I swear, it feels just like yesterday that I took my daughter to her first day of school. Now she's a senior and every event that comes and goes will be the last in high school for her...and me. I'll be an empty nester when she leaves for college.

Tonight was her Winter Ball. The last one ever...sigh. How can she go from the first picture, (Kindergarten), to the second picture, (tonight ready for Winter Ball), in what seems to be only one day? Can someone please tell me how to stop the clock for a little while? Please...

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Karen, Chance, Lucy and Savanah RB



“Everyone needs a dog to adore him, and a cat to bring him back to reality”

Time does fly doesn't it?!

Your daughter is beautiful!

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Meet Yogi! http://www.goldenretrieverforum.com/...tion-yogi.html

Karen, your daughter is beautiful and you have asked the question humans have asked since we crawled out of our caves. Time has a way of going so slowly when we are young, and we grasp each moment, do things on the spur of the moment. We don't watch the clock and time crawls. Now that I am an early senior, my day is planned, I appreciate little surprise and try to work our lives so that we aren't busting our rears all the time..I watch the clock and it races. I find my day is over and I haven't gotten near what I should have done. Need a few more hours to complete everything. Sometimes I wish I could remember the carefree attitude I had as a teenager, where life was around the next corner and I couldn't wait to peek around it to see what lies ahead. It is an innocence I wish I could recapture.

When we put our youngest on a plane to college it really hit me that my life would change from this day forward. We would see our girls, but they would return as adults with life's decisions made by themselves. I felt lost and a bit not needed. For me it was a sad time. The years have passed, girls grown and one married and has children. I see myself in her actions with her kids and am proud. I wasn't ready and the clock keeps moving so fast, but a bit of me is going forward into the next generation. It is the way it should be. I am happy and feel blessed. You will too. Your daughter will bring you more experiences, more joy, but in a different, more grownup way. She will bring you such joy.

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Your daughter is beautiful. What a smile she has!

I once in a while have this same thought - it "catches" me at unexpected moments and I also wish I could stop the clock for a little while, so I could savor where I am right now.

I relate to what Deber said: " I find my day is over and I haven't gotten near what I should have done."

I think the reason it feels so fast now is the older we get, each single day is an increasingly smaller percentage of our life-to-date. ??? I don't know if that's really why, but the older I get the busier I am and I didn't think it would be that way. Not complaining though - just what I have noticed.

I have made an effort in the last 5-6 years to allow - and welcome - unexpected interruptions so that I live more "in the moment". Can't really do that at work unfortunately but in my "real" life I can and do.

When I look at my "rest of the day" for example and what really "must" be done before tomorrow or whatever, the list can usually be pared down and I really can make time for something I want to do.

Because of the weather here in the northeast, I will take Chance for that extra long walk or meet up with other people for him to take a swim at the lake when the weather is good. Good weather can be fleeting so I take advantage when it's here. I try do do inside work either after dark or when the weather is bad.

Time is definitely my most precious commodity.

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..... have a Golden day

I feel the same way. Our oldest is a junior in HS and now looking at colleges. Our youngest is only 3yrs behind him. I just know I will turn around one day and they will be gone. It makes me incredibly sad if I dwell on it too long. It is amazing how life just continues to accelerate. But I have to say, our dogs help us to slow it down, if only for a brief moment, to live in the moment. I think when we only live for the next big milestone down the road, we tend to blur what is happening now all around us. Sometimes I think we just live the Cliff Notes version of the novel that is our lives...

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It seems when we are young,time goes slowly, but as we age ,we find it just goes so quickly, i to just can't seem to get things done,like i use to.

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How true this is. My son is 27 and is getting his PhD back east. It took a huge adjustment for me to only see him twice a year as opposed to having him within driving distance. Now, he's getting married next summer and hopefully will be coming back to the west coast to live. But who knows...his fiance is from Germany, but her parents now live in Israel. So really, who knows where they'll end up.

Yeah, life goes on, huh? I remember that whenever anyone complained about how their life was going, my Dad would always say, "Consider the alternative." Kind of put it in perspective...

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Karen, Chance, Lucy and Savanah RB



“Everyone needs a dog to adore him, and a cat to bring him back to reality”

Maybe I'm odd...I enjoy being an empty nester. That doesn't mean I don't miss my kids ..but I really find I enjoy who they have become, watching them make their way...and especially telling me.."hey mom you were sooooo right"..lol

I will always worry about them to some point and miss them...but this past Thanksgiving when they all came home it made me realize that while it is different now, it is still awesome.

True...I'm at that point with my son, (doesn't mean that I don't want him to live close again, though), but I think it'll take some time for me to feel that way with my daughter. I've been a single mom since my son was 12 and my daughter was 2 and it's been just my daughter and me for the last 8 years. It'll be an adjustment, but I'll do it. Maybe I'll be kicking and screaming while I'm adjusting, but I'll get there.

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Karen, Chance, Lucy and Savanah RB



“Everyone needs a dog to adore him, and a cat to bring him back to reality”

I had a hard time while my oldest was stationed in Korea, not that he wasn't safe there, he was but if something happened he was so far away and I couldn't get to him easily if he needed me. Obviously it was worse when he was in Iraq, for a whole host of reasons...At least in Korea I could talk to him, hear his voice, while in Iraq is was email..that stunk big time..but now he is about an hour away going to college and life is as it should be.

Our youngest moved out last year...my middle son had been out for two years already, oldest over 4...I did call them each day sometimes two or three times for the first few weeks, make excuses to stop at their places etc...but that eased...

I had forgotten about that until a bit ago...the adjustment of letting go etc...hmmm I think I'll go give each of them a call now and tell them I love them...they actually tell me back or say it before I get too...warms my heart! sigh