The Teenager goes to Seattle...

Yesterday morning the teenager left for Seattle...

It has been a crazy busy week, but somehow he was ready to go.

Since he is officially 16 years old now, I am trying really hard to back out and let him take care of his own things. So I let him pack his own bags, and tried not to go through them to make sure he had everything!

(I did have to ask about 101 questions to make sure he didn't forget some major important things though).

It is much much much harder than I ever thought it ever would be to let him grow up.

Partly because my motherly instincts kick in and I want to protect him.

And...

Partly because I have learned that I am a control freak (I can't believe I am admitting this, but it's true... I like everything and everyone to be up on stage and the entire "play" to go off how I have it in my mind... when someone gets off the stage, I freak out!) so sad, I know. I am working on being more flexible and HAVING FAITH in the fact that I have taught him, now let him practice what I have so diligently taught.

It's just HARD!!!!

So, in order not to have too much time to relax in the rushed motion of this week... we head out to the DMV to take the final written test, on our way to the airport. Kind of a last ditch attempt to get the teenagers license before he goes to Seattle (that's kind of how he is rolling this week too... everything has been last ditch attempts).

So the schedule, if it goes as planned, should be 8am at the DMV when they open... then we have until 9:30am to take the test, get the license, and go have a leisurely breakfast out before we have to leave for the airport. I thought it would be a fun way to reconnect before he left, since we have been at each others throats all week long.

He got all packed loaded in the car and ready to go, we made it to the DMV on time... discovering they must have opened early (??????what???????) because we were already 12th in line at 7:59am!

It was okay, we had plenty of time. The teenager had much more confidence after taking his written test. He knew he could do this!

As they called his number, it was so hard, but I stayed seated in the chair.... after all, he is a big boy, he should probably be able to answer all the questions, pay for the test, and follow the directions from the officer, on his own now.

I really wanted to go stand by him... but hey, I am falling back, this was his thing.

So then I have my own little personal emergency, and my contacts begin to get fuzzy... I was panicking, how would I make it all the way to the airport and back not being able to see very well. So I left the DMV to run home and grab my glasses.

By the time I returned the teenager was standing outside.... what did this mean, that didn't take very long???? Did he pass, was he crying, did he fail????

When he got in the car.....

HE PASSED!!!!

He was so excited, I couldn't wipe the smile off his face. But one minor problem, he had forgotten his phone at home! So back to the house, one more time... it wasn't a problem, we still had 45 min. plenty of time to go eat a leisurely breakfast and head to the airport.

Until it hit... the "I lost my phone" syndrome! My mother has it, he earned it honestly!! It was gone, it was turned off, and gone.

No where to be found... we tore the house apart, the car, looked high and low.

We were down to 5 min before we had to leave for the airport... and knelt down to pray we would find it. 45 min into the search, I found it between the front seat in the car... where he had looked twice. Something about a mom's xray super sonic senses and vision! It didn't matter, we found it and we were off.

We went through the drive thru at Mc'D's and got him a quick bite to eat. I was a mess, but we were on-time had the phone, got the license. All was good!

He tried a half ditch attempt at a self portrait with me while we were driving, so he wouldn't have to do a real one, at the airport.

But the control freak in me was having nothing of that... we needed a real pictures with smiles... like none of the arguing and yelling, and fighting had ever happened!

Much better.... aren't we convincing!

( really do love him to pieces, even with all the missing brain cells!!!)

I walked him into the airport, mostly because I didn't know how they dealt with oversize luggage, and I knew those clubs would definitely be oversized! I didn't interfere, I just stayed back to give a last hug goodbye.

He got them where they needed to be and off through security, like a pro. He has been flying most of his life, and alone since he was about 6 years old... so he knows his way around an airport! I wasn't crying, I knew I would miss him.

But my goal is to get my relationship with him into perspective while he is away. So we don't have so much conflict when he gets home, and I can let go a little more each day, especially since he is a licensed driver now.

I left the airport with a big knot in my neck, I need a mesage!!