Saying Goodbye

A couple of weeks ago, the boys that I watched from the time they were babies, wanted to come over and say "goodbye" to our house.  On the way there, I pulled up to a stop light and saw this on a semi truck!

 What?  Is that what it really says....so I rolled down the window....

Who knew?  

I think it was a reminder that even though I'm saying good-by to one place, I'm moving on to another.

The boys and their Mom pulled up right after I did, and Teng (picture below) was driving!  When they walked in the house, Teng instantly started taking pictures.  And it started.... 

"Remember when you used to hang on to my leg when I would walk across the room, and you would slide across the room?"

 "Remember when you were supposed to be taking naps, and I would hear you running up and down the hall upstsairs?  I finally just had you start taking your naps on the couch and chair."  "Yes, and that's where we stayed....me on the couch, Vinh on the chair."
"Yes, Vinh used to go into the cubby by the door and read, and he'd be sitting up against the door asleep.  I'd pick him up and put him to bed."

Vinh, "Remember when I locked myself in the bathroom and you had to climb the ladder and crawl through the window to get me out?" 

  "I'll never forget that!" 
I really should tell you that story...it'll make you laugh.  Vinh was about three, Teng was about 5.  My Shug was home because he had surgery on his foot.  The door mechanisms are old.  The knobs are old glass knobs (I wanted to take them!)  Vinh went upstairs and locked himself in the bathroom and I kept talking to him through the door, trying to tell him how to unlock it.  Teng, in the meantime was running up and down the stairs saying..."he's not coming out.  He's not going to be able to unlock the door.  He's still locked inside".  and on and on....just adding to the chaos!  So, My Shug got the ladder out, I climbed up to that window second from the right, and crawled in.  The toilet is right inside the window and I had my hands on the toilet and my feet in the air sticking out the window and
I. could. not. move!
And Vinh was standing there looking down at me saying, over and over..."you're gonna fall......you're gonna fall."  Teng's outside the door..."they're not out yet.  He's still locked inside.  Cindy can't get in."  While Dave is yelling at me from the outside to "GO ON.  GET INSIDE!"  The drop from the toilet to the floor was too far to take one hand off....without crumbling.  The next thing I know Dave is up on the ladder, with no patience left, shoving me by the feet into the bathroom!"  A few days later one of our neighbors asked, "what was going on at your house the other day?  I saw Cindy's feet hanging out the bathroom window, then I see you climb the ladder and shove her inside?" 

"Remember when we helped build this room?" It's true.  We built this room on by ourselves.  And when my Shug was putting a layer on the foundation the glue was drying too quickly.  He told us to all grab hammers and start nailing!  Anh came to get her boys and they were hammering nails into the decking/flooring (whatever you call it).  Lucky for me, she was very understanding and flexible.
(We put a time capsule in the walls of the new room we built on.  Even though that room is six years old, we still call it the 'new room'!)

 "Remember when we used to play in this pond!"

"Remember the fort we made out of trees and dirt in the back of the yard?"

Anh, "I remember the snake?"

"Remember the mouse in the potting shed that ran right through our legs?"

Me, "I remember Vinh and I jumped up on a chair screaming!"

This place was their home away from home.  It's right in the center of town, close to everything.  I'm going to miss it.

So, yesterday I got a call from our realtor.  "Hey, we are going to try to close tomorrow!"

"Tomorrow?  Tomorrow! Ok....great."

 The last I heard we were going to have to sign extensions and it would be in November.

So I e-mailed my Shug at work.  "Hey, it looks likes we are going to close tomorrow."

He e-mails me back..."Tomorrow?  We better go say good-by to Fred."

So, I met him in town, and we started reminiscing....

 My Shug built the fence,

 and made the handle.

 My Shug built the potting shed for me, and left this note on the back of the door.  There are also notes written in markers on the inside of the walls.

 My Shug built this arbor....

 and this note was stamped on a piece of copper and nailed to the arbor.

When Mom and Dad were helping me paint the potting shed a couple of weeks ago, Dad asked me if I told the people buying the house about all of the Easter Egg hunts we've had here.  I don't even know who's buying our house.  Anh said I might tell the people buying the house they could find some plastic eggs with lottery tickets or candy in them.

A lot of people are going to miss this house.  We all have a lot of memories here.

When I walked in the door, on the counter is a letter written to the new peeps buying the house.  My Shug wrote it.  We hope the people buying this house loves it as much as we do.  We spent almost 20 years in it.   There are a lot of memories. 

Yup, we're going to miss this place.

Cindy Bee

PS - Who's Fred?........I'll tell you tomorrow.  This post is long.