The House Built with Love.

It's time to say goodbye.

Hunter has already spent his last night here and last night was Wills.  Tonight, Jeff and I will spend the last night in our home.  I know that we're moving to a new house, one that will be filled with laughter and love.  It'll be the place the kids visit on vacations and eventually bring their kids to visit.  It will allow us time to camp, travel, catch up on years worth of movies and maybe finish a puzzle or two.  It doesn't come with yard work or truck loads of firewood.  And trust me when I say, I'm excited for that!!  It'll be house we retire in (I hope!).  It'll be the house we make a home.

But I would be remiss if I didn't shed a tear or two tomorrow.  It's easy to walk away from the chores and the work, it's harder to walk away from the memories....

Walking through the woods trying to envision the house.  Hunter falling in the gravel driveway running to catch the bus.  The boys playing in the creek...and beating each other up on the back porch!  Poker at the fire table and spaghetti sauce on the ceiling.  "Hey, Mom" from the upstairs.  Bees in the basement and the wasps outside.  Heated wiffle ball games and our first movie in the theater room.  Seven's favorite spot to sleep.  The raccoon in the tree and the mice in the shed...and the cats that ran them all off!  Picking paint colors and plungers...for the horrible drain in the shower.  Craft room #1 and craft room #2.  Daycare kids and studio clients.  Sleep overs, prom parties, bonfires and surprise birthday parties.  Broken lights and the dreaded bonus room clean ups.  Baby birds, baby deer and baby bunnies.  And a coyote to challenge them all.  Bee traps and ant traps.  Tons of rock (literally).  Pitching practice and prom pictures.  Girl friends and best friends and play dates for the puppy.  Oh, and the pink paint!  Chasing the bird through the house with a fishing net...all thanks to the pizza guy.  Canceling our newspaper because after a year, they still couldn't find our house.  All because we lived in the forest...with the fox.  Hurricane Ike.  And let's not forget Will sneaking out to get a fish or Hunter entertaining the neighbors with his singing as he mowed the lawn.

It's impossible to list all of the memories.   Jeff promised us a house, but what he actually gave us was a home.  One filled with love and laughter.  Every nail.  Every board.  Walking out the door tomorrow will be the hardest thing I've ever done.

It's the last place we'll all call home.