And Move ‘Em Out! My Dad used to yell that every Sunday morning when he was attempting to herd five women out the door to Sunday School. I don’t know where it’s from, but it distinctly sounds like a cattle call to me. And that’s what we’re doing here too. Head ’em up, and move ’em out!
I am feeling much less sad. I’ve only cried once this week–so far. It was when Jeremiah told me he had yet another night-time committment this week, and I realized that our last family meal in our house had passed without me knowing it. Probably a good thing I didn’t know it was happening–I would have just squelched the moment by crying like I have with so many other supposed-to-be-happy moments over the last month.
Jeremiah graduates from Orthopedic residency this Saturday night. Oh my! I truly did not think we’d ever reach this day. Then, on Sunday we’ll take our last few things, do a bit more cleaning, and be officially O.U.T.
I’m spending an extra couple of nights at Ashley’s house so that I can go to one more book club on Monday night. I just can’t quite let it go, can I? We’ll be in Dothan for 3 weeks while Jeremiah studies for his boards and we soak up some time with family. I’m feeling like our family and friends will all be well-saturated with our good-byes by the time we actually start the train moving west. We are planning to do that actual cleaving on July 12th.
Just thought I’d let yall know what’s going on. Still borrowing a computer. I think I’m going to walk into the Computer Doctor today and demand my computer be given back. I may be willing to use brute force. Don’t mess with an emotional woman’s computer 🙂
Thanks for the flowers Katy! This was truly a life altering blog. What am I even rambling about? I’m not coming back until I have something to actually say 🙂
Weeelllll, we (as in Jeremiah, Pace, Mary Aplin, and me) are still alive and kickin’ around here. Unfortunately, our computer is not. It’s been doing some unexplainable things over the past couple of months…enough that I started the tedious task of trying to upload all my pictures to a website so that I could get some hard copies before I lost them all…. The computer died before I finished. This isn’t our first rodeo with a dying computer, and I had some confidence that even if it died, my pictures and documents could still be salvaged. Wrong. The prognosis is bad. It looks like a hard drive problem–and the nice (although heavily accented and difficult to understand) man at the Computer Doctor over here in Crestwood, seemed to think that was the worst kind of sickness out there for an unsuspecting computer. I know you’re all rolling your eyes about why I don’t have things like “external hard drives” or “back-up disks” or “a little less laziness that maybe got pictures developed every once in a while,” but I had none of that. Don’t chide me now. I’ve consoled myself that if worst comes to absolute worst, Mary Aplin will have the pictures from the blog to show her that she was once a baby 🙂
It has also been a whirlwind around here. I’m not sure I would have blogged much even if the computer hadn’t crashed. I have continued writing a lot of blogs in my head though. Hopefully, I’ll get to share them over the next few weeks.
We moved out of our house, for the most part, last weekend. There are some people that I will never be able to thank enough. One of them is my sister Caroline, who came and packed china, and bathed babies so that I could pack china, for days in advance. She took the behind-the-scenes-but-absolutely-necessary job of taking my children and entertaining them on the day of the actual move-out. Since that was the only time I snapped pictures, she got left out. Here is everybody else–from left to right:
Dr. Maddox (Jeremiah’s Dad), Grandma (my Mom’s Mom), Aunt Alice (my Mom’s sister), Ashley (Jeremiah’s sister…and if you’ve been here longer than a week, you know she is so much more), me, Tommy (one of Jeremiah’s life-long best friends), and Justin (one of Jeremiah’s other life-long best friends, who most of you probably know from here).
You might notice that my husband is not in this shot. That’s because he didn’t get away from work until the moment pictured–just AFTER!!!! this ginormous U-Haul was fully loaded,
with ALL the CRAP we’ve managed to accumulate over the last seven years…It was horrifying how much there was, and it made me feel a little…disgusting. What could we possibly need with all that?
And what do you say about family willing to devote, not just hours, but days to helping me organize, wrap, throw away, and pack all that mess?
And what do you say about these (adorable, sweet, hilarious :)) friends who used every last ounce of their strength and energy, abandoned jobs that really needed them,
And families that really missed them–in order to move their friend out of his house–without him.
