What I did this Summer...

Welcome to my novel!! It was suggested that I edit down and I think that is probably a good idea but I post so infrequently now that I am going to leave you with the long version, it will keep you busy for a few days!

One can only hope that people catch on to this and do the same. The infamous "What I did this Summer.." essay everyone was required to write at the beginning of the school year during nearly ALL of our school years I think should carry on to our adulthood. I mean think about it. When do we sit down and write about what we did in the past few months.. Janunary? At the beginning of the year? Yes maybe some do, I don't. I should, but I don't.
So when I read the "What I did last summer.." over HERE I thought it would be a great idea to do my own and see how many of the rest of you followed suit.

My summer started in April, April 1st, April Fools Day.. you know when everyone gets married. Ok not everyone but I did! I love that April Fools Day is my wedding day. It was also the wedding day of BOTH sets of my grandparents, it seems so special. The following week we went to Nags Head for our honeymoon which turned out to be wonderful! We had a great time, even though it was way to cold to enjoy the beach for longer than an hour or so at a time. It gave us both a chance to explore Nags Head and the surrounding areas without feeling like we had wasted beach time!

The following week after we had a baby! That is right I got married one week got a puppy the next. :) Our sweet little Binky Boo! She is the most wonderful joy! All 3.1 lbs of her!! She really hasn't grown all that much since we got her, maybe a little but not much. Not a day goes by that she doesn't do something to make us laugh out loud. She is the best entertainment and has brought my husband and I even closer together. Binky likes to spend days with her Daddy outside working (aka chasing her best friend Pitty Kuss all around the yard) and nights with her Mama relaxing and reading a good book or watching Law and Order.

Over the next few months we just got into the normal routine of being married, enjoying each other and our time together. Drake finished up school, passing on to the 5th grade (by a miracle I am sure) and spent his first summer in his life with nothing to do! I did not make him join any clubs or programs for the first time ever. He seemed to enjoy the late sleeping and the lazy days of doing whatever he wanted.

I spent quite a few days on the road over the summer with work. 99% of that time I spent the evenings with the sister person. She is such a fun person, and to be able to say that after 25 years I still love her is amazing. Most of the people I considered friends in high school have gone by the way side and I saw them for WHO they are and they weren't people I wanted in my life forever. This summer the sister person and I spent our birthdays together for the first time in 17 years, give or take a year or two. I technically still owe her for her day, she has a day coming of pedicures and whatever dinner she wants. Our birthdays are exactly 2 weeks apart and when her birthday rolled around that week was very busy for both of us. (see i haven't forgotten your day). I have to say this year was a birthday I will remember for a long time as it brought back memories of days gone WAY by.

I started school this summer. I know a little backwards, but I did. I finished up those classes this week and I have a two week break. I know I passed Law with a solid A+ 98.5 to be exact. Math I am not so sure about. I am waiting on the last part of my final to be graded. I either squeaked by with a A- or a B+. Considering the amount of time I have been out of any sort of formal schooling I am proud of my grades.

My oldest son got his learners permit this summer. I haven't had the pleasure of having him Drive Mrs. Waterman's Wife around yet, but hearing the stories from my mother is enough to keep me wondering if I want to partake in that pleasure. By the time I had my learners permit I had been driving for years, even a stick shift (even though I have yet to master hills with a clutch) so when I got behind the wheel for the first time legally I just took off like a bat out of hell and haven't slowed down since. My son on the other hand had not been behind the wheel of anything bigger than a lawn mower until about 2 months prior to being legal and had never driving on anything with lines, I think the most he ever did was drive the truck across my mothers yard. Times are so different. My father likes to tell me the story of the time he was stopped by a State Trooper at 14 years old because the tail light on the car was broken. The trooper took him home to his father and the trooper informed my grandfather that Joe had no business being on any road driving. He was only 14. My grandfather promptly informed the trooper he didn't see why the hell not since Joe had been driving around town since he was 10 and hadn't been in a accident ever! I myself was 14 when I took my first spin on state owned highways.

