The Summer...So Far

It's been forever since I've had a real blog post. I read somewhere that you're not supposed to acknowledge time away from your blog or apologize for it. I think that's funny but even so, I won't apologize. Life happens, ya know?

So, the summer. The Mister spent most of his summer in Jacksonville at Staff Sergeants Course. If you're not familiar with this, it's basically a bunch of Marine Staff Sergeants getting beat down with PT (Physical Training or exercise to you and me.)and supposedly learning how to become better Staff Sergeants. No biggie. He was able to come home every weekend and even some week nights. The girls and I manage quite well on our own. I enjoyed not having to cook hardly at all this summer. With the Mister gone, the girls and I ate light and had many "catch whatcha can" nights.

The oldest child celebrated her 13th birthday back in July. She had two different sleep overs for it and managed some pretty good loot. She got a new cell phone, some clothes, DS games, and her first real, not play, makeup.

My 32nd birthday was 6 days before hers and I spent it at home. I honestly don't remember if the Mister was home, if we went out to dinner, or what. My own birthdays mean very little to me.

The youngest child has been herself. She's made a couple new friends in the neighborhood and has stayed busy, out and about, all summer. Oh. And we've decided to home school her this year. Maybe I'll talk about that in a separate post sometime.

Work has been pretty crazy for me. CRAZY!! I've had several big projects due this summer and with the kids home and the Mister gone, I've been busy. I even worked overtime for the first time last month. I may or may not have a couple new clients lined up for the coming months as well. I'm pretty ambivalent about that. Don't get me wrong. I'll be grateful for the work but I'm to the point where I'm happy with my the steady clients that I have now so if these new ones don't work out, I won't be too sad about it. In addition to my consulting work, I've been trying to write for another blog that has to do with social networking and working from home. It's really tough keeping up with two blogs let me tell ya.

Also, the Mister and I are on the very cusp of being officially open for business with the soap project. We've made three new and improved batches that we are taking to Ohio (more on that in a minute) that we plan on hawking to friends and family to sell. I've redesigned our website, designed a logo, made cigar labels, and we are just about ready to open our virtual marketplace. More on all this in another post as well but feel free to ask any questions and pass along the word!!

So, Ohio. We are planning a trip there. This will be our first, for real, honestly, planned trip to Ohio that we've ever taken. We've gone for weddings, funerals, illnesses, and to pick the kids up but never just to visit. The last two times we tried to plan a trip, someone in our family died. I kid you not. The last time, almost two years ago, the week we were going to go, my brother-in-law was killed in an accident. We hadn't even told anyone we were coming cuz we wanted it to be a surprise. I'm telling you what though, if someone dies this time, I will never plan another trip to Ohio again. That would just be too freaky. We have lots planned. We are taking the oldest child to Cedar Point. It will be her very first trip there and she's very excited. It's almost a rite of passage for someone from Ohio. The youngest isn't going because she won't ride rides. She'll be hanging with her cousins and grandparents. My step mom is also treating us girls, and my sister, to a day spa. They're getting mani/pedi's and facials while I get my hair cut and colored. I'm not much for having people touch me so I opted out of the other stuff. We're also going to a zoo. We haven't decided between the Indianapolis Zoo or the Columbus Zoo yet. We're also going to try and fit in a trip to COSI in Columbus. I used to LOVE going there when I was a kid and I would really like to take my girls there. Man. I'm kinda tired thinking about all that, lol.

Anyway, we've made a couple trips to the beach but not nearly as often as I would like to have. I timed it the other day...From the time we get up, get ready, and drive to the beach, it takes us two hours till we hit sand. Two hours makes it so that we don't get to go as much as I would love to go.

To fill in the nights, I've been watching some new TV shows. I really like True Blood and Hung. They're fun and pretty over the top. The Mister and I have also started watching Nurse Jackie on HBO. I love that show. I've been a fan of Edie Falco's from when she was on the Soprano's. Old summer shows we're still watching and loving are The Close, Raising the Bar, and Weeds.

I've also been reading again. I read the entire Sookie Stackhouse series (The books from which True Blood is based.) in a week, lol. I downloaded them all to my Kindle app on my iPod. I've also been reading my English Royals non fiction books as well. I'm reading a book about Henry VIII's wives and a book about Mary Queen of Scots. I'm really enjoying them both. They make me miss watching The Tudors less, lol.

I don't think anything else of significance has happened this summer. It's been relatively quiet. The Mister graduates from his training on Wednesday and we leave for Ohio on Saturday. We'll be back a couple days before school starts and that will be the end of summer. I'm a little sad about that. I look forward to summer all fall, winter, and spring and it just doesn't seem to last long enough.

So. What did you all do with your summer?