It's Official...

...The kids grew up and appear to have moved out.

My husband and I look at each other and say, "How did that happen so fast? We weren't done!" But apparently they were-- college diplomas in hand, dreams in their heads, hope in their hearts. Oh, they'll be back...to visit. A lot.

Our daughter casually comments that it's okay if we want to turn her room into "something else." Like what? Something other than the shrine to her childhood that we have lovingly maintained?! I guess when she left for college on the east coast 7 years ago and then stayed after graduation for work---and now graduate school--- well, I guess we should have caught on that things had changed. We are very good at denial.

But now the younger one, the baby, for heaven's sake, has graduated from college as well and has stayed there, in another state. Actually, he did come home for a bit...to pack up the car with his living essentials (you know- the computers, RockBand, an aquarium, and many household accessories and appliances that I cannot at this point in time identify, but I'm sure we'll discover them missing before too long.) Then his room was---well, not empty but at least shaken down to the remants of a little boy's journey growing up. And I can't imagine ever taking down that spaceman wallpaper.

So here we are.

The first thing to do is obvious. It is time for a road trip! No schedules, no responsibilities, no one to think about but the two of us and our freedom from tuition bills, noise, piles of laundry, disappearing groceries....

"So where should we go?"
"Let's visit the kids."

Like I said, we are very good at denial.