*looks around*

Hello?

It's been a while, no?

Even though I usually don't care to read why people have been away from their blog, I somehow feel compelled to explain myself when I (yet again) don't post for a while.

Actually, I'm not sure I've ever gone this long in the 9 years I've been here...but, whatever.

So, tell me about yourself...how's your mama n' them doin'?

Me?

Oh, I've been here, and there.

Mostly getting a kid out of high school and signed up for college.

Yep, we have a high school graduate.

I had been dreading graduation and all that is signifies for the longest time.

How in the world did we get here? I remember specifics from her first day of kindergarten!

This is one of those freaky seems like "forever ago and yesterday all at once" moments that you just have to ponder, but in the end, everything was fine and it all somehow seems...right.

Perhaps it hasn't yet hit me that she won't be going back to the safety of high school with her father and brother each morning, I guess I'll have to wait until August to find out.

But, for now, high school is a memory, (I hope and pray a good one for her), and she's on the edge of something new and exciting.

She had a stressful spring full of college applications and decisions to make, and her hard work yielded excellent returns.

Even though the final outcome of the college search was a little...unexpected...things are going great, and she's looking forward to the fall.

However, things could be just perfect if the first 30,000 of you would be kind enough to leave a dollar. The rest of you can have a turn next year, don't push.

Thanks, you're the jiggiest.

In the meantime, we are in full on dorm furnishing and supplies mode.

Since she'll be living in a suite and we're starting from scratch, she'll need somewhat more than a few things.

It's been an interesting exercise reading message boards, etc. and trying to construct a comprehensive, yet not out of control, list of things to take and details to remember.

Yes, I know those of you with kids in college are laughing at me, and I'll laugh at me someday, too, but I want to make sure she's got a solid set of "stuff" to start out with since we have to do this all over again in 2 years with Busy Boy.

So, she's researching dorm room decorating ideas and I'm trying to figure out stuff like insurance, bank accounts and hotel reservations (haven't told her the part where our whole family is planning to stay in her room to save money ;) and I'll eventually realize my activities are overkill, but it keeps me distracted.

But, when I really think about it, I think we've been conditioned to treat a kid going to college for the first year as "leaving the nest for good", and at least for us, that's not quite the case at the moment.

Maybe I'm rationalizing, but she's going away to school for a few months (I will neither confirm nor deny that I refer to it as "school-camp" for my own sanity), and that's not the same as "leaving home" as her permanent residence remains here.

Despite her wishes to the contrary, I don't subscribe to the "she's 18 and on her own" theory,

Mostly because she's not 18, yet.

I don't care how old you are, in my house you're not "on your own" until you don't have to call me if you get arrested in the middle of the night.

So, for now, she's "going away to school", and I can handle that and "on her own" will come when the time is right.

Meanwhile, I fear that while she's at school, no one left here in the frat house will actually know where I am.

I could be missing for several days, and they'd be all, "Mom? Yeah, I think she's upstairs or something. Or, wait, I think she's at the grocery."

I almost said please check on me if you don't see me around, but given this last unintended hiatus, I guess I shouldn't.