Moving Day- written back in October.
MOVING DAY…..
WELL 22 years ago today Dennis and I were putting the final touches on PROJECT “MOVE to Newton.” After much persuasion I finally convinced HIM that we should move back to my “home” town. Newton, “A Great small town” as they called it. I can remember that day like it was yesterday. WE had rented the biggest U-Haul they had, both vehicles were filled to the brim, both boys were loaded up and our sweet dog SMURF was in tow. It was a cool fall day and we were off. That 62 mile drive from Brandon seems like an adventure to Montana that day.
I’m getting ahead of myself. Let me back up to the transformation stage. This OLD house you see was an absolute wreck when we moved in it. WE had ridden over to Newton one Sunday just looking around at different places and truth is from the moment I put my eyes on this place I fell in love. The Holly bushes had turned into HUGE TREES out front and you could hardly see the house from the road. It had been sitting empty for some time. Renters had left it sorta a wreck on the inside so it took me awhile to get the owners to even agree to allow us to look at it. ( thanks to you… You know who you are… )
FINALLY the Sunday came and we made a second drive over and met the OWNER. He was like, “what you see is what you get. We really don’t want to rent the place. We have had some bad experiences”.
I have to tell ya there was much wrong to the naked eye. Old green carpet, no heat or air, kitchen was old school, No dishwasher, needed paint badly and when you walked up onto the front porch the old boards had given way to weather and wear and you would literally fall through. I did say to the naked eye right? WELL my little imaginary driven brain went to work. I could see it in my MINDS eye already fixed up. We looked at everything and left. The owner said, “well let me know what ya’ll think.” THE moment we got in the car and backed out Dennis looked at me and said, “baby, have you LOST your mind?” I laughed and began the chatter. Oh can’t you just see this, can’t you see that, We could do this, we could do that. I think I went on for the entire ride back to Brandon. WELL we decided to MAKE THE MOVE. We spent weeks over here painting, cleaning, and cutting down holly bushes. A friend of mine let us borrow heaters for that first winter and we got everything moved in just in time for my sweet husband to sit on the front porch and give out candy on Halloween night. haha Some time went by and we decided to make good on our rent to own agreement and the rest was history.
That first Christmas I put up 5 Christmas Trees. IT was a blast. Many years have gone by and MUCH hard labor, hard earned money, and hard core decorating has made this house a HOME. TRUTH is over the last few years I had mentioned us moving back to Brandon and Dennis wouldn’t budge. He finally told me one night, “babe, don’t mention moving to me again. We aren’t going anywhere.” THEN he said, “You brought me here kicking and screaming so I’m here to stay.” I was like “baby, you never said a word, you weren’t kicking and screaming,” He said, “well I was on the inside, ” hahaha
BLESS HIM. WE had some unbelievable times in this BIG OLE house. Oh the stories it could tell. The memories I cherish so much now. The ole saying, “home is where the heart is”, is more true than I ever imagined. Needless to say it’s not the same without Dennis here but HIS LIFE remains in and around me in this OLE house. This rock still remains under the tree in our backyard.
Someday will be moving day for all of us. Life is a JOURNEY not a destination….
