This Old House

Warning: Sentimental and way-too-long post ahead.  Read on at the risk of losing 10 minutes of your life you'll never get back....or just fast forward to the pictures. I had to take some time to write this stuff down so I don't forget. =)

Tonight is the last night we'll spend in this old house (it was built in 1911 and turned 100 years this year!).  Because of the way it looks like the cookie is going to crumble over the next few days, the Hubs and I are thinking it makes the most sense to pack up our every day items and move in with my parents tomorrow.  Sunday we're hauling out boxes.  Tuesday we're signing papers, moving furniture, and bidding our very last farewells.

Maybe that's why I squeezed a couple Christmas CD's into the grocery budget when Newbie and I were out yesterday.  I'm feeling a little sentimental.  It hit me yesterday afternoon when Newbie got up from his nap and we sat at his big bay window watching the first snowfall powder the ground with big, fat fluffy flakes that this would be the last time.  The last time I would watch snow fall from the big white window in his room on the quiet rooftops and streets outside.

My breath caught a little in my throat.  This house has been good to us.  This home has been good to us.

All day some of my favorite memories here have been floating through my head...

The first time the Hubs and I came here after he got the house.  We were in collage, dating, and had run to the grocery store to buy the SpongeBob Life board game (a very mature choice, right?).  We came in the back door, just the two of us and spread out the game on the open floor in the dining room.  We sat there playing Life and talking about all the fun we would have in the house.  The Hubs was dreaming up bachelor pad ideas (surely involving video games and loud drums) while I thought of what I would do with the place when it was my turn to move in (curtains, paint, babies). It was such a good night.

We hung out here a lot while we were dating.

He had various roommates, but my favorite times were when his brother and Mr. E were living here with him.  They were just good guys and fun to be around.  Also, one of his other roommates burned through the Christmas stove cover I had given the Hubs from the Dollar Store, so he was instantly removed from the Good Roomie list.

A month before we got married, I kicked all his roommates out and started moving all the fun stuff in.  Our shower gifts, the queen size bed, the curtains.  It was such an exciting time.  A week before our wedding, the Hubs moved out and I moved in with my sister and my bestie from Texas and we hung out for the week.  I was sure to have the place geeked out with Christmas decorations in time for my bachelorette party, which we celebrated here.  Such fun times.  At one point we got a little cold and a little freaked out and finally moved out of the place the last couple nights before my wedding because I wasn't a big fan of staying in the house without a burley man around.  I'm still not. =)

(image created by http://www.trudyholtzphotography.com)

Two days after our wedding, we spent our first Christmas Eve here together.  We were unwrapping gifts after the Christmas Eve service and our neighbor knocked on the door.  He invited us over for a bonfire and a beer in his backyard.  I think he thought a bachelor and his roomies still lived here.  We passed under the explanation that we had just gotten married and this was our first Christmas together and we're actually opening presents right now, man.  When we went to bed that night, the guy's fire was blazing bright in the cold outside our window.

The semester following our wedding I began my student teaching.  I did a lot of lesson planning and stressing out under this roof.  The Hubs was always great about a good frozen pizza on those busy days and nights.  He's such a good sport.

We brought Opie home the following summer.  He was as small as my foot and the most adorable thing.  We snuggled him and he pranced around the living room.  He was so low to the ground, we could never figure out if he was just chilling out or boycotting his potty training program.  Apologies to the buyers....Stanley Steamer is probably not a bad idea before you get to cozy around here.  We're over due on our carpet cleaning this year.  Just keepin' it real, folks.

I'll miss the radiators that I hate so much.  They are hard and huge and dusty on the inside, but I love the cozy vibe they put off at Christmastime and the way Opie lays in front of them through the winter.

Our second winter here we made an ice skating rink in the backyard.  It involved a huge plastic paint drop cloth, an embarrassing taping and cutting endeavor in the middle of the Home Depot, and a ridiculous water bill.  But we did get to skate on it.  Once.  It was rockin'.

The windows.  Oh, the windows.  Every single window in this house is sparkly and new thanks to a generous gift from my in-laws.  I wish I could pack them all up in a box and take them with me.  Especially our three HUGE bay windows.  I'm mourning the thought of not having bay windows wherever we end up.  I love me some bay windows.

