It's quiet(er)

Where is the laughing? The crying? The running, the stomping, the don't-run-in-the-house scolding? Where is the playing, the arguing, the joke-telling, the vegetable-hiding, the I-ate-all-my-vegetables-can-I-have-dessert lying?
Where's all the NOISE?
It's been a wee bit over a week now since Loryn, Mandy, and the whole gang (their parents), have left. You probably, unless you know my family, are clueless to those names. Loryn and Mandy, er, Amanda, are two of my five nieces/nephews. David & Libby are their parents, David being my brother. So, the story goes: David had a really cool job in Houston as a meteorologist. The company could no longer support themselves so he got laid off, very, very, abruptly. Well, he wanted to go back for more college which was located, I do believe, close to sunny ol' Dallas. Where we live. So, him and the fam decided to stay with us for a SHORT while, till things got back in order. I don't know about YOUR family, but with mine: 1 month = 6. A year? Easily a few more. Point is, he was here for three years.
             Now when I first heard he was staying here, I was reaallly happy. I envisioned a big happy family, like those italian ones in the movies. Ha! If it was anything like a big italian family, it was that everyone in my family has a large-o mouth-o. (we ARE 1/4 italian, thank you). Well, except for my mom. She's pretty quiet. But for the rest of us? We got along like ten canaries squeezed in a hamster cage. But we still loved each other, cause we're family and I think that's in the contract.
             But, since everything has it's time, it was time for them to move on, and they're gone now, and for the first time in forever I've been able to type all of this without loryn coming in to beg me to play barbies, or without having to type it at four in the morning when things were quiet. It's a bitter kind of happy/sad. More on the sad, I think.
              I miss kids running around the house like miniature tyrants, and I think come sunday, I'm going to abduct half the toddlers at church, maybe more.