Exactly to Plan. Not How I Imagined It.

Painful. Exhausting. Never Again. Thank. God. It’s. Over.

I had imagined that I was doing my daughter a favor by waiting until just after her high school graduation to sell her childhood home.  The home I spent 4 months drawing up the plans for.  The one my father, husband and sister built in 55 weeks with 1.5 days off, with their own hands, while I ran our family business.  What I didn’t count on was how much time & life-force that packing, moving, prepping, paperwork, crying, worrying, etc. would take up.  At least once per week, I would think about writing something here about it.

Too painful.  Too tired.  Too much.

Though everything went exactly to plan, it was not how I imagined it.

In the last four months, we:

… shepherded our DD through her last Finals, LAX season, Senior Ball, Grad Night, Awards Night, Graduation,  etc…  So much more emotion to all this than the words can convey, perhaps because she is our only child.   Both the DH & I had, um, difficult childhoods & we purposefully waited until we could make her the center of our universe, which she is / has been for the last eighteen years.  It’s hard to step back and point to her and say, “That’s your call, Sweets.”

… listed our house, sold & closed escrow in less than one month.  My inner control freak had a difficult time with this part.  Apparently, staging is not supposed to be realistic or what we imagined as “our house the way it was meant to look all these years”.  No, it is meant to be a fantasy, which can be photographed to look gigantic.  Well, OK then.  Realtor performed intervention.  We stood back and watched it work.  Good lesson.

… moved a household, a printmaking studio and a metal & woodworking shop 180 miles away in a lucky 13 truck & trailer loads.  Thank goodness I had gotten in better shape with all the house prep!  That is some tough work!  A family friend exclaimed, “Why don’t you just have somebody do it, you cheap bastards?!”  Well, I am rather fond of all my printmaking equipment, as the DH is of his shop stuff…  TRUST.  There it is.  Watched too many stories on GMA of broken, missing…  Forget it!  Besides, we are hopeless DIY bastards!

… planned and executed a 3-week College or Bust car/tent camping extravaganza that encompassed 9 National Parks in a Grand Tour of the Southwest and one kick-butt 3-dayer for all of us at the Red Mountain Resort/Spa, just outside of Snow Canyon State Park in southern Utah.  At the end of which, we…

… moved my newly minted High School Graduate (Did I mention she was a 2-letter athlete, graduating with highest honors) into her new college dorm room 3 states away as a Freshman yet again.  (Clear Eyes is a lifesaver!)  What a circle Life is and how surprising the amount of anguish our hearts can handle without stopping or breaking apart.

So, that’s what I did with my Summer.

Exactly to plan.

Not how I imagined it.

–

Next up:  A return to sanity!