9.5...officially.

Nine and a half.

I know, I know.  You're asking what the big deal is.  The honey and I decided to celebrate a half anniversary this year.  Various reasons behind the idea.  This is my version of the story:

I bought a groupon a few months ago for the bed & breakfast where Chris and I stayed on our wedding night.  Our wedding anniversary is always around MLK Jr. weekend so technically we always have the option of the 3 day weekend.  But let's face it.  Our anniversary is exactly 3 weeks after Christmas and January is not a good time of the year for us financially.  Which is exactly why we have arrived at 9.5 years of marriage and the only time Chris and I have been anywhere by ourselves-NO KIDS-was our honeymoon.  (Yes, I still feel like I have to justify being away from them.)

I decided that since I was still on my summer vacation that we should take a night out of the weekend and cash in on this one-in-a-9.5-year opportunity since I know that our decennial anniversary will probably be a nice dinner.  (If we're fortunate enough.)

I have to say that it was so nice to have my husband's undivided attention even if it was a short period of time.  Even better was not having to play paper, rock, scissors to see who was doing bath/bedtime with the babies.  It also was the perfect end to a delightfully short summer.  (Did my use of the word "delightfully" remind anyone else of the Hooter's slogan?)

Now, here's the version from Chris that I promised:

Dawn and I are going to a hotel for the night.

*sigh*  Such a romantic!

I can't write a quick blog without giving proper credit to my mommy, AKA Super Gra-nanny, for caring for our offspring so that we could enjoy some time together.  I'm so grateful for her because I never have to worry about the kids when they're with her.  (I do have to worry about her, though!) :)  Of course, she did say something about having 2 messes to clean up within the first 10 minutes that they arrived to her house.   Blah, blah, blah I say!  That, my dear, is what has made my summer so entertaining!

July: The most depressing time of the yeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaarrrrrr!

(Note:  Title to be sung to the tune of Most Wonderful Time of the Year.)

Yeah, I said it. 

I should probably clarify that this mainly refers to teachers.  Our emotions can be accurately depicted with a bell curve.  From spring break until May we become increasingly less crabby happier.  After we have locked our classrooms or offices for the last time in a school year, we skip away at the height of our curve completely ignorant that another school year is peaking around the corner.

The peak starts to drop on June 30th.  On July 1st we awaken panicked and depressed because the summer is almost over.  We've accustomed ourselves to indoor hermit crab living and now we have to start preparing ourselves to enter the world of the living as pale zombie creatures scratching our way back to the laziness of summer.  Week 2 of July is usually a panicked succumber to time's constant passing with a realization that we have to do SOMETHING to classify the waning summer as somewhat productive. 

All the while, housework responsibilities tackled in the first week of summer vacation are creeping up because the last few weeks have been an emotional blubber of self-disappointment, self-pity, and last-minute plans "before the summer ends."  The downward spiral has already overtaken any power the already debilitated teacher has left. Thus the bell curve wins again and we bottom out just in time for all the kiddies to tell us their perpetual animated stories of what they did during summer.

Let's face it.  Summer is like chocolate.  We ALL love it but hate how we feel after shamelessly overindulging.