Monday, May 30, 2011

What I Will Miss

Yes, I have decided that moving is the best decision for our family.  And yes, I will be disappointed if we can't find someone to buy our house.  But I do love my house, and my neighborhood, and there are many things I will miss if we do indeed move.

(1) My neighbors (and not just because some of them read this blog).  Seriously, our amazing neighbors are the thing we'll miss the most, hands down.  We'll certainly try to buy in another neighborhood with quiet streets and hopefully with young families, but we know we'll never re-create the magic that we found in our current spot.  Where else are we going to find folks willing to babysit at the drop of a hat, turn on their sprinklers the day after it rains just so my kids can run through them, or buy us multiple obnoxious holiday decorations without asking us?  Where else will we have neighbors who let us use their swing set when their not home, or those who take our dog into their home for an entire weekend if we are away?  I do hope we'll find another group of people willing to stand out in the middle of the street and chat on a warm summer evening, even if they are not crazy enough to share Minh's love of renting heavy-duty tools.

(2) My house.  Literally, the physical house.  I really do love it.  I love my bedroom, and my master bathroom.  I love my nice big living room and my dining room.  I adore my floor-to-ceiling pantry.  And I love the playroom the most.  How am I ever going to live without that amazing playroom, the we just built?  Of course there are other houses out in the world with master bathrooms, and playrooms, and even with 2-car garages and central AC.  But I find it hard to believe I'll find one (that we can afford) that I will love as much as this one.

(3) My yard.  Specifically, my kids' trees, which are are planted in the back and nourished by their placentas.  (Gross?  A little.  But the kids, Tai anyway, knows why those are their special trees and I think he likes the idea.  And I always thought we'd get to see those trees grow up alongside our kids.)

(4) Speaking of....I'm going to miss the chance to watch the kids grow up in this house.  Yes, I'll still get to watch them grow, but not in the place I've been picturing it.  Six months ago we were envisioning how we would adapt the playroom to be a student office for doing homework, you know, when the kids reached middle school.  And now it's looking like this particular playroom won't be used that way--not by our kids, anyway.  And how sad is it that Quynh will probably have no memory of this house and neighborhood?

(5) The campus across the street.  I love being able to walk the dog over there, and take the kids to run around the lake.  Not to mention that Tai was just getting to the age where he was enjoying concerts and other events on the campus.

(6) The steady stream of undergraduate dog-walkers.  We acquired one great dog walker after another by asking each one that graduated to recommend a friend to take over.  We already have someone lined up for the fall...but will we still be here?

(7) Living a mere 5 minutes from a great little sprinkler park/playground.  This in invaluable, all summer long.

(8) Cindy's Drive-In.  Living only 10 minutes from a place with great food, ice cream, and tons of toys to occupy the kids is perhaps more important than the sprinkler park.  It's the only place that Minh and I get to sit and eat our meals in peace because the kids can go run around while they wait for their dinner and again after they finish.  It's fantastic.

There are probably 50 more things I'm really going to hate to leave, but I take them for granted and won't miss them until they're gone.  

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