Awhile back I made plans with my Mom to fly out to California to help her go through her house for her move (across town) and to set up a garage sale. My parents moved to this house in the summer of 1986 when I was 4 years old. I vaguely remember the first house we lived in in Yuba City (on Bridge Street) but this house was my childhood home. It is a large house with two attics, more closets than I care to count and 30 years of memories and things. Most people who know me know that I love to organize spaces and and am pretty good at throwing things away. As my Mom and I talked about me coming out my biggest request was that she have a dumpster ready. The house she is buying is 1840 square feet. The Green Valley Road house is over 3000. I did my best to remember that these are important memories to my Mom and was impressed by what a good sport she was. I have three siblings who live in or within an hour of Yuba City so I knew I would see them and my sister Susanna drove out from Idaho to help out too. It was really nice to have time with them at this house. When we went out to YC for my Dad's funeral last summer I knew that the next time I came would be the last time it was to this house/neighborhood. It will be really strange to go to Yuba City and not stay there.
I arrived in California late Thursday night and the next morning I got up and went on a walk around the "neighborhood." I first walked down to Smith Road which is about a half mile away. Davin, Susanna and I used to ride our bikes down there a lot in the summer and play in the ditch. We would catch tadpoles and straddle the tunnels to walk through them. We were totally trespassing but didn't think anything of it. Right now they have a lot more water in them but in the summer the water level went down and we loved being there.
Then I walked through the subdivision next to their house where I liked to go jogging in high school and stopped by Davin and Tara's house to say hi. The weather was so cool and fresh and it was a lovely reflective time. That walk was one of my top three things of this trip. I had a really lovely childhood. I clearly remember unhappy times but over all it was such a great place to grow up. My parents loved me, I was always safe and all my needs were taken care of. When I finished my walk I sat down on the front porch and just looked out over the yard. So many memories.
After that my Mom and I cleaned out some closets. While we were cleaning out one closet out I came across some yellow and lavender silverware. I looked at them and then looked at my Mom and said, "are these what I think they are?" They were, it was the cute silverware bundles she made for my wedding reception, almost 14 years ago! It was so funny. We finished up and then headed into town. We first stopped at the Cookie Tree for treats for the week and then headed to In-N-Out Burger. This In-N-Out was actually built a few years after I left Yuba City so it was not a childhood memory but since they don't have them out East I'm really glad there is one there now. What was there from my childhood were the chickens. For as long as I can remember there have been chickens wandering around the major highway and commercial zone in Yuba City. We used to drive down 99 and see them on the West side of the Highway. They didn't really cross over it but were always there by restaurants, grocery stores and business. Its so random. I was happy to see them still pecking around. After lunch we went to Raleys for groceries. I loved going grocery shopping with my Mom growing up. Then I could make specific requests and was more likely to get them! The same thing happened that day.
Once we got home my sister Katie and I started getting things organized for the garage sale. After we worked for awhile I went to the spare room and brought out my wedding dress. My Mom has been keeping it and 3 other wedding dresses at her house for the last 15+ years. Hers, mine and both my sisters dresses have been in one of the closets in her house over the years. I knew it was there and had decided that I would bring it back with me. Since I found the silverware I decided a photo shoot was in order. Mark and I had our reception in their backyard so it was prefect. I sadly could not get my dress to zip up all the way but I'm good with it. It was such a pretty dress. I need to get it dry cleaned but don't think I want to get it in a special box, I want Lydia to play in it and maybe occasionally try it on myself! My bouquet was lovely.
Susanna arrived early Saturday morning. It was awesome that she was willing to rearrange her schedule and come see us and help out. My Dad hated the idea of a garage sale and they never had one at their house in all the years they lived there. Susanna said she did not want to miss the one sale there and wanted to go shopping at it too. As soon as it was over we started filling up the dumpster with things that didn't sell and we didn't plan to donate. Once the garage sale was cleaned up Susanna, Derek, Davin and I went up into the attic in the garage and started cleaning it out. None of us had been in there for years and didn't know what would find. The best find was my Dad's sombrero from his mission in Mexico circa 1971. I wish I could have brought it home with me. My sister Susanna is super creative and one thing she wanted to take home was the piano. She is very musical and spent countless hours teaching herself how to play the piano with it. So she looked up videos online on how to take apart pianos and then did it! This was after I left Sunday but she did it and loaded it up in her truck and drove it to Idaho! She is going to reassemble it and make it a planter!
