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The kids have been gone since Sunday morning. It has been really quiet around our house. When your kids are gone, I think it is a test to see how well you and your husband can get along, to see how things are going to be when they are all grown up and living on their own.

We are actually getting to see that we will never be alone. They just don’t stop, no matter how far away they are...phone calls, texts, and messages. Are your grandparents not there? Can you not ask them? Do you expect me to discipline Shay from four hours away?

Parts of this I have brought upon myself. Coy went to the emergency room the Saturday night before they left on Sunday morning. He has an infection in his foot caused by hornet stings. Don’t ask. We left there with a prescription at 9:30 at night. There was no way we could get that filled before we got home. So the ER gave him his first dose of antibiotics before we left and by Sunday morning he said he felt ten times better.

I sent the medical card and money with Coy, but I figured (I don’t know what I was thinking) that it would be easier to take it to Wal-Mart myself and have it transferred to one close to his grandparents. It turned out to be a good idea, all they had to do was drive by and pick it up on the way home. But the chaos it caused me was a little too much.

When the kids left out on Sunday morning, Tokpa and I went to El Charro for breakfast and then headed to New Braunfels to go tubing. We have never done that before and we thought it would be a relaxing day. But first I had to go to Wal-Mart and get the prescription taken care of.

Down I-35 to Wal-Mart, along with a few wrong turns, and the tension started to build. Do you not know where you are going? There is nothing more aggravating for my husband than to have to turn around. Especially more than once. We located Wal-Mart with hardly any problems, but it was finding the tubing place that turned out to be the issue. We just happened to pass one and decided just to go back to it and get in there. Yes, turning around one more time.

Before we got out of the car, I called the store up north to find out if they had gotten the prescription. "No, I don’t think we have," was the reply. What? Searching through a pile of papers, asking someone else, checking the fax machine, "Oh yes, it’s here!" Thank goodness! Call to the grandma to let her know that it was at her store ready to be picked up.

We were ready to go over and get our tubes, when we noticed a family (mom, dad, plus three kids) getting out of their car. The dad was yelling and complaining to one of the kids. "If you can’t straighten up…blah, blah, blah." Oh my! I looked at Tokpa and told him we either needed to hurry up or get back in the car and wait. I did not want to be in any section of the river that contained that group of folks.

By the end of the day, we were very relaxed and enjoying each other’s company. I think we will do all right when the kids are all grown up. It is just a little too quiet at the house, but I think that is something I could get used to.