Goodbye 215

What do you mean we can't close on the new house for 2 more months. How can I possibly sit here for that long knowing how much needs to be done at the new house? How can I keep cleaning and going about life as usual with that hanging over my head.

Okay, I guess I'll pack a few boxes. Then we'll have Wilson's birthday party. Maybe by then it will be about time to leave.

Wow- it's November already. I've really got to pack more everyday if I'm ever going to get it all done.

Packing is such a pain. I've tackled the majority of everything in each room, but each time I walk through I see "one more thing" that I've forgotten and all those one things are really adding up. I just can't seem to wrap my head around the fact that EVERYTHING has to go.

Order the pizza, pick up the drinks, call our closest friends. We've closed on the houses. The movers are coming in the morning and we need to take over a few loads tonight to get a head start.

Wow- these guys are fast. All the furniture and boxes are on the truck and the dust bunnies are really starting to fly. As long as I keep sweeping them up I can't think about how the emptier the house gets, the fuller of memories it seems to be.

We've been at this for almost 12 hours now. It's time to make the last trip over- really this time. I'll check the closets one more time- I know good and well that they are good and empty, but it's an good excuse to go back in each room one more time. There's nothing left to see, but you can still sort of smell the memories. Wilson's closet smells like Christmas- that's where all our decorations used to be, the nursery has a sweet smell- I guess leftover from diapers, baby detergent, and just the sense of anticipation.

Walking through the house one more time, I can remember the first time we set foot inside and deciding this would be the one we'd make an offer on . . . closing on the house and not really believing it was ours . . . A few days later, bringing home our first puppy. Sitting on the floor to watch TV because we had no where to put it, sleeping on mattresses on the floor because we didn't have a bed yet . . . filling puppy toys with peanut butter to keep Jack out of the adhesive as we installed wood floors . . . there's the spot in the kitchen that Phil learned even unloaded, a nail gun can blow a hole straight through tile . . . Phil walking in with a bottle of bubbles from the grocery- "wonder what Jack'll think of these?" . . . I think Jack's lonely, we should get him a friend . . . Jack LOVES his new playmate Tate and drags him around the house on his blanket so his baby friend can keep up with him . . . Phil's first "real" Christmas tree . . . building a bungalow for our dogs (to teethe on) . . ."does this look like two pink lines to you?" . . . sleeping in on Saturday mornings for the last few times and waking up to watch Trading Spaces . . . sitting in the rocker in a nursery yet to be used, listening to lullabies, wondering what this new creature would be like. . . bringing home Wilson from the hospital . . . watching Jack and Tate trying to figure him out by sticking their snouts through the cracks in the cradle and taking in a few good sniffs . . . Baby Wilson memories come flooding in by the thousands, almost too many to process . . . first bathes in a little blue tub . . . "look up at the ducky in the picture so I can get your back teeth" . . . a little grinning face peering over the edge of the crib the first time he learned to stand up . . . getting lost in thought for hours in the sand box, getting lost in thought for a year and a half with cars . . . the morning of his 2nd birthday when he woke up to find his train table all set up in his room. . . potty training . . . moving to his big boy room . . . the sound of a Cozy Coupe racing through the den . . . "Wilson, I think we're going to have a new baby- want to go tell Dad?". . . better check the back yard one more time- the tree has lost all its leaves in one day (today) as usual- almost wish we could rake them up and jump in one more time . . . goodbye swing set- wonder how long it will take before Wilson realizes that you're not coming with us . . . goodbye dog, boy, daddy chases . . . goodbye kitchen- burned suppers, birthday cakes, snacks at the bar, playing in cool whip in the high chair . . . goodbye room- loving, laughing, fighting, comforting, dreaming . . .

Time to turn the lights off one more time, lock our last key in, close the garage, back down the driveway. Goodbye 215.


Crap, I forgot to get our shampoo out of the shower. Who wants to go to Walmart!?