My own tearful farewell

After 5 1/2 years of living in our home, we sold it and moved into Scott's parents' home, about a mile away, while we "transition."  I had a hard time saying goodbye to my beautiful home.  We lived a third of our marriage here, longer than any other home we've been in, and experienced a lot of life here.  We brought 3 children home to this house.  I know I tend to be sentimental and a little dramatic when it comes to change in my life, but I wonder, how does one leave a home they've spent a lifetime living in???  My mother and grandparents left their home in Australia and moved, not just a mile away, as we did, but to a whole other country, and continent, on the other side of the world.  Remembering that, I am very grateful that we are only moving a short distance away.  I am also very grateful for in-laws that are allowing us to use their home while they are serving their mission across the world in the UK. 

In an attempt for closure to this chapter of my life, I need to take a walk down Memory Lane.  So, come back next time if you'd rather not take the walk with me.

This is the Great Room.  It was perfect for entertaining.  This room has been transformed into an African jungle, Candyland, Dracula's Castle, a Las Vegas casino, and, my favorite, Hogwarts' Dining Hall. 

 

We even left our permanent mark in some places.  The fireplace will forever (until someone blasts it off) bear the aftermath of where Irelynd's birthday guests tried to catch Lord Licorice with Silly String 3 birthdays ago.  (This stuff becomes cement when it adheres to surfaces.  Buyer beware!)

Savannah's bite mark: 

This was my office and party-planning place.  Not much to look at now. 

This was one of the only rooms I completed.  The textured walls are from hundreds of sheets of pasted-on tissue paper, painted and stained.  I hope the next owners like it, cuz it ain't goin' anywere!

The dining room.  When we moved in, this space dwarfed our little, apartment-sized farm table, so we had to find one to fill it, hence our mismatched table was born, which I still love.  This room was used for countless family spooky Halloween dinners, Valentine's feasts, Christmas dinners, Chinese New Year celebrations, Easter lunches, and a Hogwarts Potions class.  We remodeled this space a little a few years ago and put the brick archway in.  All because of a crooked carpet line.  I loved the change, but the remodel almost killed me.  Scott too.

{sigh}  I loved my kitchen.  Did hate the cooktop, though.  And the beadboard paneling on the bar.  What a beast that was to clean!   

Family room.  It was small, but cozy.  When Brighton was a year old, he fell against the fire place and blistered his entire hand.  This is the room where Brighton and the twins met their other siblings for the first time. 

While we were waiting to close on our house and move in, we were most excited about our huge bedroom, and this large pantry.  (What does that say about us, I wonder?) 

I will greatly miss this room!  This was where the girls would drop their stuff when they came in from school, and come wandering into the kitchen to find me.

Our Juliet's balconies.  Our fear when Brighton showed just how mischevious he was, was that our kids would try to jump from here to the couches below.  Luckily, it never occurred.  Most recently, Savannah liked to play "spy dog" with her BFF from these balconies.  These worked great as a transfer between floors.  We've dropped/tossed up countless packages of toilet paper, luggage, dirty socks, keys, etc. from here.

Scott's office.  This room really had potential we never capitalized on.  Its carpet got stripped during the remodel to fix the upper hallway, and never got replaced with something permanent.  When my mom came to help with the kids at one point, she looked inside here, and panicked, thinking that someone had ransacked our house.  It was, ahem, just Scott's lack of organization.

I gave Scott a picture of Prayer at Valley Forge for Christmas a couple years ago.  It was one of the only gifts he's not returned.  I wish I could take the vinyl lettering with me.

Living room, AKA "visiting teachers room" never got used much.  We actually turned it into a playroom of sorts in later months.

This was the site of the "poop incident" not long ago.  All I'll say is it involved both twins, and corn.  Lots and lots of corn.  Yuck!  Someone's going to want to replace that carpet.

Irelynd's room.  That carpet sure has taken a beating.  We've scrubbed out nail polish, lipstick, beebee's, dead bugs, and most recently, squished tomatoes.

