that is my old fb profile pic, not sure how to change it here, lol. a bunch of friends. I'm in the middle of the back row, my mama is on the far right of the back.
I do like the place we live. I'm not a huge fan of texas, or the dfw area, but I've made my little corner of happy here and have a circle of people I love and feel at home with. I love my house. It's small for us, under 1600 sq ft, and with teenagehood looming with a family of 6 it's going to be tight. We may end up moving in the next few years. A 4th bedroom would be really helpful. But all that said, I really love my house. It's cozy, it's us, I've done things over the past 7.5 years like pulling up carpet, staining concrete, painting almost all the walls, etc. My oldest kids were 4 and almost 3 when we moved here, so most of their lives have been in this house. the neighborhood is older and not as cookie cutter mega suburb as a lot of areas around here, with lots of families. I like that my kids enjoy the local public schools and have lots of friends within walking distance (my older two ps, my youngest homeschools)
I love the story of how I met dh. <3 My family moved here when I was 16, and I had a bit of a crush on the redhead down the road, he was way old for me though and never really noticed me (I think I actually crushed on both brothers, but whatever. Horny 16 year old.) Barely ever met them at all.
At 19 I got married to my first husband. He was my first (not only) high school boyfriend, and moved down here to be with me, we got married, etc. It was really awful, horrid marriage, but I have 2 amazing kids out of the deal, and I learned a LOT about what I did and didn't want in a partner. I also learned a lot about myself, and boundaries, and just life. It was hard and sucked, but I'm grateful for who I am now because of it. Anyway, by the time I was nearly 21 I had a 1 year old and another on the way, left my ex, and moved back in with my parents, where I lived for about 3 years.
Jason (my hubs, the redhead from when I was 16) had also, around the same time, moved back in with his parents to save up money for a down payment on a house. He was single, never married, no kids, running his own business. he's really frugal. lol, and was so over dumping rent money away while saving. His dog was a puppy then and kept getting out of their yard and running to greet us when the kids and I would go on walks around the neighborhood. He started walking with us, and it all snowballed from there. :-) We went on our first walk on Jan 1 (I remember we were both a little hungover....) went on a couple dates that month. I went on a pathetic date with another bloke while J was in Hawaii and it was awful. really highlighted what a great guy J is. Then when he came back from vacation he brought me and the kids souveneirs (including chocolate, so win.) and I pretty much was over the moon for him by then. By May we had gotten engaged, and started house shopping. Bought our house in July. Got married in my moms back yard in August.
Our parents still live 3 houses away from each other and our kids don't really get just how lucky they are to be able to walk from one set of grandparents to the others. <3
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