June 13, 2012
After surviving the first party at my mom's house, I wasn't too scared about the one at my sister's the next week. I was totally surprised to find out my aunt Linda was coming and bringing Gradma with her! We were also expecting my cousin Jarred, so it was wonderful to be able to see everyone. The afternoon flew by quickly. We all especially enjoyed watching Tiffany's precious girls playing with Cassie's little Westie, Tavi.
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| A and M just loved playing with Tavi! They are so cute |
The morning after the party at Cassie's, we all meet at Mimi's cafe to have breakfast with aunt Linda and Grandma before they leave to go back to New Mexico. It is so wonderful to see them, and we have a great time visiting. The waitress takes pictures for us, so now I have some perfect last-minute memories with all of us preserved. We are all holing it together really well I think, and then as we are leaving, Aunt Linda stays behind with me. She gives me another big hug, telling me how happy she is for us and then presses a gift into the palm of my hand. As I process what it is, my eyes water, I can't help it. She is so generous, I can't believe she has done this. She can't have possibly known how tight we are on money, using everything we've saved to get to North Carolina. The tears fall on her shoulder as I thank her, and she is crying too. I had planned on taking more pictures outside, so now those are all tear-stained with memories. What a wonderful family I have.
Before leaving town, all six of us met for dinner in Tempe. It was our last time all together for quite a while, and it felt strange. I didn't know how to process that this was a final goodbye for our little family of six. Conversation was normal, but I'm sure it felt surreal for all of us. On the one hand it was like leaving for a vacation - excitement at a new adventure. On the other hand it was suppose to be a goodbye - sad. I don't think we wanted it to end, I know we would have stayed all night to prolong the inevitable. But Chris and I have so much to do still at 76th Ave. We have decided to rent the place, so there are still some cosmetic improvements we want to to finish off in addition to packing all the last-minute stuff. Before even that, we are going to meet at mom and dad's house to pick up the laundry mom has been washing for me. Chris and I know it will be a really long night, so we have to be the ones to finally say we need to get going. At mom and dad's house, we sit and try to visit for a while, but conversation is hard won. We are all feeling numb, not quite sure how to leave one last time. At the curb, there are more hugs, but I have no tears even though I can see mom is crying. I think there is just no way to process that this is a final goodbye, and I don't know when I'll see them again. It feels like we are going on vacation and will be back again. I feel like I'm hurting my mom's feelings by not being more upset, but I don't know how to process this. I think to myself that it will all hit me sometime later and I'll probably call her on the phone to cry about it. Then we leave, and we don't even have time to stop and think any more about it, because we are discussing everything we have to get done tonight, and what we can leave for tomorrow. Chris is hoping we will get everything in the two car's, but I've left a lot out because I'm not sure what we will need for the house. I had to re-organize our plan because the pod is now coming a week after we are in our new house. I've had to think of all we might need in addition to packing all our stuff. I'm worried it won't all fit into the cars, especially since the dogs will take up one entire vehicle all by themselves. We are up way too late, and finally fall into our sleeping bags in the now-empty bedroom. I still have lots of clothes that aren't packed and I'm running out of boxes. I am in a near panic that it won't all fit, and during the night I realize I am mostly worried about it all fitting into the cars, not the clothes in the boxes.
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