You've Got to Move it Move it

That's the view from my backyard in the summer.  That's been my view for the 36 years and today, well, today is the last day I am sleeping in the house I grew up.  Tomorrow my mom, dad, Madelyne and myself move to our new house.  It's bigger, has much more room for Madelyne to play, is in a gorgeous neighborhood and already feels like home.  

I have a ton of memories from this house.  My poor mother wanted to move when I was in 5th grade and me and my brother BEGGED her not to!  We loved our house.  Our friends were in our neighborhood.  No way did we want to move!  And so we got our wish. 

Our elementary school is in our neighborhood.  My brother and I were both on the safety squad.  One day when I was on "patrol," a school bus pulled up to my spot, stopped and the door opened.  Everyone on the bus chimed, "Mike says Hi!"  Mike was my 5th grade boyfriend.  I remember my face turning red even though I was laughing my ass off.  Embarrassing but cool at the same time, you know?  

My best friend in elementary school, Erica, lived down the block.  We played together almost every day.  She was Skleeba and I was Skloba.  I have no idea how we came up with those names.  There was a field by her house.  We used to catch crickets.  Not really sure why.  She lived on a dead-end street so we played badminton in the street.  We counted how many times we hit the birdie back and forth.  I think we made it to 95 or 96 before the birdie dropped.  

My best friend in middle school, Cheryl, lived on the same street.  In the summer, I would go over to her house and we would make a huge bowl of popcorn, dump a whole stick of butter in the bowl, and watch a movie.  Sometimes we baked.  We made fudge one time and it was so hard to mix, the wooden spoon broke in two!  

My other best friend in middle school, Cheryl (yes another Cheryl) had a pool.  If you didn't have a pool, you wanted to be best friends with someone who did.  We used to pretend we were Ariel from The Little Mermaid and sing, "Part of your World" in the pool.  We swam for hours.  We made up dances to hits such as Achy-Breaky Heart.  

The boy across the street, Kevin, was friends with my brother.  I had the biggest crush on him, of course.  The three of us played tag outdoors until the sun went down.  My brother and I, both huge baseball fans, played catch in the front yard.  
In high school, I was on the softball team.  I used to play shortstop on the Parks and Rec team, but the high school team already had a shortstop so my coach asked if I wanted to pitch.  My Dad and I practiced every night outside as soon as it got warm.  


This is the house I knew was always there for me.  Every summer, I couldn't wait to come home from college and every August, I had enough of my parents and couldn't wait to go back to college.  I moved home after college, stayed a year, and then moved into an apartment with one of my closest friends, Jess.  The memories from that place!  But that's a story for another time...

After Madelyne was born, with a marriage crumbling and postpartum depression coursing through my body, my parents once again opened the doors to this beautiful home.  Four years later, we're still here.  

So goodbye to this house - the house my parents moved into when I was only 2 weeks old, 36 years ago.  Thank you for always being there as a place for me to come back.  I hope the next family finds much joy and happiness here as our family did.  

And now, this chapter closes and a new chapter begins...