Bummed Out

Tonight, my family is bummed out. We had to do something sudden and sad. We have split up our children with our daughter going back to the RGV with my mother and our son staying here.

My mom got a job offer back in the RGV that pays close to what she needs to earn. With her leaving, it would mean that our daughter would be alone with a 13 year old family member. Earlier, this was no problem. However, with the recent surge in severe thunderstorms and the tornado warnings, we are not comfortable leaving them alone. Our son, who is enrolled in the school where we work, will always be with us. If he went back home to the RGV, he could go to pre-Kinder, but it's only half a day. There would be problems for the grandma's arranging for somebody to pick him up or drop him off.

So, we have lost my mom and our daughter on this venture. It's just my wife, my son, and I in Rice Lake until October. There was a lot of crying and hugging going on. It was sad to have to separate from our daughter and heartbreaking to see our son cry to see his sister go. It's a really lousy feeling. We had an inkling that this would happen, but it was just in theory. We expected that if it were to happen, it would be this weekend. We weren't expecting this to happen today. We weren't emotionally prepared to part.

There is a silver lining, if you think positive. We will miss our daughter, and she will miss us. She complains about her brother all the time, so she'll have a chance to see what life is without her brother, boring and empty. My wife and I have also had our daughter to ourselves when she was younger. We will have the same pleasure with our son for a few weeks. Still, it's tough to see a child go. We will miss her a great deal. I swear that this is the last time it happens. I have to finish my degree for better employment options. Things like this make one really angry about not earning enough money.