Wow, it's been way too long since I've posted anything here! Yikes!

Obviously it's summertime. The kids finished school on June 5. They all move on to the next grade and had good report cards. Deborah celebrated her 11th birthday. She had a friend over to spend the night. We ended up taking them to the movies and she went to her first movie "alone." Jason and I dropped the girls at "Up" and we went to see the new Star Trek movie. The movie was awesome and I think Deborah felt very grown-up getting to see a movie with her friend without her parents in the same theater.

This summer has been a little bit different. The kids are doing a summer program with the county's Parks & Recreation department. They really seem to be enjoying that. It gets them out of the house most of the day, lets them play with kids who they're not related to, and gives me time during the day to put in a few hours at work. So far it's been working out really well for everyone. Today it's rainy, so they're staying home and chilling out around the house. I definitely don't want them to feel like they've GOT to be out of the house, so it's nice to have days to just veg out at home.

We took a trip up to PA to visit my grandmother. My folks took a trip out west for 3 weeks and she was at home during that time, so we took the kids up to visit. It was really nice to sit on her porch and enjoy some time together. We had a cook-out one night and that was fun (though Jason did have to contain himself and just build a small fire, not one that the flames could be felt 3 miles away!). My dear friend Tina came by for a visit, which was great.

In the "visiting friends" vein, I also had an opportunity to get together with some other high school friends about a month ago. It was really great. I hadn't seen two of them for more than a year, so it was great to have an opportunity to catch up and visit a bit.

That said, I have once again resolved to be a better friend. These friends that I hadn't visited in more than a year live just a few hours away. I can hop on the interstate and be at one friend's house in under 2 hours. So why did it take us so long to get together? What am I waiting for? Every time we get together we say, "We need to do this more often." So what's stopping that from happening?

I do understand that life is busy. We have jobs, families, obligations. That's okay. Those things are good and important. But I don't want to let relationships with others go by the wayside. I don't want it to be too long between interactions.