A For Sale Sign and a Few Tears

     There's a For Sale sign in front of my house as of Friday.  It seems a little unreal which may sound strange to you since that's what I've been doing all this house work/projects for.  But seeing it actually out there is strange.  This is the only house I've ever owned and pretty much my entire adult life has been spent in this house.  Oh, don't get me wrong - I have no regrets and I am so excited about the new adventure which is "just around the bend" at this point.  But, it's only natural to look back on the life that has taken place in this house and do a little reminiscing, right?

The front of my lovely house

The back patio

I love my flower bed and pond

     It feels really good to know that I'm finally to this place.  I just hope I will find the right family who will love this house as much as I do and have for the past 41 years.  I wrote up a little article about the house and some of my favorite memories and made copies for the prospective buyers to read.  A book that I read about selling houses mentioned this idea and said it's a good way to have your house stand out from others that people might be viewing. 
     As I was writing it I must admit to a few tears.  Happy tears as I remembered some wonderful times of Andy growing up here and how much I have loved being in this house.  So that's where the tears came in.  I'm sure I will shed a few more over the next few months as it all becomes even more real and I will turn over the skeleton key to the front door to the new owners.  Yes, it still has a skeleton key lock!
     I mentioned in the house hand-out that I have a 27 year old hot tub and a 27 year old frog.  The hot tub will stay with the house, but not the frog!  Pretty soon Whiskers will be going to her new home with Jamie.  I cleaned her tank yesterday and so last night she "sang" to me.  I love that sound!
     I did manage to finally make it to the zoo this past week.  I was so tired of spreading bags of mulch and cleaning and weeding and so many other "little" things that had to be done to get the house ready to sell.  So one sunny morning I decided to go see "my babies".  I hadn't been there for 3 weeks and I was having withdrawal symptoms!  The lion cubs will be a year old next month.  That's so hard to believe!  They are still so beautiful, but not little any more.  They won't be full grown for another year at least so you can still tell they're the babies.  It's so fun to see the entire pride hanging out and interacting with each other.

The cubs hiding in the tall grass

Daddy Abuto and son Aslan on the highest rock

The beautiful Elsa

     We have a new silverback gorilla.  We lost our former silverback last fall when he died suddenly of an intestinal infection.  This new handsome guy, Goma, is still getting used to his new surroundings.  He came to us from the zoo in Buffalo, NY where he was with his brother.  This will be such a different home for him as he is slowly introduced to our 5 females and the toddler male.  I hope they will all get along.  I told the "girls" that they better be nice to Goma!

Poor Goma was so bored that day

     The next few weeks will have me busy getting all the paperwork together that I need to present to the French Consulate in LA on June 7.  There are 2 pages of the list of documents that I need to have!  And I have to have it all with me and exactly as they want or they can refuse my visa!  So, that makes me just a tad anxious . . .
     Andy came over for lunch today and we had some of his birthday cake.  He was in Morrison all last week working on a trail (that's NW of Denver) so he wasn't around for his birthday on Thursday.  When he walked in he said, "wow, the house looks empty!"   But he meant it in a good way.  There is no clutter in my house at the present and I shall attempt to keep it that way.  There was a showing yesterday and one this afternoon.  And hopefully more this week with perhaps some offers!  That would be awesome!
     Everything is coming together.  The journey is on track and I feel good about how things are going.  So many of you have offered such wonderful words of encouragement and praise for all the hard work that has gone on this past year and that has been so helpful!  Thank you all so much for taking the time to read my blog and for joining me on this journey that has me almost at France's door.  And then I hope you will stay with me as I tell you all about my life in the SW corner of what was once ancient Gascony and part of the ancient kingdom of Catalonia. 
     Merci!!