What! Leaving Them Behind~?

Hello, Hello, Hello!!!

First and foremost!!!  How does everyone like my new header???    The ‘empty nest’ photograph is taken by my dear friend Debbie Leonhardt!  Isn’t it beautiful!?   This will be my permanent ‘logo’ ..if you will.   Debbie is a wonderful photographer and I am trying to talk her into being a guest blogger for Marmie’s Empty Nest!  I know you would enjoy her

I personally feel the photo symbolizes how I feel now that my children have flown the nest!  Empty and vacant.  I love how the seasons carry on,  with the yellow leaves having blown into the vacant home of some lovely creatures.  Some day it will be filled with the pureness of freshly fallen snow.  Yes… life goes on.

It is super fan-tab-ulous that you are back for a visit!  Welcome to you who are visiting for the first time.  I hope you like it here and visit often~Thanks!!

Today I was feeling a bit confused …  Ah,  Heck I have felt like this for a lot of days!  I am not sure what to do first!  Running around like a headless chicken…

Planning and Worrying. Worrying and Planning.

My hubby and I are off to Hawaii…alone!  Well not totally alone.. but no children!  Oh My Good Grief!  ‘No Children’  I had to say that 10 times to have it sink in…  I just had to.

We are preparing for our trip in 5 more sleeps!!  Count ‘em!  That is one, two, three, four, five.   Five more sleeps!!  Holey Moley!!  I have honestly been counting down the days since we booked the trip in January this year!   I am beside myself!  I am nauseously excited!  not cautiously….but Nauseously excited… and I have no idea why or where that is coming from. Well, c’mon of course I know where it ‘comes from’  but not why.  I hope this passes.

Jerry keeps telling me that I need to flex my travel wings and that this trip is seriously just a learning curve!  Okay, I think I have enough learning curves on the go for now!  ie: empty nest, blogging, not working outside the home… I am already on overload. 

So much to do before I leave… Laundry done?.. check. House clean? ..check.  Yard fall cleaned?  Nope..(hoping EJ will do it out of boredom, since he is in the business?) Bills paid?…check.  Fridge stocked?…  Check.  Passport?…Check.  Hair done?…check.  Waxing done?  ouch!…Pedicures?… oh ya.. done!  House Sitter?.. Check. (EJ)   Pre-tan? Nope.. no time!  Sunscreen?  ‘course, because I didn’t pre-tan!   Oh bother…  this could be painful!

I have never really been on a trip without my kids… and never so big a trip as this!  well in all honesty this is my first trip anywhere of real interest!

Sure we’ve gone on road trips and camping and such.  We’ve had a blast!  I’ve gone on the occasional woman’s or Mommie’s retreat.  But this is different…its far away!  It’s warm.  It’s away from all that is secure and comfortable… away from my normal…  not sure how I feel about that part…  Now I am leaving my nest… even though it’s only for a short time.

My gal friend and I planned that we would go this month, already two years ago….  for our “big” birthday celebrations!  ;(  Mine is ‘bigger’ than hers.

Oh well, we are going for a week to Maui with some dear friends.  What more could we ask?  After that, hubby and I will be on our own for 2 more weeks in Oahu…  What on earth will we talk about!!!  No distraction and no kids…  (I’m sure we will just have to find ‘something’ to amuse us…)

Hmm.. I guess I should look at this as Snow Bird rehearsal perhaps?  Now THAT would be the life!  (or so I hear)

There is so much I want to see in Hawaii and have decided that an itenary is essential.  I have been fed with a lot of information on what to see and where to go, I don’t want to run out of time and feel that I’ve missed out on something ‘important’   hee hee..  I am dying to go to the swap meet in Maui.. lol  Can you believe that?  I love farmers markets, and craft shows and the like and am flying all the way to Hawaii and the thing that is exciting me is a swap meet?  Oh brother… how lame.

Teddy, Cassie and Beau

My furry babies..(toy poodles) will miss me and I them…  I should tell you about those goofs some time

My crazies!!!

I am sure that our human children  (haha ‘children’) will be fine.  How daft is it that I am concerned for them?  They are grown up now.  I will miss my weekly call from my oldest son, and my oldest daughter is so far away already that it won’t be much of a different kind of longing for her. The other two are so settled that they will hardly notice us gone… boo hoo!  Daughter Dree is pretty sick right now with bronchitis and has been for over a month now, I know that is going to bug me.  I hope she improves before I leave…gah!

Thankfully my youngest son is staying here at the farm to look after things… Whew.

****I am not indispensable…I am not indispensable and the whole world does not revolve around me… They will survive… Yes they will survive!***

So will I.  Yes, so will I.

On a lighter note…

What to pack… (less is more I understand.. thanks Debbie)  A toothbrush, bathing suit, sunscreen, and a debit card!  I do plan on using the small suitcase and putting that in the big suitcase, so that….  (I bet you know what I’m going to tell you next..;))  I can fill the big one up to come home with !! Yup!  Diabolical, I know!  Yee Haw!  Way too fun!

I know there are packing tips out there… putting ladies shoes inside of men’s shoes.  Rolling clothes to control the wrinkles.  (seriously, I can’t see how rolling and scrunching reduces wrinkles).  I like to think it helps to make room for more stuff coming home though   That is a language I understand.  I will certainly need packing tips for the trip home!

How ’bout this?  A ziplock freezer bag to bring some sand home!   Love it Debbie!  Though if I brought as much sand home as I’d really like, I am not sure the plane would get off the ground.  Perhaps the ziplock is the way to go, not sure I could afford the over weight charges ;~/

I know what I will be sharing in my next visit together with you!  I can’t wait to tell you about all the fun this ‘ol empty nester is going to have.

Feel free to ‘like’ me and add me as a friend on my Face Book Page

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Marmies-Empty-Nest/254145077952801

(sadly you will need to cut and paste the link.. I’m working on it)  thank you for your patience!

Aloha,

Marmie