Good-bye and Thank You

A brief summery of the past two weeks…

Emma and I finished work on Friday Sept 5th. As sad as it was to leave, it was great to finally be done with everything. On the 6th, we went to Camp Butterfly and assisted my mom by acting as sailing supervisors. She lead a morning session for girls ages 8-14 and we were the adult support. From the 7th-11th, we hung out with friends, said too many good-byes, moved a ton of stuff to my parent’s garage and packed everything else into a 17ft. Uhaul. On the 12th, we said our final good-byes and moved the rest of our stuff to Emma’s parent’s house. The 10 ½ hour drive from Belleville to Atlanta was a great deal nicer than I thought it would be. Then again, I had my iPod/iHome and Emma, her cell phone, so all in all we were pretty set. On the 13th, a bunch of Emma’s friends came over and helped unload the Uhaul. Enough with the dates and times, here’s the important stuff...

Packing the house was pretty rough. Emma did most (more like all) of the “house,” while I worked on the garage and appliances. Emma, because she is awesome, started weeks in advance, saving us from a great deal of stress and last minute worrying. I, however, decided to wait until the week of our move to start getting things together. Thankfully Josh, Grenville, Justin and my folks were kind enough to take off “real” work to share in the “fun” work. Over the course of 4 days, we packed/moved 50+ years worth of tools, appliances, furniture and memories…

For those of you who don’t know, our house actually belonged to my Grandpa and Grandma Akins. They were the only family to ever own the home, having done so since the mid-1950s. When my Grandma Akins passed away in February 2007, it went to my Mom and Uncle Tom. When Emma and I married in June 2007, they were kind enough to let us live there. Over the last 25 years it has acted as my daycare, my vacation home, my free 24 hour diner, and finally, my family’s (Emma +Mathias) first home. Thus, furniture and clothes weren’t the only things being packed. I wish I could explain how much the house means to me, but any attempt to do so would just frustrate me, as it would feel incomplete… Thanks again to my family for giving us the opportunity to live there. It was wonderful!

Okay, so the week went well. Josh and Justin let us borrow their trucks, Uhaul gave us our own on Wednesday and by Thursday everything was packed. Thursday night our closest friends, and my family, came over to say good-bye. We ate pizza, threw the football around and had everyone make playlists, so that when we miss: Alex, Ann, Dad, Grenville, Jenna, Jon, Josh, Justin or Lucy… we can listen to a bit of what they like. Albeit they had to chose from my music library, so they all seem to like what I like… what a nice coincidence.

I can honestly say this has been one of the easiest moves I have ever had to make. This is all because of the incredible support our family and friends are giving us… thank you! Good-byes are never fun, but this round was okay.

In conclusion, here is a list of things I am going to miss about St. Louis/Webster/Belleville/Freeburg. Please understand this is terribly incomplete…