everything for the "last time"

whelp,
due to some incredibly unfortunate circumstances (read: the mamaLu took a knee-twisting fall at a cookout over the weekend, tearing one, or two, or possibly three various pieces parts in her right knee. ouch.), my exit out of town has been delayed until tomorrow.

but a family of nine children does one thing very, very well: finding a Plan B, and finding it very, very quickly :)

so, mark and i will make the grand exit tomorrow morning, just as soon as the Shu's aunt Mo can swing over and pick him up. he'll be staying with a different set of cousins for the next ten days, but we're nothing if not flexible. and his Virginian cousins will be here in ten days, so it's really a win-win for him. the aunt and uncle taking him in at the very last minute? OBVIOUSLY they win, too.

(love you guys... i take back nearly all of those You're So Old Because You're 40 jokes from last weekend.)

all of this jumbo to say i've had a few more days here to really dwell on the reality of this. i stood in my grocery store this morning, stocking my sister up on red peppers for the Shu's stay, and it struck me that it was the last time i will have to go through there on my own. i nearly dropped something on purpose just to have to pick it up myself one last time.

today's the last afternoon i lay down to rest my humidity-weary, achy body down on this couch in my mom's living room without the lovely, comforting "press" of Cade up against me.

tonight's the last time i will have to take off my socks, my shirt if the fabrics are painful by then.

all these "last times" keep running through my head. a vacancy is about to be filled. 

there is so much to learn between now and then.