The hiatus is over and The Boy is a senior. Yikes.

So...you may or may not have noticed that I've been taking a little blogging break. It actually wasn't intentional...the last few weeks of summer just became jam-packed with "stuff". "Stuff" which I can't really talk about because it isn't actually MY "stuff". But I've been making quite a few road trips and taking care of some, err..."stuff"...which had to be taken care of. Wow - that all sounds quite mysterious, doesn't it? Trust me, it's not. But, well, the "stuff" that needed to be taken care of has been taken care of, for the most part. And then, frankly, I was worn out. Exhausted. Elvis had left the building kind of tired. And there just wasn't any energy leftover for blogging.

So, I've been hibernating and trying to pretend that the summer wasn't ending and school and dance and carpooling wasn't about to start back up. And, naturally, our wonderful carpool of last year completely fell apart in the past couple of weeks which means that I really wasn't able to hibernate. It's kinda sorta fixed now, I think. And then all sorts of other fun things started piling up...like The Boy getting his senior picture taken...

That's right...I said his SENIOR picture.

Which is another thing that I had been in complete denial about. My son - my baby boy - starting his senior year. 

*GULP*

Oh sure, we've been visiting colleges and talking about schedules and SAT and ACT exams and so on and so forth. But somehow, it didn't really hit me until I saw that snapshot from the photography studio that he's a senior. This is his last year of high school. My baby boy is going to be leaving me!

So then I didn't blog because I was feeling completely melancholy and blue. Because the time just went by TOO FAST! It seems like only yesterday that he was just my little boy, bringing frogs and fish and snake skins and other creepy, stinky boy stuff into the house and getting dirty and kicking soccer balls around and watching The Crocodile Hunter.

When I look at him, I don't see an almost man.

I don't see a senior in high school.

I still see that little boy with the twinkling eyes and the gap-toothed smile...

It seems like we just celebrated another graduation...how on earth is it even possible that it's about to happen again?!

It seems as though it were only yesterday that he started first grade. 

Truly, I'm in shock. This happened so freaking FAST! 

And today was The Boy's first day of his senior year of high school. Not only am I mourning the end of summer vacation (which was much too short, in my opinion), but I'm struggling to accept the reality of my baby boy growing up.

And it's not easy.

It's breaking my heart...even as I urge him on to independence.