Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Farewell Thee, Summer


It is easy to focus on what we didn't do this summer. Every year when we come home for the summer, I have such high hopes of what we will accomplish (both fun and not fun) in our time at home. And now, I am a day away from returning to school (kids don't start for another week). I look at my closet...one of my "to do's" for the summer. It is still not very organized and full of things I need to go through. I open up my cabinet under the sink and remember how very much I need to get under it and clean. I look at the yard and wonder where our playtime went. And I look at Maria and remember now I was going to work on some handwriting lessons with her. And now it is too late. The summer is ending. My "vacation" is done.

But then as I look back through the pictures, I remember many things we DID do this summer (good and bad)...

  • playing in the sprinkler (though not as much as I thought we would...it was kind of a weird weather summer)
  • swimming at friends' and Grams'/Grampop's house
  • twisting and spraining my ankle which threw a HUGE wrench in my plans to exercise and lose weight this summer
  • playing with cousins (our Kansas and Mississippi cousins)
  • snow cones (the girls got the snow cone machine for their birthday; it has been used a LOT since then...many times by me late at night after they are in bed :)
  • AAO camp
  • VBS
  • music camp ]
  • neighborhood walks
  • a weeklong trip to Destin
  • Crab hunting on the beach
  • snorkeling
  • seeing dolphins from our townhouse...amazing!
  • The Gulfarium
  • meeting up with our friends, the Melvins, at the lake in Florida...good times!
  • the kids' first time tubing and riding a Sea-doo or however that is spelled
  • Fishing (for the big boys)
  • Child 1's busted lip
  • my 29th birthday :)
  • farming with my sister (Farmtown on Facebook)
  • Kiwanis Kid's Day Football and Cheerleading
  • our unexpected week of swimming lessons (a week early)
  • LOTS of block building, book reading, game playing
  • backyard sports (football, baseball, sometimes a combination of them :)
  • a weekend getaway to Mount Magazine (for the grownups)
  • a 7+ mile hike, some of it in the rain and some amazing views
  • the start of chores...why did I not start this earlier?
  • The DS, the lemonade and shell stand that went in to paying for it...the kid's first big "buy" (Thanks to M. for her part in that)
  • our rather productive garage sale though there are still remnants in our garage that I need to deal with.
  • my 20th non-high school reunion with the Berryville class of '89
  • our night away in Eureka Springs (while attending the non-high school reunion)
  • an actual movie together (The Proposal)
  • bike rides (for the kids)
  • lunch with the church interns
  • date nights with the hubby (not many but all enjoyable)
  • school supply shopping for THREE kids (okay, that isn't quite done yet)
  • our Living in HD installation...still enjoying that!
  • precious visits with a friend
  • emptying and refilling the dishwasher a few hundred times (some days 3 or more times in a day)
  • the College World Series (for the big boys)
  • Our daughter's 8th birthday dinner at Shoguns
  • my weekly sushi...love Shrimp Tempura
  • the girls' birthday party...horses galore!
  • Another daughter's 5th birthday at Chuck E. Cheese with dessert at Marketplace Express...yum!
  • Mark's birthday (he was on the road in Omaha)
  • Father's Day
  • celebrating my niece's birthday complete with swimming and a piƱata
  • belated "fireworks" (sparklers and glow bracelets)
  • Sesame Street...a whole new world for Joshua (it is called "Elmo's World")
  • playdates (I am pretty sure Child 2 is more of a social butterfly than me)
  • a trip to the Tulsa Zoo on a HOT, HOT, HOT day
  • lunch at Casa Bonita (in Tulsa)
  • Shark Week at the Aquarium in Jenks, OK
  • dentist and doctor appointments galore...and really, we were pretty healthy this summer)
  • Child 3's "eye patch"
  • the building of a loft (in progress)
  • in-service
  • catching up with friends from all phases of my life on Facebook (and occasionally my hubby too :)
  • blogging, my therapy

Hmmm, what did you do this summer? :)

Reba

2 comments:

  1. Overall it sounds like a great summer and that's what the kids will remember. I am starting to feel the end of summer stress of all the things - both chores for me and fun things for Rudy - that we haven't done. I have a few more weeks left to accomplish some of it.
    Have fun at school!

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  2. what a cute video! Loved the song you chose. How was the proposal? We thought about seeing it but wasn't sure if it was good or not.

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