 

In the summertime we walked to Dairy Queen.  Heaven help me, what a dream.  I hope our next house is near some kind of frozen treat establishment. We also spent our summers watching people come and go outside.  Its been fun to be in a packed neighborhood where there's always some people watching to be had.  Newbie and I watched lots of people come and go yesterday afternoon while we admired the snow from his window.  However, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that our next neighborhood just might have less people and more deer.  I could go for some country livin'.

When I was pregnant, I spent many a day walking in the backdoor and praying my huge self didn't go tumbling down the basement stairs.  The stairs are open and literally directly to the left of the backdoor.  I call it the death trap.  A little morbid, sure.  But I came up with it to keep the threat of imminent danger always at the forefront of the Hubs' mind when he comes in and out the backdoor.  You can never be to careful around those steps.  I will be so happy to say "see ya suckas!" to that flight of stairs.

We brought Newbie home to this house.  We brought his little carseat in the back door, (past the death trap) and settled into the living room.  At the time, the house was overflowing with all kinds of baby stuff.  It was everywhere.  The dining room was gushing with gifts, the kitchen over flowing with bottles and pump supplies and the living room coffee table was cluttered with feeding notes and hospital numbers to call, and binkies.  I loved those days.  Sure, I was a crazy, anxious mess, but those were sweet times in this house with that little baby boy.

The Hubs and I stumbled through the hallway upstairs in the dark.  A diaper, a rocker, a swaddling blanket.  We were always looking for something or carrying something or changing something.  What a crazy, crazy time.  Sleepless nights, sleepless days.  No wonder I was completely off my rocker.  But again, such precious memories of caring for our sweet baby here.

Then Newbie started to roll.  By Christmastime he was scootching to wherever he wanted to go.  The Christmas tree was his favorite, and I learned quickly that I couldn't leave that little pea anywhere if I wanted to keep him away from the tree.  He also loved the decorations.  I go all out around here every year.  Garland in the doorways, lights and holly up the banister in the stairwell, snowflakes hanging from the chandelier.  I'm going to miss decking the halls here this year.  But you can bet I'm hauling my favorites to my mom's to pull out and set around our two rooms in her house this Christmas.  And she's blessing me with the task of decorating her house this year.  Can't wait!

Newbie played in his first snow in the front yard of this old house.  He loved it.

We celebrated Newbie's first birthday here in all kinds of circus style.

 

 He started officially walking long distances the day of his party.  He walked through the living room, then the playroom.  I'm so thankful our other kiddos will be going home to our next house so I can capture some of those milestones in our new home.  It is so fun to picture the place where all those things happened.  With Newbie, I'm bottling up the memories and carrying them with me- probably in a weepy sobby mess when we officially lock the door and leave Tuesday.

Are you ready for this?  I'm going to miss our squirrels.  Dang it.  I never thought I'd say it, but Newbie has taken to watching them from his window and talking to them in the morning.  And doggone it all, if he hasn't met a few buddies who come all the way up to the window screen to chat.  They get so close and then start munching away on maple seeds.  I'm going to miss those little rascals if for nothing more than the entertainment and amazement they provide for Newbie.  Chet, you done good.  I'm just glad I don't have to wake up to the sound of you gnawing your way through who knows what in the attic each morning.  Keep going, buddy.  I'm sure you'll break through the walls one of these days, and oh, what a day that will be.

Tearful goodbyes will be said to the curtains in the dining room and Newbie's nursery.  To the sillouette of a tree I painted on Newbie's wall when I was 8 months pregnant.

To the fancy tile and white vanity and awesome bathtub in our remodeled bathroom upstairs.  To the mudroom because a mudroom is a luxury we have not seen in the other houses we are looking at.  To the screened in porch/three seasons room because there has never been a better place to blow bubbles or play at a water table in on a rainy day.  To the backyard where we grilled out so often and Newbie splashed in his pool.

 To the kitchen island my in-laws gave me for Christmas a few years ago.

To the plastic teal and purple carpet I hate upstairs and the spot where the Hubs dropped a dobble of grape jelly that is still sticky and the quarter size spot of melted carpet where I set the iron when it was too hot.  To the new fluffy carpet we put in up in the hallway and Newbie's room. Oh, the blessing of new carpet!  To the tulips that bloomed each spring in the flowerbeds.

 

To the hours playing on the floor in the playroom or the nursery in our jammies.

I'm so grateful that we can take our selves and our earthly treasures and memories along with us when we go and that we are moving on to another new adventure. But a little piece of my heart will squeeze at leaving the place where we've made so many memories in the early chapters of our lives.

