It has been over a week since posting, since we have been busy setting up the new house.. We have finally found a house and was able to move in last Thursday and Friday. Yes, I said, Thursday and Fri, as it took two 28 ft trailers to haul our precious treasures from California. This is our second scale down, so more things will be given away or sold, to keep our kids from hating us. They had already told us some years back that whatever we had left when they put us in “the home” would be quickly hauled away as they certainly had no interest in our things. They didn’t say it quite like that of course. They used a little tact. I think the conversation went something like this, “we feel that it would be best for all of us if you went ahead and got rid of most of your junk, oops, we mean valuables, that way, we won’t argue over who gets what, when the time comes”. Besides, it would just make us sad each time we looked at something that reminded us of ya’ll.” Kids have such way with words, don’t they?
So Randy and I have spent the last 4 days sorting through and deciding which set of the 5 sets of dishes we should keep. We kept the dishes that have a better chance of survival, should they be thrown at someone. We have boxes marked “Treasures for Others” “Treasures for Grandkids”,(let’s hope that those precious babies have better taste than their parents) “Garbage No One Would Want” “Why In the Heck Did We Ever Buy This” and “Size we want to Be”.
We actually began the move in with a positive attitude, exciting about starting our new season of retirement in a new home, close to family and had determined that we would make this move with humor and grace. We did that the first day. By day two, after going to Walmart to purchase necessary items to help turn this house into a home, we were looking up “marriage counselors” on the ipad. Little snide remarks began to permeate the air. After he had unboxed the new vacuum, he brought it over to me and told me that “well, here it is, it’s ready for you to take for a spin around the block.” Since I had already unloaded about 30 boxes that morning, it didn’t set well with me. I shot back, “oh I hope you didn’t mind that I gave the movers all of your power tools”. It just went downhill from there.
When the lease is up in two years, if we have not had the opportunity to attend a “making your marriage work” seminar, we will just renew the lease. Marriages were meant to be able to survive trivial things, like sickness, financial trouble, kids, certainly never retirement or moving. Even good marriages have their limits.
Chocolate Castles 