a good-bye & some final thoughts...

*deep breath*

this is going to be a difficult one for me to write (and likely a long one too - with lots of photos). if you aren't one for sappy, sentimental gushiness, you are more than welcome to skip. but for the purpose of my own memories, i would like to capture the emotions of this closing chapter. the sad feelings...and the very happy ones, too.

...but the one thing i do promise, this one has a happy ending. because i am also sharing lessons learned over the last month that are keeping my spirits up. starting with the fact that we were SO lucky to have a home. a home like the one you see above. and we are lucky to have a rental home now. and we will be lucky to have a new home again in california.

trust me, the blessings are not going uncounted over here!

but i'm not going to lie and tell you leaving this home behind was easy.

it's wasn't.

it's not.

after having a few bad days (ok, maybe a week....or more if you asked my husband) of feeling pretty down in the dumps, i realized while i was for sure going to miss the house itself, what i was really mourning were the memories made inside the house. each time i scanned through my iphoto program looking for photos taken in this house over the years...it wasn't the photos of the house or the projects i completed that i was pulling aside to share....

...instead it was the photos of what WE were doing inside the house. or what WE were doing outside the house.

suddenly, i realized i was mourning was the loss of our amazing 5.5 years of living in this home and neighborhood. the friends we have made and the thought of not living close to them anymore. the idea of leaving behind a school and teachers that we adore. the slower-paced lifestyle we have enjoyed (and sometimes been annoyed with and giggled about). hearing the accents, southern one-liners, and the "y'all's"...it never gets old for me.

so, today, while i'm going to share some photos of the house...you're also going to see a glimpse into the memories made inside and out.

and that is what truly matters.

while we won't live in this house anymore, i will always have my husband and my children...and photos and memories like these to look back on and enjoy - forever. living here is an experience we will never forget.

memories like our first snow fall...

being native californians, both my husband and i never lived in a home where snow would fall in the winter. instead of driving hours from our home near the beach to enjoy the snow in lake tahoe, all we had to do was open our front door...

the boys loved it! of course, the first thing they wanted to do was build a real snowman...this one always reminds me of snoopy. ???....

and a baby snowman too...

even our california cat didn't know what to make of it...

*valentina...february 1997 - september 2011. we said good-bye to her as well while living in this home.

there were countless memories made around our property. like enjoying a push from mom or dad on the swings. or learning how to swing all by yourself!...

going on bug hunts...

and there is certainly no lack of bugs to be found here. (coming up....keep scrolling)

enjoying the space to run and be free...

the hundreds of days we cooled off in the summer with outdoor water play activities...

we tried to keep california alive by setting up a sand table on the patio...

going for a joy ride in his 3rd birthday gift...

and shielding our eyes from the smoke when we had a cozy fire outside on the patio each winter...

we had a period that seemed to go on for 2 years when anytime the boys saw a puddle or mud, it was a free for all. when we absolutely had to keep them clean, it took all of our strength to hold them back. but boy, when the time came, did we love letting them go for it. and we did that more often than not...

the dirtier, the better. hands, nails, faces, hair....having a seat in the mud or having a contest to see who could get the muddiest...

those muddy memories are top of the list for me. :-)

i loved watching the leaves change and fall in november...

and admiring the spring when everything came back to life...

the only thing not to admire coming back to life each spring? spiders. this is not for the faint of heart...if you don't enjoy arachnids, scroll fast!...

 *don't worry - that spider is outside!

there's a first for everything in life. this happened to be my first free-roaming tarantula sighting...

and hopefully my last - unless it's behind (very thick) glass at the zoo. i've heard plenty of snake stories around here...thankfully i haven't seen one up close and personal. but we still have 6 months until we move, right?!

our family loved hunting for a Christmas tree each year at the tree farm. our first year - my husband thought this one would do the trick...

keep in mind, my husband is 6' 6" ... so imagine how this tree would look IN the house. he was joking, of course. but we couldn't believe a tree that enormous might actually end up in someone's home.

each and every year we thoroughly enjoyed watching the south transform into a Christmas wonderland. the south really knows how to do Christmas - they pull out all the stops. left us californians hanging our heads in shame...although everyone seemed to love our casual style anyway...

every year there was more to oooh and aaah over.

getting back to inside our home, the reason i loved this house so much is because of the memories we made inside. sure i will never forget our super, awesome, over the top playroom...

but it wouldn't have been a playroom without these 3 small people to fill it with laughter, toys, creativity, friends, messes, sleepovers...and sometimes fighting too...

