home alone

at 4pm eastern time today, my brother steve and his 4 kids left for their home in carlislie, arkansas. this marks the first real amount of time we (karen, kyler, jenna, and me) will have been home alone for any amount of time since Aug 20th. there was one monday after karen's parents left in November before my aunt and uncle came but we will have 3 days here before we go to duke for a 3 day appointment, and then a couple of days before a friend from arkansas comes and stays for a week. when she leave on 16th, she will be the last scheduled visitor/helper we will have. starting jan. 18th we will have to figure out things on our own again (like we have for the last 21 years). i am not sure if i will know how to act without these people here, but there is a side of me that understands we need some time to ourselves to figure it out. so many people are on the edge of their seats ready to help us, it is great to know there are so many willing and ready at a drop of a dime. this is good because i am not sure i could do this alone. feel free to call karen during the school week to talk to her, but call on her cell line it is cheaper for us.