Sunday, December 13, 2009

Farewell Party

Saturday night Bill and Carol threw us a heartfelt, fantastic party. They were gracious enough to not put a limit on how many people we could invite, as a result about 100 people showed up. They spent a lot of time, thought and energy getting the house ready, in fact, when we got there they were so busy with last minute details, they hadn't taken showers yet! Carol quickly filled me in on what needed to be done and went up to clean up!


Deb, who gave us the gift of designated driver

was helping me when Goldie and Mitch showed up. Goldie quickly saw what needed to be done and jumped right in to help out.
Bill and Carol had decorated the house in a Christmas/Hawaiian theme. As you came into the warmth of the house, an aloha sign greeted everyone at the front door. There were lei's for all and they got really pretty ones for Dan and I. Sean and his wife Jen also brought us some nice ones. The food table had a grass skirt around it and real pineapples for decoration. Outside on the deck (lanai in Hawaiian) was a blow up palm tree with a kiddie pool like base that held ice and beer. Christmas lights were on the lanai as well as in the house, along with a beautiful Christmas tree. The garage was cleaned up and outfitted with a space heater and the staple ping pong table was ready for games. With plenty of food, music (Dan and I made a playlist on our Ipod) and people everywhere, everyone was in high spirits. It was so crowded that it took forever to get from one side of the kitchen to the other! We were humbled by the turn out and a realization sank in that we are leaving behind a lot of good friends. We are so grateful for the people in our lives. Generally you don't know how you impact people but there were so many warm wishes, thoughtful admissions about our relationships, declarations of how we inspire both by living our dream and by the obvious love between us, that we were hit to our core.
In fact Megan brought tears to Dan's eyes as she told him how much he would be missed and what an inspiration he is. She came by me later and told me the same thing. I was struck by two things, how well she picked the words to describe how she felt, what she said was really beautiful (unfortunately, I can't recall it, just the emotion she left me with) and how hard it was for me to accept. I don't feel worthy of all the accolades!

Bill and carol had their daughter Katie design a card for everyone to sign. So much warmth and love, it makes me realize how lucky we have been to have such great people in our lives!



Just beautiful!!

A "Conversation" with Gracie

Today is the day after the going away party Bill and Carol threw for us. I will post about that in a different post because it was full of friendship, love and joy, this one is not. Like I predicted, no one from my family came to our going away party. It made me sad because a lot of people came to send us off and I wanted my family to be there. Not only to share in the joy we felt from everyone but so they could meet some of our friends

I'm blogging this incase I start to miss my family, this will be a reminder. We got to bed around 3am last night. Deb had taken us to and from the party because she knew we would be drinking and wanted to make sure we would be safe. This morning we woke up around 9 and I made German apple pancakes breakfast. Deb bought us a book for our new Kindle's for us to read on our trip and gave me a little clip on light. We looked at last nights pictures and enjoyed each others company.

Today is Paige's birthday and they are having a party for her. I told dad yesterday that we wouldn't be going to Paige's party because we'd probably be out late. After Deb left we were watching TV, in and out of sleep, when I got a text from Gracie.

Gracie: Hey when u comin over

Marta: We aren't going to be able to come over today honey tell Paige happy birthday for us

Gracie: r u drunk see u in 5 years

Marta: Why are you being so rude? Why would you say something so mean?

Gracie: Well u r not common to Paige's b day

Marta: You didn't come to our going away party and I'm not being mean to you

Gracie: Well we were making christmas cookies at my grandmas

Marta: I guess we all have our good reasons

Gracie: Sorry we had 200 cookies to bake and yes u r see you in 5 years I guess

Marta: I guess we won't come over for Christmas then.

Gracie: Well if you can't make it here than how could u make it to Christmas but I guess I will still love you

I'm flaming pissed right now. Really? I imagine my folks over there feeding this nonsense to everyone. I don't even want to say how I really feel about this whole thing and now they are putting the kids in the middle. Dan already doesn't want to go over there for Christmas, but the whole reason we are delaying our move is to spend the holidays with my family. It makes me wonder why I want to do this. Oh yea, Guilt.

Gracie: I guess I am sorry totally sorry

Marta: It's ok honey, I know you just want us to come over. I know you are just responding to what the adults in your life are saying. We love you, we love all of you and just because we can't come over today doesn't mean we don't and it doesn't mean we won't see you till 5 years from now.

My family has a great way of making me feel like an ass!