Lots of Goodbyes

We've had lots of the girls' friends over in the past week.  We are all trying to cram as much friend time in as possible.  We had friends spend the night Friday night and Saturday night, another playdate Sunday and another on Monday.  Then Tuesday was a Girl Scout day.  Whew!  It's a lot of fun to try to keep a house clean for showing with extra kids in and out!  Anyway, I was thinking today about the phrase, "this chapter of life."  I think it more applicable to my life to say this book in the long series of my life.  (See, I tend to get hooked into reading long series so I guess that's where the analogy fits for me)  I feel like this past week is that chapter that is sometimes at the end of the book where the conflict has been resolved but the ends need to be tied up in a bow.  The "story" is done, but it's not quite time for the epilogue, and the reader needs some closure.  So you get the concluding chapter.  Then the epilogue hooks you into wanting to read the next book, but that's jumping the gun in my analogy for now.  For now, we're still in the last chapter of this book.

We've had a few more showings on the house, yet our prayer still stands at "Lord, send the people who want to buy our house to us soon."  But in the meantime, we have to grab the dog and leave the house periodically.   So we end up lounging at McDonald's (which for those who know my food preferences, this shows how low we have sunk), sitting at a park, sitting in the van, or riding around.  I can really tell we're all a little anxious and the girls especially have a lot of pent up energy because every time we go somewhere with room, or during those witching hours after dinner, they go nuts.  Hence Lyla is contemplating what mischief to achieve with a stick and Celee is singing to a brownie.  Gwyn has actually taken to reading a lot.  She reminds me of another very similar looking girl who walked around reading books all the time.  It has been beautiful here though, when it hasn't been raining.  Fall is the most beautiful time to be in the MidWest.

 Monday night I completed my last baking to do in this kitchen.  We got rid of all the pumpkin and eggs that I had making pumkin cookies.  And Celee really wanted to make candy ghosts to take to her last Girl Scout meeting here.  Don't ask me why a ghost would need to ride a broomstick, just accept it as an excuse to eat fruit roll ups, pretzels, and almond bark in one delicious treat.

Then Tuesday was quite full.  We had two showing on the house so we had Tinkerbell with us for most of the day while we ran errands and then went to our first Girl Scout meeting of the day.  I put Tink in the nursery with the hopes that no one would let her out until at least most of the meeting was over.  Taking into account the qualifier, my wish came true.  It wasn't until the middle of the pot-luck after the meeting that a child let her out and she came ripping into the middle of the meal being chased by several other children.  Needless to say, she was held for the rest of the time.  Oh, and there was that awkward short time period when Lyla thought she had locked Tink in the nursery and I had to ask the Pastor to help me get in to get her.  It turned out it wasn't actually locked, it was just jammed a little bit, probably from Lyla messing with it. But I did feel a little silly having to explain why I had put my dog in the nursery.  (sigh)  My troop's girls and parents really made me feel appreciated at the dinner.  They had a picture frame for everyone to sign for us and they put together a scapbook for Gwyn to keep.  They even gave us each a gift as a going-away present.  (Thank you Jennie for organizing!)  They are a super group of people and I will miss them all so much!  I only started to cry twice though.  I knew better than to try to say anything long to the whole group, but my short thank you almost got me!  Then one of my scouts gave me the sweetest letter that she had typed up for me.  That got me too.  I think having all their friends telling them goodbye really made Gwyn and Celee realize that we really are leaving.  We've all known and discussed that we will miss people, but when it comes down to actually telling them goodbye, then it's pretty emotional.  Celee's troop had a cake for her and made her a scrapbook too.  Celee is a little reserved, but I knew once we got to the car it would hit her, and it did.  There's not much I can do - we are all going to have some pain with this leaving.  I guess we'll just all cry together when one of us needs to.

I realize now with only one day until Jason comes and three more days until we leave, that I have so many thank-you's to send out.  So many people have encouraged and modeled and been thoughtful to me over the past 5 1/2 yrs.  Even some of the more painful experiences we've had here have caused us to grow.  So I can really even thank the few people who are etched in my brain in less-than-complimentary ways.  They too have played a part in the good that has come out of Champaign County.  But there are many more people whose kindness and love has really made this place a home for us.  We moved here not really wanting to put down roots, but they grew anyway.  I do try to give people notes or words of thanks on the fly, but when it comes to an ending I realize how much more I should have said and expressed.  Why does it take leaving or dying for people to tell each other how much they mean to them?  But I won't end this chapter on a sad note.  No I wish I would have or should haves.  I do appreciate all that our friends have done and have been for us.  There are truly a considerable number of people here that I will miss simply for who they are.  And I am so thankful that they shared that with us while we were here!