I love a blog that begins with a Grease 2 reference! Just so you know, if you are a G2 hater, I don’t want to hear it, and will just post the next blog with the entire soundtrack! Oh how I wanted to be Michelle Pfeiffer and have a Cool Rider for my boyfriend.

Greetings and happy end of summer vacation! So it’s back to school, again! Where I live, school has started and what you’re hearing from the general direction of the Atlanta metro area are moms’ and dads’ exuberant cheers! It’s so damn hot here, the kids might as well be in school. The pool feels as warm as… well, I won’t go there because, let’s face it, that’s pretty much what it probably is. We’re all sick of the sweating, the too-often-3-showers-a-day routine, and having to exercise before 9 am or after 8 pm, which for me, means not exercising. We are Over. It.

So I welcome the open doors of the schoolhouse with a happy heart and smiling face. I am grateful that the angel teachers of my 2 children will educate and entertain them for the next 9 months.

Summer vacation wasn’t bad or anything. We actually had a fun summer, despite not scheduling a bunch of camps. The kids both were anti-camp; they just wanted “to play outside with their friends.” So, that’s what we did a lot of the time and it worked out much better than I thought it would. For me, that is. I guess they learned how to be bored, and so did I. And in the end, we didn’t get bored all that much.

We went on some trips to keep from going stir crazy. We visited with family and friends, we went to the beach, and we got to go to Denver for a few days. We went to Six Flags and Stone Mountain. We swam and played some tennis.

And we read. Since the kids had refused all things camp, I implemented afternoon reading sessions in hopes that our brains would not completely shrivel up. The kids picked books from the county library and the Carnegie library. I came up with my own summer reading list:

1. Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin

2. Classic American Short Stories edited by William Roberts

3. No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy

4. Roots by Alex Haley

5. Does the Noise in my Head Bother You? by Steven Tyler

6. Stories I Only Tell My Friends by Rob Lowe

Yes, I like literature and celebrity tell-all’s. I will often buy a New Yorker and a People magazine at the same time. I must admit, though, when I had problems with my Nook Color (I forgot to register my new debit card), it was a bit embarrassing that the problems were with the Steven Tyler and Rob Lowe books and NOT something more literary, like the Alex Haley. The B&N rep reassured me when she told me, “oh yeah, you’ve got to get this Rob Lowe book, it’s really good!” I told her I was an English major and embarrassed; you would think I was admitting to reading porn. I guess you could argue that they are the same thing….but that’s another blog.

I would recommend them all. I’m still working on Roots. It’s gotten rough and I can’t read it at night so it’s taking me a bit longer to get through. It is an incredible book, though.

We cooked some, but not a lot, and nothing very exciting. My son is becoming a young chef; he loves to cook and as he says, “make concoctions.” He makes his own eggs now, and made a solid pan of stuffed shells. My daughter enjoys it to a degree but has a shorter attention span. She did start up a make-believe restaurant this summer, complete with apron, real dishes, straws, and food made out of paper. Together, we made lots of desserts, popsicles, smoothies, and homemade soda.

And there was the inevitable too-much-tv and video games, the whines when the friends were on vacation, and one “Maybe I should’ve done some camps.” There was the reminder that we are a one-income family, in weird economic times, and we couldn’t do everything the kids wanted to do, when they wanted to do it. I even went through my own school withdrawal, surprising after I thought it was going to do me in. But I’ve worked enough summers in the past to know that I was lucky to be off this summer with my kids, who get bigger and more independent each day.

I reconnected with friends, family, my husband, and my children. I read lots of books. I saw the Rocky Mountains. I slacked off on my blog. I know more than anyone needs to know about Steven Tyler and Rob Lowe. I wrote a grant. I watched a lot of Bravo and Food Network.

That’s what I did on my summer vacation. How about you? I would love to hear from you all.

Take care of yourselves and each other,

Katie

Zoe