Pumpkin Ridge thoughts

Last Saturday, we worked at the old house, preparing to turn it over to Nicole and Dan. Among other things, I cleaned the big bathroom really, really well....scrubbed every square inch, inside the drawers, all the ceiling I could get to, the floor, the walls, etc. It was almost kind of like saying "good-bye." Very cleansing experience, and not only the scrubbing! I thought so much while I was in there...I thought of soon after we moved there, when Shoshana, Jordie's mom, was staying with us. She talked about how much she liked that shower -- you could just walk into it, so easy, and the weather was so hot that we were all taking several showers per day! (That was before Jordie and I worked out our "If it's over 90 degrees, the air conditioning is on" compromise!)

And I thought of how many little girls have crowded into that bathroom, both Amalia and Abby's friends (we gave the big bedroom and bathroom to the girls to share after Abby was born). So many girls, jockeying for the mirror space, putting on make-up and play clothes. Girls huddling in the bathroom for secret conversations during slumber parties....later, after Abby got the video camera, girls would be dressing up in there for a dance routine to be filmed.

We've been having other memories, too, now that we are letting go of that house. The pirate birthday party for Adam, with treasure hidden in the woods, Jordie with one leg tied behind him to be a pegleg pirate...an obstacle course in the woods...the kids walking Gilbert down the road many times...many picnic dinners in the front yard...potlucks on the back porch with little white twinkling lights...kids reading in the hammock. I'll add more memories below later, and if the rest of the family wants to email me a paragraph or so of memories of the house, I'll post those as well.

Night.