Date Night with Brian

I surprised Brian (Hulse) with tickets to see Brian (Regan). I love Brian (Hulse) and I know how much he's been dying to see Brian (Regan). It was one of the most hilarious times I've had with Brian (Hulse) because Brian (Regan) was so gosh dang funny. Brian (Hulse, and probably Regan too) has been a little stressed and deserved a night out. It was such sweet relief to see him (Hulse) let go and laugh. I love the Brians.

Wicked Awesome

The girls and I saw Wicked in San Diego. What a treat! Dad was working and Abram was too little, so it was just the three of us. It was such a fun girls night out. I hope there are many more to come. Thanks girls for always being willing to try something new. And thanks for all the endless renditions of Wicked you've performed since. I haven't seen musical theater like that since the KMQ one-gal shows of Joseph at M2. Good times.

Good-bye House

We closed on the house today (8/12/2009). It was bittersweet because we were, of course, relieved to have sold it in such a terrible market, but saying good-bye to our first home pains me a little. Although we only lived in this house for 4 years, it held lots and lots of memories. So many good times with family and friends (and missionaries) at this house that I don't want to forget. I hope that we can look back on these pictures and it will conjure some of these memories.

One regret I already have is not taking a picture of the playroom. How could I have forgotten? I'm thinking Marin and Santi will remember it well enough, but it would've been helpful for A-boy to have had a picture. Ah well.

Good-bye entry way. Will you children remember standing here and handing out Halloween candy to the droves of kids that came by to trick or treat? Or coming home from school and opening the door to see little brother waiting for you?

Good-bye front living room (AKA home teaching room, AKA Kevin Lindsey and Russ Stevens' parlor). The piano and musical instruments were always played whenever kids came over. This is the room where we put up the Christmas tree and where the children always opened their presents. The place where I could find Marin sitting and reading in one of those chairs. And also one of the rooms Abram loved to wheel into with his walker when he was learning to walk. I'd hear the little wheels all around the downstairs as he'd explore room to room.

Good-bye office. And good-bye office furniture because the buyers insisted on having you. Kinda sad since you were only with us about 6 months. Not even a scratch on you, which is very uncharacteristic of us indeed.

Fortunately we took with us all the things that mattered in the office including our volumes of Church books, albums and other fun things.

Good-bye kitchen where I cooked many a meals for our family and friends. This I will miss. So many a spread was served there on that bar. To me, this area was always better filled with lots of friends or missionaries. Right now names of friends and menus from different parties are flooding my mind. I'll miss having our annual Christmas Caroling FHE here. I LOVED all the food and fun.

Oh, and good-bye balcony from which Abram could not help but to throw things down onto unsuspecting bystanders below. You can see my attempts to curb this behavior with that netting there. Nope, it didn't work.

Good-bye ceiling fans in every room. I really will miss that. Why isn't every house built with ceiling fans? And a very sad farewell to those drapes that Melinda Smith made me. I still held out hope that the new owners wouldn't want them and would agree to send them to me, but no such luck. It truly breaks my heart. Now I regret not having taken them down before showing the house.

Good-bye spacious laundry room. Though I never truly enjoyed using you, it was better than a tiny room.

Good-bye girls' room. This was probably the cleanest it ever was. The tooth fairy visited this room often, and the sound of Santa's jingle bells sounded here every year. Girl time after lights out always lasted a little too long, but now, I'm glad for it. I'll have to remember that that will never change, wherever we are. And this is also where the Gospel Word started, just in case you kids ever wonder.

Good-bye Abram's nursery. In this picture I see that little frog wind thingy hanging from his window. We named him Buddy, and Abram would say "Night-night" to buddy for every nap and bedtime. Do you remember A-boy? We'd also play peek-a-boo with him. And every time we'd spin buddy around and you'd see his big, round cartoon eyes, you'd give a hefty belly laugh, with your two fingers still in your mouth of course.

I'd rock you to sleep in this room and would say so many prayers thanking Heavenly Father to have another baby in the house. I'm overcome just thinking about how happy I was here.

And the little space between the girls' room, Abram's room, and the kids' bathroom was where Abram first learned to kneel and pray. We'd have family prayer there and then he would teeter on into his room for bed.

The kid's bathroom where Abram had his imaginary swim meets and the girls took marathon showers that drained the hot water heater.

Good-bye Master. It was pretty cool having french doors and balconies on both the back and the front of the house off the master. Except during hurricanes, and lightening storms that struck so close they set off the alarm.

Good-bye double shower heads fixed to the ceiling. So wishing you were here. I'm sure Brian (at 6'3") misses you more.

Good-bye to the palms we transplanted not more than a year before we sold. That was a pricey project. Why? 'Cause we had to do it twice. Thanks to the not so stellar work ethic prevalent there in the RGV, the original guy did a terrible job and never came back to set it right. One of the palms fell over after it had rained for a few days. Thankfully the palm survived the fall. Phew!

Good-bye backyard fun. I will miss that pool and all the fun we had as a family -- the impromptu nighttime swims, the easter egg dives, the end of the school year luaus. Speaking of luaus, I remember frantically trying to stain that deck for the second luau. It was crazy hot, I was still nursing Abram, and Brian was out of town until the day before the luau. Good times.

Or during Hurricane Dolly and again Brian was away (by law) at the Nursing Home, and I had to run out in the middle of the night in hurricane force wind and rain to backwash and drain the stinking thing so it wouldn't flood the back of the house. Now we're really talking good times.

Looking at the back of the house reminds me of the backyard movies we had on several occasions. Thanks to Brian, we enjoyed pizza and popcorn under the stars of a big and bright Texas sky.

But a house is just a house. I know the significance comes from within and from what we make it. I do hope that we'll be settled in Camarillo longer than we were in Mission, but I'll have to keep in mind that the memories and joy are from my husband and each one of my children. Which is why I won't allow anyone to move out after they grow up. I'm selfish, I never want my children to leave my home. Seeing how that's impossible, I hope they come home often so we can sit around and talk about these old days.