TBT - FREEEEEDOOOOOOM!

I have been wishing I had an outlet to use to preserve Family History Stories.  I love the blog set-up, but just didn't feel settled about starting another blog devoted to family stories.  Two is enough, even if I rarely post on the other blog these days.  Then, last weekend (General Conference!), the answer came to me.  I don't have to start another blog to gain an outlet for preserving and sharing these stories.  I can use our current family blog.  So that's what I'm doing.

I've decided to begin a weekly feature for Throwback Thursday, sharing a Family History Story of some kind.  These will be from a variety of sources and time periods: there will be some from our current family, some memories Ben or I have from our childhoods, and some stories about ancestors.  The point is, the stories will be here and they'll be easily accessible, and I'll have the motivation I need to get to work on this project.

So, now I will share the first TBT Family History Story.  It's something that happened before this blog was born, and since it's one of the kids' favorite stories to be told, I thought it would be a good one to start with.

A few weeks after we moved in to our house in Georgia. 

Ben and I bought this 3/2 in coastal Georgia in early 2007.  Though I was never crazy about the exterior, I really loved the interior: an open floor plan, a nice great room with a tall ceiling and skylights that looked up at the huge oak limbs crisscrossing the house, and a laundry room big enough for me to have my own sewing/crafting spot.  Add to that beautiful tile and hardwood floors, a good kitchen, and plenty of yard, and you'll understand why we liked it so much.

Okay.  The story.

Looking at the exterior shot above, the side-entry garage is to the right of the front door and the bedrooms are to the left of the front door.  Do you see how low to the ground the bedroom windows are?

Above is a view of the inside of Cat's room at about the time this story takes place, when she was 2 or 3.  Again, notice how low to the floor the window is.

Cat was as strong-willed as a toddler as she is now.  I can't imagine where she got that trait from.  Wink wink.  One day I sent her to her room for something or other - I don't even remember what led to the punishment.  So she was in her room and I was busy in another part of the house when something outside caught my eye.

I looked out the window to see Cat walking around in the yard without a care in the world.  

I opened the front door and called her back inside.  She came in, and I quickly began trying to figure out what just happened.

"How did you get outside?"

"I climbed out the window."

Once I picked my jaw up off of the floor I managed to ask, with furrowed brow, "WHY did you DO that???"

She didn't have to think of what her reply would be.  "I wanted to be free," she said in a matter-of-fact way that conveyed she didn't understand why anyone stuck in her bedroom would do anything BUT climb out of the window.  Of course.  That's what you do, right?  Well, that's what you do if you're Cat as a toddler.

For the record, she hasn't done it since.  That I know of.

The day before Cat's 3rd Birthday.
This is one of my favorite pictures of these two special people.

Here she is later in the month, showing off the dress
Mema made her for her birthday (which now fits Eliza).