Savannah's room.  The girls' rooms were across from each other, so at night, they would often yell back and forth.  When the twins were born, Irelynd moved in with Savannah, and we occasionally caught them giggling together after they were supposed to be asleep.  This is the window Irelynd climbed out of, and out onto the roof.  I finally caught her when I heard her pounding on the second-story window above the front door.  She was only 5.  She also has been known to throw stuff out the window onto the front lawn from this window when she got mad.

As part of our remodel, we installed this linen cabinet.  We designed it ourselves, and Scott found some antique German door handles from the 17th century on E-bay.  He was very sad to leave them behind.  We found Irelynd and Brighton hiding from us on the bottom shelf many times.

This was our huge bedroom.  We used the sitting room as an upstairs loft.  It was the place of family prayer and scripture study.  The doors on the left wall were intended to go out onto a balcony, but instead were doors to nowhere, as neither the first owners, nor us, ever got around to adding it.  This room served nicely as Diagon Alley, and the Cloud Kingdom.  Many little girls cornered Scott, as Queen Ariana, in this room, after they chased him up the stairs.  This room looked drastically different when we bought the house.  We added the timbers and took the fireplace to the ceiling.

Scott made this mantle from an old bed he found while garage selling.  He was very depressed to leave it behind, as its a one-of-a-kind.  I remember sitting in a chair by this mantle one Christmas morning and watching the sun come up.  I had just finished nursing 2-month-old Brighton, and was enjoying the snuggle time with my baby boy, waiting for the rest of the family to wake up and come open their Christmas stockings.  My twins slept in bouncer seats in front of this fireplace until they were off their apnea monitors and could be moved into their own room.  I spent many hours in this room while recovering after their birth, and have rocked many hours in my chair while holding sick or restless babies here. 

Our kids looked forward to their birthdays, one reason of which, because they got to have a birthday bath in our big tub.  When they were smaller, the girls used to ask to "go swimming" in our bath, because it was so large.  The only time I really used it was while pregnant.  Most recently, Keaton liked to turn the water on, and then throw as many items in there as he could until caught.  Did not make Mom a happy camper. 

My laundry room.  I'm going to miss you!  Even if you never got completed.  I just turned my back on the unfinished side and reveled in your beauty!  Until my rotten twins pushed the drawer out and broke it...

Brighton's room.  We had plans to do this room in a transportation theme, but didn't get it done before Brighton arrived 5 weeks early.  So while I was in the hospital recovering, Scott surprised me by painting it himself.  During many Julys, the two of us would climb out onto the roof after the kids were in bed to watch the stadium fireworks display in Provo.  This became the twins' room after they were born.

The basement.  The scene of the famous Paint Explosion.  This was the best playroom and multi-purpose room.  We hung swings, and rings from the ceiling, which kept the kids busy for countless hours.  In the winter and hot summer months, the kids all brought their bikes downstairs.  This has been the jungle bat caves, Spiderman hangout, and a mummy-wrapping venue. 

And, lastly, the back yard.  When I was pregnant with Brighton, Scott and I installed a stone patio and stairs.  It tooks hours and hours, and was so tedious to match the stones, and make them even, with all their bumps and abnormalities.  The following year we ripped it out and had a stamped cement patio poured.  The day it was laid, it rained and pock-marked it.  Hours after, while it was still curing, we caught Irelynd running across it in pink cowboy boots.  If you look closely, her mark is still there.  This was the site of the final feast at Fablehaven, Madame Pomfrey's herbology class on bubotuber pods, the lighting of the torch at our family Olympics last summer, and King Candy's rescue from Lord Licorice.  I found Brighton and the twins, many times, stripped bare here.  This was also Molly's choice of toilet in the winter months.  Yuck!

I will miss my home of 5 years, but I'm sure some other family will make some great memories here, too.  I realized, after going back one night to shower and gather some belongings, that home is where your honey is.  My home is where Scott and my children are, and without them, the house is lifeless.  I recently read 1 Nephi again, and found a new respect for Lehi.  He had to move his family, too, unexpectedly, and not really by choice, but to a tent in the wilderness, for who knew how long.  I am very grateful that tent-living is not being required of me.  Luckily, all our memories we made here will go with us, and new ones will be made wherever we are.  And for that, I am thankful, and have much to be grateful for.  To the next 5+ years of our life.