The Farmhouse that Built Me

 Country singer Miranda Lambert sings a song called The House That Built Me.  It's a song about going home to the place where she grew up, to the house that built her. The chorus says, "If I can just come in I swear, I'll leave.  I won't take nothing but a memory, from the house that built me."

The song goes on to talk about how she learned to sing and play guitar up the the stairs in that little back bedroom. She talks about how her favorite dog is buried in the yard and how her handprints are on the front porch steps belong to her. 

Well today, my mom, Mandy and I got to walk through our grandparents house before it's torn down. This farmhouse is also the house that built me. That built us. We had the best walk down memory lane, we ran into our grandparents and our all our childhood memories there. We revisited all the fun and the laughter. We pulled faces in the bathroom mirror just like we spent so many hours doing his kids. We laughed and cried while doing it too. We reminisced on the many Thanksgivings, Christmas parties and sleepovers spent there. We reminisced on the games of hide and go seek, funky chicken, and about the day aunt Roze's water broke when she was pregnant with Laurie and how she sat on towels next to the fireplace downstairs, frantically calling everyone she knew, trying to find where Tom was. We talked about the millions of bike rides that we took, and the goats we used to milk. We talked about how we were forbidden to climb the haystack, and how we never got in the way of the cows. We walked out by the milk barn, the hay barn, the silage pit and clear down into the fields. We probably walked about 40 of the 88 acres of the old farmhouse . We made our way out by the swamp to the cattails and even broke some open and let them fly in the wind. I'm so glad that I got to walk down memory lane today.  I had such a fun childhood there. I'm glad I got to see it for one more time. 

My grandpa's name was still visible on his original mailbox out front. If you look at it just right, you can see

A.L. HARTVIGSEN

RT 1 BOX 331

It was almost completely unbelievable to us that the SAME carpet was there. Kind of mind blowing that the new owners who bought the house from my grandparents 35 years ago never changed out that carpet. Disgusting but at the same time I'm so glad that I could still see the same carpet.

Easter 🐣 🐰

The Easter Bunny came and brought both Molly and Jacer Bug some surprises!  (I mailed Cade and his companions along with Grandma Julie and her companion Connie's Easter boxes out to them ahead of time)  Molly got a few Taylor Swift records, some clothes and dresses.  Then Jace also got some clothes, toys and the cutest little felt cowboy hat and boots!  He looked so cute!  We went to church, then had all the married kids and Grandma Gloria over for a very traditional Easter dinner of ham, potato salad, baked beans, deviled eggs, etc.  Then we made cute sugar cookies in all the cutest Easter shapes.  Eggs - bunnies - ducks & tulips.

I love spending time with my family and am so grateful for the resurrection.  Here's a quote from Elder Stevenson that explains the importance of Easter very well!

"Take Christmas away, and in biblical terms, you loose two chapters at the front of Matthew and Luke.  Nothing else.  Take Easter away and you don't have a New Testament: you don't have Christianity."

Easter is so important.  Although we celebrate it with bunnies, chocolate and parties, I understand the true meaning of it try to apply His atonement everyday.  What a blessing it is!  My hope is that the rest of the world see's Easter for what it truly is.