A Summer Well Spent

Summer is coming to an end. When I saw the moon last night, it was a beautiful coral color. Not quite the "harvest moon", but close. The sun is setting earlier and earlier; soon it will be time to change the clocks back. School is about to start. It's time to put away the bathing suits, pool toys and pool chairs. Aauugghh! I love summer. I hate to see it end.

Our summer was great. Kara, Maggie, Emma and I spent a large portion of it at the town pool. There the girls renewed their interest in swimming. They are really quite good. They swim fastest underwater, but their breaststrokes are getting better. Emma is very adept at the backstroke, too. This year, they tried diving. Maggie was the pro on that one. Emma was doing very well at bellyflops but she eventually got the hang of it. The handstands were of the finest quality. I have pictures to prove it.

I couldn't convince either of them to try diving from the diving board. Jumping from the board was cool (cannonballs were a lot of fun), but trying to dive from that distance was too scary for both of them. Maybe next year. Emma is especially looking forward to next year. She'll be tall enough to try the waterslide. Maggie had great fun going down it. Emma would put her goggles on, go underwater and watch Maggie as she landed in the water from the slide.

Kara, the girls and I went to Florida in July. We stayed with Brenda, of course, and had a great time. Brenda's oldest two granddaughters, Hannah (8) and Hope (6) came and spent several days with us. The Titusville Girls' Club was reunited! We went to the beach for some wave action, spent a lot of time in the pool (that was really great because this year everyone could swim without swimmies), and cruised the neighborhood on bicycles (without training wheels!). The nights were spent in the RV that was parked in the driveway. Frank hooked up the electricity (for the AC and lights) and they were good to go! Kara spent the nights with them. She had the bed back in the bedroom and the girls slept on the converted tables and in the loft. The girls got reacquainted with Dakota and met Morgan for the first time. This was a busy two weeks!

Chris came a week later and took his family to visit old friends in Ocala. They had a trip to SeaWorld and spent time on a lake. Maggie and Emma are now old hands at driving a boat. A few days later we went to St. Augustine. It was very hot and humid but we had a nice time anyway. During the times I wasn't with them, Brenda and I had enough to do with all the shopping that was necessary. We had craft stores to visit and so little time! We managed very well, thank you.

After we returned home it was time to get back into a schedule (the pool, that is). Poor Kara had to start working on her room at school so I brought the girls to the pool. We missed her (who?) but we had to go on! We had surface dives to perfect, handstands to practice, bellyflops - er, uh, dives to straighten out. Then, of course, there were the Snickers to eat, pizzas to consume - we didn't have much time left. The race was on! Thunderstorms chased us from the pool a few times. We'd get home and the sun would come out! Jeeze Louise!

Well, school starts Tuesday. Maggie will be in first grade and Emma will be in kindergarten. Kara is still in fourth grade. Because they won't be going to school in their own district, they won't be riding the bus home. I'll pick them up from school on Mondays, Tuesdays and some Wednesdays.

Band practice starts up soon. The Wednesday night suppers at church, along with bell practice and choir practice, will begin September 5. Our 40th anniversary is coming up on September 23rd. Good things are coming - Hallowe'en, my 60th birthday, Christmas. Then there's Easter (I think Jimmy's birthday is on Easter this year), everyone's birthdays in May, then June and then Summer Will Be Here Again! Yea!