Summer ... parting is such sweet sorrow ...
Well, I’ve written exactly two posts in the last month.
That means two things …
1. I was too busy living life to be able to blog about it.
2. I had no computer in Tahoe or Minnesota (my in laws have yet to use a debit card, much less a computer!), and, as fancy as my iphone is, I cannot post a blog from it.
So here we are, back in Houston and 36ish hours away from sending my children back to school. One to high school, one to middle school and (thankfully!) two still left in elementary. (I love still having children in elementary school….keeps me young. Plus I have lots of wisdom and experience which really only means I know enough to keep from ever signing up for room mom again. There are plenty of “first time moms” that are perfect for that job!)
So, as I bid “adieu” to summer, there is a mixture of emotions … a twinge of excitement for all the new opportunities and experiences we will have this year and an ounce of regret that another summer has come and gone. Sweet sorrow. Sweet, sweet sorrow.
One thing we are realizing is that life is different now with a high school student. For starters, summer ends on August 1. At least for Caroline it did. She began tryouts for the Stratford High School volleyball team and made it … and we are so excited for her. It will be nice to begin school with a “group” so to speak. She has already been busy with games and practices and the coach was less than pleased when we told him we had a 50th anniversary party to attend which had been in the works for a long, long time. She missed one game, but she and I changed our flights so she could play in this game:
We have now joined the Booster club and our Suburban is sporting a Stratford High School Volleyball sticker. We are legit high school parents. Lord help us!
We flew in from Minnesota LATE on Tuesday night (more on that trip at another time) and literally hit the ground running Wednesday morning with back to school activities. Wednesday was the high school parent coffee and orientation for Caroline, Thursday she got her books, Friday was the elementary meet the teacher, we got haircuts, new shoes, 6th grade shots, attended a first grade back to school party:
met our new Sunday School teachers, went to a couple of birthday parties, bought pencils and notepads and assorted other school supplies, had my HBU orientation … and that’s just a little of what happened over the last four days. Four days which, I might add, where Bill was away in San Francisco on business. And when your husband is gone on the four days leading up to the start of school … well, it kind of feels like forty days instead of four. SO glad he is back (for two nights anyway) so he can help me drop everyone off on Monday. He will fly out right after drop off which will leave me no choice but to go home and feel lonely.
We did want to soak up every last bit of summer that we could today. I thought we might hang out at the pool but then read in the paper that there were heat warnings in the city and that it is close to being the very hottest August on record for Houston. So, it was too hot to go to the pool. Sad day when that is the case, sad day. Instead of feeling sorry for ourselves (which mostly would have been me feeling sorry for myself that Bill was gone) we decided to beat the heat and go ice skating. It was a nice diversion from the heat.
As we left I remembered that on every list of “things you shouldn’t miss when you have visitors come to Houston” is the Transco water tower which is right next to the Galleria. The kids had never seen it so we drove by to take a peek. As I was driving home I decided that was lame and we turned around and went back and got OUT of the car. I mean, this is the closest thing Houston has to Niagara Falls and it is really neat to see and stand up close to it. So we did.
There is a cool mist that blows off the water (kind of like those “misting” areas at Disneyworld) and I decided after the ice skating rink this might be the second “coolest” place in Houston.
We kicked off summer with a trip to Grandy and Grammy’s lake, we did camps and VBS and swim team, Bill and I climbed mountains and celebrated 20, and we traveled to MN to help celebrate a 50th. And we ended up right back here at a Houston tourist attraction.
And I loved today.
And I loved this summer.
And I’m planning on loving this fall.
Goodbye summer 2010 … parting is such sweet sorrow.
Until we meet again!