I never learned how to play the piano growing up and was jealous of how much time my sister spent with it and how much satisfaction it brought her. I was really happy when I went home last summer and could finally play this piano. I made sure to play it some before she took it apart. The silly thing is if I expressed any interest to play my Mom would have made it happen but I was too afraid I would be bad at it. I'm so glad I am learning now.
My brother Derek went home to Sacramento after we finished the garage attic and Susanna, Davin and I cleaned out the inside attic. I loved playing in this attic growing up. I would take books, coloring sheets, stuffed animals and toys up there and play in it frequently. My favorite was when it was raining outside. I loved hearing the rain on the roof and feeling so close to it. My Dad didn't love this for various reasons so I mostly did it when he was gone for the day. I was surprised when I climbed up there and saw how much stuff was up there. It was well over 50 boxes! I thought I only had 3 boxes up there that I put up after my first years of college but apparently my Dad went through our rooms when we were gone for good and boxed and bagged everything and put it up there. So I had some fun surprises to go through. Like my whole (awful) high school wardrobe was in a bag up there! There were books and a few toys that I was really happy to find and had wondered what had happened to them. Most stuff ended up in the dumpster or in the donation pile but I did bring back a suitcase full and my Mom is mailing box to me.
These pictures aren't even all the boxes! I definitely got my love of holidays and decorating for them from my Mom. She had over 15 boxes of just Christmas decorations!
After Davin went home Susanna and I made a second run to GoodWill. I had gone after the garage sale and then we went together. I was so happy to get to spend time with them all. That night Susanna and I brought box after box to my Mom to have her go though. She was such a good sport!
The next day was Sunday. My mom and I had planned to go to church but instead went on a picnic with Tara and her sweet girls. Susanna and I wanted to get a run in together while we were in Yuba City and Sunday ended up being the day. We ran to the park, 4.8 miles away from my Mom's house and it was a great run. I had never run through Yuba City like that and loved doing it with Susanna. We stopped by my favorite yogurt place on the way back. My friends and I used to go here for lunch in high school. Super healthy right? When we got to California Yogurt I noticed it had a for sale sign on the window. I sent a picture to Mark seeing if he was interested in buying it but no dice.
After yogurt we went home and packed up as much of the kitchen as we could. We went through some more bookshelves and regular shelves in her home, packing up as much as we could. Both Susanna and I will not be there to help our other siblings pack up and move my Mom so we really wanted to get as much done as we could. I do love organizing and cleaning out things and am really grateful I could go out. We actually all went with my Mom to check out her new house (It was really nice of the agents to let us) and I know she will really love being there.
The last thing I wanted to do on this trip was see my Dad's headstone. I hadn't seen it yet and drove out to the cemetery by myself. Its a beautiful drive especially at this time of year. My Mom talked about coming with me but I really wanted to go by myself. I miss him. It makes me sad and a little mad that we didn't get more time, that Jared and Lydia didn't get to spend much time with him at all. I'm so grateful they at least got some time with him and am so thankful for the love and support he always gave me. One other item I found in the attic was the Book Of Mormon my parents gave me when I got baptized. In it he had written a note to me and I loved seeing his handwriting and feeing his love for me.
It was a beautiful California Spring day. Some of the trees had already changed from flowers to leaves but I was grateful to see some orchards full of flowering trees. I felt a lot of emotions seeing his headstone and seeing my Mom's name on it too! I'm grateful for my parents and their love and support. I'm glad that my Mom is staying in Yuba City even though I would love to have her come live in Virginia. It was really great to be able to go out and help and spend some one last weekend at Green Valley Road.
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