Empty nesting

Well, we have made it through Olivia's first trip away from home. The sixth grade class in her
school goes away for a 2-night, 3 day trip to the Catskills every year. They go cross-country skiing, tubing, indoor rock climbing etc. Normally, I would chaperone a trip like this but when
these plans were made, Swine-flu hysteria was in full swing and neither Tim nor Olivia had the
shot by then so I felt the less exposure our family got during this cold and flu season, the better. This was also a great opportunity
to give Olivia a little independence and make her take responsibility for herself which is
a large part of the reason for this trip anyway. It was a little easier on us, separation wise,
as we had to drive her there because of her motion sickness. So she took dramamine each way
(it is a 2 hour ride) and was darn glad she did not take the bus when we heard of the puking
stories as soon as they arrived. We got to see the place and I think it helped Olivia with homesickness, though she has never had a big problem with it anyway, to have us drive her there and pick her up. This was a heavily chaperoned trip both by school staff and
parents so I had a woman or two that I knew going on the trip who would keep an eye on her.
I was half expecting to have Liv come home with empty luggage. She is terrible about keeping
track of her belongings. She has lost more things and we have turned around more times after
leaving somewhere because she leaves things behind constantly. So I packed her very lightly.
I told her that if she forgot something and it did not make it home, it would not be replaced,
least not on my dime. I know this sounds awful rigid but if you knew the amount of times she
has lost things and the very little progress she has made at improving, it's really a necessary thing to let her know that we are not going to keep buying things to replace what she has absentmindedly lost again. She kept asking if she could take this and that and I refused. I warned
her that taking all these meaningful things with her just put them at risk of being forgotten or
even stolen. Well everything went well. Tim was off work so I was not that lonely. We took the
opportunity to take our employee(he's family to us) and his girlfriend out to dinner and the only
thing that stinks is that we felt so left out. We missed getting to see Olivia ski and rock climb for
the first time and that's not something we're used to. A lot of the kids were homesick. Of course,
the boys were acting silly and throwing snowballs at the girls' cabin windows, led by one of the dads I believe. As far as I can tell, everything made it home and I told Olivia how proud I was that she did such a great job. The one unfortunate thing was a brat that we have had trouble with before decided it
would be fun if her and her friend started screaming at Olivia and her friend that a coyote was
there and coming after them. My poor kid ran for her life only to find out it was a lie and she was
quite shook up by the event. This brat needs some serious discipline and I'm debating talking to
the principal about it. She's always causing trouble. Though I told Olivia that she has to start taking everything this girl says with a grain of salt, of course being out there in that wilderness with turkeys and deer all about, she was so out of her element that she figured it could
be true. This is where being a chaperone is tricky with me. That girl would have gotten a heckuva talking to from me whether my kid was involved or not. I have little patience for bullies and low-down mean behavior. Oh well. There's one in every crowd I always say. We are glad to have
ol' twinkle toes home. I hate walking past her empty bedroom at night and it's one thing when she's at a sleepover 5 minutes away, quite different when she's up in the mountains 2 hours
away. I can really understand how folks can get into a funk when their kids go off to college or
move out. I better make sure I have some well established hobbies by then or I'll go bonkers
for certain.