Mass, you've treated us well

I have no idea what is possessing me to blog except that I know if I don't do it right now, it won't feel the same if I wait until after we land in Albuquerque. Plus, I know I won't get around to it for a while and the memories won't be fresh anymore.

David left Massachusetts for New Mexico on Monday. The girls and dogs and I have been staying with the Fetterman family. They were awesome to take us in for over a week.

Last Wednesday, the packing company showed up at 7am to start the dirty work. Boy, I'm glad it was them and not me who packed up our 14,000 lbs of stuff! You can sure fit a lot into an unfinished basement - dangerous! I thought we had weeded out sufficiently, but when they had to call for a second truck because we didn't fit the estimate, it was just a tad embarrassing. (in our defense, we did try to convince them we had more than that to begin with.)

By Friday afternoon, our house was completely empty. As much as the girls have LOVED that house, I have been really surprised that they haven't been too upset seeing it empty, driving away from it, and leaving it. The hardest thing so far has been picking up Grace from her last day of school here. None of us want to talk about it. That was quite possibly the saddest thing I've ever witnessed aside from a funeral. She's been pretty stoic since then. She didn't cry when we left Tink (I DID! I think I might love her best!) And she's mostly been ok on her last tour of play-dates. But, she did break down at karate last night when Eamon left, and she keeps saying she's tired which is her old-school way of saying that she's beyond expressing feelings. She used to say that when she was 2 and 3 years old, but she hasn't said it in a long time.

Hattie, well, I don't think she quite understands it all. I think she knows she is supposed to be sad, but she doesn't quite know why. She actually tries to make herself cry sometimes. But, if you ask her about Albuquerque, she gets really excited. She can't wait to go on the airplane - one of her favorite things to do.

This week I have been overwhelmed by the generosity and pure friendship of other people around me. I could NOT have done half of what I've done with out them. (why am I leaving again?) Of course, MA had to send me off with one last blizzard. (thanks for reminding me of one reason I'm leaving!) Bret totally bailed me out of a couple of driveway plowing jobs, among a list of several hundred other things he's done and is volunteering to do for us next week. I don't know if he's crazy or just that nice. I'm afraid, he might be just that nice which sets the bar a little too high for the rest of us.

I've decided that seeing people "one last time" is over-rated. It's been nice to see a few, but quite frankly, it's just too hard. You know it's the last time you'll see them in who knows when and it's the big elephant in the room and then you have to do the hug which is just ridiculously sad. There have been several people I wanted to do "one last" with but couldn't, and I'm actually quite happy to leave it at wherever we left it. It feels like you have more possibilities that way. Grace won't mention "last" at all. So, we don't have one last day in MA tomorrow. We just have another day.

Again, I know the second I land in ABQ, I'll remember the 1000 reasons that I'm heading there and the rest will fade. So, here's a little tribute to the "last" few days we've spent in New England. Thanks for everything! You have treated us pretty darn well in the end.

(Eamon and Grace getting their blue belts together.)
(Master Doug... totally irreplaceable)
(riding Tink, some go forwards, some go backwards!)

(Hattie and her best friend, Megan)

(an awesome woodpecker who paid our feeder a visit last week. hope the new folks feed the birds, or they're going to be pretty mad!)
(empty house. thanks house.)
(parent's night out for Valentine's day. with OUR date, Bret.)
(self portrait by Bret. hey, aren't you a world class photographer or something?)
(hugs for Tink)


(my karate kids)
(Hattie playing with Jeanne's castle. Jeanne and Roger can't get enough of the girls coming to play in their attic.)
(playing with the marble runs (correctly pronounced "mahbil") in Roger and Jeanne's attic... one of them is over 100 years old, but they let the girls play with it just the same.)
(a fox we spotted this morning as we woke up.)
(girls at Drumlin Farm today. totally nice day for an outing.)
(There is a black pony named Midnight at Drumlin Farm. We seem to have a soft spot for black ponies. Grace has been trying to get him to let her pet him for 5 years. Today, she accomplished the task. She was thrilled.)
(there is a pig named Harriet at Drumlin farm. she had 13 piglets in October! Hattie was so proud that someone named Harriet is a momma. She wants to be a momma more than anything.)
(Harriet and a few of her piglets.)

And, you have to click on this link to see Grace's first grade class. They made the front page of the newspaper yesterday for their awesome Olympic project.