Tag Archives: Moving

Memories…Light the Corners of My Mind…

It’s my last day.  

Tomorrow, a new family will be buying our home.  I’ve lived on beautiful Norris Lake for 7 1/2 years.  Kenn and I lived and loved here for 3 1/2 years.  This is definitely a bittersweet move.  I am scared and excited and happy and sad all at the same time.

Memories are flooding back to me…..

How we fell in love with the house the moment we walked in.  

When we got married here in the great room, with the beautiful view as our backdrop.

The wonderful parties we had with both neighborhood friends and church friends.

Entertaining out of town family and friends.

Going fishing after dinner in our favorite cove.

Riding the mountain trails together in our Polaris side by side.

Enjoying the magnificent movie room Kenn built.

Bringing Kenn’s 18.5 foot canoe home on top of his 4 Runner from upstate New York.  

Holding my breath while watching him hang the canoe on the wall!

That last, perfect kiss goodbye….when he never came back.

The canoe is gone, the boat is sold, the house is empty of all personal belongings. A week from tomorrow, I will begin yet again in a new home back in Murfreesboro.  It’s the city where I was living when I met Kenn, 10 years ago.

I miss him every day and I know I will hold him in my heart and love him until the day I die.  But I know it’s the right time to let go of our house and move forward with my life.  I will be forever grateful for the love and laughter filled, beautiful house that Kenn and I were blessed to call home.

February 2nd—Ten Years!

February 2nd.  Groundhog Day,  Gary Snyder’s birthday (may he rest in peace), Jonathan’s new birthday—and 10 years after beginning my Act II.

Wow!  Ten.  Years.  Sometimes it feels as if it was a lifetime ago and sometimes a few months ago.  I remember hanging out in my room at my parents’ house when I was 12 years old and thinking ‘when will I EVER grow up?!’  It was taking SO!          LONG!

Now, at 66, the years dart by!  Yet, sometimes, the days drag by.  Next Monday would have been my 7th wedding anniversary with Kenn.  It’s hard to believe it’s already been almost four years since he left this earth.

However, my life is about to take a new turn.  I’ve made the decision to sell my current house and move back to Murfreesboro.  As I’ve told my wonderful friends here—I love my neighborhood, I love my church family, and I even love my house!  I just don’t love living here alone.  I’ve already had about a dozen people express interest in buying so hopefully, that won’t be a problem.  And I’m sure I’ll find a house that I love in Murfreesboro.  But I’m also sure there will be lots of tears leaving this place that Kenn and I called home.

I am so very thankful that God gave me the few years I had with Kenn.  And I am so thankful that He will see me through to the next adventure!

As a side note—

Beldar IV successfully entered my life on December 6th. I asked the doc if he would give me Beldar III after he removed it (after washing it well!) and he did. (Great coffee table conversation piece!) But Beldar III didn’t leave peacefully. The night after surgery, I was sleeping soundly, and around 3 AM, I hear BEE DEE BEE DEE for about 30 seconds coming from the other room! This repeated three times. I got up and wrapped a towel around it and fell back asleep. The next night—A REPEAT! I got up, took it into the study on the other side of the house (still wrapped in a towel), closed it up in a drawer, and shut the door. The following week, at my post surgery checkup, I brought it back with me and asked them to turn it off. The tech said she had never turned one off that was outside of a person’s chest so she had to call the manufacturer and find out how to do it.
It is now quietly residing on my coffee table!

Leave, Stay, …?

Ever since I was 18, I’ve lived away from my hometown of Orange, Texas.  My parents lived there, so I visited as often as I could.  Every time I left, my folks would stand in their driveway, waving until I was out of site.  As hard as it was to drive away, it was harder to be the one waving them goodbye when they came to visit me.  I always wondered what it would be like when there was just one of them waving me goodbye.  I found out in 2004, when Daddy unexpectedly died.  That was hard.  Then, I found out in 2017 what it was like to have no one waving me goodbye, when Momma died.  Very hard.

I’ve been spending a great deal of time lately thinking about where I should live.  I guess ‘should’ isn’t the right word.  Is there really a place one should live? I guess it’s more of a question of where you want to live, or, in some instances, need to live.  But I am trying to figure out where the best place is for me.

I haven’t moved away from the home Kenn and I shared and loved.   It’s a big house, much larger than I need or want.  And the only reason I moved here in the first place was to be with Kenn.  It has a beautiful, panoramic view of Norris Lake and overly large living space to entertain people.  Kenn put so much effort into our house.  From hanging things up (like an 18 foot canoe!), to creating a storage room and movie room to die for, his touches are in every room and on almost every wall.  As I attempt to move forward in my life, is this house keeping me stagnant?  Or is it comforting me as I embrace life?  Or neither?? 

Kenn died exactly two and a half years ago as I write this.  When he died, I stopped feeling like I belong.     Anywhere.      Not just in our home.  I still travel like I’ve always enjoyed—mostly solo, but occasionally with friends.  But there’s a sense of unease every time and everywhere I go.  Like I’m grasping at trying to find my place in the world.  Sometimes, I long to return to Murfreesboro, where I lived for a short two years before moving to the lake.  Sometimes I long to be near family down in Texas.  Sometimes I long to go to Montana, which is a story for another day.  Will I ever feel settled again before I go home to heaven?

