By the third day we were becoming good friends with our movers. (o: One of them let Angela climb up in the cab of the truck, ride on the dolly and see the back of the truck too. He had a little five year old back in Pittsburgh and I think Angela reminded him of her. She loved all the attention and thought the truck was pretty cool.
In the afternoon, Michelle brought her mom, Chris, by to say goodbye to us. We have loved getting to know Chris. She is such a sweet person and was so cute with our girls. I loved her German accent and her gentle heart. We felt like she was kind of an adoptive grandma for us in Oregon and loved whenever we got to visit with her. She always made the best seedless berry jams and loved to come pick some of our Asian pears each fall when we had more than we knew what to do with. When she came to say goodbye, she brought the most beautiful crocheted cloth to put on a table - it will always be such a treasure. I'm sure it took so many hours to make. Chris has such a giving heart and we will miss her dearly.
It's really starting to look like we're going somewhere . . . somewhere in one of these boxes my
YW medallion got packed! I forgot to grab it before the movers did their thing. Luckily, Ned* found it several days after we unpacked in the last box in our room. Phew.
Kim, being the angel that she is, came to pick up the girls after school on this day and kept them at her house until late that night while Ned* and I worked and organized and did some last minute errands. I wanted to go to Pasta Pronto one more time before we left. This is one of our favorite restaurants in
Hillsboro (near the Target in
Tannesbourne for you lucky locals). Their turkey and fruit pasta salad is the best. Ned* took a picture of me to commemorate the important last event. We had a lovely time reminiscing.
I had to snap a picture of the gorgeous sunset. I loved all the farmland and beautiful trees we drove by every day and lived so close too. We lived in such a beautiful part of the country and I wanted to savour each little bit before we left.
When we got to Kim's house to pick up the kids, Natalie showed me the stick she picked up on a walk to the park down the road. This just goes to show how awesome Kim is. She actually let Natalie take it and carry it all the way back despite several almost accidents with the dumb thing. Now that is one patient woman! We laughed until we cried as Kim described the scenario walking with Natalie carrying this monstrosity. How will we ever live without Kim? She is seriously the best, most fun person ever. The thing that was so neat is how much we genuinely loved each others kids. I loved Allie and Luke and little Katers so much. She was like an aunt or a way better mom to my girls. We always found the same things so hilarious, we both are similar in our parenting styles (only Kim is a way better at staying organized than I - a talent I envy and adore about her) and Kim is way way way better at technical stuff and being able to fix and make things. She has had to learn many skills with a husband in dental school for the last several years. She is just the most awesome person to know. Kim brings out the best in me and makes me happy just being around her. So when we had to say goodbye, it was not pretty. I am even crying again as I think about it as I type.
We've had to say goodbye too many times and this time was way too sudden. The first time was when she moved across town from her "farm" house that was so close to us. I loved that house. It was actually a piece of crap house now that we look back on it and she tells me how awful it was (nice and cheap for a dental student family). But I never thought of it as awful. To me it was a beautiful, warm and happy place. I realize now that that was because of Kim. She made that goofy little trailer house so homey with her limited budget and amazing talent of making a little heaven on earth. It was such a happy place in my memory. I will always love the memories there - that's when we really became close friends. Those days when Mike was at dental school for insane hours and Ned* was working terrible hours at Intel. We had so much fun hanging out and letting the kids play and be happy. So many nights we talked and talked late because there was no husband coming home any time soon. It helped having someone that understood. But Kim had it much harder than I did. The thing I loved the best was how even though she saw Mike much less than I saw Ned* - she showed me so much sympathy. Kim is not a whiner, she just does what needs to be done and doesn't complain, at least not anywhere near as much as I would have in her situation. Her strength always impressed me so much.
The next really sad goodbye was when they left for Texas - but we knew it was just for a year and then they'd be back. It was sad, but bearable. Then just a month after they got back to Oregon (hooray!) we got the job offer in Utah. )o: Kim was one of the first people I talked to about the prospect and I wanted her opinion on the daunting decision. Like a true friend, she set aside her own feelings and honestly said what a neat thing it would be to live close to family. She is very close to her family as well and knew what a blessing that would be.
So our big goodbye had come much sooner than we had originally planned. We were supposed to get two years to play before Mike graduated. We're gonna have to make it up in visits and then cruises when we're old. (O; That night was hard. Those goodbyes at Kim's house were rough and I cried all the way home and still cry when I think about it.
After thinking back on all my wonderful friends, I guess I am just destined to always have my heart torn in two. That's how it was when we left our family to live in Oregon and that's how it was when we left our friends who became "family" to live in Utah. I wouldn't trade those friends and experiences for anything though. We are better people because of Oregon. We grew up there - from young newlyweds about to start our family, to 30 somethings with three awesome girls. It was a growing time for our family and there are people that we needed to have in our lives to help us become better than we would have been without them.
No comments:
Post a Comment