Blog Challenge #14 "There's No Place Like Home"

This week's challenge is from bonnuit (Judy). I am barely making the deadline! LOL I think I skipped one somewhere...oh yes, lucky #13. I will have to go back and do it...until then - here is this one!

This week tell us about the places you've called home. Have you lived in one place all your life? Tell us about it and why you've chosen to stay there. Have you lived in many places? Where have you lived and what have you done to make each place feel like home? What has been your favorite place to live and why?

Wow. This one is going to be hard. I have lived in so many places. I'd list all of them, but my dh already thinks I put way too much information out in the internet world. LOL Let's just say that I was an Army Brat. We've moved so many times. Then I got married and we've moved just as much as someone in the military! I guess working in the ministry can sometimes feel like being in the military.

I feel like singing Johnny Cash's "I've Been Everywhere". I will pick one place that really is a special memory for me.

One place that I feel was a privilege to call home, was when I lived with my grandparents for a year. When I was 9 (3rd grade), my dad got an assignment to go to Korea. After much discussion, my parents decided that it would be better for me to live with my grandparents while they were in Korea. They did not want to interrupt my schooling. Anyway, this was such a special experience for me. They lived in Johnstown, Pennsylvania.

I remember going for a walk every Saturday with my grandfather. We would walk downtown to meet my grandmother who had gone out early that morning to get her hair done for church. As we walked, he would talk to me about everything under the sun. I would listen intently. He told me stories of his childhood, his time in the Air Force during WWII, he'd explain things that we saw and how they worked, and I listened to it all! I loved listening to him and I loved how he would answer all of my questions as if every single one of them were so important. Our first stop was the newspaper stand. He'd buy the local paper and 3 other big ones like the New York Times. I would be allowed to pick one thing. I usually chose to get an Archie comic book. Our trip would continue on to a little place called Johnny's. This is where my grandmother would wait. We'd get a Coke. I always asked for a Shirley Temple so that I could get a Marashino cherry in it.

Then the three of us would go to the library. This is probably one of my favorite memories of my childhood. To this day, I believe that my grandparents helped to instill in me my love for books. I was allowed to check out as many as I wanted. I remember choosing 3 or 4 chapter books a week and I would read them all. I read all of the Boxcar Children, all of the Ramona books, Nancy Drew, The Little People, Secret Garden, Black Beauty...the list goes on.

Then we'd head out and run any errands that needed to be done that day and the trip would end at a restaraunt for a late lunch.

I had so many great memories that I could go on and on. I just loved the fact that they never made me feel like a burden to them. They always made me feel like it was my home. I learned how to cook and bake there, learned how to sled, play rummy =], ... Yes, this was home for me for one whole year and I will never forget it!