Do I only get on blogger to complain? Sadly, it appears so. It is not that this has been a horrible summer, but it certainly hasn't been a great one. Mostly, that is due to the fact that I just don't have any money to take a vacation. Last summer, my mom paid for us to come to California to visit for a whole month. It was great. My mom & step-dad are now retired. They are living in an RV while renovating a home in Montana. The summer before that we had just moved back to Texas, so we were happy to stick around here.
In addition to not taking a vacation, I have had more work that usual for summer. My busy time of year is January through May. This year, I was slammed with work during that time. In fact, I did more in that time than I have done in a year for the last few years. The summer even started off with one of the gigantic killer proposals that I do about once a year. It ends up being anywhere from 200 to 300 pages. We were mostly stuck at the house for two weeks while I worked on it. We were all thrilled when it was over. On the bright side, my company has had lots of success with these pursuits. Hopefully, that means that a little more $ will trickle down to this single mom.
Another thing sucking up my time and money are house issues. I remember hearing that houses start falling apart when they hit 20 years. Lots of things need to be replaced then. This summer has been about repairing things, which means that at 7 years little issues come up. First, my a/c needed more freon, just like it did last summer (guessing next year they'll discover a leak). My clothes dryer has to be reset 2 times to get clothes dry and 3 times for towels. I'm choosing to ignore this problem for now. The pilot light on my water heater would also not stay on. On the bright side, I am quite skilled at re-lighting it now. A repair man tried to say it was because it was in the attic and it is hot up there. Nice theory, but everyone in Houston has their water heater in the attic and not everyone has to re-light it every day. Finally, he returned a week later to replace a little wire and it is working now.
Our summer fun has included the kids being in a week long VBS at a local Baptist church, Tuesday morning movies at the brand new theater near our house, multiple trips to the library every week, and lots of time at our community pools (many are like water parks). These all have one thing in common - they are free. The pools would be really fun if I hasn't flying by the seat of my pants and could line it up enough to invite friends. It isn't easy scheduling life around work. When things seem to be easing up, I suddenly realize we can go do something RIGHT NOW. We basically jump in the car and go. Thankfully, my kids seem to be getting along with each other better than ever. They still argue and bug each other, but they are also playing and enjoying their time together more.
We only have 4 weeks until school starts. I guess I need to figure out a few activities that we can do to pump up this summer a bit. Hmmm.... this will take a lot of thinking since most outdoor activities aren't enjoyable in this heat.
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