I'm so grateful for all the ways God has provided for us in this house.  However, there are some things I will not be sad to see go.  I will tear up with gratefulness and heartache for the bits and pieces of this place that I love.  But then.  THEN I will salute, and exclaim, "It's been real, man.  Hope I see you again never!" to: the mice and their poo.  The steel, super shady front screen door.  The locks that don't unlock from the outside on the front door.  The driveway.  The garage.  The basement and all its creepiness.  The uneven floors.  The dust underneath the furnaces that I can never vaccuum up.  The death trap stairs.  The drop-off cliff at the top of our upstairs steps.  The questionable stench when the weather warms up and the rain falls in the springtime.  The bats.  The random knocks at the door at 2 o'clock in the morning.  The stray dogs wandering through our backyard.  The lack of a fence.  And last but not least, our neighbor's dogs.  Good riddance, you yapping nap ruiners!

We've been blessed with some good neighbors, but we don't know them very well.  Several of the houses around us are rented out and people come and go every few months.  Most work throughout the day, and there aren't many kids.  We've had a hard time finding our niche in the neighborhood, and we're looking forward to putting down roots somewhere and being intentional about getting to know our neighbors more on Round Two than we did this time. 

That being said, I think we're ready to go.  I know we're ready to go.  I'll be weepy when we leave, probably, but mostly because of the memories we made here and my desperate attempt to carry them with us as we go.  Also because of that white trim and those bay windows.  *sigh*

Lord willing, Tuesday we'll sign the papers, come back to the house and move out what's left after our big haul on Sunday, and then we'll wave goodbye and step into the next new adventure.  I'm ready for a new adventure.  And I'm so grateful to have my two boys at my side while we turn to the next chapter.

Fare thee well, Old House, thanks for all the memories. And happy 100th Birthday!

 

(Oh yes,my little mountain goat was in so much trouble for this!)

PS- Entirely unrelated, but while I was digging through old pictures I found this.

 First of all, you can tell I was pregnant with Newbie and didn't have any kids yet because check out that hair.  I can't remember the last time I had time to curl my hair.  Second, this totally happened two years ago on opening night- matching candy and all.  And I can't promise it won't happen again next week. I can't explain why I watch these movies.  It just happens.

Frozen Pizza is Dead to Me

I'm still here.  I'm just crammed in between a bin of picture frames and potholders and a few boxes of stuffed animals. 

Our official closing day is Tuesday.  One week from today.  I cannot tell you how happy and grateful we will be to sign papers that day! 

My brain is a mish mash of all kinds of stuff right now, so I'm not going to attempt anything beyond a list this afternoon.  Ready?

1) Newbie had his first bowl of Lucky Charms this morning. I gave in after listening to him beg for "more" of mine each day last week.  He loved it.  Is anyone surprised?  The apple did not fall far from the tree, folks.

2) Opie knows we're leaving.  The boxes are freaking him out.  He has rebelled against the idea in various ways (I will spare you the smelly details) despite my attempts to explain that our next house will have a fence/dog run that will change his life for the better.

3) It looks like a bomb went off in my bedroom.  Clothes and boxes and puzzle pieces(???) everywhere.  Help.

4) I don't know if I can gag down another variation of frozen pizza.   I cannot wait until we move in with my parents and have a fully stocked kitchen again. Amen.

5) I had big hopes and dreams of doing a "thankful theme" throughout November on the blog, blogging each day about something I was thankful for.  But then we got an offer on our house and boxes exploded everywhere and I forgot what my name was.

6) Who is going to change the stink bomb that just dropped across the room? 

7) When is Newbie going to stop trying to scale the mountain of boxes in the living room?  I walked in on him one box high and three boxes deep this afternoon after sneaking off to the kitchen to grab a handful of Goldfish crackers.  That man works fast.

8) Can we come over for dinner?  I was serious about the frozen pizza thing. 

I have to go switch out some laundry and play tag with my little.  The fun of playing tag and hide 'n seek in a house full of boxes is amplified to the infinite degree.  Embrace the chaos, baby. 

Happy Tuesday!!!

Box Town... Population: 3

Hello from Box Town.  Land of the microwaved dinners and paper plates.  Home to 25 boxes and counting. We have packed up the entire first floor of our house, including the kitchen, which when packing, is the room that must not be named.  Putting my entire kitchen into cardboard boxes was a task fit for Jack Bauer himself.  It was brutal.  But we triumphed!  Then we went to the grocery store to buy all kinds of horrendous frozen microwavable food because we packed every plate, pot, and spatula in this joint.

