My life in houses...

{Disclaimer: This is probably mildly interesting to my sister. And, not interesting to anyone else.} :-D

Do you ever google map all your old houses? I did. I wasted time. Oh well.

This is my first house I lived in: our Fence Post house in Austin, TX. You can see that the current owner hasn't maintained the yard very well. I've driven by a few times and they have an assortment of pink plastic flamingos as well. Charming. He doesn't know it offends me that he's wrecking my first home. Memories from this house: standing in the corner, going across the street to my best friend's house, playing in the leaf piles in the fall, walking to school, getting the mail, my mom cleaning out the trash can, our dog chewing up our spa cover, playing in the dirt in the backyard and on our swing set my dad made, counting my money in my room, leaving cookies for Santa and searching the trash for any remnants of the carrots from the reindeer, walking out to the Christmas tree with my sister, my sister getting mad at me for using her pencil sharpener (it's the same one I now have in my classroom), getting annoyed that my mom wanted to watch the news while cooking dinner (I love the news now), my mom explaining how to cook hot dogs in our microwave to the babysitter, my sister getting her hair stuck in the mixer, stubbing my toe on the wall next to the sewing machine, and the bean bag chairs my grandparents gave us, and my favorite blue chair and the cool remote control that stuck in the TV, and eating popcorn upstairs with my dad while my mom taught Lamaze classes downstairs. Funny what sticks in your mind.


This is our Hardwood Tr house in Austin. I can't find any old pictures of the house. Only the current, much uglier picture from google maps. Why don't people trim bushes? I lived here in high school and I remember doing a lot of homework in this house. My friend, Katy, lived three doors down and had a house with the exact same floor plan. The picture above is us in front of her house when we were much younger. In high school Katy and I would meet each other in between our houses in the middle of the night to exchange textbooks that Katy forgot.

This is the Saber Trail house. I thought this house was so beautiful and I got excited about it -- I remember my mom telling me it was expensive. I didn't like that you had to go outside to do laundry in the garage. My mom met my step-dad, Keith, here; he lived across the street.

This is the Township house where my dad still lives.

This is my mom's Woodland Lane house in Round Rock where they still live. I lived here the second semester of my senior year.

Gardner Dorm now...looks the same as it did when we were there. Lots of fun memories here. Moriah and I had matching bedding. Our hall watched lots of Wedding Story and took daily afternoon naps in our room. My friend (not saying any names, but her middle name might rhyme with house) snuck out of our window and hid in the bushes below. I was also in this dorm when I watched the twin towers fall.

I lived in Sikes dorm for the first semester of my Sophomore year. The google map picture above looks different from when we were there. We were so excited they had remodeled the bathrooms right before we moved in. I don't know why it was so messy -- moving day? Cool computers -- there was a lot of AIM happening on those computers. Cheryl627.

This felt more like a vacation home, but I'm going to pretend like I lived here. Well, I did, but it was when I was studying abroad in Granada, Spain. I was lucky and my host mom lived downtown, she served amazing food, and she had hot water. I've always wanted to live downtown, and I forget that I have. There were stores underneath the apartment. These are mainly google map images from this year. I remember it the same.

This was the yellow house on Cedar Crest in Abilene that Virginia and Carrie and I lived in (this was before I kept pictures, I guess, cause I can't find a picture of all three of us together in the house). This house should be condemned. There were roaches in the walls that took over Carrie's room. The house flooded a couple times (a few inches all over the back house), and it was pretty gross. But, we liked the paint inside the house and it was only $200/mo per person. Gotta love Abilene rent. We all cooked lunch together -- usually quesadillas & salad or chicken, vegetables, and pasta with a ton of Italian flavored Kraft parmesan cheese. I usually went to the grocery store every two weeks and only spent $40 -- I was eating on $20 / week...crazy. Our washer/dryer was in the kitchen. Brett and I started dating when I lived in this house.

This was my first apartment I had on my own. Saddle Blvd in Orlando, FL. I worked at a day care while I lived here..yuck! And I went to UCF. And then after a few months of day care and a round of pink eye, I switched to my first teaching job at a fancy private school where Joey Fatone's (from NSYNC..duh) daughter went. Brett lived about 15 minutes away and he okayed this apartment that I found online and took pictures for me while I was still in Abilene. While in this apartment complex my car got searched because they were making sure there wasn't a felon stuffed in my trunk that I was sneaking out, the SWAT team decended on a nearby apartment that was growing some illegal drugs, and Brett had to physically push my drunk nextdoor neighbor out of the door pictured above who was trying to force his way in. Charming memories. I had both of my bunk beds I grew up with at this apartment -- one half in the living room as a sofa, the other half in the bedroom. I had my TV on a rolling microwave stand in the living room. I loved that it was right around the corner from school, but it ended up being an hour's drive from my new prep school, so I ended up moving. Because of the time difference my mom and I were driving to and from work at the same time, so we often talked on the long drive.

This is my Vizcaya Lake apartment in Ocoee, FL. I moved here to be closer to my school I taught at -- it was farther from UCF, but I went there less often. This was a not so fun time in my life. I was finishing up grad school, studying a lot for my final comprehensive exam, missing Brett a lot since he had moved back to Amarillo after he had finished up school, keeping up with my first year teaching, and having no good friends nearby. I ended up with a disgusting case of dyshidrotic eczema all over my hands from all the stress. I sat in this apartment trying to self-diagnose myself as the boils and blisters popped up all over my hands seemingly by the minute. My mom thought I had scabies; I thought I might have to wear gloves for the rest of my life.

This is our Villa Del Mar Apartment in Arlington, TX. This was the first place we lived together. It was old, the sinks smelled, there were bugs, it was small, the stairs shook our apartment when people walked up them, the dishwasher fell out of the wall when you opened it. And, yet, we think fondly of ol' villa.

And here's a current home. Good ol' Concho Trl in Mansfield. But, I found out that Google Maps doesn't think our house is worthy of street view. Good thing I still live here to take pictures.

I wonder who read all this....