School countdown

Only 1 week until school starts.
I am so sad. I am not ready for this.
I want another month, at least, to do all those fun things I wanted to do all summer.

But realisticly, I probably wouldn't get much more done than I have the first three months of summer. I am not even sure what I want to have accomplished that I didn't. I did:

1) put the girls through two sessions of swim lessons

2) clean out and organize the garage





3) clean out and organize the cellar

4) took the kids to Vegas

5) wrote a play for the family reunion

6) attended the family reunion in Jackson

7) took the kids to Lagoon 5 times

8) worked on riding bikes w/o training wheels

9) attended a couple of concerts at Red Butte

10) battled a nasty head cold

... Nope, that's about it. For nearly three months.

So. Swimming lessons - our first session was group lessons at Steiner... which were fine though Thing 2's teacher wouldn't let her wear goggles, which caused some problems. The second session was private lessons from a delightful kid, I will not go back to group lessons if I can help it. I think they learned a lot more at the private lessons, and they weren't so much more expensive as I'd have thought, and the girls get to stay afterward and swim in the pool. But the pool is usually terribly crowded, and it is oppressively hot there, but I guess I'm willing to put up with that. I was hoping to get some private lessons periodically during the winter, but I was told the teachers will be busy with swim team, and won't be available for private lessons. Though I can join the swim team. I'm just not sure they'll swim that much.

The next two items about cleaning I completely owe to my sister. If not for her neither of those cleaning/organizing things would have happened.
The Vegas trip was due to Hubby's conference there. The play I wrote for the family reunion was due to my mother hounding me, sitting behind me while we wrote it together. THe family reunion was great, had a lot of fun.
The Lagoon thing has been a trial. Season passes are NOT CHEAP. Last year we went quite a bit, my good friend had season passes with her kids and we all went a lot. This year, my friend didn't get season passes so it's just my little family, and I can't get them to go. The girls certainly don't want to, and I'm reluctant to go on weekends when hubby's here because I can't abide the huge crowds. During the week, when it is just me and the girls, I cannot talk them into going to the amusement park. They are tall enough to ride most of the rides WITH AN ADULT. Which means if hubby isn't there, they're stuck on the kid rides, which they tire of quickly. It has been such a cool summer that a couple of times when we went it was too cold to spend time in the pool area.
The concerts we attended as a result of donating to the radio station we get 6 tickets. The girls love attending a concert with us, it is a real aerobic work out for me to take them. The concert that hubby and I attend by ourselves is much more relaxing.
The head cold took two full weeks of energy, either too sick to do much more than sleep on the couch or feeling well enough to move about in a sort of undead zombie state, just one step away from the couch. The girls got a lot of TV, DS, and Wii in this summer while mommy recuperated. Which is what they're doing now, while I write this and balance the family and company check books.
So.
The summer has slipped away without me really feeling like I connected and entertained the girls. Most of the fun or accomplishments we've had has been either forced on us, or I've forced on the kids, or has sort of been initiated by someone else. I've been sick, I sleep in late, I putter around on the computer and around the house. And next thing I know, school is back in session next week and I'm going to have two full day school kids.

I am going to miss my baby terribly. I am, however, going to enjoy the time to get things done. The whole summer has been like that... good and bad.