"I'd be so happy for you if you lived there someday"

So, a few weeks ago I had a fleeting moment of being a lot like my Mother (ok...so I have a lot of those moments), and I thought, "I wish something exciting would happen."  And then a lot of things happened all at once (isn't that always the way?).  Some exciting, some not so exciting, but life suddenly became very busy.

It all started when we finally sold our house, and consequently became very busy with planning to build a new house.  Building a new house is very exciting, but it is frustrating and stressful at the same time.  Over the past couple of weeks, we've been packing up our lives here in Douglas, and I'm suddenly feeling a bit sentimental.  It's kind of sad leaving our house.  This house, after all, is the site of many memories, such as the evolution of my relationship with Mike.

I clearly remember the first time I saw this house.  It was almost 5 years ago when my mother had her eye on Mike as a potential husband for me.  She had attempted to set me up with people several times before, and it was usually disastrous (sorry Mom).  One day she had me captive in the car, and said, "I just want to show you Mike's house."  There was nothing I could do to stop her at that point, so off we went.  As we drove by I had to agree that this Mike Jones did indeed have a very nice home, while also saying things like, "Yes, Mom, I'm sure he's a very nice guy. Yes, you've told me how ambitious he is. Yup, you mentioned how nice his family is, etc."  Then she said those memorable words, "I'd be so happy for you if you lived there someday."  Of course my reaction was a scoff, followed by something like, "I don't think that'll ever happen."

As it turned out, my mother's matchmaking abilities were better than I thought, and I did get to live in this house...and my parents were not just happy for me, they were overjoyed.  I remember visiting here for the first time, accompanied by lots of that "new relationship" awkwardness.  On Mike's 31st birthday he proposed to me here.  We renovated together, and made this house our own.  And then we created many wonderful memories together, and also with our friends and family.  My Nana only got to visit our house once, as she became ill just before we got married.  But I will never forget that one visit, and how excited she was to finally see our house (she thought it was beau-tee-ful).

So now I'm going to get back to my packing and try not to be too sad about leaving our first house together.  Because I'm so excited about the future.  And I'm also kind of wondering what prophetic words my mother will say when she sees our next house...Either way, I'm sure she'll be very happy for me that I get to live there.