Sunday, February 25, 2007

A very very very fine house

So, I have another tab open with all the work I need to be doing with my Ainslie-free days here (although I'd rather have her with me!), but I need a moment to catch up with myself and anyone else who happens along my rambling.

The house is empty. I didn't think I'd be sad, but closing the doors felt bittersweet. We joked all weekend about 'who would buy this house?', but really, it's a great little house. It's on a great block with wonderful neighbors. It's the house we finally got pregnant and became parents in. It's the place Ainslie took her first steps--I'll never forget the sound of her tentative clomp, clomp, clomping up behind me there in the kitchen.

I loved the screened-in back porch and the patio. I loved the countless evenings we spent hanging out back there, neighbors wandering in and out, sometimes with a bottle of wine. I loved the laundry chute.

Anyway, for a small family, we really filled that house, and with more than love. I thought I'd given away a ton of stuff, but holy cow--we have a lot of things. Or maybe the truck is just too small. ;-) Anyway, we have to make a trip back up to collect some things from a neighbor's garage.

Speaking of stuff, I can't wait to have mine back. Have I lived without it for the past 9 months? Of course, and I could live the rest of my life without it, but you know, it's mine. My favorite coffee cups. My dishes. My towels. Just to have things back and organized in closets and cabinets instead of boxes--priceless.

What did I learn this past year? What was I supposed to have learned? Well, I learned that home really is where you live with your own little family. When we first started looking at houses here, we would drive through subdivisions and declare whether they were Too Expensive, About Our Speed, or We Can Do Better Than That. Well, for what it's worth, I've learned that ANY house can be a home, and any house looks pretty darned good after you've lived without one for awhile.

I've learned that children are even more resilient than I knew. I've learned about new kinds of mommy guilt. I've learned a lot about my in-laws, and therefore, my husband. Yeah, new light was shed on many idiosynchracies, lol.

I learned that living with more than 1 or 2 pets is just not for me. I learned that I guess you can do anything when you have too. I learned (well, learned again) that God listens and has a plan. I also learned again that I'm perhaps not always a fan of the part of the plan that involves me being patient. ;-)

So--I need to send some faxes and cross everything and pray hard that our closings go without any hitches! My St. Louis trip got pushed back a bit, so I have a couple more days to unpack next week, so phew.

Now I really need to get to work!

1 comment:

Tammy said...

I've been checking and checking, and I'm glad you're home (so to speak). You are bringing back so many experiences for me, of these last several months, down to the "any house can be our home" if we're together. I really have learned to feel that way (although right now it is being tested as Hubby is on a run to get something to clear out our sewer... eeeewwwww!)

Wow Carla, what a journey. Oh, and I also wanted to comment on the bittersweetness of it all. We so wanted to sell our house and as we packed up all I could think of was the memories of Bug's first everythings, and even of our losses on the journey. I didn't want to leave them there at all. Of course, you take your memories with you but still, that is where it happened. Even last week, when we back to visit friends in our former town, we drove be the house. All I could do was cry. SIgh.

I am so glad things went smoothly this weekend. And now... get to work, lol! Hugs to you!