My daughter is 13, what a strange age. We have spent this summer enjoying each other and learning about each other. We have started a new tradition, every two weeks we go have pedicures together and once a month have the eyebrows debushed. I wish I had time like that with my mother when I was younger. Wait Wait Wait no I don't! I wish I had time like that when I was younger with my sisters mother. And sometimes I can remember laying in her bed in the little cottage in Cherry Point talking to her. I was a little older than 13 but not much. My daughter got her first cell phone this summer, which by the way I have possession of at the moment until she can pay me the $25 she owes me for her text bill! My daughter hates the color pink, which is very funny since I did too at her age. Now it is one of my fav's.

My baby turned 10 this summer. It has been a decade since I held an infant at 2 am with a bottle, and I hope it at least another decade before I hold another one at 2 am! I do not miss those nights. What I reflected on was his first decade on his birthday, I remembered how bright his smile was as a baby. What his little feet looked like. His first step. His first word (which was mama) the first day of school, the first time he played contact football, the first bike wreck, the first fist fight. I thought of all the times I spent with him laying on my bed watching some crazy movie on TV. I thought of the summer I read the Wind in the Willows to him every night before bed. My little man is growing up. Even though he still likes Mama's hugs and reassurance I have learned that it is not ok in public. He likes his independence and has no desire to have a "baby sitter" when the husband and I go out. I have that luxury of not having to get one since the mother in law lives right next door and it makes the kid think he has his independence when in truth he doesn't. He is being spied on. He has shown that he does not want to leave home when I am out of town and wants to stay here with the Waterman when I am gone. I can honestly say my family no longer has a baby, or small child. My family now has a young man who is more than a hand full but we love him anyway!

The family has spent a considerable amount of time fishing this summer (some people like golf we like fishing). Dude has the luck with the fish, the Waterman spends so much time getting fish off of Dude's line that he hasnt' had much luck this summer. Did I mention that the sharks are taking over around here and we have caught way more than we actually have wanted too? The first 10 were fun and exciting as they fight and pull and you actually have to work really hard to get them in the boat. But you know you have caught one too many when the 10 year old states rather matter a factly .. I got another damn shark.

I have read many good books this summer, even though due to school not near as many as I would have like to read. I have read so many books in my life that I can't even begin to name them all. I am going to have to thank the sister person for the gift of reading she gave me. I am not even sure if she knows this. But my love of the written word is her fault. I hated to read before that summer in Cherry Point. Even though that was an exciting summer it was still laced with sadness and disappointments that teenage girls should not have to deal with. It was that summer I noticed the small book shelf in her room that was over crowded with Sweet Valley High books. I picked up book number 13.. yup that is me.. never start with number 1. I even started the Harry Potter books at number 2. Either way Jessica and Elizabeth quickly pulled me into their perfect world at Sweet Valley, even though the girls dealt with their own troubles and boyfriend stealing friends they weren't dealing with the sadness and disappointments I was going through in my real life. To be honest even as I opened that first book I knew that I had already dealt with more in my life than Jessica and Elizabeth ever would but that is what I needed. I needed somewhere to retreat, somewhere to hide, somewhere no one knew me and that summer Sweet Valley High was my escape from the world in which I had to live. Since that summer I have explored the Pyramid's in Egypt, visited Ruined Castles, met Magical creatures, solved mysteries, cried at deaths of friends, shared in the joys of marriages and births, rooted for the underdog, celebrated justice served, as well as being part of many adventures in the past and in the future. All by opening the cover of a book. There have been many many good ones and a few bad ones along the way. In my life I have never jumped ahead and read the last chapter for fear of missing the importance of something in between, I have never stopped reading a book completely. There have been times I put one down due to lack of interest but later picked it back up and finished it because it nagged at me. There has only been one book in my life that I can honestly say I wish I had never read, American Psycho, that book has been the start of many bad dreams. That was the one book I wish I had put down and not picked back up. I hated that book from Chapter 1 but continued reading because I needed that guy to be caught, he wasn't. So to my dear sister, thank you for saving my life, because without the retreat to worlds and lives other than the one I have lived I am not sure I would still be living it. (morbid .. yes a little sorry)

Good Lord! Who knew that writing a summer essay would get this long. I am no where near complete with my thoughts but this post is very very long and I have yet to add the pictures! (which I will come back and do since I need to resize them)

So you see.. writing this short essay is a wonderful reflection! Come on guys write your own I want to see where it will lead you!!!!


Smooches to you all!