I feel like I’ve lead a thousand lives since last Thursday or whenever it was when I last wrote a post. We hit the ground for summer running and here’s hoping this week will be the week we actually easy into something resembling vacation.
Last Tuesday Gulley and I road-tripped to Dallas for our friend Jamie’s birthday party that Jen was hosting. We knew it was a crazy time to make the trip but, in light of all this year has held with Jen’s health, we have all become more aware than ever that we need to make the most of our time and appreciate any moments we can squeeze in to be together. So we hit the road a little before noon and made a few stops along the way because in the great irony of finally having kids that are old enough to not have to make a lot of bathroom stops is that we are now at an age where we have to make several bathroom stops even when the kids aren’t with us.
Of course we also stopped for a DQ Blizzard and several truck stops that seemed to have an affinity for Native American apparel and trinkets. We resisted the urge to shop although we may regret not owning our very own tree truck made into a clock with feathers surrounding it like a Native American headdress.
We made it to Dallas and went to Jamie’s house to hang out until it was time to leave for her party. And we all agreed we were excited because it was at The Front Room which is where we went last month after my book signing and had a Croque Madame sandwich that was one of the best things we’d ever eaten.
This is Gulley, me, Kim, and Jamie before we left for the party.
Anyway, we laughed a lot and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves then headed back to the house where Jen and her family are staying while they are building a new house. I can’t even describe how nice it was except to say that we sat out on the back porch and it felt like we were at a resort somewhere. I think we all wanted to stay out there much longer than we were able since we all began falling asleep in our chairs.
Sadly, the next morning Gulley and I had to leave by 7:00 a.m. because she needed to be back in time for an awards ceremony at Jackson’s school by 2:00 p.m. and we wanted to allow plenty of time. And I’m so glad we did because we were about an hour outside of Dallas when traffic came to a complete standstill, like the kind of situation where people are walking outside of their cars trying to figure out what was going on. There had been some sort of shoot out on the freeway and a police chase ending in a crash, the knowledge of which was little to no consolation as we sat for TWO HOURS without moving and began to strategize how we could get her to San Antonio in time.
But, miraculously (and thanks to generous speed limits) we made it back with time to spare and she was able to make it to the ceremony. I picked up Will from school and got him dropped off and then picked up Caroline from school and got home and dyed her hair temporarily blue because she really wanted it for the last day of school and then we headed straight to her end of season soccer party where I was so happy for her when her coach named her player of the year.
She has worked so hard this year and I was so thrilled she got to see that her hard work paid off. Of course I tried to turn it into a teachable moment that she may or may not have listened to on the way home.
And then Thursday was the last day of school. She got out at noon and we eventually made our way to the pool where we hung out with friends until it closed down and then slept the sleep of angels knowing we didn’t have to be up at a certain time the next morning. Except I did because the AT&T people were coming to install our U-Verse because I went into the AT&T store last week to fix our cell phone plans and totally bought into the sales pitch.
This past weekend was full of trips to the pool, getting ready for our new community service, going to watch Jackson play baseball and watching Caroline play indoor soccer yesterday before going back to the baseball fields to watch Jackson on Sunday night.
All that to say, I’m envisioning a true day of nothing tomorrow. Complete with nothing and a side of nothing and then maybe in the afternoon we’ll do nothing.
Welcome, summer. Glad you’re here.