31 Days to Write the Story of Your Family - Day 6: There's No Place Like Home

Day 6: There's No Place Like Home

I lived in three different houses during my childhood.  The first one was a small ranch in Painesville, Ohio. When I was about four, we moved to a larger home in suburban Parma, Ohio and we stayed there until I was about 15.  At that point, my family had grown out of that second home, and my grandmother wanted to come live with us, so my parents decided to build a new, larger home on an open lot that was in our same neighborhood just around the corner.  

While that house was being built, we lived with my grandmother in my mom's childhood home. Even though I had to sleep in the basement (ick!), I now feel fortunate that I got to spend this time with my grandmother in her home that she loved so much.

I moved out to attend college in Indiana, and have never been back as a resident of Ohio, which makes me a little sad, because I still consider myself an 'Ohioian.'  I attended graduate school in Pennsylvania.  My first 'real' job after that was back over in Indiana and after my husband and I married, we lived in Homewood, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago.  We lived in a 2-bedroom apartment there for about a year, and then we bought a 50-year old, three-bedroom ranch.  That house gave us lots of problems and we lost money fixing it up, but, because it was our first home together, I still have positive memories of it.  

Our apartment building in Homewood, IL

Our house in Homewood, IL

From Illinois, we moved to northern Kentucky, just across the Ohio River from Cincinnati.  We bought a small three-bedroom split-level home in Covington, Kentucky.  We stayed here for almost five years. The house was quite small, but I miss it, mostly because this is where my kids were babies.  

Our house in Covington, KY

About a year and a half ago, we moved to the Indianapolis area.  We were able to buy a new, larger home, and it's nice to have the extra space, but it still doesn't feel like "home" yet.  Unless some absolutely amazing job opportunity comes up for my husband, we will be staying put for awhile.  My son has started school and I don't want to be moving around too much. I want my kids to have somewhere that they think of as HOME, even if it's not the place that I consider my 'home.'

Our home in the Indianapolis area