We’re here!  And aside from the endless task of ripping off packing tape and opening boxes and disposing of newspaper and bubble wrap while taking out objects and deciding where to put them, we couldn’t be happier.  The three of us little New Yorkers don’t quite know what to do with ourselves in this gigantic house and enormous back yard, side yard and front yard.  The first couple of days Huck and I could be found wandering around trying to figure out where we were exactly.  Troy most of the time wears his swim suit and goes from yard to garage to yard to garage doing lots of important man-work.  We have bird feeders and bird baths and our hammock is hung and there’s lawn furniture everywhere you look.  The weather has been in the 70s and low 80s and downright chilly in the mornings and nights.  Neighbors have introduced their nice selves with cookie deliveries and new friends have brought over wine and beer and homemade granola bars.  Our special friends Bob and Amy left us flowers on our mantle, gave us a membership to the Mount Sequoyah swimming pool and have loaned us their car for the month.  Our landlady Stacey left us a fire pit on our back patio with the makings for S’mores and a love letter to Huck.  We’ve even found letters and gifts in our mailbox.  A deer came by and visited yesterday morning.

If this is a dream, may we stay asleep forever.  (And may Mr. Sandman finish unpacking for us.)

Here’s a picture journal of the last few days …

Special Firefly U-Haul Truck

Huck & Kadin helping load the truck

Once the truck was loaded, Troy ran over a pipe and blew a tire.  Mr. Delroy fixed it right up!

Saying goodbye to the Houck-Loomi Family (who both helped load our truck AND hung out with Huck all day)

Cheers to NYC!

Last pic of the beautiful river & GW Bridge

Last night in our mostly empty apartment with brother in-law N8, who flew in from Illinois for the occasion

Truckers ready for their 20 hour drive!

Goodbye 143 Bennett Avenue and our Magic Tree!

Flying to Arkansas

Aunt Tina, Uncle Scott, cousins Jackson and Rylee came from Wichita to help unload the truck!

Troy & Nathan arrive on Rebecca Street!

Our unloading crew

First night cookout!

Fire pit fun

Happiness!

Building IKEA furniture

Lake Fayetteville

Thankful for our Home Depot gift card!

Troy’s beloved push mower

My beloved deck

My beloveds!

On the first official day of Summer Vacation, which also happened to be 3 days before departure, we took a break from all things moving and spent the day saying goodbye to Coney Island and that beautiful Atlantic Ocean instead!

On the last day of 2nd grade, Huck’s class surprised him with a little going away party.  Each child went around the circle and said what they would miss about him, and then his teacher Ellen presented him with a book of goodbye letters written by each student.  Principal Camille gathered the children around and read a beautiful book called “To Everything There Is a Season” before giving it to our family with a heartfelt inscription inside.  Something about always being from Muscota and always turning the world around.  During the final Town Meeting of the school year a couple days before, all of us leaving Muscota stood in a circle while everyone sang “Goodbye My Friend” to us.  In summary, Mama had a good cry.

Then Huck and I had one last afternoon at our beloved Hall of Science museum, followed by Troy’s last play group on the lawn of the church.  Little children gave him home made cards and grown-ups gave him gifts and hugs and well wishes.  The whole beautiful thing reminded me of Harry Bailey in It’s a Wonderful Life when he says, “A toast to my big brother George: The richest man in town.”

Friends who have left New York over the past few years have warned us that Right Now is the hardest part, the last couple weeks packing and preparing and goodbyeing.  ”You’re in the belly of the beast,” one friend wrote.  ”Keep your eye on the prize.”  My best friend Shannon gave me a book called “Leaving New York” a whole year ago, because she knows me so well. The book is full of essays by writers who once lived here until they didn’t anymore.  Turns out it’s not the easiest place in the world to leave.

Two days ago on Friday, Troy and I joined the other moms and dads for Muscota’s final Family Breakfast of the year. There were lots of “if I don’t see you again” hugs and well-wishes in the midst of bigger conversations looking ahead to the next year without us.  At the end we kissed our second grader and began a goodbye tour of our own.  We walked by our first apartment on Riverside Drive, around the corner from Huck’s school, and briefly saw it all through our 1997 eyes. We made our way over to the Hudson River and found our old spot on the rocks where Max and Molly used to spend Saturday afternoons playing.  Though it’s been 3-1/2 years since Max died, we had yet to do anything with his ashes and decided now was the time, since New York was Max’s town.  So through tears and happy memories we spread them into the river at the same spot we left Molly so many years ago.

Next I joined our fave friend Shana for the last thing on my NYC bucket list: the Tenement Museum.  Together we left the beautiful June afternoon to enter the Hard Times Tour, and I decided that was a good name for what these last few weeks have felt like.

The day ended with a Goodbye picnic at the beautiful Castle Village lawn overlooking the river and the G.W. Bridge with some of our closest neighborhood friends. These are people we met when our now 8 year olds were little babies, so our friendships grew during some of the most precious (and sleep deprived) days of our lives.

