Almost Gone

I am sitting in the sunshine of our bedroom, on the mattress on the floor.  The room is flooded with sunlight.  I love that about our bedroom.  Our house is empty but for the bed and a couple of folding tables and chairs.  It has been a marathon effort to get all of our stuff packed up.  We have way too much!  How did that happen when we've only been here a little over 5 years?

With the house and yard packed up there has been a noticeable change in Layne's demeanor.  He is calm and slept all night last night.  The stress and worry is lifting.  Thanks to our neighbors Ernie and Bev Trutner, we are just about ready to walk away from our dream house.  They have helped and supported us all week long.  Others have come to help also.  I'm so thankful for good people.

Me and Lori Nielsen, who used to be our babysitter and is still
a dear friend.  She showed up to help us pack, and what a help she was!

Dinner at Eyres, with my birthday cake in the foreground.  If
you look closely you can see the "70" on top.  

Some of the Eyre dinner gang:  (sitting) Jana Grant (her hub Peter took the picture), Audrey,
Cliff, Mart Peterson, (back) Hedy Eyre (her hub Chris was sick), me, Linda Peterson.  Layne
went home sick also.  I think he was sick with exhaustion.  By morning he was fine.

Audrey and Cliff are gone as of yesterday. They spent their first night in their new home in Mountain House last night.  It is haunting to walk through our home, once filled with life, and feel the emptiness.  I am comforted by the excitement of our buyers, who love this place and are anxious to move in.  Knowing how happy they are makes our departure much easier.  Not that I am mourning too much.  Idaho is beginning to sound a little exciting.  By Thursday we will be there, once again sleeping on our mattress until the rest of our things arrive a couple of weeks later.

I almost forgot to mention that I had a birthday last Friday.  I turned 70!  Wow.  Not sure how that happened so soon.  Friends Hedy and Chris Eyre had a dinner/birthday celebration for me on Friday.  Lots of fun to be with friends.  So not only do we have a new home in the wings but also a new decade.  

Life brings many surprises.  Our new adventure is about to begin.    

Packing Up

I can't think of anything but packing.  There are boxes everywhere and more stuff than I thought we had.  I don't like all this chaos.  I'm an organized kind of girl.  We have just over a week left to get our life contained in boxes.  We are hardly sleeping for the task.  We are on the brink of a whole new adventure, home and location.  I can't take it all in.  Oh yes, and we will begin this adventure with Audrey's cats.  Her new landlord doesn't allow pets.  So we get them.

It is the people here that I hate to leave.  Everywhere we go friends bid us goodbye and express sadness at our leaving.  It tugs at my heart.  Imagine what sweet connections we have collected over the past 40 years.  There are people all over this place that we love.  Still, I feel good about Idaho.  I think it'll turn out well for us and for our family.  Audrey and Cliff seem to be excited now about their move.  I believe it will turn out well for them also.

Boxes everywhere as we pack up all that we own for our move to Boise.

Our friend Brad Hutchings visited us a couple of nights ago.  He told me that moving to Idaho may be very good for me as it will give me time to pursue my own interests and, perhaps, find capacities that I haven't yet discovered.  I thought it was a sweet thought; a thought that I want to keep fresh in my mind.  Audrey mentioned that Layne seems lighter in spirit; more relaxed and good humored.  I hadn't noticed that, but think he is greatly relieved at the prospect of being relieved of the huge financial burden of our current place.  It is good to focus on these blessings.

We had our last family get-together before our move today.  It was at Ben and Jessica's.  It seemed strange not to have it here, as we always have.  But it was a sweet time.  We celebrated our family January birthdays.  Ben and Jes gave me an ipad!  I was shocked and so excited!  Ben is so good to me; he keeps me equipped with the latest apple technology.  I feel so blessed!

And now, back to packing.

California Christmas and Beyond

I am in mourning.  We really are moving to Idaho.  Idaho is not a place I ever expected to call home, or even visit.  Yet we are leaving.  Friends and family fill our spaces and our time here in California.  I hate to leave them.  My mind is a muddle with the thought of it.  But we are leaving.

Christmas has come and gone.  It was our last Christmas here in our home.  It turned out to be our usual big family affair but I felt much less structured than usual.  I kind of let things unfold spontaneously.  Imagine that.  That is very not me.  But all went well and quickly.

CHRISTMAS:  Bethlehem Dinner organized by Cliff and Audrey.
Here is James (second son of Reed), Reed in blue head piece, Scott
(Reed's oldest son) and Cliff in the green head piece.  We ate
Bethlehem-ish food with our fingers and wore vintage head gear.

CHRISTMAS:  This year we had a pinata for the kids.  Layne cut it
in a few places to make sure it would break.  He apparently overdid it a bit.
The second guy in line broke it wide open.  So it was over too soon,
but still fun as the kids all scrambled for the goodies.

CHRISTMAS:  Here are most of our younger grandchildren
performing our annual Christmas play from Luke 2.

CHRISTMAS:  Ben's oldest daughter, Jacqueline, is playing a lovely
number for our annual Family talent show.  Every grandchild performed.

NEW YEAR'S:  At Truckee in our big rented lodge.  Daughter Jessica,
in black, is showing the granddaughters how to make friendship bracelets 

NEW YEAR'S:  Daughter Jessica's youngest girl, Peyton, is having a
snow ball fight with brother Miles and cousin Scott, located out of sight
on the patio above.

We spent New Year's in Truckee, in a big house that Ben and Jes rented.  I tramped in the snow with the kids wading up to my thighs in the white stuff.  Layne would not call that fun.  But I thought it was!  Ben and Jes payed for a skiing lesson for Ben and me.  Skiing is not something that I have ever pursued.  I've only attempted it once, many years ago in college.  I spent the whole day getting down the mountain.  That convinced me that skiing was not for me.  But the lesson was fun and I learned the all-important skill of stopping by placing the skis in a "V" shape.  After an all too brief review of the basics, we headed up to the top of the beginners slope.  I felt mildly confident that I could make it down in one piece.  After being carefully instructed as to how to gracefully exit the lift seat, I promptly fell backwards and landed on my head.  Hard. That changed my perception of the descending skiing effort.  As I looked down at the bottom I lost my confidence.  "Don't look all the way down," my instructor James told me.  "Just look a short way ahead and you will be fine."  Hum.  Slowly, with my skis in the breaking "V" position, I proceeded.  "Perfect," said James.  I felt fuzzy and a bit dizzy.  But, with James coaching me, I finally made it to the bottom.  "Want to go again?" said James with a smile.  Nope.  Done.

In the meantime, Ben went right down and returned to do it again several times.  He liked it!  So the lesson was worth it.

The contingency on our home has been lifted.  So we really are moving out.  To Idaho.  Our orderly home is now filled with boxes and stuff everywhere.  Everywhere we go friends greet us with, "don't go!"  I find it hard to handle.  I am trying to think of our new home in Star.  But I hate leaving family and friends here.  I would never do it if not for Layne's strong feelings that we should.  I trust him.