Going Home

Mel and I went 'home' a couple weeks ago for Memorial Day to help Mom get her house ready to sell. We cleaned out the basement and attic and tackled a few other rooms. We hauled a bunch of stuff to the dump, and burned what we could in our back yard.

Eric and I had fun with the fire. We dumped all the fuel we could find on the fire (lamp oil, old kerosene from the basement, and lighter fluid) and lit the pile. The flames were about 20 - 30 feet high and hot enough to scorch the grass and wilt leaves on a tree more than 10 feet from the fire. The next morning Jeff & Brad Goldie helped us load up the pile of junk and scrap metal to take to the dump.

It is tough to let go of 'home' - that house is where I grew up. It must be even harder for Mom and Audrey because that is where they are all the time. But the home is too big and too much to maintain for just the two of them.

Mom let her boss know that she would be gone by the end of the summer and met with a real estate agent last week to help sell the home. I guess this is the official end of an era.

One of my favorite things about going back to Ohio was meeting up with friends. It worked out that Brad & Bekah Goldie (along with their baby Nicholas) were in town. We went up to Cincinnati to hang out with Jason & Gini Forbes and Jared & Dani Jensen (plus their twins). Good times and great memories. It will be fun getting together as all of our children get older because all the kids will be about the same age (plus or minus a year or so).