The Hubs and I are beaming with joy tonight because it was a job well done today following much trepidation on my part about what it would look like to actually get this bad dad whipped into shape by our move-out date.  One floor down, two to go.  Now that the kitchen is behind us, the closets are stepping up to the plate as the most feared.  Good NIGHT how did we manage to cram so much stuff into those things in the past four years???  We'll be closet diving tomorrow- wish me luck!

Newbie took off for the day with Grandad, but he has been loving his current Box Town residence.

He also loved the ocean of leaves he helped rake up this evening.  He was thrilled to have a rake just his size and went to TOWN on the leaves under a canopy of gold tonight.  It was so fun to watch him get in there and mix it up with his little brown boots on.  When did he stop being a baby and start being such a little boy? I was happy to have a few moments to savor autumn and my boys in the midst of the craziness that has blown through here since we got the offer on our house. Ate. it. up.

 

Do you know who else ate this week?  Woody.  Newbie has really taken to this Toy Story character this week, and wanted Woody to sit down and watch Elmo in Newbie's chair.  Then he started sharing his coveted cream cheese covered crackers with Woody.  What?!  Too cute.

Newbie's got (another?!) stuffy nose and was in bed with us alllll night last night.  That kid flips and flops more than a fish outta water when he sleeps in our bed.  Feet in the face. Back on the pillow. Head butting my nose like some kind of mountain ram.  He does it all.  Its like sleeping with a buffalo.  No joke.  So needless to say we didn't get a lot of sleep last night, and since we've got big plans to start (and possibly finish) packing the second floor tomorrow, its an early bedtime for us tonight.

I hope you all have a very happy Sunday and find some time to cram some green beans into your ear this weekend.  Because why not?  Nothing seizes the day like jamming a few beans in your ear at dinner time.  Carpe diem, baby.

Moving Buddy

Well, this is happening:

Yesterday we signed the dotted line after considering the results of the inspection on our house, telling the buyers that yes, we will sell them this house for a penny, and sure, go ahead and take the kitchen island and all our curtains, and wait- are you sure you don't want our first born child as well???

This whole selling your house when the market is down thing is not for the faint of heart.  I will spend more than one night mourning the loss of Newbie's stellar light-blocking bay window drapes.I've fantasized about our resident squirrel finally digging his way through the plaster in the bedroom after the new owners move in and squeaking out a "YOU KNOW WHY!" with his fist in the air, just to get even on the curtains.  Then I tell myself talking squirrels burrowing through a wall in the bedroom is a horrible thought to wish on anyone, but I smile a little anyway because those curtains are my favorite.

YOU KNOW WHY.

ha.

Anyway, we have to have our bags (and everything else) packed up and out of here by November 15.  We have a few fudge days in there, but our hope is to get out as close to our closing date as possible.  Which means me and my moving buddy busted out the boxes today and got for real on this joint.  Every time I emptied a wall of picture frames, I turned around and there was another wall full of them.  We've got four huge boxes filled already, and that was just the living room walls.  Yikes.  It is going to be a long and busy couple of weeks around here.

You might be wondering where my family circus is headed to once we wave bon voyage to this, our first little home.  That's a fabulous question.  When you figure it out, please let me know.

We are still looking for a house, and in the meantime, we are moving over to my parents' now-not-so-empty nest.  We're hoping to find something soon, but the market is slowing down and there are not a whole lotta fish in the sea right now.  Our hope is to move out of the city (we live very much in the city right now) and closer to our family.  We'd like a little room to breathe and space for Opie to run and run and run and run and run. We think once we turn the corner on 2012, the menu will fill up and we'll have some more options. Opie's coming along to stay at G-Mama and Grandad's, so for the sake of their sanity, we are really rooting for a variety of houses to pop up for sale soon!

Before we started packing this morning, we ran a few errands with the Hubs.  After stopping for some coffee and a snack, I reached back to Newbie's carseat with a little bite of a cinnamon roll for him.  He reached up, took it and I KID YOU NOT said, "tank too, Ma Ma."  WHAT??!  Newbie's first full sentence was, "Thank you, Momma".  What. a. star.  The Hubs looked at me, and we were both dumbfounded.  We've been working for weeks on getting Newbie to say "thank you" and had barely been able to get him to use the baby sign for "thank you", much less actually get him to say it.  Turns out that persistence paid off.  We've got a charmer on our hands, folks.

