It is My Room

This is no longer my home.

 

This is "Nana and Papa's house" or sometimes "Nana's house" (the boat, camper, 4-wheeler, etc. are always referred to as "Papa's," so I guess referring to the house as "Nana's" is a fair trade-off). I lived here from 1985 until I went to college, and even then it was home for summers, holidays, and weekends. It's changed a little since then. We added "the addition" of a dining room, office, and garage the year after we moved in. My parents added a sun room and front garage when they had to repair damage from a tornado--the second tornado to cause damage. Just this past year Papa replaced his shop with a much larger one for housing camper, boat--and this past summer a swimming pool.

My parents still make me feel "at home." I still refer to going to their house as "going home." Since I also refer to returning to our house as "going home," the boys sometimes get a little confused about what "going home" really means. In fact, between our actual house, Grandma's house where they stay after school and other times, and Nana and Papa's house, it's as if they have 3 homes. That must be a pretty cool feeling. But this is not really my home anymore.

This is no longer my room. (This is also Shawn not resting.)

This was my room when we moved here. I was an only child; I got the bigger bedroom of the two that were not the master bedroom. The other bedroom became a guest room--the room where people stayed who didn't actually live there.

This room, too, has seen changes. It has seen decorations for an elementary school girl. It's housed a water bed for a high school student. It's even contained my grandmother's bedroom suit for an adult daughter and son-in-law.

I gave up claim to this room after the last summer I really spent here in 1995, since after that I had an apartment of my own. Once HoneyBear and I got married in 1998, this was certainly no longer my room, though we did visit it. HoneyBear no longer had to stay in the guest room.

The guest room became "Tyler's room" after he was born, then became "the boys' room" when Shawn was added to the mix. They had twin beds, toy boxes, and individualized posters at the head of each bed. It was their room.

Last summer my mom decided that the boys needed more space. They had lots of toys in their room, and when they visited they often stayed a week, so they wound up fighting over space to play. (As if they didn't have this whole house with lots of unused rooms to play in!) She decided that they needed the bigger room of the two.

So the twin beds were moved into "my" room. My grandmother's bedroom suit was moved into the guest room. Nana did ask me if it was alright, and of course it was; it really was logical to give two playing, growing boys the bigger room. So the room that has housed girl things and a water bed became a place of boy things and twin beds.

Then I came home for the first time after the big switch. I was put in the guest room. The room where family and friends only stayed briefly and then went home. The room that belonged to no one. The room HoneyBear had slept in when we came home before we were married.

My room was now the boys' room, and I was in the guest room.

It really does make sense. They're using the space more effectively, and it's nice to see them playing there. They also visit more than we do, going to Nana and Papa's house for weeks in the summer and additional weekends when we don't all come in. So it works out well. It's now their room.

Of course, at one point while we were visiting over Thanksgiving my mom started discussing other rooms in the house that could be made into bedrooms.  She wondered if it was time for the boys to EACH have a room here. Then we'd be out of my room and the guest room! That may be taking it too far. I don't know that I want to sleep in the sun room or the living room or the office.

Besides, the boys would want those rooms, too!

So they can't have the guest room. It's my room now!