The Almost Empty Nest

...We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming of the California Adventure Chronicles to bring you something more current....

This being the last week before college starts for both kids, and therefore my first tentative toe-dip into the Almost Empty Nest, I just wanted to keep up with current happenings....     OK, yeah you're right...     there IS more to it than that... I'm actually convincing myself that just because life as I know it will be changing, there will be interesting things to do....                there WILL be interesting things to do...                there WILL be interesting things to do, there WILL, there WILL...

OK, so the first thing that comes to mind is that Downtown Dad, with his genealogy hat on, found me a brand new cousin on my mother's Hinkley side.  This is a set of relatives I never even knew existed, and weirder still, who were all over the Iowa community we left 11 years ago.  This new cousin also  has a whole album of old pictures like this one of the grandfather I never met.

We are going to DD's high school reunion in September which just happens to be in Iowa.  Maybe we can make this visit like our California Adventure, meeting up with a newfound, or long-lost friend or relative every day!

The dining room is "packing central" as Bearly prepares to leave for American University at the end of this week.

  

See, there's a positive... I'll have my dining room back!  Not that we'd use it for meals again, I mean really, all people ever use dining room tables for is to stack stuff, right?  Do you think Hoarders is casting?  OK, not funny... well kinda funny.  I could get out my sewing machine, and crafts I used to work on before the kids came along... do people still do Cross Stitch?

Tessie is in full preparation mode to start orientation at MSUM this coming week....she even cleaned her room! She will be getting her new college laptop soon, which means I get the full use of my computer back! 

We will be minus one car in the parking lot driveway next week, when Bobby's car returns to its rightful owner.  Which means I can finally park in the garage if I want to!

I uploaded the posts from my former blog into this one, because I was afraid it would go away and I'd lose all those years of writing - some of which was really good (yes, and some of which was really, really bad).  I had a great time going over the comments on some of the old posts and bookmarking some blogs I've been missing!  This has the potential for being really good, :)  or really bad :(  I remember how much time I used to spend reading and commenting on blogs - yikes! But, on the other hand, that really does increase readership :)  and I've been thinking I'd like to build up a genre of bloggers - like "mommybloggers" only older, AARP-ier, Empty Nest-ier, without that "boring old lady" connotation.  I just need to come up with a creative, fun sounding word to describe whatever that is.  Any suggestions?

We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming... where DD and I drink and drive - before 10am; where the Blog-world and the Real-world collide; and where DD gets a taste of the REAL historic Santa Barbara - and tri-tip sandwiches!