We’ve got the AC and ihome stereo blasting as we pack up this old house. We’ve had all last week and all this week to pack so we have plenty of time which is nice. And we could even take longer if we wanted because it’s not like anybody new is moving into our old place anytime soon but I have the utilities going off on the 20th so I kinda want to wrap it all up by then. It shouldn’t be a problem. Everything is going smoothly. So far.

Even Bug has been helping. She’s quite productive, labeling things in her own way and fetching things out of the trash that I was sure she wouldn’t miss. Do we really need that old wooden birdhouse that you colored with marker pen? Really? Alright.

She’s been drawing instructions for the moving men so they’ll know where to put things in our new place. I’m sure they will get a kick out of it along with the fun-loving instructions my neighbors added to my boxes during a late night packing party we had last week. I’ve sort of started a tradition of writing funny jokes and inappropriate things on boxes when friends are moving to make the process a little more fun.

Don’t worry Mom, I’m not packing any whips, chains, crack pipes or George Michael collections!

Some boxes are a little more sentimental than others…Moving is always so bittersweet.

I really am going to miss this place. We’ve made so many memories here. It’s been a big year and a half.

I’m going to miss our neighbors, but not all of them. Most of them. We’ve made some really good friends.

I don’t even have to write about how I feel about the backyard. You already know.

This is the kitchen Bug made her first pancakes in. Not counting the funny ones we used to make with squirt bottles at Bethany’s. This is the kitchen I’d say she grew up in if we were going to stay ten more years. But we aren’t. I wonder how much of all this she’ll remember.

I remember the old house we used to live in when I could do this. If I had a family album handy I’d scan a old photo of me doing the exact same thing.

This is where we got Aqui, that cat. I wonder how she’s going to take to apartment life…

And her kitten, Fiesta, who’s just as big Aqui now and will probably pass her up soon.

I’ll miss this too. What kind of mom lets their kid stand on the counters? I guess this kind. My sense of cleanliness has sort of gone out the window. Partly because we’re in the middle of moving and everything is a mess anyway and partly because now that we’re moving to somewhere so super white and clean, I kind of want to embrace what I’ll be leaving.

I used to clean this place like mad, trying to scrub the reck neck out of the cracks but not anymore. Now I just wander around soaking it in. This is who I was for so much of my childhood. This is a big part of me. This last year I have angled so many pictures so hard, trying to crop out the tell-tale low ceilings of a mobile home and the mud glue from old wall paper that had been peeled off unsuccessfully and dirty carpet stains…but I don’t want to do that anymore. I want to capture it and remember it. This has been home for me. It isn’t anymore and I don’t feel like I belong here but in spite of being scared and freaked-out about where my life was taking me, it kept me safe. Even with the scary neighbors creeping me out, I haven’t been hurt. I’ve been safe.

It was such an important part of my journey.

I got to say goodbye to my Grandpa here. I got to do it slowly. Everyday my actions traced his and I would see him in the most unexpected places reminding me fondly of someone I cherished. So, I am a bit sad to be leaving it all. Not to mention the rest of my family who are still here and have been rooting for me all along the way… It’s bittersweet.

But it’s time.