Stumbling around moving boxes, we are saying our goodbye to the last week of living in our little tree house apartment. It just hit me that we will be leaving our first home. We got married almost three years ago and this little place has been a wonderful cocoon of love and warmth and growth. And also inflicted with massive amounts of noise and disruption from the surrounding inhabitants. But really, gratefully, none of that from within. To really stop and reflect on these last few years deserves more time and brain space and honor than I have to give at the moment, but even just this tiny tribute to our tiny place, the home for our little baby marriage to begin, to develop, to brave the storms, to learn, to rest, is worth taking. This place has been good and beautiful, messy and sweet, quaint and lovely. Even in the midst of bass boom and German shepherds and noro virus. Oh, man, noro virus. I now know why so many people died in the plagues. Whew.
We've stuffed this place full of friends, on St. Patrick's day with its three corned beefs. On our birthdays, and fall festivals. We've pushed our couches together to snuggle up for hours of SNL, Modern Family, Redbox rentals, No Reservations and our favorite Saturday morning cartoon-- Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives. I've waxed on and on about shelves, we've broken bolts mid pot rack installation, bonked, bruised and burned ourselves enough times to initiate a system of needing what we lovingly refer to as "Safety Meeting." Each year out Christmas tree got a little bigger, from a Charlie Brown tribute, to a rosemary bush pruned in a tannenbaum-ian fashion, to an even bigger potted spruce. At this rate we will have a 100 foot baby by our 50th anniversary.
We've sat around our version of Dave Ramsey's old oak pedestal table and learned and cried and evaluated our finances, took Financial Peace University, got on a budget and are whipping our money into shape. We will forever be changed by our decisions and actions made here in this little place.
It really is time to go, and our new place is great. It's definitely not our final stop either, but another wonderful place to make home. It has its quirks; its round robin design, the funky heating and cooling units taking up two of four walls, it oddly placed mini bay window. But it has a kickin' kitchen, place for a dinning table and with a little creativity, two desks. My husband will finally be able to move his office from its current location, i.e. the couch. It is way bigger, has a mini yard, and a place outside for the grill and some plants. Dan can't wait to grow some "spices" as he always calls them because he can never remeberthe word, "herbs." Oh, and it has laundry. In. The. Apartment. It could have snakes and rats and I'd probably still want to move for the washer and dryer. Ok, snakes and rats is pushing it a bit, but I'm really exited about it. Maybe spiders and slugs. No, I really hate slugs. Ok, I don't want any of that, I just want clean clothes more often than every 6 weeks!!! (Don't worry, I have a lot of underwear.)
The best part is that we will be living just a block and a half away from my dearest friends who are expecting their first baby in February. I cannot tell you how much it means to me that God helped us tough it out until this place became available so that we could be family away from family to this couple. Grandma might not be able to move in for the first few weeks, but Auntie Lynn and Uncle Dan can. And will.
There is so much beautiful good in all of this. Here's to more. And here's to surviving for another week amongst this:
If you don't hear from me for a while, check under the piles of cardboard and rubble. I'll be the one singing, "Oh, what a beautiful morning!"
Oh, what a beautiful day.
Wish this post had a like button! Hope your move goes well.
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