Looking back on a childhood filled with events and memories, I find it rather difficult to pick one that leaves me with the fabled warm and fuzzy feelings. As the son of a mechanic, I had the pleasure of traveling across America on many long trips. I have visited the monstrous trees of the Yellowstone Forest, stood on the edge of the Grand Canyon, and have jumped on the beds at Caesar's Palace in Lake Tahoe.

The day I picked my dog up from the pound was one of the happiest days of all of our lives. We went to the pound just a week earlier with the idea that we would just look at a puppy. Of course, you can no more just look at those squishy little faces so filled with hope and joy than you can stop the sun from setting in the evening. I knew within minutes of walking in the door that I would get a puppy. but it wasn't until I saw him that I knew I had found my puppy.

Looking for houses was supposed to be a fun and exciting process. Unfortunately, none of the ones that we saw seemed to match the specifications that we had established. They were too small, too impersonal, too close to the neighbors. After days of finding nothing even close, I began to wonder, Is there really a perfect house out there for my family?