wow @Malsandhuskies that’s big news! Best wishes on this new adventure. Where are you headed?
It seems as though I was just lamenting that we were going to be empty nesters and now what was apparently our “practice year” is coming to an end. D24 comes home for the summer this week, and although she heads back to school in August, our D20, who has been living and working in Boston for the year post grad, will be returning to the nest by Labor Day weekend to start a 1 year MSW program here.
I will be happy to have her home, but would like to keep some of the new patterns that became the norm for H and I this past year, the most significant one being that dinner is now whatever and whenever we want it (or don’t). After 22 years of keeping to a rigid schedule of providing a nutritious and home-cooked dinner that we all eat together most nights of the week (6pm sharp!), it has been liberating to lose that. H and I still cook a lot, but it is much more spontaneous, and as likely to happen at 5pm as 8pm, depending on our mood and activities. I’m assuming that after being on her own for a few years, D20 will want to do her own thing most of the time anyway.
Hoping I can still hold on to my empty nester status on this thread!
For those asking, we are headed to the Charlotte , NC area hoping to find a home on Lake Norman. We looked into several Souther options and I kept gravitating back to NC. I went to college there and it has remained one of my favorite States. We’ll be far closer to our girls in Nashville and Saint Louis and will also be far closer to family and a few of my closest friends. We don’t know anyone in the immediate area so it is a big leap of faith but we are looking forward to it. It is bittersweet as I am leaving a community with with a close group of friends.
I live in Charlotte (a few miles from the city center) and we boat on Lake Norman (we keep our boat in Cornelius). It’s a beautiful lake with several different towns surrounding it. Homes always sell very quickly there. Best of luck with your move!
So funny, we’re planning a move from the Portland area to either the Lake Norman area or Greenville, SC. Going to miss the mountains but we’re done with the rain!
We’ve been here 6 weeks and I have no regrets. It’s been hot and humid but it feels like summer and it’s been amazing to not wear a sweatshirt or coat. Tonight we spend our first night in our new house! Hope your move goes smoothly and let me know if you end up in lake Norman area.
Plus humidity. That’s the killer for me. I could never live on the east coast and especially not the southeast. I grew up with so much dark and rain in the U.K. that the PNW would have been an upgrade. But NorCal is great (“climate best by government test”) and if I have to go somewhere else that’s cheaper it will be the Mountain West, so I’m glad D has moved back to SLC.
