10,000 Goodbyes

I'm writing this from our brand new (craigslist) desk in the family room in our Pueblo House!

The week of June 2 to June 10 2016 was the Week of Goodbyes. It was both surreal and wrenching, punctuated by periods of single-minded soldiering as we packed up the Pirate House.

June 2 was my last day of work. My dear office-mate, Liann, and I got lunch at Gillie's.

Liann has been my sunshine at work, and my prayerful companion in this whole long emotional journey of Jon's job search. I miss her already.

For my birthday, the kids and Jon made me breakfast and then presented me with the gift of the cities I have loved:

Blacksburg, Rochester, Annapolis, and a print made by my sister in law, Corey, of my favorite sign in Rochester. 

I don't know why I love that sign so much. It just makes me smile.

These gifts were just what I didn't know I needed. There were tears. 

Then came June 4th and our Goodbye Party. It was a day long picnic in the park with people coming and going all day. There were hugs, and laughs, and only a few tears. A perfect send-off.

Some of the kids' friends from daycare came: Marcus, Shaniah, Aliyah and Damian are old and dear friends by now.

Miles' first best friend

With Liann and family

Leslie is one of my favorite NRV twitter friends!!

Elizabeth, Miles' first girlfriend. Also from day care.

Darling Ann!! My karaoke, pagan fire and twitter buddy. 

Sunday the goodbyes were directed at church. 

The tears were thick when we sang Praise to the Lord, the Almighty. 

Hast thou not seen
How thy desires ever have been
Granted in what He ordaineth?

Lines like these were impossible to sing full-voiced. We have been so blessed in this town, and we're so grateful. 

But oh, goodbye can ache!

I took a couple of reflective pauses while packing. 

One, to say goodbye to the pack of neighborhood kids and our abundant back yard at the Pirate House.

Another, to get a moment of peace to enjoy the sky and breathe:

Before we knew it, Trucky McTruckface was parked outside and we were loading. The loading party was Wednesday. Thursday was further packing. Michaela and Addison came all the way from Lynchburg to help, and then Tim and Corey came to help with the last effort, cleaning, and to begin to drive the truck! They drove Trucky all the way to Pueblo!!

At the last minute, of course, Adele came down with a urinary tract infection. While getting her prescription, I had a moment in the parking garage, looking down on my town. 

I will always remember these years in Blacksburg as some of the happiest of my life. 

One more family portrait at the Pirate House on June 10...

Miles carried the Pirate Flag (sobbing) through each room of the house as we said goodbye. We paused for prayer...

Drove through town one more time to breathe it in...

Goodbye to the parking lot where Adele was born...

...And exhaled as we drove away. There were a lot of tears. 

(Except from Adele, who kept saying, why is everyone crying??)

Just to cheer us up, after about 60 miles, Grendel the Determined broke free from his kitty tent and joined Miles. He caused no further mayhem; just sat in laps and alternately panted and purred. 

I think he knew we needed him.

Next up: pictures and words from our 2,000 some miles of driving! 

Cut! That's a Wrap!

We are tying up the 2015-2016, as well as our six years in Blacksburg, with festive ribbon these days. Our hearts are heavy because they are full. 

Adele finished preschool Friday. 

Pictures from the dance party her class had during the last week. Miss Pam & Miss Pame are in her heart forever! She's gained so much self-esteem and so many skills and abilities from her year at Blacksburg United Methodist Preschool.

Miles finished first grade, his second year at Gilbert Linkous Elementary. This is a seriously special school. He's struggling with leaving it behind!

GLE is part of his identity

He'll be a Belmont Rattler next year. Still a reptile! We point out

The kids also finished out their dance year with sparkling performances at their recital. 

From the dress rehearsal.

They've come a long way in the two years they've been in dance. Adele does actual ballet around the house now, not just free movement. Both have increased confidence and body awareness. 

Adele especially has gotten much better at performing. She smiles, keeps up (for the most part) with her classmates-- all of whom, by the way, are older and bigger than she is-- and has greater control as she does her steps.

She still has trouble stopping out of a chasse, though!

Miles is still a dreamy dancer, but he's he's more present and with the other dancer than he was. These videos are from the dress rehearsal, so bear with the director's shouts, and take my word for it that he smiled a lot more and was a lot more with the choreography in the actual recital. 

Anyway, we were proud, and glad we had them participate. Even if the recital still seemed overdone and ridiculous in places (it's an expensive costume show, in a lot of cases, rather than a demonstration of skill). Even if the theme was painfully stretched in places (Monaco= Princess Sofia song? Get Better Boogie= Canada? Hot Hot Hot= Mexico?). We playfully ribbed on the studio a bit, but it's been a great experience for these two. 

Can't wait to see what they pursue in Pueblo!

We had to have a classic Pirate House Fire, of course. 

with s'mores

We'll miss this. 

