going home…. and what I will miss

 Whelp… It’s time. 

Ali and I are at the airport and we are heading ‘home’. Which feels weird and completely right all at the same time.

Years ago ( prior to the Internet) Scott spent a year planning a camping trip for us.  Ironically, we flew into Denver, spent the night, rented a small motor home the next day and spent the next two weeks visiting national parks .

It remains our favorite family vacation to date and honestly, I don’t know that anything could ever top it.

And ten thousand years later.. We will be flying into DIA.. And going home.

I’ve blabbed a lot here about how excited I am about our new venture, but trust me, I’ve spent many, many hours thinking about things that I will miss.. 

Some are silly, some are not.. Here they are ( and I’m quite sure ill be adding to this list as time goes on)

1-sounds silly… But stop and shop.   It’s where I’ve grocery shopped all of my adult life (for normal week to week shopping). I know the aisles, ( even when they move them around). I know the employees…  Paul who bags my groceries is an avid antique car fan….  The other bagger ( can’t think of his name ) has a young cousin who is battling leukemia and is doing great! I love to hear his updates. 

Julie, the barista at Starbucks who automatically knows my order before I get there .. And we chat about her twin granddaughters that just moved to Florida.   And her love of Toby Keith ..

One of the butchers ( I’m purposely omitting his name ) who confided in me that he has had breast cancer…  I know these are all silly but I will miss them.

2- my impromptu lunches with my friend Kara, many days last minute one of us would call the other and within an hour we were enjoying each others company and lunch :). It almost got to the point that we had ‘our’ own waiter..  Now she’ll just have to take a little plane ride! ( and it WILL happen 😁)

3- Friday night pizza night.   Every Friday night since 1752  I’ve been making homemade pizza.  Which meant that over the last 4 years I never knew how many of Ali’s friends would be over.  I always had enough ingredients. Just in case.   I will still make pizza every Friday night..  Just not for a crowd. I will miss the houseful of teenagers. These are all such great girls that I’ve loved watching grow up.

4-Bruce Springsteen….. 

Who am I kidding?  He’s coming with me 🙂

5- family being close.   I know this sounds strange but we have lived in Plymouth for 9 years and didn’t really get together with family all that often.. But just knowing they were close was comforting.  Ali and I spent a lot of time with family this week just visiting , which was nice.   We ended our last night with a last minute cookout at my sisters’ house.

Ironically, this was the first week that I’ve ever gone to a cookout at her house…   

(she’s rockin’ the grill, btw) 

I’m not overly worried about staying in touch.. In fact, not at all. With modern technology it’s so different than it used to be.

 When I was younger and we would travel back in forth from the cape to my grandparents house, long distance phone calls were very expensive ..so in order to let my grandparents know that we arrived safely we would make a ‘ Ricky call’. 

Ricky is my uncle..  When we’d home we would make a collect call, which meant that the person on the other end would agree to pay for the call.

We would specifically  tell the operator ” collect call for Ricky” at which point my grandmother would say, ” he isn’t home right now” ( that’s because he lived in Florida )

So no one was charged for the call and my grandmother could hear our voices and know we arrived home. 

These days with Fb,  cell phone plans, texting,  Skype.. You can chat all around the world like you are talking to your immediate neighbor.

It’s time to teach our parents to Skype! ( mom, Linda, dad… It’s easy. Trust me … You’ll want to learn) 

6- of course ill miss those sunny summer afternoons by the pool with family …  They weren’t that often, but when they came over it was like being at a resort… Good food, good drink good fun….

7- don’t laugh.  My news channel.  I love Boston’s wbz  I’ve been watching since the kids were babies… I love the anchors and have gotten ‘to know ‘ them and their families over the years. The news is always something that is consistent for me. 

8- the ladies at my quilt shop.. Every time  I go in there they chat with me all about what’s going on, the blog, lunch, and most recently, I found out the one of the ladies’ daughter just graduated from PC !!  She showed us her grad pics and took Ali’s email address and her daughter has reached out to Ali to give her some tips as an in coming freshman!

They are also the ones so many years ago who taught me about the hexagons. I’m so glad that I stopped in this week. They were able to show me how to prep ahead of time so that I can have a little ‘kit’ to take on the airplane with me!

9-My radio station… My good friend Joe is the local morning DJ and I’ve listened to him for years.  I can still here him streaming on line, but just from far away.  I had a lovely lunch with and his wife, Lynn this week and they had blown up a picture that joe took  (he’s a very talented photographer). And framed it for me.  It’s beautiful and I’m excited to display it in my sewing room💝  

10- my dear friend Erika.  Gosh I will miss living near her. I’ve watched her kids, Leah and griff grown up since birth..  And honestly, I love them like my own.  These are 2 great kids that I will miss seeing.  Erika is always good about sharing the important stuff ( first tooth out, etc,..) with me.. So I’ll still have that ..knowing that we are only a text away certainly helps) 

There was once something floating around the Internet listing what every girl should have.  And one was a best friend that you could show up unannounced in your pajamas with your hair on your head sit at her counter and feel at home.  

I have that with Erika .. In fact I’ve done it many times. We don’t see each other every day and our kids are light ages away from each other but that doesn’t matter. She’s always there for me and I for her.  Now I’ll just have to do it from a little bit farther away!

She gave me this this past Christmas, knowing how difficult this year was going to be for me. It came with a really sweet saying that is currently in my jewelry box on and 18 wheeler

I’ve carried it with me each and every time that I’ve traveled. It helps remind me that there are many roads to take in life and that some of those are the more difficult ones, but the ones that we are supposed to be on 😇

11-  I’m not a huge beach fan, but I do love the salty smell of the ocean…  Knowing that ill be traveling back east and that that scent isn’t gone forever makes me not as sad about this one 

12- lastly ( for today) I will miss my gardens.   Sure… Ill have gardens in denver ( in fact I already do… I planted lettuce the last time I was out there and Scott sent me a picture of it.

Pretty cool, eh? I grew that in Colorado all the way from Massachusetts!

But seriously..alot of my perennials were given to me by friends .. And each year when they bloom I think about them just a little bit more..

My hosta plants I dug up in my aunts yard about 5 years ago..

My iris and pink mums are from Erika

My bulbs were from a fundraiser

My rhubarb was from Scott’s great grandfather

I could go on and on..  

I’m excited to see what is going to pop up from my new soil!

Buy the time I post this, I will have arrived.. And just to show you, I wanted to share this  

oxoxo ~ shel