06.25.08
Posted in Redwood Living at 8:19 am by Lynette
Home is where you hang your hat or where you heart is. Yes, both can be true but to me home is not a place as much as it is a feeling. We’re in the final throws of moving to our new ‘home’. This will be the last move for us. That is until the kids force us to move into the retirement community, hopefully, when I am over 75.
After days of frenzied packing and labeling, the house is mostly empty. This has been a good house for us for the past 18.5 years. It has seen events in our lives that will never be repeated like the birth of our two youngest children years after we thought our family was complete. It has witnessed our two older children growing up and attending the local school, colleges and University. It has seen my oldest son becoming a handsome man with a career; the oldest daughter a successful teacher, wife and beautiful mother. I am so proud of them both and forget to tell them how much I love them.
This house has seen storms, both of the weather and personal type. We’ve experienced electrical outages, bears in our trash, falling trees, a neighborhood fire and a few police calls because of neighbors. It has seen pigs, chickens, ducks, dairy cows, cats, dogs, fish and ginny pigs raised, cared for, loved and in some cases, buried in the back yard.
Even though this house has been witness to the past 18+ years of our lives, I have not considered it my ‘home’. I know it is home for our kids but not for me. I’ve felt like a visitor, that it has not been really mine. This will be the 18th move for me. But I consider my home the house I grew up in on Crescent Ave. I lived the first 11 years of my life there and every time I visit my parents I drive by the house and remember. I wonder if my kids will do the same with this house?
I’ve lived in many types residences; houses, manufactured homes, apartments, a condo, upstairs, downstairs, next door to a pair of murders who were arrested at night, in an apart with no water or sewer because the landlord died and no one knew; an upstairs Victorian (try moving a piano and water bed up 2 flights of narrow stairs), on the good side of town, on the bad side of town; with boyfriends, husbands and alone which was the most difficult of all.
Will this new house be home? I’m thinking so. It is the move I’ve always dreamed about. Living on the outskirts of a town with nature all around it seems like paradise. At 53 I’m starting over with a pretty big mortgage and 6 acres that are brush, Foxgloves, wild turkey, deer, elk and lots of pokie bushes. I’m excited about the possibilities but am a bit sad about moving farther away from our adult children and the new grandbaby. Some days I think if I had it to do all over I may not have made this move. Only time will tell. And, as my good friend tells me, it is only a 2+ hour drive to see the Grandbaby and a 40 minute drive to see the son; basically a commute in the ‘real’ world.
So today we’ll move the last of our ‘stuff’ and I’ll clean the rooms. I’ll help the kids carve their initials into the backside of their closets (a tradition I’ve done since the first move, 18 times), I’ll take that final picture as we drive away, ignore the neighbors as they have ignored us for the past 18 years, be oh so glad to be gone from the trash/doggie poo burning and bitchy San Diego transplant neighbors and make that final drive down the steep hill. As I turn left onto Parkway and the rest of our lives I’ll look back fondly on the past and gaze to the future and all the possibilities that come with creating a new home.
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06.16.08
Posted in Redwood Living at 6:42 am by Lynette
Let’s all sing now-
She’ll be comm’in round the mountain when she comes
She’ll be pulled by an orange house cat when she comes
And We’ll all go out to meet her when she comes
Both haves are there, minor damage, one broken window. Now the work starts.
All I have to do is get my WHOLE house packed in 1 week, moved up to the garage and wait for it to be finished. We’ll be officially homeless on the 29th of June!
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06.09.08
Posted in Redwood Living at 8:03 am by Lynette
I feel like a broken record. If the weather cooperates it now looks like Wednesday our home should arrive. It is currently sitting in an ‘undisclosed location’ waiting the movers. It has been so long since I picked out colors I don’t remember what the outside paint job is. I was told it was sitting in the same town that my sister lives in. So I called them up and asked them to check if it was there. What color is it she asked. Heck, the town only has about 1200 people, how many 67′ double wide manufactured homes would be sitting on the side of the road? Well they found it and it is fine.
I don’t understand what the problem is (really I do but..) I’ve moved that damn home in my sleep for the past week. Maybe that is why I’m so tired all the time. From pushing that house up he hill.
But, the sun is out for now and the temperature is expected to be about 62 today. All in all a nice ’summer’ day here on the Pacific Coast.
NEXT
Signed the youngest ds up for 8th grade at his new school. We got the tour and met teachers. I hope he will be fine. He does have problems making friends. The elective list was L o n g. He choose several good classes. Now if I can just keep him and his sister busy this summer..that is the challenge.
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The play ‘Rats’ went really well. The youngest dd did a great job. She has a supporting role and made the best of her limited lines. (Read this as overacted a bit!) My challenge with her this summer is to connect her with some new ‘friends’ so on the first day of the new school she won’t feel left out. One thing about her, put her in the midst of other young ladies her age (10) and she will have a fast friend in 5 minutes.
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Only 22 pair of socks to go. Can we all sing -
22 pair of socks on the machine, 22 pair of socks, crank around and move one down, 21 pairs of socks on the machine.
Just call me delirious.
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06.07.08
Posted in Redwood Living at 7:44 am by Lynette
The Bad news:
The home wasn’t moved yesterday. It rained and the road was wet.
The Good news:
The sun came out around 10 am and dried everything up.
The Bad news:
They took the home away and we don’t know where it is.
The Good news:
The neighbors should get there letters re. the road closing before the home is moved up.
The Bad news:
The garage builders will be gone on another job for this week so we cannot move our ’stuff’ in there.
The Good news:
I have only 24 pair of socks to knit then I can start packing
The Bad news:
I have 24 pair of socks to knit before I start packing and I have very few boxes.
The Good news:
It is suppose to be sunny all week.
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06.05.08
Posted in Redwood Living at 8:30 am by Lynette
Boy or boy are things busy here.
Socks
I finished knitting up all the customer’s orders and shipped them out on Wednesday. All I have left are 36 pair from the BIG order. Go figure…I went to the mail box and there were 3 more boxes of socks from new customer’s. Now I’m not complaining, it was just weird that I had finished the outstanding orders that same day.
Baby
She and the parents are doing great as they learn about each other. If you’ve had a baby you can remember those first weeks where you’re trying to figure each other out. The schedule, what works, what doesn’t. No one can tell new parents everything, they just have to experience it for themselves. Practice makes perfect until the next baby comes along and everything you learned goes out the window.
Moving
Well, if the weather gods cooperate and the stars are aligned perfectly we may actually get our home moved to our property tomorrow. I’ve asked the DH to take the day off as I am not particularly diplomatic in stressful situations. (In fact I seem to have developed a small case of shingles from all the bottled up stress.) Even though I mailed out letters to all 25 residents of the surrounding mountain, you can bet someone won’t get theirs and they will be upset about the detour. I felt it would be a good idea for the DH to be fully rested instead of working graveyard tonight so he won’t want to shoot someone. I think getting into a fight with a new neighbor would not be a good way to start out.
Garden
The garden is in the process of being planted. I know, I know, this seems a bit late but believe me when I say until you’ve tried to grow a garden on the Pacific coast you’ve not experienced the necessity to take it slow. If you plant too early you will surly get an unseasonable rain or even snow and watch as all your hard work Wash down the river.
So that’s it for now. Here is a nice rose picture from the DD’s garden. Makes me take a deep breath and relax. Enjoy your day.
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