The one constant

We take Younger Son to start his first year in college next weekend. I have been firmly entrenched in a state of denial the entire summer and now the time is almost here.

He has indulged Wife and me this weekend as we have hovered over him. Wife has taken him shopping and we have stacked up his stuff in the living room before we start packing it up.

Wife told me this yesterday she's afraid she hasn't been as "engaged" in this process as maybe she should have been and I quickly told her not to worry because (a) this is the third time we have done this and we know the routine and (b) he's a boy and the last person she took to college was a girl. Younger Son is not interested in how his bedspread goes with his roommate's, color schemes, etc. In fact, I have strongly suggested that Younger Son go to college as a minimalist, taking as few possible items for which he has to be responsible.

The good thing about taking the last one is we can poke around the basement and find a lot of the stuff he needs.  And, as I said, we've done this a couple of times already and we pretty much know the routine.

The bad thing about taking the last one to college is just that -- he's the last one.
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Today is Wife's birthday.  Older Son and DIL are out of town at a wedding this weekend, as is Daughter, but all will return later today and we will celebrate Wife's birthday tonight.  I am to prepare the meal. That will be interesting.

This Thursday is our 27th wedding anniversary.  This will come in the midst of getting ready to leave with Younger Son, who is planning a little send-off for himself this Thursday night at our house, with a command performance by Wife, i.e. she will be preparing food.  She is only too happy to do this, of course, and we will be happy to spend our anniversary with Younger Son and his friends. 

Wife and I went out for a quick dinner last night and called it our anniversary celebration. Somehow we got to talking about life events and how they change us.  We got married.  Wife thought it would be hard for us to conceive a child.  She was pregnant with Older Son by our first anniversary and eight years into it, we had three. 

My mother died. We moved to Tennessee.  The job I moved here for was a bust.  We couldn't sell our house in Little Rock and we lived in two different rent houses here.  There were some dark days.

We blinked and we were sending one to college. I decided to take a severance package when my second employer here wanted me to move.  Another job came along. 

My dad died.  Another one graduated and went to college. She's done and is back home now.  The "baby" is about to fly out of the nest.

Older Son and DIL have announced to us that they will be moving to Dallas, Texas around the first of October.  A wonderful job opportunity has come along for DIL. They are debt free, pet free and child free so the risk is minimal. It will be an adventure.  Older Son is confident he can find a job when they get there. 

To say we are sad to see them go is an understatement.  But we are happy for them and 100 percent supportive.  We will adjust.

Change. Transition. Passages.  Do we see a theme here?  Have I seen this theme for three years writing this blog?

Do life events change us?  Do I even need to ask that?