Day 7 continued

Well, as I already made quite clear, today is a depressed day for me. My husband is gone for five days and I am not very good at the whole alone thing. I have never actually been alone in my life. I basically went from home to dorm (with two roommates) to marriage. So, every time he goes away I get very down and a bit lost. I have great amounts of respect for any woman who has lived on her own. I honestly don't think I could do it.

Speaking of which, I must offer my hearty congratulations to my oldest sister on her newest arrival. She and her new husband have now entered parenthood (of a sort). They've adopted...a puppy! Pedro the Chihuahua, welcome to our family! I can't wait to meet you, or at least to see some pictures of you in your adorable sweater. Tell me, Steph, will you carry him around in a puppy purse? And, did you mean to name him after dad, or is that just a funny coincidence?

So, tomorrow is the big day around here. The Experiment will officially begin, as Jacob goes to his very first day at the new school. He seems to be doing fine, but I'm terrified. It's too late to turn back now, though, so we'll just have to hope, and pray, for the best.

Jeremy is upset that he'll be missing the big day. He hates being away from the kids for so long, especially when important stuff is happening in their lives. He did something really sweet, though. The boys just got new cd players with headphones, which they loooooove to listen to, so he made them a "daddy mix" for each day that he's gone. Each morning I will present them with one, and by the end of the week they'll have four new cd's to listen to, all with messages from daddy written on them. He said his dad never did anything like that for him. In fact, he can't remember ever receiving a note with "I love you" written on it from him. It's funny, you might think boys don't need that smooshy stuff, but they really do. They just won't come out and ask for it like girls do. He is working extra hard to make sure he gives that sort of love to his boys, and I love him so much for it. Seriously, I could not ask for a better dad for my children, or a better husband for that matter. Back off girls, this man is MINE!

Meanwhile, Joshua, the eight year old who I am still homeschooling, is quite upset that he won't be going to school as well. I'm trying not to take this too personally. Afterall, to them the public school experience boils down to lots of kids, gym class, a playground, and cool lunches. Who wouldn't want that? In a sad attempt to bribe him into a better attitude, I'm not giving him any actual work on his first day, but am taking him and his sister to visit their great-grandmother (who he adores) instead. He perked up considerably when he heard that, saying "That's one good thing about homeschool. You never know when mom will give you a day off!" Ok, I know it's pathetic, but at this point I'll gladly take anything positive from him.

So that's what's going on in my neck of the woods. I will now trudge upstairs to prepare my first of soon to be too many bagged lunches for my eldest. Really, I don't know what I'm going to do when he goes off to college. Jeremy's going to have to drug me or something. That is, if he's not away on business....

Day 7

My husband just left. Boarding a plane to Germany in a couple of hours. Will be gone until Sunday. Depressed. Worried. Sad. Lonely.