I Have An Empty Nest

I have an empty nest. Though 5 years apart in age my two girls have left the state to go to college with each other together. Our house has NEVER been this empty. It has never been just Rodger and me... even after we were first married.

We spent our wedding night in the hospital because Rodger had a kidney stone attack on the day of the wedding.  He bravely made it through the ceremony but we ended up taking the limo to the hospital.  The next week was spent at a friends house and then we soon ended up moving in with my parents in Washington state.  My oldest daughter was born while we were there.  When she was a year old we moved back to California and lived with my brother and his wife for a bit.    A short while later we moved next door to Rodger's mom and a little while after that she moved in with us. Then our youngest was born.

Rodger and I have never lived alone with just each other before...now.

When the kids were young, Rodger and I took a weekend trip to the Redwoods.  We camped out in a borrowed tent trailer and took a day trip from the campground to the coast.  It was just us... I told Rodger then that I felt like... well... like a kid.  We did silly things... like chase little hermit crabs that were stranded in shallow tide pools. We weren't mean to them...we just kind of made them run around.  We looked for shells and skipped rocks.  We went to Glass Beach and sat for hours, playing with the smooth glass beads on the beach or digging in the sand to find long buried treasures that were more junk then treasure.   When we walked along the trails back at the Redwoods we stopped and read each and every tourist info sign at each of the points of interest without hurrying.  It was cold and we didn't worry about catching a cold. We skipped meals or ate really late... laid around in bed when we first woke up instead of getting up and starting the day. We weren't concerned with nutrition or vitamins,  or about staying up too late or anything... that a responsible PARENT person would be.  Do you know what I mean?  

 

During that short weekend years ago we experienced the together time...the getting to know each other as a married couple time... that we had missed when we first got married.   It's not like we forgot about our kids, or wished we weren't parents.. Not at all!   But it was different... we were revealing other layers of ourselves to each other. Persona's of ourselves that we almost forgot were there. Those aspects of our personality we had covered up with the "parent" personality.

We love our girls. They are all grown up.  They're doing great. They are both happy and... busy.  I was sure we would be talking or Skyping with them everyday... but it's not happening like I thought.  And... it's OK.   Now Rodg and I are back in that place again ...except this time we have more then a weekend.  I wonder what surprises await us.