home is

the bench was added later for older people to kiss
or what i like to call 'wrong'

i've been thinking about homes a lot. on parenthood, the parents are selling the home their children grew up with and the kids throw a stink about it. then i went visit teaching this past week and guess what house my new girl lives in? my old hs bf's house [holy memories]. and you know how much i love my own house? i do but goodness gracious i'm running out of room. well my parents are moving on out and along with them, my stuff is kicking the curb. that's right, my old pink prom dress needs a new home. so does poppy's gravestone. but sadly, my elder boyfriend mural is going to be wiped out soon. you know that miranda lambert song, 'the house that built me'? love it. 'i bet you didn't know, under that live oak, my favorite dog is buried in the yard'- resonates pretty loudly when we've got about a dozen dogs, chickens, geese, pigs, goats and even a horse on our property. i have so many great memories of my childhood home. while i was talking to the girl i visit taught about her house, it made me realize- i've only really lived in one house my whole life. we've lived there since my 6th birthday. all my memories are there. when i feel sad, i go there. when we celebrate, we go there. it's where my story starts and i always thought, where it would always be. my parents are under the delusional idea that they are getting their house prepared to sell. granted, it will take about 15 truck loads to utah, 5 ginormous trash trailers and a million ebay sells until the house is anywhere near ready but still. it's got me thinking.

with that being said, i wanted to show you some of my favorite things about my house. and i promise you, like all things zobrist, it will not be boring. but this being said, don't tell my dad i put pictures of his house up online. dude is all sorts of paranoid about big brother. and he should be- they're closing in on him.

my bathroom - currently in remodel mode
i am mourning the loss of my toilet

this is the kissing rock. not sure of it's back story but i remember my dad always saying he put it there so his girls had a place to make out with our boyfriends....... really. my dad is a weirdo. thankfully most of his girls never got that much game in hs. except for anna, she got lots of game. devin actually got the most game out of all of us but her peak period came after hs in the land of love called provo. but i made a point of taking justin there once we were in that place as a couple that i could admit my dad was that much of a freak.

here is shelby the turtle. it was fluffy's girlfriend. oh how i miss my fluffy. one of these days my kitty cat is just going to show up - probably on top of my neighbors roof. until there, i will make sure shelby stays faithful. because those penguins are shady.

my room. when we first moved in i had to share with my two sisters = the worst. one of the perks of being the youngest means that i slowly get to edge them out for our mother's affection until i'm the only one left aka the favorite. it was pink back in it's heyday and it will forever by my room. but let's be honest, my favorite part of my room is not really my room but it's attached- my bathtub, where i spent the majority of my teenage years. typically reading the newest harry potter.

-this spot- now imagine it about a billion years ago. there was a dark blue leather love seat and justin and i were canoodling. we were nearly together [about a month and a half] and he first told me he loved me. i remember it was a little bit before we all sat down with my family for my birthday dinner. in this room is where a whole lot of making out happened. it's also where he sat on the fireplace post-mission and talked to us with his funny accent and all i kept thinking was 'he just kissed me! he just kissed me!' because he had just planted one on me in the driveway, mere seconds after seeing me. really, just so many amazing justin memories here.

the chicken coop. i remember when my dad built it. i was probably around the age of 7/8 and my dad told us not to go in there or else we'd have to spend the night [because we couldn't step over a cinder block cemented into the ground]. so my sister and i slept in the chicken coop. gross right? i hate going in there now. i was once viciously attacked- actually it's happened several times- by chickens. i used to only go in there with a stick. one time i was almost knocked over while an aggressive dog fought his way into the coop while i was blocking the entrance with my body- all while i was holding my baby landon. it was the worst. he ended up killing the chicken. the second was when i was pregnant and i was trying to free a chicken caught in a net. the rooster started attacking me because he thought i was trying to hurt the chicken. landon was in the coop too so that was pretty horrible. i started screaming and crying uncontrollably while the rooster kept coming for me. thankfully landon wasn't near all of this. so that being said, i actually hate the chicken coop. but it is full of memories.

my mom's piano- great story. it's actually a custom fancy piano from new york. one time when my mom went to utah when we were little, she went piano shopping in a 'someday' kind of window shopping adventure. during the visit, the shop owner asked her what her ideal piano was and she described it [fancy color, yamaha, baby grand, whatevs]. well she left her number and forgot about him. until a month or two later he called and said some buyer in new york fell through with her dream piano. she bought it. over the phone. they delivered it- didn't even make her sign anything. about a month or so went by and my mom never got an invoice. being the good mormon lady she is, she called and made sure she got all set up. but really, she could have made off like a bandit. the story is even funnier bc my dad said she couldn't buy the piano- he was going to buy a boat and our family was going to make wonderful memories on that boat for years to come and a piano would get no use. years later- the boat has long been sold and all my mom's kids [but one, bc josh is a butt] enjoy and play the piano. i love playing for myself. i love to sit down at my mom's and belt out tunes as loud as i want and play around with the melody- usually singing. but if someone is home i do not play. it's my own secret garden.

in the end, a house is just bricks & morter [and a whole lot of dead animals- really folks, we have a WHOLE lot of dead animals there. i cannot stress this enough]. home is where your mom is. home is where my husband & kids are. home is where you feel safe and loved. and that's why my heart is a house.

'circle me and the needle moves gracefully back and forth. if my heart was a compass, you'd be north. risk it all cause i'll catch you if you fall. where ever you go, if my heart were a house you'd be home'
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