Goodnight, Olivia

Well, after days and days of slinging boxes and bags full of stuff we probably ought to have thrown out weeks ago, I think we've finally done it. The last touches were put on cleaning the old house out, scrubbing it down and getting it ready for the buyers to take over after closing tomorrow.

We're trying not to be too sad about it. But it's the house we brought both our boys home to, it's where we started this little family of ours-- it's where Grandma Irene stood in the backyard, holding a hatchet high above her head preparing to take another whack at a tenacious shrub we had spent most of the afternoon trying to removed from the yard (what eventually became the round flowerbed)-- and we've spent a lot of good years there. We'll always have those to look back on, the pictures and memories of the times we spent there.

The boys, of course, are not so sentimental. Mama took the boys by there this afternoon during the cleaning process. They each ran from room to room and exclaimed about how clean and nice everything looked. Then, as they drove away, Aidan and Bryce both waved and said "Bye bye, House." And now they've moved on, thoroughly.

For us, though-- and maybe we're just being sappy-- we're spending a little time reflecting on the last 8 years and the family, the life we started building within the sheltering embrace of that house.

G'night, Olivia.