This Is: My Home

This week I got to choose the theme to Carina's This Is Meme. I decided to go with, This Is: My Home.
Now, my original idea was that we could show photos of the inside, the outside, your home town, the city you live in. Lots of ideas to go with.

I live in a decent sized town in Ohio, USA. I hate living south of the border (The CANADIAN Border). I would like it more if I had had more pleasant experiences here, but who knows if that day will come. I do my best to make my experiences happy, and have survived here so far ;o) I live in one half of a Duplex
that was truly run down when we first visited it. Thanks to the help of my MIL (yeah, she rocks), we got the landlord to do some much needed renos inside. We got new carpets, appliances, and a fresh coat of paint. It brought it up to date, and safe for us to live in. It's the perfect size for us, and we enjoy living here. We live directly across the street from D's school, and about 2 blocks away from a really great park where we spend all of our time at during the summer. It's fairly close to the downtown area, about 1 1/2 miles, so it's close enough for the kids and I to walk to if we want.

My H-O-M-E is here. I'm always welcome, and it's what I miss when I get homesick. It's a nice comfortable 3 bedroom mobile home. It has a cozy little gas fireplace that's perfect during the rainy days. During each and every holiday (when we're there) we cram as many relatives into it as we possibly can. My Gramma is the first of 10, my mom is the first of 9, you can guess how many we cram in. Holidays are usually hectic, and busy, and SO much fun. We play games, cook, watch movies, and discuss what we want to shop for, and new crafty ideas. My mom bought this place when I was 16. Lots of good memories in this place.

This is where I'm from. My family is from a small town in the Interior of British Columbia called D'Arcy. I've been a few times since I've reached my adulthood, and I love it more each time I visit. I long to take a group of us family tand go and clean the tiny town, as it's looking run down, but alas, I've yet to do it. I've been there twice for a family reunion, and each time I was suprised at the people I can call my family, and how many of them I've never met before. It is an amazing feeling to know that I belong somewhere, and with people like myself. Look at those beautiful brown faces. I'm fiercely proud that I can call these people my family, even though I haven't spoken with half of them. Someday.

This is My Hometown. I grew up all over the place, but we settled here when I was 11. A beautiful summer town, that gets fairly mild weather during the winters, and scorching temps in the summer. Beautiful beaches, an everlasting scent of pine, and during the spring apple blossoms. It's got a great stake in Agriculture, and Wine. Vineyards dot the hillsides, and you can find many an award winning Winery's to visit any time of the year. It's nestled in the bottom of a wonderful valley, around an 83 mile long lake, and surrounded by some very explorable mountains. I miss it dearly.