First Day Off for Summer!

Today is my first day off for summer break! The kids finished on Wednesday, they were dismissed at 10:35 and staff's last day was yesterday! Now I have my summer days ahead of me! Hopefully I will get a lot of mountain and road biking in the next couple of months. And of course today, my first day off, it's pouring down rain! As my husband always says, "Like a cow peeing on a rock!" That's how hard it's raining this very minute. So much for a bike ride today! I guess I can get started on my annual "summer house cleaning" . . . but I just don't feel like it! Sigh.

Besides biking all summer long my good friend and I read about a dozen books together during the summer months. She also works in a school back east. In fact she and I worked in the same school in the early nineties before my husband was transferred to the Seattle area. Every summer we would read a half dozen or so books and then discuss them. Even after I moved we continued our summer book ritual. We still pick a book, read a few chapters, and then share our thoughts on the book via email instead of meeting at her house or mine like in the past. This will be our ninth summer of "summer reading" together.

And another big event this summer; my parents and sister are coming on July 20th for a week long visit. That means the visitor "tours" . . . Seattle, Pikes Place Market, Mount Rainier, a ferry ride the usual site seeing ventures. When they return to Pittsburgh my daughter and I will be going back with them for a four day visit returning back home on August first. Then on August 12th we go on our family vacation. Joe, the kids, and me. This year we are headed to Glacier National Park for some hiking, white water rafting, and some great mountain biking down Big Mountain near White Fish. While we are in Montana we will stop and visit my husband's mom, sister, and brother in Havre and also a quick stop to see his brother in Billings.

By the time we return it will be a little over a week before the new school year begins and I have to return to work.

I feel this summer will be my fastest. It's my first day off and I already feel it's half over! They seemed much much longer when I was kid. Sign of aging? Perhaps, or our hectic culture. Whatever I hope this will be a great summer!