Saying hello and Saying goodbye
To say that leaving our last home was a difficult thing to do would be a gross understatement. We loved that home. It held hundreds, if not thousands of memories. It was there that we said our last goodbyes to our faithful Rottweiler Zeus and Grandma’s Buster, and last saw our sweet Cat-dog Othella and her fierce offspring Fluffy. There were our kid’s heights charted on the doorways, a freshly painted living room that took years to find the ‘right’ color for, a thoughtfully refinished basement that had just been completed mere moments before closing, and the absolute best neighbors anyone could ever want. There were countless birthdays, Halloween parties, Christmas and Thanksgiving dinners, long summer nights on the deck underneath string lights and stars, and many an evening in the garage with my husband and my friends Bourbon & Coke when our oldest joined the Navy. Warmer weather brought relaxing driveway chats with friends and for our daughter, endless sleepovers with friends and cousins. Our boys grew up there and our daughter never called anywhere else her home. Even still, the need for change calls even the most comfortable and beckons of things that could be.
Fast forward about 8 months to today, and you will find us knee, ahem, waist, (who am I kidding?), definitely neck deep in projects, but looking back through the old house pictures reminds me we can and will get there again. And while the kids are now too full grown to plot wall heights, we’ve already made new memories here, like nighttime kitchen music and dancing when our oldest son comes home to visit and Uno Attack games that have had us crying with laughter. Summer found us dock jumping with friends, boating to breakfast, and taking leisurely paddle board trips around the cove. We’ve added a new pup to the family, trimmed a few hundred tree branches, and met some really great new neighbors. I know the ‘right’ paint colors will come….in time.
Our Zeus, Othella, Fluffy, & “Sheriff” Buster