Here We Go Again

This truck is currently in front of our house and will soon be loaded up with all of our possessions. While I am eternally grateful that I didn't have to actually move any of this stuff, I am still an exhausted mess. I am incredibly sad today.

I am certainly not going to miss this house that we have lived in just one week shy of two years. I didn't even want this house. We spent the entire two years working on it to make it livable. I am sad because we are, yet again, leaving friends behind. For our New Jersey friends, we are leaving them for a second time. While we have been fortunate to already have a few friends near the towns in which we have lived, we have been so incredibly lucky to meet new, amazing friends in New Jersey, Cincinnati, and now here. I am much too cynical to believe that lightening could possibly strike a fourth time, and we could make lasting friendships with people in Tennessee. Quite frankly, I love the friends I have--I don't think I have the energy to meet anymore.

We met Amy and Michael while we were in birthing class in New Jersey in 2002. Actually, we were never formally introduced. I was way too pregnant and way to bitchy and tired to actually be civil to anyone in the class. We ended up meeting again in the Somerset Babies R Us after our girls were born. Amy was there returning some items, and in a very rare show of bravery, I approached her and we struck up a conversation about the girls. Her daughter was born two weeks after Ella. We exchanged phone numbers, and the rest is history. We have been close ever since.

It has been so wonderful for one of us to call the other at any hour of the day or night and ask questions, get opinions, or just be a sounding board. The four of us have nearly identical styles of parenting, which is a good thing too. There has never been any awkwardness when one of the kids have acted up at the others' home. Amy, Michael and their kids were the first ones to get in a car, and drive 12 hours to visit us in Cincinnati. They even did it a second time. Their generosity was boundless when Corey lived in their house for 6 weeks when we were in the process of moving from Cincinnati to PA. It really hurts to be leaving them again. We were actually supposed to be in Kaui with them this week.

In Cincinnati, we met Rob and Laura. We were in a Carvel ice cream shop having sundaes, when a guy told Ella that he liked her IU sweatshirt. It turned out that Rob and Laura had graduated from IU like we did. Laura and I grew up 30 minutes away from each other. They had a daughter who was a couple of month younger than Ella and a newborn just a couple of months younger than Genna. We totally clicked. Corey and Rob are both scientists and could talk the same language, in addition to talking about IU basketball and football. Laura is an incredibly intelligent woman. Her patience with her children was amazing and made me want to be better. We spent a lot of time together and really enjoyed it. While life has gotten really busy for all of us (they had a third child), we are really excited to only be 4 hours away from them when we move to Nashville.

Lori and Brian have been the absolute best.neighbors.ever. here in Bethlehem. We have never been in a situation where we were actually friendly with neighbors. When we first moved to this house, we had pine trees with branches all the way to the ground in our backyard. We couldn't see the neighbors' house, and I really wanted to have neighbors--not privacy. Corey cut the branches and suddenly, we had neighbors. Then we became friends.

The kids run back and forth between the yards nearly every day. Ella and Genna start each weekend morning off by asking if they can go outside and play with Matthew and Christopher. We have frequently called each other to ask what food the other has in their fridge and we piece together a meal. We have spent many weekend evenings on each of our back porches, drinking, talking and laughing. It was incredibly sad to say good bye to them last night. I think it will ultimately be toughest for Ella to be leaving them. She plans on marrying Matthew. When she goes to the new house and discovers that there is no longer a house behind us, she will be profoundly sad.

I don't want to make it sound like our moving to Nashville will be awful--it won't be at all. We will be 4 1/2 hours from Corey's mother-in-law. We will also be 90 minutes from a couple of our dearest friends. Lori and Jeff are the girls' god parents. We are thrilled that we will be so much closer to them now. I think I fear getting attached to yet another place, or more people, all so that we can move away a few years down the road.