things i miss about home

- the sound of my mom’s wind chimes after a storm
- the sound of my dad shaking the newspaper out to read it every evening
- tickle fights with my brother
- jumping on my sister’s bed at 10 in the morning when she refused to wake up
- the scent of my mom’s lilacs in the spring
- the feeling of running barefoot in the backyard grass
- sneaking out my bedroom window and sitting on the roof to watch summer sunsets
- being able to get anywhere you needed to go in town within 10 or 15 minutes
- finding notes stuffed in my car door from Rachael after getting out of a super boring class at Kish
- Ollie’s. Enough said.
- this one particular couple who came to pickup the leftover bread every other Friday night at Panera…I used to give them free coffee and make their daughter my special hot chocolate that wasn’t on the menu…and they would always make me smile.
- hangouts at the girl’s apartment on Lincoln Hwy…best times ever
- getting my little brother in the car and driving through all the huge lake-puddles that formed in our neighborhood after a storm just right and laughing as it splashed against the windows
- cornfields. never thought I’d say it. (I do NOT miss being stuck driving behind tractors though…agh!)
- being able to navigate campus and tell people where things are…OSU is so much bigger than NIU.
- shooting hoops in the driveway
- the happy feeling of being home and there to hang out when someone who moved away comes back for a little while
- summer bike rides to the park with the bro
- laughing for no reason at all with my sister
- hearing tales of “the office” from my dad around the dinner table
- my mom’s homemade dinners. cooking for yourself just isn’t the same.
- rocking in the rocking chairs on the porch watching the clouds move
- the clean smell of rain hitting the dirt
- being able to see stars
- driving around to see all the Christmas lights with my grandma
- playing on worship team at church
- randomly running into old friends at Walmart
- not having to take the freeway to get anywhere
- study nights at Panera with Erin…and drinking 10 cups of coffee just in order to be productive
- hanging out with Christie…and having midnight picnics at the park just to give the policemen something to do in this town
- having a key and the ability to camp out in the prayer room aka “streetside sanctuary” whenever I got the urge to break away for awhile
- being a nerd by watching “antiques roadshow” and “anthony bourdain” with my dad
- taking a midnight trip to Chicago on a school night with the girls “just because we can”
- packing out The Junction for a couple of hours with the Intervarsity peeps on Thursday nights after Synergy
- nights spent stealing auditorium chairs and going mudding in the high school marching band field
- crashing band camp and Tuesday night field practices with Betsy
- riding my bike down Mt. Hunger Road at 5 in the morning just to be able to say I saw the sunrise that morning and it was beautiful
- acting as a taxi cab for my friends while having a dance party and simultaneously screaming “who let the dogs out?” as loud as we possibly can with the windows down at a stoplight
- actually being able to perform Chinese fire drills without the possibility of serious injury or death
- being able to watch cartoons in the morning and eat my cereal on the couch, while laughing at the stupid hilarity of it all and not feeling like an idiot by doing so
- sleeping in a canopy bed on my fluffy full size mattress with poofy pillows. mmm.
- playing catch in the yard with my dad
- having the ability to hang out and have one-on-one conversations with my pastor, a person with whom I actually have a relationship instead of simply just seeing him on stage every Sunday
- being able to actually see and discuss a cubbies game (who are these indians you speak of? and why is it that you don’t show the cubbies at least at a sports bar, sheesh!)