VACATION…SCHOOL…THEN BACK TO WORK!

It’s that time of the summer again when Melissa’s family and my family go on vacation (separately, of course!), then we start stressing about school beginning (although we’ve been stressing about middle school since May), then we finally get back to work. So what am I saying? I’m telling you good-bye until school starts again, dear readers!

Once school begins, Melissa and I have a “pool day” at my house. It’s heavenly! Pure relaxation. We might bring lunch in, maybe play some music, maybe talk, maybe not, but definitely not about business. Just lay on the rafts in the water with NO KIDS splashing, whining, arguing or saying “Mom, mom, mom…”

Sigh.

After that, we’ll be blogging again!

Karen

ARE THESE PEOPLE FOR REAL?

I love my children, really I do. But when I see people posting things on Facebook about how excited they are that it’s summer and they get to spend the next 3 months with their kids, I really have to wonder if I’m the worst mom in the world. Am I the only one who thinks summer break is WAY too long? A week, maybe two, would be great. But THREE MONTHS? With 2 nine year old BOYS? Who have to be MOVING AT ALL TIMES? I’m exhausted just thinking about it!

So do you think they really mean it? Maybe they have girls. Or maybe their kids are old enough that they don’t need constant supervision. (Not that I have to watch my boys at all times, but it’s not like I can go run errands and leave them at home by themselves obviously.) Personally, I think these moms just say these things on Facebook and to other moms to make themselves look better. Really, everybody has to feel SOME anxiety over having their schedules and lives uprooted for 3 months. It can’t be all wonderful. Can it? Maybe I’m missing something. Hmmmm.

Okay, I just looked downstairs. The housekeepers left only 15 minutes ago, and the house is already a wreck. Nope, I’m not missing anything!

Karen

Monday Minute – Summer is ending!

School starts tomorrow. Am I excited? Yes, in some ways. Am I sad? Yes, in other ways. Am I confused? Yes, always!

I’m craving to get my life back, with order and schedules and above all, time alone! I feel like everything has taken a back burner to my kids for the past three months. And while that is not a bad thing at all, I’m way behind on stuff, like closing the books out for my cub scout pack (yes, I’m the treasurer – don’t laugh!), bill paying, coupon clipping, and especially on selling my book. In the retail world, Christmas comes in July, and I haven’t done a thing yet to promote By The Book into Holiday Gift Guides. Oh, and look, IT’S PAST JULY!

Yet, when I think about the fun I’ve had this summer with the kids, I get a bit wistful. Of course, none of us were perfectly behaved over the past 3 months, but all has been forgiven. They tolerated going with me to gym a few days a week, and I tolerated listening to Lego Star Wars on the Wii for an hour a day. We spent a lot of time relaxing at the pool and just hanging out, so all in all, we had a great summer.

And we had a whole list of places to go and things to do this summer, which, of course, we just started on last week. It was a really busy week! (Am I the only one who waits until the last minute to work on that list?)

So today is the last day of summer vacation. I’ll take tomorrow to celebrate/cry, and then life will get back to normal. How about you? Sad? Happy? Please let me know I’m normal!

Karen

Cancun With The Family – Much Different Than With The Sisters!

First, let me start by saying that when I go to Cancun with my sisters, we stay in REALLY nice places, and I have just learned how REALLY nice they are! I am incredibly spoiled. The resort is nice enough, but nowhere close to the resorts we’ve stayed. And the water, though warm, is really rough and choppy. (Surprisingly enough, I haven’t been blamed for this, as DH always seems to blame me for things that go wrong with our vacations. Hey, you don’t give me input in the planning process, you shut up when we get there! Sorry, whole other post!) We’re talking BIG waves, which is lovely to look at , but not so relaxing when you’re in it. Every time I get knocked down by a big wave, I lose my swimsuit bottom! (Thank you, Weight Watchers – and I mean that sincerely!) And you can FORGET peeing in the water. I need more calm for that. So we split our time between the beach and the pool today.

Okay, so let’s back up and talk about the morning we left St. Louis. Well, we just barely made our flight this morning. They actually had to hold the plane for us. Now, I don’t want to name names (DH), but somebody (DH) was having trouble turning off the electricity without turning off the alarm system, which apparently must be done so the house doesn’t burn down. (Did I say DH?) Luckily, I got my own seat a few rows back from the rest of them, so the flight was good! So we get here at about 11:00 and of course our room wasn’t ready yet, so we went to have lunch. Except that lunch isn’t served until 11:30, so we had breakfast (again). At this point, I need to ask the questions…diet, what diet, and what are Weight Watcher points? This is going to be BAD!

Some additional points:

Things I Like:

1. Vacationing with my family.

2. I can have beans at EVERY meal. And Guac!

3. We are staying in a “family room” which means there are 2 rooms connected together. But in the boys’ room, there are kid sized robes and slippers, kid shampoo and an X-Box.

4. Free manicure and pedicure (which I got yesterday) and 2 free 25-minute massages (which I will SO upgrade!)

Things I Don’t Like;

1. Vacationing with my family (Ha ha, just kidding…really).

2. The robes are as thin and rough as a piece of matzo.

3. Gray Food. Really. The other night at dinner, DH’s steak was gray, my chicken was not gray, but was really, really dry, and the boys’ chicken nuggets were SO disgustingly gray, I couldn’t even look at them.

5. Unfortunately, bad food doesn’t equal less food, it only means more fattening food. Sigh, I can’t win.

6. No beach view from the room, but we do have a lovely sunset view!

I think that just about covers it for now! Even though the boys got really burned yesterday (Mommy of the year award to me for not reapplying sunscreen), they are both a beautiful brown today.)

Back to the beach!

Karen

Is It Wednesday Evening Already?

Hi Everyone!

I bet you’ve noticed that there hasn’t been anything new for a couple of days. Melissa and I were getting a bit overloaded with things, as most of us do during the summer months, so we took a couple of days off. I mean, we love our kids, and we are WAHM’s so we can stay home with them, but sheesh, 24/7?

So I’m wondering what you all do to relax, re-energize, or just to stay sane during the summer months. So PLEASE COMMENT! I really mean it … I need some pointers!

Karen