Time Flies.....When we aren't looking!

It all started when I read that Bea Arthur died. Remember "Maude" and "the Golden Girls"? Well, those of us approaching the half century mark probably do, unless that age mark also affects our memory. Around the same time as learning of her demise, I visited with an Aunt and Uncle I had not seen in nearly ten years! Where has the time gone? It seems like we were just visiting them in their home in St. Peter's, MO when, upon looking back in my photo album, I realize it was back in the summer of 2000! No wonder my kids do not remember the visit!

Then, to totally throw me for a loop, I had a weird dream last night. I am not sure of the purpose of the dream but it is one of those recurring ones, rather, the location is recurring even if the circumstances to the dream are not.

Allow me to explain. When Tim and I were married about a year and a half, we worked on our income taxes and discovered that, heaven forbid, we owed taxes! Now, this is two college graduates, working at entry level jobs, whose combined income barely made it above poverty level but somehow, we owed taxes. So, we decided it was time to give serious consideration to purchasing a home and finding a few deductions to aid in our dilemma. At this time we discovered a new starter home development which offered a home for us to purchase, two bedrooms, one bath a two car garage and an unfinished basement level with a family room/master bedroom plus bath option to finish at a later date. All this for a mere $52,000! What a bargain. We bought it. And better yet, we got a whopping 9.5% interest rate, which was a smoking rate during a time when interest rates were 10 or 11 percent!

This house had approximately 900 square feet AFTER we finished the lower level to make another bathroom and family room. Tiny was the house but we had our first two children in that home and I do believe there were some great memories there. We lived there just under six years and as we were busting at the seams, we made the leap to make a move. Since then the leaps have been easier to make, in the moving department, but that was a tough move. I am not sure why.

Here is where the dream comes in. Many times in the years since, and we moved out of that house in 1992, I have dreamt that we were living there again. I never dream that we are STILL living there, but that we moved back in. Only, each time we do, the house is decorated differently and the house grows in size with each dream. Yet, somehow, I know it is this very house.

And last night I dreamed about that house again. And this time it was huge, maybe triple its original size. But all the neighbors were the same and my first two children were still babies. Yet my friend Shannon, who's son is Jeff and getting ready to serve a mission in Florida, offered this son as our babysitter one night. And he babysat for us in this dream and had the house all clean and the kids in bed and only watched them four hours. And we owed him $70!!!! ( I have yet to figure out how Jeff got into this dream....................)

I am trying to figure out why I go back to this house occasionally in my dreams. It was in no way a dream house, very basic, downright plain, and very tiny. And yet it is always the house to where my dreams return. I wonder if in times of reflection on the past, I go back to that house because it represents so much future ahead and all the promise and dreams that are yet to be lived. And taking a walk down memory lane with visiting long seen relatives and hearing about the death of long ago celebrities, well, maybe that triggers it. I will pay closer attention the next time I dream of my first house, my dream house.