Or not...

As I am unpacking and letting go, my helpers are finding treasures.
Felix found a frame I've had for about 10 years. It has a series of dolphin photos in it.

(excitedly amazed) "Where did you get this?"
"I've had it for a long time. Do you like it?"
"Yeah!"
"Do you want to put it in your new room?"
"Yeah!" Runs off to install the frame

Leo, lower lip out, sadly, "I wanted it for my room."
"Leo, Felix's room is your room."
Big smile of realization, "Oh yeah!"

Letting go

I brought the boys over with a load of boxes tonight. Set up shelves in the garage, and moved some boxes in. The boys were having so much fun running around the house, I decided to stay a little longer and began to unpack few boxes. Lovely that, as I was unpacking, I came across several things and just thought "I don't want this anymore". So now I can let them go. 

Too bad I couldn't decide that before I moved them.

The day

I am feeling emotionally exhausted.
The closing went great. We now own our home and I feel really good about it.

Then I had to go to mediation with my old principal. He said I did something wrong, and then did something at least equally wrong to show me how wrong I was. They are digging their heels in. It sucked. Was not resolved by the time I left the meeting.
Kinda put a damper on the evening for me.

But once I finally made it to the new house, it was lots of fun to watch the kids run around trying to figure out everything about the house, the switches, the fireplace, the door locks, the laundry chute and their rooms.
We got to meet the neighbors across the street. Everyone we have met seems really nice.

Then we discovered that the dead cat under the porch that was supposed to have been removed, had not indeed been removed. Blech.

Good for us

In the car today, Relia told me, once again, that she wishes we weren't moving. I told her I sympathize, and that I have those feelings sometimes too. That this IS hard. But that even if nothing else changes, we will all be better for the experience of moving. We will learn about ourselves and what we are capable of. That we don't need to be tied to places and things to be us. That there is a bigger world than the one we have been in so far. We will still be us, and now we get to be us in a new way! It IS hard. But it is also thrilling.
It is good for us.

School celebration

When Felix and Relia and I visited the STEM school a couple of weeks ago, they told us we should come to their Spring "Sparktacular" at the end of April.
Leo asked me the other day, when he would get to see his school, so tonight we headed over to the new neighborhood and had a great time, dancing, in bounce houses, and getting their hair spray painted. Leo peeked into the window of a couple of kindergarten classes and said "cooool."

4 days

4 days from closing. So many feelings.

Excitement

Worry

Confusion

Fear

Wonder

Gratitude

Anticipation

All of them really feel kind of outside myself. That is probably not great. But it is what it is.

I should be packing up more. I should be arranging more, but I'm a little stuck. Not sure what to do next. Because everything is next.

I had a dream this morning that we went to the walk through and all of the carpet had been torn up in the basement and the washer & dryer were in the middle of the basement.

I think Leo has been sleepwalking. I find him down watching TV in the middle of the night, and he won't talk to me. I pick him up and he just snuggles into me and lays quietly.

I have been breaking out in itchy rashy patches, and my diet has been awful.

We will see how the next few weeks play out...

My girl

It's a nice little treat when we let Relia watch tv in our bedroom, she always makes our bed first. Then I get to get into a nicely made bed. I always try to remember to show my appreciation 

Yay for deals

I've joined a Facebook page for our new neighborhood. It really seems good.

I promised the kids we would get season passes for the neighborhood pool. Then a groupon came up on the page and I got the passes for half price! YAY!

The missing things

As we prepare to leave, I've been thinking about the things I will miss about our house and our history in it.

The back door
When the kids were small, I would have them stand by the door whenever I would take something hot across the kitchen, or take a pot of boiling water across to the sink. They still do it.

Awesome neighbors

Miss Susan and her sPark trailer, organizing awesome arts events for our block. 

Fiona , Evan & Arthur -good friends to my kids. 

The kitty airlocks
We never had to worry much about our cats escaping because we had the kitty airlocks or our front and back porches. Also a lovely space for taking in the sun and the air.

Beautiful hardware.
It is all I can do not to steal it, because it is so lovely, but it belongs to the house.

Big windows & high ceilings

Having a basement door

Our zip code
The four digit code at the end of our zip is 2003. The year I bought the house and its hundredth year.

The things I made happen in this house
Dishwasher installation, kitchen counters and tiles, windows in the cupboards

Cool green paint in the bathroom and tile floor.

Tile floor in the upstairs bath

A marriage and babies.

The flowers
I finally got tulips planted, our strawberries produce prolifically every year, the sedum, the peonies, the iris and the hostas.

Our trees
the oak I planted and have watched grow My little baby sleeping under its shade while the bigger one(s) played on the swing set. The river birch I had high hopes for that feels like it is growing annoyingly slowly.

But then there are the things I won't miss:

Hoping there is nothing wrong with our roof or chimney or gutters because it is just too high and steep to go up there.

Showering in a claw foot tub with shower curtains adhering to my thighs. 

Gunfire

Gang tags on our garage

Fighting for parking all winter

Loud music across the street at all hours (I hope)

Busy streets with few traffic lights blocking access to parks for my kids.

Stupid narrow laundry set up

Being 5 feet from our neighbors house to the north and new tenants every year or so.

Finally feel almost normal

Went back to work today! Made it the whole day.
That is what passes for an accomplishment right now.

Schooling

Relia and Felix and I went to tour schools this week. There are 4 elementary schools in our new town, 3 of which are within 6 blocks of our house. Phone calls let us know that the older two were not going to be able to attend the Dual Language school. Bummer, but I get it.

So we toured the first school, a community school. No specific special programs, but the kids immediately noticed the artwork all over the walls, and were excited about the gym. When I asked them afterward what they thought, they told me they noticed it was quiet and calm. As in, very little student talking. Good things, but not always an indicator of quality teaching and learning.

Yesterday we visited the STEM school. A much bigger school, with a science, technology, engineering, and math focus. The kids were in love. They are sure that if they have to leave our beloved Whittier, that they want to go there. It feels good that they feel so confident. I'm sure there will be nerves once they are actually faced with going. Here's hoping they make some good friends in the neighborhood over the summer, who also attend. (and that we get in to the school of our choice).

The best laid plans...

I had such plans for our spring break. Finishing up painting, packing, organizing our mo visiting schools, Taking Felix & Relia on some outings...

The only one we did was school visits.

Tuesday afternoon I got knocked flat with illness. Fever, chills, aches. I just wanted to curl up and sleep, but sleep would not come. Same through Wednesday, then the sore throat came. Finally made it to the doctor today and turns out I have my first case of Strep since I was 12.

yay.

So nothing got done. My poor kids have been vegging out with me on the couch. Thank goodness for grandmothers coming to help them get some outings done.