one year

It’s officially been one year since my parents and I packed up our lives at the home we moved to in 2005 and moved to Peoria.

It’s been a great year, and we’ve all loved not having a long commute. I’ve made a lot more connections in Peoria and it’s a lot easier to meet up with friends and family when you live closer to them.

All that to say, we are very happy, but I also sometimes miss that house in Lacon. I wouldn’t move back, but I appreciate what that house meant to us for all those years.

I love the hours I spent in the oak tree in the front yard, on my own, with my neighbor Ashley, in my hammock. The one time I got stuck and yelled down to a neighbor as he walked by. (It’s a great story if you ever want to hear it).

I love the living room. The old blue carpet that would collect the fur from our dog Chelsea when we moved there, and then the fur from our dog Hallie we got a few years later. That carpet you had to vacuum all the time just to try to make it look clean. All the time we spent as a family, playing twister and apples to apples and sorry. All the times my sister Katie and I would stuff pillows up our shirts and fun full force at each other from the opposite sides of the living room in a very clever game we called ‘Mr. Pillow Man’.

I love the backyard. The pond that wasn’t ours but I loved to go walk around it. The hill that, when covered in snow, we would sled down as many times as we could before our legs would give out as we climbed back up and finally made our way into the warmth of the house, kicking off our snowy boots that would leave a watery mess as the snow melted, throwing our gloves and hats in the dryer and grabbing a packet of hot cocoa to warm our insides.

The one time the snow had melted and refroze and we gained enough speed that we made it out onto the frozen pond. (!!!)

The backyard where I laid under the stars and cried dramatically after my first breakup (lol).

The backyard and hill where Hallie would run around as fast as she could, back when she was young and was made of endless energy.

The backyard where Chelsea is buried and the old peach tree was and where Dad and I would play catch with a softball.

Hallie and I took one last walk through our neighborhood and park

mirror selfie in my old room, which used to be Katie’s

the first time I saw this living room empty was when we moved in when I was 8, and I didn’t notice these shadows

 Hallie, walking in front of Mr. Cramer’s house

laying in the empty living room after everything was packed, reminiscing

There’s so much more I could say, but this will suffice. So many more moments that my parents, sister, and I share, that no one else might ever hear about. And that’s okay too.

Goodbye 920 Park Lane, thank you for all the memories and all the good times. Thanks for being the best place for me to live as an 8 year old all the way up to being a 22 year old. You have so much charm and live to give, and I hope that right families always find their way into your doors. It’s been a year since I left you, but I’ll always remember you.

Moral of the story: you can realize it’s time to move on, and you can move on, but you can still appreciate and even occasionally miss what you once had.