And then came Saturday and our last New York Hurrah with “The Ballad of Rusty and Roy.”  In her curtain speech, director Shana called it our Farewell Tour. Through a strange fluke of goodness, a wonderful theatre called The Barrow Group gave us a staged reading in their little studio theatre. While Huck hung out with his pal Olive, we spent the afternoon with Shana and Dusty working on the new version (mostly created down in Fayetteville last year) before sharing it with quite possibly the best audience ever assembled.  There were many special people in the room, including a few we hadn’t seen in over a decade, some we see all the time, and even three Fayetteville friends to make the evening extra magical.  Afterwards we gathered at a nearby pub for more laughter and conversation and tears and hugs. Good Times and Hard Times all rolled into one.

And finally, this morning we said goodbye to the Fort Washington Collegiate Church, our second home for nearly 15 years!  And in a beautiful stroke of irony, I watched Huck bond with Troy’s wonderful replacement Janna as they told each other complex riddles and giggles throughout lunch.  I think we would have all been really good friends.

Lord have mercy.

My sister Jeni requested less sadness and more happy, so I’ll leave with pictures of joyful celebrations we’ve shared with special friends over the last few weeks.   But first, here’s my favorite thing I packed up from my humble little office at the church last week, proof that no matter how obviously important you are to someone, it’s always nice to hear it.

In New York, we have 2.5 days left of the school year before summer officially begins.  (And because in Fayetteville the last day of school was May 31st and the first day of school is August 19th, this means Huck is about to enjoy the shortest summer ever.)  Here are pictures from the many end-of-school-year festivities at our beloved Muscota, a hard place to say goodbye to.  (Thankfully we don’t have to for 2.5 days.)

Second Grade field trip to the Whitney Art Museum and Central Park

Honey Bee & Lady Bug

Muscota Museum of Art (MuMa) – Here’s Huck with his buyer (and dear friend) Mahlet

Muscota Spring Gala – Troy was the auctioneer and helped raise around $10,000 for the school!

Muscota’s wonderful principal Camille

Mahlet really is quite the art collector!  Here she is with a 2nd grade class painting of Manhattan.

Huck was the happy recipient of teacher Dayna’s special DRAMA KIT, thanks to his mother’s ruthless silent bidding skills.

Mini Mall – with cousin Lily!

Walking across the Brooklyn Bridge with Lady Bug and pointing out NYC landmarks they’ve studied

Second graders and the Brooklyn Bridge

Ellen’s 2nd Grade Original Play, “NYC Landmark Battle”

Click here to see part of the play

Field Day

Click here to see Huck run the obstacle course

Take Your Parent to Lunch Day

Goodbye to Lady Bug (who left the school year early for a family vacation)

Today’s Final Family Breakfast

And something I don’t have pictures of (because I’ve never witnessed it) is Huck’s short career as a Cheetah mascot for the girls’ recess basketball team over the last couple of months.  Oh, Muscota.  You’re adorable!

Sometimes it’s hard to know what Huck really thinks about leaving New York.  Kids are like loyal dogs; they just want to be with their pack.  Other than the bleeding dancer analogy (see previous blog), the only sign that he’s on the brink of total psychosis is when I accidentally mention a piece of furniture we’re leaving behind.  It all began a few weeks ago when I was tucking him in and casually mentioned that we’re getting him a new bed for his new room.  Through his cry-voice I vaguely made out the following words: “How can I not be upset when you’re basically telling me I won’t have a pillow top mattress anymore?!!!!”  This taught me two lessons right away: 1) the #1 rule of being a parent is to never mention anything with anger potential right before bedtime, and 2) perhaps we overdid all the pillow-top mattress talk. Then a few days ago I announced that we were getting rid of our big old wonderful half-broken couch.  Huck cried and cried most of the way home from school and said something that sounded like: “Why can’t I at least be a part of these decisions?” followed by “Now you’re probably going to tell me you’re getting rid of those dark couch pillows that I love!!!”

Er, uh … hey, let’s talk about the square root of something!

Last Sunday a guest preacher at our church gave a beautiful sermon written specifically for our congregation as we go through change after change after change.  We’re about to go, our head pastor Charlie’s about to retire, and the building is in the beginning stages of a massive renovation.  He said that often with Change comes Loss, and with Loss come Tears, but according to one of the Psalms, joy comes in the morning.  Now I’ve never been much of a morning person, so I’m not sure I would ever use the word “joy” to describe it, but it did get me thinking. These days we go from one goodbye celebration to the next as we hug and reminisce and make plans for letter-writing and visits.  And while Huck’s fears of changes & loss have taken the form of a really comfortable mattress & couch, joy is always around the corner.  When he wakes up in the morning he’s not dwelling on the furniture and landmarks and friends he won’t see anymore. Instead he’s back to his zen child self, enjoying the here and now and secretly reminding his parents to do the same.

