Posted by
Virginia Daddy on Tuesday, July 22, 2008 8:16:03 AM
Yesterday the movers came and took all our stuff. About an hour later, my wife and boys, along with her dad, left, too. They are heading out west to our new home in Laramie. While it is very exciting to be moving and beginning new adventures and creating new memories, but man, it will be tough to leave our current home. I am staying behind to clean the townhome to get it ready for sale and to finish off work.
It was very hard to watch them leave yesterday, and enter an empty home. I quickly learned not to spend lots of time in certain rooms. There are too many memories and too much pride in them to linger. I found that out the hard way.
The hardest is the nursery or Gus's room, most recently. I painted it before James was born in green and yellow (since we did not know if we were having a boy or a girl, of course) with green on bottom and yellow on top. The border between the colors is a whimsical zig-zag. The ceiling is a cloudy sky. I love that room, because it was where we brought home our two babies and was created with such pride and excitement. It was decorated with an animal and alphabet pattern window shams and a hanging quilt, and in the far corner was the crib. On the wall to right as you walk in was the changing table, and on the other side was a green and yellow bookcase I made for them. In the remaining corner was the green chair, where we spent countless nights calming our boys. We removed the sliding closet door to put up a baby blue curtain, hung open by connector toys. Also on the walls were a picture of a heart, green and yellow, of course, a picture of Noah's Ark, and we spelled out the boys' names on the wall with wooden letters.
I can't go in there without tearing up. I truly love that room. I also love James' old room, painted in a darker but very boyish blue. Our theme there was pirates, so we had pirate bedding, and the red curtain was held by a rod that looked like Captain Hook's hook. The hardware on doors and furniture we made of toy coins, and beneath James's wooden letters (now moved to his room) we had a hanging parrot. Its hard to in there, too, because James loved his room. He loved his name, and he loved the parrot, and he loved his bed and crib and his frog night light (I know, not necessarilly pirate, but the green frog came the from Gus's room). I loved the room, too.
I can't not talk about the living room downstairs. Amy and I painted it when we were dating (she actually bought it just before we met). We painted it a soft yellow, and I had so much fun doing that with her then. It was a big moment when I knew she was the one. Its where we had Christmas, entertained, and watched the boys play and grow.
And now its all empty, furniture-less, decoration-less, and more important, empty of the people who made them what they were. Last night I made our bedroom my enclave. For some reason, despite its emptiness, it seemed the most fitting to stay there. The room Amy painted on here own, and was so proud of that, and the room where we spent years together is where I'll spend most of my time, and probably miss the most when all is said and done.
It'll be hard to come home tonight to the empty house, as it will for the next few days. But it is exciting to know what awaits me after. We have a new house, single family with a wonderful yard for the boys to play in. They will share a room there, which will be an adventure in and of itself. We will create new memories there, and new achievements will be won. What we are leaving behind is difficult, and we are not the first to feel this way, life is ahead of us, and it is wonderful.