Sunday, July 19, 2015

Mommy's Off...!

My GOD to I love her!
Well, it's summer time and you will find no one more happy about this than me! Why you ask? because it means I get a break! No running Ladybug back and forth to school, practice, Girl Scouts, etc...

It's been a tough spring, well, year really - beginning August of last year. Ladybugs eighth grade year started with a bang! I'm very active in her school community, volunteering for everything possible - Fall Festival, Haunted House, Spring Auction, field trips, tons of other miscellany in between, plus responsible for the school garden and annual farmers market. I've always been very active at school, as active as my health allowed over the years, but these last 2 years I've been pretty healthy, therefore allowing me to take advantage and throw myself into as much as I could. Plus, Ladybug loves that I'm always at school. So with this being her last middle school year, the activities leading to graduation seemed to double!

Then one week after she graduated, she started a short summer program at her new high school, whish is double the distance... meaning, much longer drive for me. So I was still in the grind for a few more weeks. Until.... this last week when I packed up LB and J and I shipped her off to Atlanta to spend a WHOLE MONTH with the family!!!

***** CAN YOU SEE ME DOING THE SNOOPY HAPPY DANCE? *****

All packed and ready to GO!!!
LB has been besides herself with anticipation, waiting for the day for her to take off. She's grown up hearing us talk about J growing up there, my college days there, and both our adventures living there; she's always been keenly interested in our lives there. For years J and I have talked about sending her there to spend summers with the family, but we waited til she was older (probably because J didn't want to let her go - it took him forever to get her ticket, lol!!), and now that time has come! She loves her Atlanta family, which is small but there are a couple of cousins she's in the middle of age-wise, but as I've mentioned before, she's (almost) the only girl, and the boys are into football, so I'm curious to see how this'll go. And LB just loves being in Atlanta, and it's 'lack of diversity'. I know that sounds strange, but she's in environments that lacks any kind of color/diversity (her private elementary school and tennis), and she's felt this deeply, sparking countless conversations with her about race and class that have been amazing. However, she's made it plain and quite clear that she wants to be around more folk that look like her, and Atlanta's the place, LOL!!!



Us FaceTiming earlier today.
Another milestone for her was that this was her first flight ALL BY HERSLEF!! She LOVES to fly, and is an excellent and experienced traveler, so we felt she could handle it (yes, J survived!). She gets a whole month to be with her family and experience Atlanta, I'm so excited for her! I just hope she's able to take advantage of this and get around and see the city as much as possible. And us being us (J and I), she'll still be just a little busy ... tennis camp, her regular workouts, and required family reading - "I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings" by Maya Angelou and "The Autobiography of Malcom X". But don't worry family, she has plenty of down time for her favorite pastime - swimming! Remember, she's gone for 32 WHOLE DAYS!!!!

32 days of No Child. No schedule coordination. No fussing about chores. No talks about life lessons. Well, actually, I like that. And with all of the stuff I've been freed of, there's stuff I will miss, like hearing her sweet voice call for me when she has a question or needs help... "Mommy". Her humor. The way she greets me every morning no matter what. Her laugh. Oh yeah, I already miss her.


But Juan on the other hand??? He's already having issues...LOL! But I've got some activities planned for the both of us that will hopefully keep him distracted... I'll keep you posted.

Be well