Bye Hannah, Bye Jackson

Hannah is in Paris now and Jackson is on his way to Alpena. Heavy sigh! It has been 16+ years since we haven't had at least one of the kids at home. I think this is a preview of what empty nesting is going to be like in a few years.


Hannah's People to People group left Friday morning amidst lots of excitement and a bit of fear (on the parent's part mostly!). I tracked their flights online and it looked like there were no problems, although we did get our call from the parent's tree that said the kids didn't sleep much on the flights. Hannah and another Hannah seemed destined to be inseparable throughout the trip.



We dropped Jackson off for ROTC Leadership camp this morning. He's headed to Alpena for a week. It looked like he was headed to Iraq the way he was dressed. The Army gives them ALL of their clothes for the week. The only thing he needed to bring was toiletries and a change of clothes for the bus ride home.

Over the last week, I've spent a ton of time getting Hannah her supply list, Motown gifts for her homestay family, a Visa Buxx card with money so she can shop and a ton of details surrounding this and that. We've talked about little else for the past few days.

Jackson, on the other hand, needed deodorant. That's it! I felt kinda guilty.




We went to a fab party last night. Our friend, Colin, was celebrating ANOTHER 49th birthday. Nobody cared what the correct number was. We enjoyed Traffic Jam food and no less than three bands. Colin has been battling cancer and has had a rough couple of years. No one could tell last night. Outside of getting a little teary-eyed when he sang "Lean on Me" and thanked everyone for helping him get through the rough spots, the night was mostly about family and music. Colin and his two friends did a set on acoustic guitar and then the teenage sons of the same three guys did another set (using electronic instruments). Another band, Stumbling Mice, played first and last. I put together a slide show of about 150 photos of Colin through the years. There had to be 200 people there. Colin is a developer in Midtown Detroit so it was a fun mix of city people, business associates, family and friends. Kwame and Ken Cockrel even rolled through (at separate times of course!).

Oh well, back to my quiet house. Well, not so quiet. Ro is in the backyard cutting stones for the patio with some electronic chisel thing.