I felt guilty all day long, trying to just accept all that love they were offering to us. Thank y’all–Caroline, Aunt Alice, Grandma, Ashley, Dr. Maddox, Tommy, and Justin. I am AMAZED by how much we got done, how hard you worked, how much weight you lifted while your bodies were contorted at odd angles in the back of the U-Haul truck, and how sweet y’all were during all the tedium.
And now, this is us:
Eating peanut butter and (Honey Bee Farms–thanks Sticklers!) honey sandwiches at the one small table we kept. Not a picture on the wall, one lil’ couch, and a couple of beds.
We’ve been trying to stay out of the (depressing) house as much as possible. And since we’re already at 95 degrees down here, that has meant a lot of time at the pool…That sounds lovely, doesn’t it? Would it still sound lovely if I told you that Mary Aplin has developed a symbiotic relationship between water and poop? No matter how long I try to get her to go to the potty before she gets in the water. No matter how many times I ask her if she needs to go poo-poo once she gets in the pool. NO MATTER WHAT!!! the child poops in her swim diaper EVERY TIME…usually twice. I know any mother who has ever changed water-logged poop out of a NON-disposable swim diaper (that slides and sloshes down their legs) that our pool requires children to wear, can feel my pain. I’m thinking about carrying a big metal wash tub with me to the pool and making Mary Aplin sit in that (naked) until IT happens, and then putting on her swimsuit and allowing her in the real pool…You think I’m kidding.
We’ve also been trying to figure out how to say goodbye to our friends we love.
And trying not to have a bona fide nervous break-down as they say goodbye to us…
I’ve decided that I am not going to even speak to anyone in Seattle. My heart will not survive any more goodbyes. I figure, if I don’t make friends, then I won’t have to say goodbye to them either.
Don’t I sound like a merry ‘ol soul 🙂
We’ve got two little visitors this week. Lucy Pants (not sure why I call her that…Whitney, do you call her that?) (Is two parenthetical thoughts in a row too much ? 🙂 Just wanted any new visitors to know that Lucy is my best-friend-since-2nd-grade’s baby girl who I play with from time to time):
And Mrs. Ohs:
Mrs. Ohs is Jeremiah’s “Mountain Mama.” When he went to live in Montana for the year between college and medical school, he lived with Mrs. Ohs on her ranch.
They (as in he, Tommy, and Josh) say that they trained/broke some of her horses in exchange for room and board (oh and three meals a day, right Mrs. Ohs :)). I think it started out that way and ended with them all adopting each other. She made Jeremiah’s groom’s cake at our wedding…which is quite a funny story that you’ll have to remind me to tell you sometime. Let’s just say that if you were at our wedding, I bet you didn’t notice a groom’s cake anywhere, but you did probably enjoy a delicious piece.
We got a lot accomplished in the basement this weekend (thanks to some help from my Dad, my sisters and their husbands), and we “close” on Thursday.
I’ve taken this week off from packing, for the most part, and chosen to enjoy our two visitors instead. Today, we took on the zoo.
And I do mean we “took it on.” As I’m sure any mother with three small children would heartily agree.
We managed to lose Pace once.
And Mary Aplin once.
And there was THIS moment (notice the tiny little screen, marshy green water, and distracted Mrs. Ohs):
When I thought Mary Aplin might get eaten by this guy:
Fortunately Lucy was strapped in and unable to be misplaced.
And Whitney, just so you know, I’ve started just saying thank you when people tell me what a cute baby I have…or how cute her outfit is.
I even went so far today, as to make up a lie when some lady asked me who made my baby girl’s precious dress. I hope it was her grandmother. It’s just too complicated to try and make explanations when you’re keeping up with these three:
We did have a whole LOT of fun.
And you can add the Zoo onto the list of places that will make me cry when we leave Birmingham:
Goodbye zebras:
Goodbye baby giraffe–who is not a baby anymore:
Goodbye anteater-that-always-reminds-me-that-God-has-a-sense-of-humor:
Goodbye Bengal Tiger:
I am sure you will miss Mary Aplin’s challenges to your manhood (She’s pretty sure she could take you, if need be. Don’t let the blonde pig-tails fool you.):
And guess what Weeping Willow didn’t even get a damp eye the whole day 🙂 Maybe it was just an emotional week last week…maybe not.