Monday we celebrated five years here on The Hill. Our anniversary in our home was marked with an air conditioner that stopped working and a broken well.

Five years. Wow. Nearly all of Logan’s life, and more than half of Cameron’s life have been lived on The Hill. It’s longest we’ve ever been in one place and every other house before this one is barely even a memory at this point.

Nothing is official until it’s Facebook official.

We’ve made some great memories at birthdays and Christmas and every day in-between.

We’ve spent the past five years slowly turning this house into our home.

In those five years we’ve become a part of the community which is something we’ve never really done before. We’re active at our local YMCA and we love the local businesses in our little town. We’ve really worked to make our home more than just the four wall that we live within.

We’ve learned a lot about our town and we’ve learned even more about our house. There are three constants that I’ve learned over the course of those five years here:

1) No matter how hard I try it will never all be clean at the same time. There’s too much house and too many mess makers for me to ever keep up with it all at the same time.

2) Every spring the smell of death will make its way into my bathroom, stick around for a couple weeks then disappear. We don’t know what it is but you could set your watch to it’s arrival each spring.

3) July will bring flies (inside the house). It will start as one rogue fly and by the end of the month become multiple flies buzzing around. I’m living through this one right now and it’s making me crazy. If you have any tips for getting rid of them please let me know.

I’ve also learned that there is nothing I can do about any of those things.

Logan’s first moments on The Hill.

Here’s to many more years of memories here on The Hill.

From the moment we moved to The Hill there has been one thing that has driven me crazy. No matter what I do I can’t seem to get or keep these things under control and it’s more than frustrating.

No, it’s not naughty neighbors or a leaking sink.

The window candles!

One of the rare times when ALL the lights were ON.

 They have been driving me crazy for more than two years and I’m sure they will drive me crazy until the end of time.

Before we moved in I really liked the fact that the window candles had their own little outlets and were connected to a central timer. They’d never always be on and they’d go on and off together. It’s a nice little feature, apparently it’s called the Christmas Light option (who knew?).

Once we moved in I would find that keeping all of those damn candles in working order, at the same time is an exercise in futility. I have found it to be damn near impossible to have all twelve candles lit for more than a few days in a row. Add to that the fact that most places only sell the lightbulbs for those candles around the holidays and the candles are just a giant pain in my ass.

Those stupid candles fall out of the window and shatter all over the wood floors. They get knocked over by an inquisitive youngster or played with until the bulb burns out. They just stop working for no apparent reason. The twenty pound cat jumps in a window to chase a bird and knocks it over. We even had one (in a window I can’t reach) literally disintegrate when the painter moved it to paint. They get rained on when I can’t close the window fast enough and short out. They never seem to last.

What I have learned is that it’s imperative to stock up on those light bulbs when I can. I also have a stock of extra candles and have been slowly replacing the original one’s as they break.

I’ve threatened to take them all down and get rid of them for good but Bill won’t “let” me. Even my parents chimed in on that one and the candles remain. Alright, part of me wants to keep them just because they do look nice when they’re all lit up together.

Thankfully we are nearing the holiday season so I can stock up on those damn lightbulbs and maybe make it through another year. Lucky me!

Do you have those fun window candles too? Have they become a constant pain in your backside to keep them all lit at the same time? No? Anything in your house that as you frustrated and ready to throw in the towel?