Well, Hello Again

Over the past week or two, I have not been nearly as faithful to this blog as I would've hoped. I'm not sure what more to say, other than I'll try to do better. It's something I enjoy, but like most things we enjoy, it requires making time for it. Okay, enough of that...

Over the past couple of weeks, things have been very busy. We finalized the offer on our house in Little Rock, I made a final house-hunting trip to Florida, we found a rent house in Florida and are in the process of finalizing things with that, our house passed its inspection with no repairs needed (hallelujah!), Oscar apparently found his first girlfriend while he was visiting the Pet Resort during my trip to Florida (a Shar Pei who I'm told "likes to play just as rough as he does"), and now I'm in Kansas City with my mom visiting my grandfather.

As hectic as things have been over the past couple of weeks I'm afraid that it will in no way compare to the week that's awaiting me when I get back home. I will be back in Little Rock on Tuesday. On Wednesday, Herschel will fly home to start packing. Movers arrive on Thursday. Friday we close. Movers finish packing and leave on Friday night. Saturday we catch our breath. (Yeah, right!) On Sunday, we're on our way to Florida.

Today, I'm trying to wrap my mind around the fact that exactly one week from today our house will be empty. It's changed so drastically from when I first met Herschel. The duck wall paper, which I'm sure was hung with care by the original owners, is no longer there. (Sidenote: Herschel was not the one who actually picked out duck print wall paper, but he did buy a house covered in one.)

The dingy carpet is gone. The walls have changed color twice. The "church lady" furniture that Herschel first had when we got married has thankfully been replaced with pieces from this century that have no scent of moth balls.

The house changed as our relationship changed. As we matured together, so did the house. While we were dating, we thought it would be a fun excuse to spend time together to take down the wall paper and paint. While I was living in New York for a semester in college, Herschel distracted himself by tiling the entire living room. Once we got engaged, things really picked up - the "grey" (which turned out to be baby blue) paint that Herschel picked out while we were dating was replaced with something more neutral, furniture was purchased and placed, the tile was extended down the hallway, and the dingy carpets that were left in the bedrooms were cleaned.

It transformed from "his" house to "our" house. And while I continue to complain about it from time to time, it's still our house - our first house together. And it always will be. When I think about the tranformation of that house, I think about the different stages our relationship has gone through over the years.

I know we will have many other houses and many, many more memories over the years. And I look forward to them. I'm already excited about our new house in Florida and have labeled it "the first house we've picked out together." You might be saying, "It's just a house, get over it." But frankly, I don't care. I can't wait to see how things have changed when it's time for us to move on to our next destination...wherever that may be.