Apartment
Double Wide
With an expanding family, my parents bought a double-wide trailer, where we lived when my younger sister was born. I tease my Mom sometimes by crowning her with the song, “She’s the queen of my double-wide trailer with the polyester curtains and a redwood deck.” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iICDCj-qOEU). She mentions, “Well, I don’t think we had a redwood deck, but that’s pretty close.” Our cousins made the long trek to visit us, and everyone bought souvenir shirts.
In 1989 my parents moved us closer to the grandparents, and built a four-level split we know as The Yellow House. We stayed with the grandparents, which they probably regretted, while my parents had a house built. Aaron was nearly born at the yellow house, because Mom was trying to wait until Dad got home from a Jazz game she’d told him to go see, but she ended up going to the hospital with Grandma J. We only got our heads stuck between the kitchen railings a few times in the four-level split, although I do remember getting my foot stuck in a couch, from which Dad had a hard time physically and emotionally removing it. He doesn't like to cause more pain. (This goes for pushing earrings through your ear when they start to close over, too.) He got a little embarrassed about an incorrectly patched leak, when he recently came across the man who bought the house, through his work. Mom and our aunts would take us to the free school lunch program during the summer, and always lit up when Great Aunt Dixie, the best lunchlady ever, would come to our table. We had the only yellow house on the block, and then a couple of years before we moved, someone built a light yellow one next door. We pulled into the wrong driveway so many times.
After living in our new house for a few years, I decided that it needed a Gone With the Wind or Pride and Prejudice type name. I told the family the house would be named Winifred until someone could come up with a better name. I guess no one else felt the need to ponder further, so it stuck. Mom plants wildflowers in the garden, and she, Dad, and Ammon have spent many family nights working hard in the yard removing rocks and terracing the backyard. Hence, Dad's "love" of rocks. The driveway is pretty steep, contributing to quite a few dents and scratches in cars, but that's what happens when you build a house on the side of a mountain, and have lots of drivers and cars. During winter months, no one can park on the road overnight, so there's a lot of maneuvering in the garage, driveway, and side cement slab. My first dating experiences started and ended at this house, so the porch has some wonderfully awkward and awkwardly wonderful experiences associated. After Grandma and Grandpa Hooper had both passed away and their house sold, Dad built a small observatory in the backyard for his telescope, with an automated roll-away roof. When an appraiser came to our house, he classified it as "a very expensive shed."
Dorms
During the summer of 2006, when they hosted the World Cup, I studied in Freiburg, Germany at the Goethe Institut. Like Mom, I loved to gaze out the window, and saw the woman on a hammok, and the family eating on their corner porch. I shared the room and bathroom with a girl, but she and her boyfriend spent most of their time together, so it was kind of like my own room. It came with desks, some shelves for food, and a minifridge for each of us.
Mission Apartments
I served a full-time religious mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Ohio Cincinnati Mission, which has since been dissolved. I spent three months in Ashland, Kentucky in a very nice three story apartment (the bottom level was the garage). The next six months were in a one-bedroom apartment in Hamilton, Ohio, until I went to Montgomery, Ohio. Montgomery is a township of Cincinnati, where three freeways overlap, so this is the only time I actually lived in Cincinnati.
My last area was Fairfield, Ohio, which is sandwiched between Hamilton and Montgomery. In an Urban Sociology class I found out that the middle section of the Fairfield area, Greenhills, with its winding streets and alphabetized names in sections, was actually designed by the government during the Great Depression. It’s one of three “Greenbelt Communities,” meant to have a belt of woodland and natural landscaping. We talked to some fascinating people in the C-section. See
The Cottage
I moved out just for the summer of 2010 into a dream apartment. It’s just across the street from the Logan LDS Temple, and it started at $150 a month plus $30 utilities. My friend, Alina, was in charge of collecting rent and getting roommates, so I was very happy, with the light, open four-person apartment. I had my own room and no school. I didn't get a car after donating my last one to the Lung Association, so I appreciated the short 4-block distance from the grocery store and bus station. Conveniently, Zak had just moved into an apartment three blocks away, so we walked at 6:15 every weekday morning, as he was able to work at 8:00 during the summer. Alina had a projector, so sometimes we’d watch movies on the covered back deck, sitting on couches. A few times Zak had to tap on my window because I didn’t wake up for our walks or I didn’t hear him knock on the front door. We fit Taylor Swift’s “Our Song” fairly closely. Zak proposed before the county fireworks, at the beginning of July, and then I moved back to Winifred when school started, engaged.
My parents had been married just a few years before I was born, so my first home was in a four-plex apartment building, upstairs. It featured two bedrooms and Mom’s favorite view of the tropical foliage.
