought it - and looked so much bigger than it does now. The next day (today - 6 years ago) school was canceled due to a ton of snow that got dumped on us overnight. So, I took my new house key and came down to the house to hang out...the empty house...by myself.

I remember cleaning a little. I remember opening all of the drawers and closets. I remember sitting in the middle of the rooms and imagining what they would look like with stuff in them. I planned what colors I wanted to paint and where we were going to put the few things we did have. I was excited. It made the fact that Jerry and I were getting ready to start our new lives together feel a little bit more "real".

I'm not really sure when it happened...but sometime in the last 6 years this house has become my home. When I think about home I no longer think about my parents' house - where I lived for 26ish years. I think about this little house that my husband bought for us on a cold, snowy Groundhog Day in 2004.