I now have an empty nest.

Last week I took my youngest child to college and helped set up her dorm room. It was an exhausting and hectic experience but a very productive day, to say the least.

My son is a senior at the same university. He moved back into his apartment on the same day that we moved his sister into her dorm room.

I came home to a completely empty house. For the first time in my adult life, my home is empty. My children are "grown."

I am happy for my children. My son has done well in college and met the love of his life there. He is happy. I believe my daughter is going to fully enjoy college life also.

The day I moved my son and daughter from our home to their university, I took both of them and their boyfriend and girlfriend to eat at the same place that was one of mine and my husband's favorite places to eat when we both attended the same university in the early 1980s. As I sat there with my two grown kids and their "loves," I felt sad that my husband was not there with us.

You see, he should have been there. Instead, he was with his mistress.

My husband has missed out on so much. He should have been there with me as my husband and as our childrens' father and felt the joy of knowing we had raised two great kids and that they were both going to the same university we love and graduated from. And, we met and fell in love at this university. My husband should have been there and he and I should have driven home together. Instead I drove home alone and came into an empty house.

The first day of my kids' college classes start tomorrow.

The first day of my new life as an "empty nester" starts tomorrow.

I think I will go to sleep in my empty home so that I can get up and get going at a decent hour in the morning. Wish me luck!