I’ve made a list of pros and cons.  They are even!  I guess I just want to have a definite plan if or when I sell my current home.  I realize that I’m not getting any younger and the need part of moving might creep in.  Do I wait for that?!  Looking back, I can honestly say that I was happy everywhere I’ve lived.  I’ve made lifelong friends everywhere.  So, as I ponder, I’m hoping the best choice is right around the corner!

Casey and the New House

Change is tough in some ways for most of us, if not all of us.  Even when the change is by choice, there are adjustments to be made.  For me, I guess the main adjustments to our move have been finding a new church, meeting people (I knew NO one here!), getting used to a not-quite 21st century small town, and having no wifi.  Oh, and the seven mile trek up the mountain to get home, which takes 15-20 minutes to drive, due to all the twists and turns.

Casey is no exception.  Although I must say, even with his…..uh…..specialness (bless his heart!), the adjustment process has gone quite well.  Kenn did me a wonderful, HUGE favor……TA DAAAA!

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Yes, that is a doggy door!!!  And yes, he installed it into a stone wall!  Casey used it pretty quickly.  But as before, he had no problems going outside, just struggled to figure out how to get back in the house.  I promise, it swings just as easily both ways!  Bless his heart.  I am happy to report the process has now been mastered.

The house is both on a lake and in the mountains.  The lot is very sloped so there’s not much grass for Casey to romp in.  But since Krystal died, he’s been very clingy to me.  He’s always been a cuddly pup, but now he doesn’t like me to be out of his sight.  Although he can find a little strip of grass to do his business, it’s mostly done on concrete.  So it rolls down the incline.  That took both of us a while to get used to.  I bought a little fire hydrant to give him something to aim at. (I asked Jonathan, an expert writer, to reconstruct the previous sentence so it doesn’t end in the word ‘at’.  His response?  If the sentence is about Casey peeing, restructuring is ridiculous.)

We have all been enjoying our new vehicles, including Casey.  He and I go check the mail in Kenn’s Razor, an all terrain vehicle that is loads of fun driving around on mountain trails here.  We use it to tool around our neighborhood, too, and to get to the boat dock.  Casey seems to enjoy boating.  I bought him a life jacket and sun glasses for boating.  He likes his vest and tolerates the glassesimage

I can’t help but marvel at all the changes that have happened in the past three years.  Some have been extremely hard, like losing sweet Krystal, but most have been great!  I have a lovely new husband and a lovely new home.  We’ve met wonderful neighbors and have joined a wonderful little church.  Life is good.  God is very good!

 

Swooping

These past couple of weeks have been filled with emotional swings, or swoops as I like to call them.

Six delays in closings on my new home.  Swoop down.

I met the most wonderful man in the world!  Big swoop up!

I found out a dear, dear friend has cancer.  Swoop down.

I finally closed on my new house.  Swoop.

Right before closing, my cardiologist called to tell me my heart was declining again.  Swoop.

I got to spend the weekend with Kenn, the aforementioned wonderful man.  Swoop.

All this swooping has made me emotionally dizzy! But I pray for my friend’s healing and a stronger heart for me, and continually thank God for my house and blessing my life so very much by bringing Kenn into my world!

Now, I have begun the task of moving. The pups are in their hotel for several more days while I work on the house. They still haven’t seen their new home yet. I wanted to be sure I owned it before I took them over–I wouldn’t be surprised if Casey hikes a leg as soon as we enter the door.

So, my adventure continues. New house, new man…..life is good!

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Street Names

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I recently bought a house. It was half built when I went under contract so I got to choose a few things–wall color, tile, etc.– to finish it. One of the things I did not get to choose was the street name. When I started my house hunt, my friend, Judy, told me a couple of times to be sure and choose a good street name. And while I did take notice of the names, I was much more interested in floor plans.

Now, I knew to avoid any home on roads such as Scumbag Street or Barf Boulevard. But others had problems, too. One house I was interested in was on General Eisenhower Lane. A noble name to be sure, but it’s so long! Plus, if I misspelled it occasionally, I would feel so stupid! Another was on Bumblebee Drive. Hmmm, not sure about that one. Would bees flock to the area and make it impossible to enjoy my yard? Another was on Patience Drive. Maybe living there required a lot??? I looked at one on Wright Haven Lane. That sounded a little like the name of a cemetery to me.

My friend, Ginny, lives on Henricks Hill Drive. I wonder if a couple named Mr. and Mrs. Henricks one day bought that land and declared it their hill? Judy lives on Shasta Way. While that sounds refreshing in a way, it also reminds me of my brother’s beloved late dog, Shasta. She was an obese Cocker Spaniel. He and his wife now have an obese Golden Retriever. And my sister-in-law, Kathy, is 5’7″ and probably wears a size four. Come to think of it, my very thin daughter-in-law had a chubby cat. I wonder if they give their food to their pets? Just for the record, Krystal and Casey are both nice and thin. Nuff said…..

My new house is on Pebble Creek Lane. I like that. As long as the little creek behind the houses across the street doesn’t ever make us want to rename our street Raging Rock River Road, I am satisfied.