Double Wide
With an expanding family, my parents bought a double-wide trailer, where we lived when my younger sister was born. I tease my Mom sometimes by crowning her with the song, “She’s the queen of my double-wide trailer with the polyester curtains and a redwood deck.” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iICDCj-qOEU). She mentions, “Well, I don’t think we had a redwood deck, but that’s pretty close.” Our cousins made the long trek to visit us, and everyone bought souvenir shirts.Nicole on the porch of the double-wide
The Yellow House
In 1989 my parents moved us closer to the grandparents, and built a four-level split we know as The Yellow House. We stayed with the grandparents, which they probably regretted, while my parents had a house built. Aaron was nearly born at the yellow house, because Mom was trying to wait until Dad got home from a Jazz game she’d told him to go see, but she ended up going to the hospital with Grandma J. We only got our heads stuck between the kitchen railings a few times in the four-level split, although I do remember getting my foot stuck in a couch, from which Dad had a hard time physically and emotionally removing it. He doesn't like to cause more pain. (This goes for pushing earrings through your ear when they start to close over, too.) He got a little embarrassed about an incorrectly patched leak, when he recently came across the man who bought the house, through his work. Mom and our aunts would take us to the free school lunch program during the summer, and always lit up when Great Aunt Dixie, the best lunchlady ever, would come to our table. We had the only yellow house on the block, and then a couple of years before we moved, someone built a light yellow one next door. We pulled into the wrong driveway so many times.Apartment
Dad eventually got his “dream job," and commuted an hour each way until we moved into an apartment and started looking for another house. He wanted to build, so we stayed in the apartment for about eight months. Ammon was born shortly after we moved to the apartment, the day before we started at our new schools. Dad was so impressed with the central air over the old swamp cooler and maintenance, that central air wound up in our new house. We kids were excited to have cable (the Disney channel!) for the first time.
Dad eventually got his “dream job," and commuted an hour each way until we moved into an apartment and started looking for another house. He wanted to build, so we stayed in the apartment for about eight months. Ammon was born shortly after we moved to the apartment, the day before we started at our new schools. Dad was so impressed with the central air over the old swamp cooler and maintenance, that central air wound up in our new house. We kids were excited to have cable (the Disney channel!) for the first time.Nicole riding in front of the apartment building
Winifred
Grandma and Grandpa J had given us a full-size stand up piano, a hand-me-down from when Grandma was a kid. Getting it into the new house was barely possible with the ten or so people helping. Dad vowed to never move it again. He installed by hand Pergo wood laminate flooring in the great room, which became His floor for many years, which the piano had affected. We were all pretty spoiled at the new house, with enough rooms for all of us (although some were unfinished basement rooms).
Winifred
After living in our new house for a few years, I decided that it needed a Gone With the Wind or Pride and Prejudice type name. I told the family the house would be named Winifred until someone could come up with a better name. I guess no one else felt the need to ponder further, so it stuck. Mom plants wildflowers in the garden, and she, Dad, and Ammon have spent many family nights working hard in the yard removing rocks and terracing the backyard. Hence, Dad's "love" of rocks. The driveway is pretty steep, contributing to quite a few dents and scratches in cars, but that's what happens when you build a house on the side of a mountain, and have lots of drivers and cars. During winter months, no one can park on the road overnight, so there's a lot of maneuvering in the garage, driveway, and side cement slab. My first dating experiences started and ended at this house, so the porch has some wonderfully awkward and awkwardly wonderful experiences associated. After Grandma and Grandpa Hooper had both passed away and their house sold, Dad built a small observatory in the backyard for his telescope, with an automated roll-away roof. When an appraiser came to our house, he classified it as "a very expensive shed."
DormsDuring the summer of 2006, when they hosted the World Cup, I studied in Freiburg, Germany at the Goethe Institut. Like Mom, I loved to gaze out the window, and saw the woman on a hammok, and the family eating on their corner porch. I shared the room and bathroom with a girl, but she and her boyfriend spent most of their time together, so it was kind of like my own room. It came with desks, some shelves for food, and a minifridge for each of us.
Mission Apartments
I served a full-time religious mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Ohio Cincinnati Mission, which has since been dissolved. I spent three months in Ashland, Kentucky in a very nice three story apartment (the bottom level was the garage). The next six months were in a one-bedroom apartment in Hamilton, Ohio, until I went to Montgomery, Ohio. Montgomery is a township of Cincinnati, where three freeways overlap, so this is the only time I actually lived in Cincinnati.
Ashland Hamilton
Fairfield Montgomery
My last area was Fairfield, Ohio, which is sandwiched between Hamilton and Montgomery. In an Urban Sociology class I found out that the middle section of the Fairfield area, Greenhills, with its winding streets and alphabetized names in sections, was actually designed by the government during the Great Depression. It’s one of three “Greenbelt Communities,” meant to have a belt of woodland and natural landscaping. We talked to some fascinating people in the C-section. See B-L Sections of Greenhills, Ohio
The Cottage
I moved out just for the summer of 2010 into a dream apartment. It’s just across the street from the Logan LDS Temple, and it started at $150 a month plus $30 utilities. My friend, Alina, was in charge of collecting rent and getting roommates, so I was very happy, with the light, open four-person apartment. I had my own room and no school. I didn't get a car after donating my last one to the Lung Association, so I appreciated the short 4-block distance from the grocery store and bus station. Conveniently, Zak had just moved into an apartment three blocks away, so we walked at 6:15 every weekday morning, as he was able to work at 8:00 during the summer. Alina had a projector, so sometimes we’d watch movies on the covered back deck, sitting on couches. A few times Zak had to tap on my window because I didn’t wake up for our walks or I didn’t hear him knock on the front door. We fit Taylor Swift’s “Our Song” fairly closely. Zak proposed before the county fireworks, at the beginning of July, and then I moved back to Winifred when school started, engaged.Harriet
We searched for a married couple apartment available through ksl.com, and found the delightful two-bedroom apartment with a large open living room and bright kitchen. We call her Harriet, and Husband and I have very much enjoyed having her as our first home together.
Our happy home, Harriet
I'm sure many people have moved more often than I have, but going over everything, it seems like a lot. Thanks, Mom and Dad for always providing a roof over our heads, and for Zak, who helps me create a home. Our contract ends this August. Move or stay?
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