Memories

Ok, so I am fully aware that y'all come here to this website to see pictures of Finn's sweet little self, and I know that I am woefully late posting his 6 month pics. And don't even think for a second that I didn't take 400 pictures over Easter weekend. I'll post those I promise. BUT I just have to pontificate for a moment (big word for so late at night) and maybe even slightly defend my tiny tendancy toward.....umm....hoarding.

Matt and I have decided to put our house on the market. Even if (which is actually "when" in my head), he gets stationed back here at Ft. Stewart, we need a bigger house if we want to grow our little family with more kiddos and dogs. Which we do. Of course if the unfathomable occurs and we have to move away from Savannah and heaven FORBID, the south, we will definitely have to sell it. So we are getting a head start hoping to at least break even with what we owe. Fingers crossed on this one!

We had a realtor come over to look around on Friday and before she even came I made sure to tell Matt "I KNOW she is going to say I have to get rid of a lot of/most of my crap so we can show the house, so don't even start with me." I followed that with "And it isn't crap to me, so don't start on that one either." Turns out I'm clairvoyant. She was sweet about it though. "Less is more", she said. I read her loud and clear. I knew I had to give away/throw away/store/goodwill 90% of the stuff in this house, but getting started was totally overwhelming. So in true Gaston fashion, I made a check-list of "areas to vacate of their junk" as long as my arm and dove in. Finn and I spent alllllll day on Monday and accomplished almost nothing. Seriously, 2 closets and a quarter of the guest bedroom. This is going to take longer than I thought.....

One reason for the large time consumption though is that I am such a sentimental sap! I can easily trash or donate clothes that don't fit, games we don't play, books we don't read, etc, etc. However, any item bearing any meaning gets saved. Birthday and Christmas cards, letters, postcards, invitations, thank you notes, newspaper clippings, birth announcements, movie tickets, wedding programs, valentines, the little cards that come with flowers that people send you, boxes and boxes of pictures, coloring book pages from friend's kids, I mean just everything. But I have to say that the past two days have confirmed why I do it. I LOVE LOVE LOVE looking back at all of that stuff. It warms my heart to read over all the special things that people have written to me over the years. I look at the invitations and remember fun times. The birth announcements are some of my favorites. Homemade gifts from Dody when she was little are some of the most treasured items. Monday I found the congratulations card my mom gave me when Matt and I got engaged. She told me that I had chosen my partner in life well and to be kind to each other always. I want to remember that advice. The Halloween picture that Tiffany and I took of Harvey and Toby (our doggie children) dressed as little Frankensteins was a tough one to look at. It was taken the last year (of 8!) that we lived together and Toby died a year and a half later. Tonight I came across the sombrero from my surprise 30th birthday party that Matt threw me. My 29th year had been an especially tough one and it brought tears to my eyes thinking about how he wanted to make my 30th a new beginning for me. How can I throw that away??? I can't. I can't part with any of it. I love memories and I love remembering. So I will get the so-called crap out of here so we can sell our house....but it won't be too far away. I rented a storage unit that's about 2 miles from here to house all of our "extra belongings". Trash to some, but treasures to me.