Miss...

Our move should be about a month away (if everything goes well with both closings) and I've been thinking a lot about our lives in this house. It was our first house - Andy and I moved here when we had been married for 1 1/2 years. We had TWO BABIES here! These walls saw them as newborns. They crawled (or hiney-scooted) around on these floors and then learned to walk (on the cold, hard tile). So many memories here. Several Christmases here, lots of growth in our marriage here, and we've seen God work in our family and around us lots here.

We've changed the house too. I can't find pictures from when we first moved in (taken with an old camera that maybe I didn't upload? can't remember) but WOOEEE you should have seen what it used to look like. We had a rainbow of lovely colors throughout - peach living room, teal and yellow kids' rooms (looked like they let the kids do it), forest green master bedroom and seafoam green kitchen cabinets! And there were too many repairs to even list. My husband is wonderful - so great about fixing everything. But because the house is a smaller 1980's house, we only repaired/updated to a point. Replacing countertops or putting in hardwood floors would be, as Andy would say, "putting lipstick on a pig." So just as there are things about this house that I will miss, there's plenty that I look forward to leaving!

I won't miss:

this mirrored back splash in the whole kitchen! so 80's! kind of novel at first and everyone says it makes the kitchen look bigger...but it's jut weird! and I won't miss the fake butcher block counters, or lack of a pantry...

or having to fit our "office" in our bedroom. when Max was born we turned our office into his room and went to Ikea to get this teeny desk. notice the desk chair (on which I now sit) - for home showing only - not so comfy. before we had a comfier but BIG chair that made us do acrobatics in order to get between the chair and bed.

I won't miss this ceiling (80's thing again) or the very high electricity bills we have because it's NOT an efficient house.

On the other hand, I will miss:

the trucks we painted in Jake's room before he was born. i have pics of me huge and prego 5 years ago sitting in a chair painting this. Andy did most of the pencil drawing, then we both filled in the colors. Things you do with your first child and have time. My favorite:

this was all Andy - his Tacoma in scale with the other trucks. and Gabe and Maurice (our former pets) riding in the back... I'm sure the next family will paint right over it...sniff, sniff. and I'll miss the big trees. trees just give a neighborhood character, you know? And I will miss the few neighbors that we got to know - some really sweet, good people. Will try to keep in touch. and Jake always climbs this one crepe myrtle in our front yard. Max saying, "up high!"

and I'll definitely miss this established St. Augustine grass. pretty, thick, doesn't brown easily. a lot of it died one year (major drought year I think) and Andy sodded a lot. of course, most newer homes have Bermuda - fine, but not as nice in my opinion.

So, I'm excited about the new house. But wanting to keep in perspective that only eternal things matter. And the only eternal things are the Lord and people... Thankful for how God provided both houses and mostly, the people I love in them!