Saying Goodbye

Yes, I am post dating this. At this day and time, my computer was packed in the back of my van, my monitor, keyboard, mouse and printer was somewhere on that semi-truck. This picture was taken as the Bekins moving van was pulling out of our street to bring our household belongings to who knows where. You talk about a very strange feeling. To watch your life all packed away on one semi-truck and then driving away from you. I felt like running after it!! No, don't go, I want to stay!!

What a hard day this has been. The movers came at 11 a.m. and didn't finish loading the van until 8:30 pm or so. The kids stayed with their favorite friend/babysitter JJ until 7 pm when she had to go to a class. Let me tell you, that was a hard goodbye. By that time, everyone was exhausted and ready to just get this move over with. The kids entertained themselves by riding up and down the sidewalks on the movers dolly's (sp?). That lasted for a little while until Gabi fell off one and scraped her back. I finally asked our neighbor to take them to McD's for dinner. By the time she got back and the kids had eaten most of their dinner, believe it or not, it was time to go. After the moving truck left, we had to do what we had all been dreading most of the day, say good bye. It was so weird being in the house and having it be totally empty. I just wanted it over with. Our poor kitties had been locked in the bathroom all day and I wanted to collect them and just go. I went upstairs to get them and wouldn't you know that someone had left the bathroom door open and my kitties had escaped. "Um, it's an empty house, how hard can it be to find 2 kitties?", you ask. Let me tell you, when kitties don't want to be found, it's very hard. Our oldest was stupid enough to hide behind a door, she was easily found, and eagerly walked into the cat cage. Our youngest, wasn't as easy to find. By this time, it was about 8:45 pm, mostly dark by now, we have no lights in the house, and to top it all off, the cat is black!! We looked for a while and had no luck, the kids were following behind me getting very upset thinking about the prospect of having to leave their kitty behind. And in the back of my mind, I was scared about the same thing. Tom borrowed a neighbors flashlight and we scoured every rafter in the basement and ended up finding her in the highest, most remote rafter down there. Poor kitty. Ok, that crisis is over. At that point, I just wanted to get the leaving part over with. I couldn't stand it anymore.

We all said goodbye to our rooms, locked the front door from the inside and left out the garage door. Tom punched in the code, for the last time, and the garage door closed on 6 years of our lives. I quickly walked down the driveway. Olivia started crying and Tom swept her up in his arms and held her tight. I had Gabi's hand in mine and looked back to see Jake just standing at the garage door. He just ran his hand over the door, touching it ever so gently and whispered good bye. That memory will be forever etched in my mind. Good bye 26716 Osborn Road.