Do you hear that?

It's the sound of quiet.  Not absolute quite, I can her the whir of the fan keeping me cool in this scorching weather, the washing machine swishing back and forth, and Chewy the not dead dog snoring on the floor at my feet.

25 days without the girls.  This will be the longest I have ever been away from my kids in 17 years.  Even right now that seems a little scary.  As much as I am truly enjoying this peaceful afternoon.  If I blink to quickly they will be gone, living their adult lives, with college, husbands and new families.

I have been looking forward to the girls going on this trip.  How fun for them to be independent.  To fly on an airplane without an adult to guide them.  The opportunity to see friends and cousins.  

The girls landed in Casper at 8:45 a.m. this morning.  Early enough to have the whole day ahead of them.  I sent a text message asking how things were going.  The response I got was that they were at Old Town playing putt putt golf with cousins and friends already!  I don't think they are homesick quite yet.

Monday Shelbylyn has a date with Nate Hanley.  Nate is the handsome boy Shelbylyn has been waiting to go on a date with since she was 15 and was angry with us about moving  just 12 days after her 16th birthday (the legal dating age).  They are going to a movie, dinner at his house and then to the fair.  I hope this date lives up to all she has been hoping it will be.

The girls will get to go to Parade Day on Tuesday the 9th.  Lucky ducks!  I love Parade Day. We never missed it.  Beginning the very first year we moved to Casper, we had loaded the car with the chairs, cooler and strollers.  Staked out our spot on the corner of 2nd & Beech street to watch the parade.  It was always a wonderful 3 hours of fun.  The girls would come home with grocery sacks full of candy and freebies that were thrown from floats and parade walkers.  On the way home we would pull through the drive-thru at Papa Murphy's pizza to pick up the pizzas I had preorder, and then we would go home for lunch.  I hold those fun days in my happy mom heart.   On a side note, there were several years that the girls were actually in the parade for various reasons, but they were usually sad that they didn't get to really watch it.  They were always happy to ride with Dan in his patrol car for the Christmas parade though!

So here I sit in this quiet house all alone, and so far it's wonderful.  Just remember that where ever you are, enjoy the moments you have, been happy, enjoy life.  It will be over way faster than you ever imagined.