"Tank too, Ma Ma."

You can bet your bottom dollar that kid got another bite of the cinnamon roll.

I'm off to take a snoozer with Newbie.  All of this packing is hard work, and I think it calls for a few pieces of Halloween candy and a good afternoon nap.

Have a happy Thursday!

 

(This is clearly a brilliant idea.He did this to himself, man. When you're a little boy, sometimes you just gotta do some box diving.)

"Treat Treat!"

We had a blast trick or treating with our little man this year.  We kicked off the extravaganza with a trip out to the country Saturday to visit Newbie's great grandparents and Grandma and Grandpa. Newbie sported a costume I found at a consignment sale Friday morning for three bucks- I just couldn't say no. 

 

 

(Hi, Great Grandma and Grandpa!)

 

(Hi, Great Grandma!)

 

 (Grandma and a very wiggly little Elmo.)

Newbie was NOT a huge fan of his "Melmo" ensemble.  The good news is, the Melmo was a bonus because I had already made a homemade outfit for him.  He wore the homemade costume at Wednesday's Trunk or Treat and on Halloween.  He didn't mind the overalls and even kept his hat on- totally surprising all of us. We went Trick or Treating in G-Mama's neighborhood because its where I grew up, we know lots of folks, and its the perfect amount of houses for two short legs. 

 

Before we hit the street, our favorite two little girls stopped by to say "hi!" Newbie and I had a little play date with them earlier in the day that involved bouncing on trampolines and a trip to Krispy Kreme for some chocolate frosted donuts.  He was jazzed to see the girls again and was really digging hanging out with people who were (almost) his size. 

(These are hands down some of my absolute favorite people in the world.)

 (Newbie showed the girls around G-Mama's yard and I thought it was funny that none of them let their candy buckets out of their sight.)

Newbie was TOTALLY into the whole trick or treating thing.  He caught on really fast and would get out of the wagon, walk up to the door carrying his pumpkin bucket, tap on the door lightly with his knuckles and say "na na!" (knock knock) and then if he was really feeling it, he'd exclaim "TREE TREE!" (treat treat) when someone opened the door. 

 

 

He got a little overly enthusiastic at most houses and tried to breech the threshold to make himself right at home.  I think he figured there was probably more candy inside.

 

(Anxiously watching Daddy's every move while he unwrapped a chocolate bar.)

I don't know what it is about Halloween that makes us throw caution to the wind and let Newbie eat more sugar than he has had in his 18 months of life, but somebody flipped the switch and out of nowhere it was just a candy free for all.  Thankfully he's a slow eater, so he didn't make it through more than a couple mini candy bars, but STILL, oh, the sugar buzz.  He was going going going until he crashed at bedtime last night.

I'd be lying if I said the Hubs and I I commandeered his pumpkin bucket after he went to bed. Reason #235,309 I love being a mom: getting to feast on all kinds of Fun Size candy bars on October 31st. Awesome.  The Hubs has a ridiculous amount of self control and only ate three Smarties.  Total buzz kill, in my opinion.  Don't worry, I more than made up for his lack of consumption. 

Speaking of the Hubs, a BIG HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my macho man!  He turns the big two-six today, and we celebrated this morning with lots of bacon and blueberry muffins.  Newbie gave him two pounds of bacon for his birthday. 

 

(There are two packages of bacon in that bag.  No, I'm not kidding.)

Bacon is what you get for birthday gifts when you're saving to buy a house.  Or a new boiler.  Its hard to say which it will be at this point, but inspections went down yesterday and we should know by Friday what we'll be spending the big birthday bucks on.   In the meantime, the Hubs is loving the massive bacon inventory around here and Newbie and I are conquering an Everest and a half of laundry today as part of the Hubs birthday present. (HA!)  The other part of his gift (in addition to the bacon) is the OK to go out and do whatever he wants Thursday morning.  My guess is it will involve camo and ammunition of some kind.  But that's only a guess. 

I have been so blessed by this guy and can't describe how much fun it is to be married to my best friend.  He works so hard for our little family and is such a generous leader and a fun daddy-O.  I love him to pieces and would give him a trillion pounds of bacon if I could.  Happy Birthday, Babe!

Hope you all have a Happy Tuesday full of treat-treats! =)

 

(Halloween 2010 throwback)