‘Cause I’m going to miss that ol’ couch, too.

Tonight while tucking Huck into bed he told me that his BFF Forever and Ever is leaving the school year a few weeks early for a family vacation, which means that Lady Bug & Honeybee (as they call each other) and Oreo and Huckleberry (as they also call each other) will officially part ways on June 14th.  He then began exclaiming how excited he was for the last day of school and how excited he was for our move until he had the sudden realization that he is NOT READY TO LEAVE NEW YORK!  And then he was back to being SO EXCITED FOR FAYETTEVILLE!  BUT NOT READY TO LEAVE NEW YORK!  BUT SO EXCITED!  BUT NOT READY!  And back and forth and back and forth in a 50% entertaining, 50% disturbing routine of split personality.  It reminded me of the time a few weeks ago in Arkansas when he happily said, “I can’t wait to move here!  I just wish we weren’t leaving behind everything I’ve ever known!”

But back to this night.  I interrupted his dynamic monologue and suggested that perchance he’s feeling torn.  He shouted, “Yes!  I’m like a person who dances even though I’m bleeding because I’ve been cut in half!”

Um, okay.  That does explain this picture a little bit.

Last weekend we rented a car and a big house in the Poconos Mountains and spent three days and nights in Pennsylvania with Aunt Jeni & cousin Lily from Illinois and special friends Shannon & Greg from Texas.  Other close friends joined us for a break from the city that included cozy fires, amazing cooking, walks and runs near the lake, a hike near some waterfalls, hot tubbing, hammocking, spiral staircase injuries, games of pool and foosball and the usual amount of singalongs.  It was a sort of Goodbye to All That celebration for we 3 Schremmers and the 2 Sharmans (moving to California in a few weeks), and also for our oft travelers to NYC who no longer have such a good excuse to come visit.

And it was a great reminder to us all that as long as you put a little effort into it, dear friends & family will stay in your life no matter where you each live.  (Please come visit us!)

I said I never wanted to get married, but then I met Troy.  I said I never wanted to have children, but then I met Huck.                 I said I never wanted to leave New York, but then I met Fayetteville!

I say a lot of things.  But truly, if ever there was a time when everything came together for the three of us, it was last week.  There was a teeny tiny part of me a little terrified that maybe we’d romanticized this place over the last year, but instead it felt even more delightful than we’d remembered. Huck was flabbergasted by all the green, challenging us to find some green-less spot somewhere, anywhere. Impossible! We spent the week at our friends Bob & Amy’s beautiful Mount Sequoyah home, just a little walk away from where we’ll be living. Our days were spent driving around various neighborhoods with the windows down, discovering new spots and remembering familiar ones.  We played at Lake Fayetteville and Gulley Park and Wilson Park, and Huck fell in love with all the creeks.  We took lots of walks up Mount Sequoyah, and in the woods we found a lucky horseshoe hanging from a tree which we took home with us. We hung out at the Fayetteville Public Library, whose terrace has an incredible view, and we walked around the town square. We experienced beautiful spring and chilly fall and an incredible thunderstorm.  We saw “Next to Normal” at TheatreSquared and “The Little Mermaid” at Arts Live Theatre, where I will be teaching drama camps this summer.  We spent an afternoon at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and another one at the Botanical Garden of the Ozarks. We even checked out what will be our new and improved Target and Chuck E. Cheese, both offering refreshing culture shock to our New York City systems.  We met with theatre people and museum people and library people and shared ideas and history and jokes.  We ate out at amazing places, including Rick’s Bakery where they squirt the filling into the danishes right there in front of you. We saw deer, foxes, armadillos and salamanders. We visited St. Paul’s Episcopal Church and Huck’s new school Washington Elementary, both within walking distance of our house.  And speaking of our house, we drove (or walked) by it several times a day just to make sure we hadn’t imagined the whole beautiful thing.  And everywhere we went we experienced charming southern hospitality, always treated as if we were something special.  All of this we could get used to.

Huck’s main mode of transportation became a happy skip with arms flailing and mouth humming, and he got very good at taking over those mountain roads until a car could be heard slowly drawing near. One of the highlights of his life so far was sorting Amy’s thousands upon thousands of seashells and then having a Shell Cleaning Party on the back deck with the hose and a brand new bucket purchased for the occasion. And then there was Prego the cat, Huck’s favorite animal of all time. He may be leaving a lot of friends behind here in New York, but he’s sure got some great ones waiting for him in Arkansas.

And that swing set, too.

The Fayetteville Public Library

Downtown Bentonville

Mount Sequoyah Woods

Washington Elementary school yard

Crystal Bridges Museum

Crystal Bridges walking trails

Botanical Garden of the Ozarks

Bob & Amy

Huck’s special friend Prego

Shell Cleaning Party

Lake Fayetteville