We left early Wednesday, Nov. 21st, for California. The trip down to Corcoran went so quickly with very minimal traffic and weather issues. We got to Corcoran by late afternoon. The kids were ready to be out of the van. We were only at my parent's house about 1 hour before Byron said that we were going to start cleaning out the garage. You have got to understand what huge undertaking this was going to be. My parents had lived in this house since 1991 and pretty much never were able to park in the 2 car garage. I remember many times through the years clearing it out for it to quickly fill up. I wish I had taken a picture when we arrived, but didn't think about it. The ground was pretty much completely covered through out the whole garage. I realized while there that they really didn't have any storage rooms in their house. They had some pretty deep closets and drawers in the hall, but that was the extent of storage areas. Thus the garage became the dropping off point for everything. We quickly set to work having my parents tell us if things were to be kept, given away or dumped. It was really amazing how quickly this process went with 4 adults working nonstop for about 4 hours that evening. We got half of the garage done on Wednesday and then started back working in the garage the next morning. Byron and I were amazed at how much of one item we found in the garage. If my dad can't find something he will go and buy another one. We found about 4 caulk guns, about 4 fertilizer spreaders, some socks that I swear I wore back when I lived at home 18 years ago, and other things I have forgotten by now. My goal once they live in Utah is to make sure they can park in their garage and also to have a place for everything so they will know where it is instead of buying a new one every time :). By early afternoon the garage was spotless with very little left inside. My parents rented a small storage unit about 1 mile away from their house, so we made a couple of trips in our van to this unit to take most of the things they were planning on keeping. This way they were able to make their house more presentable in order to sell it.
On Friday - since it was Thanksgiving after all - we had a very nice Thanksgiving dinner around lunchtime. It was nice to sit down and enjoy a dinner together before starting back up with packing. Next we headed into the computer room to box everything up. Mom had quite a collection of empty boxes from the school that she was able to save up, but we quickly used them while packing the garage. Mom said that they had a recycle bin at Fremont Elementary. Byron, Carter, Bradley, Camille and I headed over to find some more boxes. We found a very large dumpster area that had a lot of perfect boxes inside. Cute Carter was so excited to jump in and grab every box that was usable. He had his first dumpster diving experience and was so excited to tell Grandma what he did. By no time we had cleared out most of the hall drawers, the computer room, storage shed outside, boxed up all of their DVDs, and many more things.
Jared and Tavis came up on Friday to help. Jared was great to paint the back bedroom while Byron and I continued packing. Bradley had so much fun playing with Tavis. Those two became inseparable for the next two days. The kids were in heaven getting very little parental supervision. They watched an endless amount of TV and were also great to help where needed.
By Friday evening we had a huge pile of garbage set aside next to the garage that was going to be taken to the dump. We borrowed a man's truck in my parent's branch with hopes to take many dump trips. I was in awe at how many people started stopping in front of my parent's house wanting to get items that we had placed outside (while waiting to take to Christian aide in hopes that if somebody saw them before that they would come and get them). The stuff out front quickly started disappearing along with the dump pile. I couldn't believe how much "junk" people would take. There were about 15 cans of paint (some barely full), a lot of junky wood, broken item, etc. that soon began disappearing. Every time I went outside the pile was getting smaller and smaller. Pretty soon we didn't even need to make more than 2 dump trips since it was gone.
We had fun setting up my parent's Christmas decorations before leaving. The kids helped decorate their tree and put a couple more decorations out. Before leaving we also made sure Dad went to buy a "For Sale" sign to put in their front yard.
Reality began sinking in as Saturday came and went. This would be my last time coming to Corcoran probably ever. I moved here when I was in 6th grade - 11 1/2 years old. So many wonderful memories of my youth and the past 17 years of marriage include Corcoran. I couldn't have been raised in a better place with such supportive LDS branch members, great friends - just a perfect place to raise a family. I get choked up thinking about it! I started walking around the house taking pictures of every room so I could have a mental image of them after returning home. Byron, Jared and I brought the kids over to the LDS church building to play some basketball. While there I walked around reminiscing of the olden days and the great memories I have from that building. I remember when it was built about 2 years after moving to Corcoran. Before that we met at the YMCA and never knew what we might see while attending church including beer bottles left from the party the night before. This building was respected and loved. I walked into the hall and saw my picture along with my sister moms and many great friends who had received their "YW Medallion." My brother's pictures were all listed with those that had earned their Eagles. I went upstairs to see my old YW room where many amazing lessons were taught there. I remember playing the piano on the small keyboard. Driving home I looked over to John Muir (the Junior High) Field and saw the trees that Jared planted for this Eagle Project. So many amazing memories!!! I will never be back to show my kids where I was raised or be able to tell them of the great experiences I had. I wanted to make sure to drive past my High School one last time. It looked similar, but after 18 years it definitely had some changes.
By the time Saturday night came, we had probably packed up about 60-65% of their house. It was such an awesome feeling to have. When talking with my parents later, they told me that they actually thought that we would be working on the garage the whole time we were in Corcoran and not even get to anything in the house - boy we showed them wrong :).
The next morning we headed home very early. The fog was so thick when we left Corcoran. We were a little bit crazy to even attempt to leave, but knew that if we drove slowly we would be fine. Once we hit 43 it started clearing up. Orange orchards, cotton fields, dairies, windmills - all of these things that we started passing that started to bring up floods of memories. I started getting very emotional while driving home. I was sad to be leaving this chapter of my life behind, but am so very excited to begin a new one with my parents living in Utah. Cannot wait to spend more weekends together and being able to drop by any time to say "Hello."
Bradley was cracking me up in Mohave. He wanted to sit at a table all by himself and just stared out the window for about 20 minutes while eating his shake.
Our junk pile that eventually almost all disappeared.
Carter my "Dumpster Diver"
2 comments:
You guys are amazing. They could not have done it without you guys.
Rodney Sherwood and Brent Halverstadt. Also, Robin Feldmann's two boys are on there, I think you used to babysit them, I did at least. Also, Chad Halverstadt. It is awesome that each of us are on there except for Dad since he already received his eagle. Corcoran was such a growing time for our family. When we went back I was real emotional also and I took the same pictures of this wall. When I was in the building it was like I was a celebrity because some girls came up to me and said, hey you are on the wall. :)
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