But we're off! 10 days and counting until we shove off. The packing is underway. I am in my last handful of days at work before I am a full-time packer and mover. As long as we close on time (fingers crossed!) we got this. 

And they are so ready. (read his sticker!)

Annapolis Roundup

Our trip had one more stop: we had to make a long-awaited visit to Dave & Cindy, the Grunert Grandparents, and to spend some time with Jon's siblings and their families. I feel so much better about moving far away if the memory of having seen family and friends is so fresh. 

First, we grabbed a picture of the kids at our traditional rest stop McDonald's in central PA...

Mostly inspired by this shot from 1985:

We're so wholesome and American, eh?

Then followed two peaceful days at Dave & Cindy's house in Annapolis. Michaela & Marshall arrived mid-day Saturday. What a treat to get to spend some more time with Baby Cousin Addison! and her parents, of course.



The kids got to see her current feats (nearly crawling, babbling, eating solid foods, laughing) and try to encourage her in them. And Sunday, Tim and Corey arrived to complete the family portrait.

Tim tries to figure out how to operate a baby

We had a delicious brunch, cooked by the Grunert kids (that's Mic and Tim and Jon, not the under 10 set). And before leaving, we made sure to grab a couple of pictures.

Grandparents with the Grandchildren (yes, this is the best I got)

And the whole gang! Whee!


The drive back was long, but kind of beautiful. I mean, it's the last time we're going to make that particular drive. There are a lot of lasts going on right now. I keep getting surprise sobs.



Now we're back home, I'm experiencing the joys of physiologically experienced stress. Doing my meditation, yoga, etc to mitigate this, but my body is struggling. Please pray for our strength and health as we approach the Great Packing of 2016!

Playing, at home

Last Wednesday we got to visit one of my favorite places in Rochester.

No, not the statue of Mercury.

 no, nor the public library, downtown branch

YES. You need to come here if you have not. 

Dancing in the crazy effects dance lab was one of the more fun things I've done in a while. Miles and I might have been in there a while.

There's just.... so much..

We spent a lot of time on the second floor this visit, which is unusual for us.

Leah and Matthew brought the kids to hang out!
So the second floor has.... well, it has a lot. A lot of cool virtual games, it has the pin ball and the classic arcade, just... a lot. But it also has the collection of classic toys! and in addition to display items and educational material, there are play labs!

Barbie dollhouse in the barbie section, e.g. 

As a kid, I would have spent all my time in the play house stocked with Madame Alexander baby dolls. Adele indulged me for a while. We set the table and had "guests."

I mean, there's a track for cars, a play area with castle and knights, the veterinarian for stuffed animals....


And a variety of display board games we enjoyed perusing, including this gem:

"It's not whether you win or lose, but whether you win!"

Leah & I could sit and talk, cozily, and see what the kids were doing. We might have stayed there for a couple of hours.

Miles and Abby probably spent most of their time as veterinarians or pediatricians. 

I got to browse the doll collection, and learn a bit about Barbies...

The tagline on the box: "She's Black. She's Beautiful. She's Dynamite!"

Recognise any of these classics?

Being baby birds in Big Bird's nest: 

Also in Rochester, we visited my favorite park, Mendon Ponds Park, met up with my godmother, had old friends over for dinner and spent cozy evenings with Dad, and often, with Agnes and Mercedes (Agnes' daughter) who have a special friendship with the kids. 

Goodbye was hard. But it felt like just turning a really lovely page and having every reason to expect that the next page will be just as good.

We can't wait to see Grandpa Jim again, in Colorado!

We also went from family, to family. More quality time waited for us, in Maryland. 

Fresh Water

Tuesday found us back in the car again! This time, headed for Canada.

Waved at my city from the car, as usual

We had a lovely visit with my Grandma Dorothy, almost 94 years old as she is.

The kids played with her, we should her pictures of our new house and left photos with her.

And somehow, I managed to take zero pictures. I could really kick myself, especially since I don't know that we'll be back for another year. Oh well. We gave her a Lake Ontario rock, and the memory of many visits, and I got to see her smile and tell me she still plays Scrabble every week. 

And we got to make good use of the rest of the day, too. There is nothing for an agitated, weary mind like white noise and gentle strolling. We made our first family visit to Niagara Falls!

It was a perfect, if cool, sunny day at the falls. We read a couple of plaques to learn a little about the First Nations who lived here, and about the impressions of the first European explorers upon seeing the falls for the first time. The kids just ran off all their car stiffness, frolicked and marvelled. I'm so glad we did it.

We got some really close up views that managed to make us both soothed and exhilarated at the same time;

A peaceful day that ended with dinner at Sticky Lips BBQ, a charmingly gritty little place with delicious food. Our family needed this! Even before he left for his research trip, Jon's been working weekends so long, it's really been a while since we've had so much quality family time all together. We needed to practice our team efforts for the big launch.