My brother just made my day...

So, I am from St. Louis MO. Born and raised.

Every 4th of July we go back to be with family and relive old times.

The house I used to live at is always a place we go back and see. I spent every summer in the yard of that house planting trees/moving the grass/doing something to the yard. My dad did not golf like all of his colleagues, he planted trees. We were constantly planting or replanting trees to get the look my dad wanted. I swear, there are at least 1000 plants in that yard. My dad, my brother and I did all of it.

Anyway,The last couple of years, we always knock on the door to see if the people that bought the home would let us take a tour or just look around. No dice, they are never home.

Well, my brother just sent me this:

THE HOUSE IS FOR SALE

Now a little backstory. My father is from the Philippines. My grandfather was a squatter which means, he squatted on land and took care of it until the owner just gave him land. They were rice farmers. My grandfather could not afford send all of his kids to school. He had enough to send one. The deal was that whoever he sent to school, would then have to go and get a job so the rest could go to school. The decision was made to send my dad to school to become a doctor. He did and in return sent all of his siblings/family/relatives to school too (do you have any idea the pressure I had growing up to go to med school?). There is even a "Canlas Medical" building in Pampanga that my father started. I am not sure if its running today but I've seen pictures. Due to a handful of political things happening at the time, he immigrated to the US in the late 50's. To practice medicine in the US he had to go to school all over again at the ripe age of 45. Even though he had his own hospital in the Philippines etc. My dad became a doctor and this was the house he built for us to grow up in (1979). I have been to the town he was born and raised in and have seen the 10x10 mud hut he was born in. In one generation the American Dream was realized. This house means quite a bit to me and my family.

Anyway, my brother has called and set up 2 appointments to walk through the house (there is going to be 5 adults with 9 kids). He also got permission to bring a metal detector to try and find my dad's class ring he lost where the trampoline used to be. There also was a crawl space that was up in the attic where I hid some transformers and other toys under some floor boards.

I am positive we will leave that house with the ring and a couple new toys for Isaac.

This has totally made my day (and my day has been made pretty well with Lulu).

Lets just cross our fingers no one buys this house before we go to St. Louis July 1st-5th...