Leaving the Love Shack

I took a couple of days off of work to pack up and move. Pepper had so much fun "helping" me. She unpacked almost as fast as I packed. I finally just waited until she was napping and then frantically packed up as many boxes as possible. As I packed, I reflected on the fact that from the age of 16 to 24 I moved every 3-9 months. In contrast, for the past 8 1/2 years I have lived in one place, the LOVE SHACK. I can't believe that it has been that long! So many amazing memories have been made in this place:
1. Newlywed adventures. I can remember coming back to our little house after our honeymoon with a living room full of wedding presents. It was so great to start our marriage in a sweet little cottage. It was simple and quick to clean. A bit of paint made it look fresh and "new".
2. School challenges. Out of our first five years of marriage, Jo and/or I were in school for four of them. It was always exciting to try to figure out how to get our living room to double as an office.
3. The college kids. For a number of years we were lucky enough to have Carl, Andrew and/or Allison in town going to college, as well as Aaron and Nikki living in town. They would come over on Thursday evenings, cramming into our kitchen and living room. We would eat and talk and sweat in the 85 degree heat of the Love Shack. It has a wood stove that could heat a house 3 times its size. Finally the guys started to come over in rip off pants, with shorts underneath, to better deal with the heat.
4. The break in. It was not necessarily a good memory to have the Love Shack's front door crow-barred and someone steal our stuff, but it was a pivotal moment in our life. We realized that we could live through a rough situation and, in the end, thrive.
5. The baby. On May 18, 2011 we proudly brought home our newborn baby girl to our little cottage. It took a bit of creativity to fit all the baby things into the house, but we did it. It worked out just fine until 6 months later when Pepper learned to crawl, and then 5 months after that when she started walking. It was at that point that the Love Shack finally became unbearably small.

As excited as I am to move into our own home, I will never forget the amazing times we had in our little Love Shack. Thank you to Jo's parents for letting us live here for so many years. It has been a grand adventure!