*photo taken on move out day

i will never forget our kitchen...

but it wouldn't have been the heart of our home without our family eating meals in here, our friends celebrating sports games in here, celebrating holidays with family, hosting birthday parties, baking cookies and more.

unless we are there, it's just a kitchen...

and unless my little people aren't there to use the extra cabinets as a hiding spot...

*do you spy someone inside?

well...then it's just not nearly as fun to play a game of peek-a-boo if they aren't in the house.

even though i'm leaving behind one of my favorite walls in the entire world...

this wall can will be re-created in our next home. what we can not re-create is the precious baby girl that has been sleeping in there the last 3 years...

i will never forget our comfortable living room and the beamed ceilings...

but unless my husband is in there screaming (loud!) at the tv during his beloved sporting events (which seem to be year round), it's just a living room...

yes, a lot of memories were made in this house...but the people i share those memories with are coming with me into the next chapter. and that is what matters.

in addition to the countless memories made, there were lessons learned as well. along with honing my new mothering skills with 2 wild and crazy little boys, and adding a 3rd child - a girl! - to the mix while living here...i did so much growing as a person...in soooo many ways. not just learning more about who i am, but also our family's personal style, our value's, what works for us, and our taste in home design/decor. it was fun to look back on how we grew into each space around the house...adding little bits here and there over the last 5.5 years until it felt complete.

here was the dining room after we moved in...

and in it's final state before we moved out...

such a difference!

another example is the sitting area in the kitchen. when we moved in...

*on the couch is our then 1 year old...who is now a boisterous 6 year old.

and the same area before we moved out...

amazing!

over the last 5 years my passion for organization soared. a hobby that was always there suddenly became a way of life for me. might have something to do with the 3 little people living here and the clutter they are capable of creating.

some of my favorite organization systems in this house? top of the list was organizing those toys. oooh, those toys!!!

the toy closet after moving in...

the toy closet before moving out...

the office closet after we moved in...

the office closet before we moved out...

a shot of the empty shelving...which the new homeowners negotiated to keep....

the pantry after we moved in...

the pantry before we moved out...

we grew and accomplished so much in this home. but most importantly, we are raising healthy, well-adjusted (i hope!) kids...and we created cherished memories in this house with our little family unit.

we will do the same thing in our new california home.

together.

just as the moving truck arrived with our entire home's contents in august 2007...

...with 2 little boys anxiously awaiting the boxes that held their favorite toys, it will be the same come summer of 2013 when the moving truck pulls up to our new home. which hopefully will end up being a home we stay in longer than 5 years. hopefully meaning - forever.

until then, i will always love this house because of the memories we made inside it...

*me sitting in between the kitchen and living room on our last day/night of ownership. home cleaned. home completely empty. 

and we leave it a better place ... for the new family that is so excited to live here and create memories of their own...

one last story...my biggest spirit-booster and lesson learned last week came from our children. we moved out of the house on saturday and i wanted to go back one last time to snap a few photos of the empty house. if you can believe it, they didn't want to go back. i was shocked and couldn't understand why they wouldn't want to see the playroom or their bedrooms...just one last time. they didn't want to leave our rental home because all of their stuff was here. our 6 year old actually started crying when we pushed the issue. they are the ones who taught me a home is where your family is...and maybe your toys and other things too. :-) but the point being, it doesn't matter where your stuff is...the old house or the new rental house...as long as we are there together and our stuff is filling that home....it's home.

and the kids haven't looked back since.

they have taught me one of the biggest lessons this month.

this summer i look forward to sharing my happy introduction story to our new home in northern california! until then, we'll spend lots of time in here talking about ways to organize a rental home. territory i haven't walked in since those good ole college days. this is going to be another chapter to add to our life's storybook. :-)

and i think it's high time i share everything about our FIRST home!

so much organization to talk about!

thanks for reading my good-bye story...and for reading along with me here on the blog.

(i linked up with savvy southern style, house of hepworths, a bowl full of lemons, the 36th avenue, serenity now, liz marie blog, tatertots & jello, it's overflowing)