Last Night in the Gladie House

Right now I'm listening to greatness--- the clink of dishes clue me in that Megan is performing her sure to be record-setting dishwasher loading (she's proud of it), and Jessica is trying to recall guitar chords from our lessons two years ago. I'm listening to the sound of one of my favorite homes.

It occurred to me just a few moments ago that my very first memory in this house was coming over to watch the Olympics with old FLiC staff girls, the first Gladies that I knew. That memory is impressed on my mind--- roasting asparagus after a day at the Rec with Amanda and making some kind of casserole. Sean and Mark came over along with some other guys and turned on the men's gymnastics. It's funny how clear that memory is considering it was from four years ago.

Some of my equally excellent memories include:

• trying to play the guitar like August Rush with Natalie in the Gladie kitchen
• talking to Amanda about her trip to Indonesia
• Amy's bridal shower
• Mallory and Sean's engagement party
• making a fort with Sarah 
• trying to watch Miss Potter with Kristina twice, and failing because she fell asleep every time
• rearranging all the furniture much to Megan's consternation
• living in Anna and Angela's room during the bedbug incident
• youth bible studies with Aundria and Leondra
• cereal time every night at 10pm
• becoming the official House Mom of Gladies 2.0
• Merry Gladie Christmas and Thanksgiving parties with all our most beloved friends--- and friends that were willing to share how thankful they were for each other
• playing mafia/ murder in the dark--- Kevin tried to be both mafia and narrator 
• trampoline pranks on the roof
• Kevin hiding in the bookshelf during sardines; Ben hiding in the shower during sardines to get people in there before he turned it on
• Gladie house party being crashed by the police (we don't drink or do drugs, y'all)
• watching Angela try to use a can opener for a year #neverlearned
• when Allie (the dog) went and sat in the corner after Jess asked her if she's ever been in love
• Ben Jarvis's weekly visits #annabringstheatmosphere
• talking in Spanish with Anna for a several hours---our conversation was really random

There are so many other memories in this house that aren't half as amusing, but have been huge parts of these last few years, for all of us. There has been frustration, near-constant laughter, broken hearts, celebration and screaming of the best kind (it's complicated). There have been so many funny talks in this living room, and so many serious ones too. This is where life happened. It's been home. 

This is probably one of my least well written posts. But I'm tired. Moving takes it out of you people.

Parting thoughts: You can take the Gladies out of the house, but you can't take the house out of the Gladies. Does that even make sense? #bedtime