How I Spent My Summer Vacation

Wow! It has been awhile...but time marches on. School has started, fall is in the air and every Friday night home game....I can hear all the football action out my bedroom window (one of the perks of living a block from the football field).

Life is beginning to take a different shape. Zachary is back in actual school for his freshman year. No more eschool and no more "mom having to teach subjects she was never any good at in the first place!" Miraculously....eschool did work and Zachary is doing pretty good in school....if we can just keep him there. He is still fighting mono and someday's I think the mono is winning.

David is doing very well in school this year. He seems to have adjusted to the transition of a new school nicely. It took him all of about 30 seconds to make the grade school his own. While he has had some hit and miss mini seizures....he has had none at school and no health issues which have made him miss school. He did however just have his 10th birthday....which he got to celebrate with his friends at school. This is a first in a long time....as the last few years he has been sick on his birthday. Yay....we have made it a decade! And what a decade it has been!

Have I mentioned that I bake cheesecakes......and sell them? Well....I do! I actually have played with having a cheesecake business for about 15 years. Due to life circumstances though....it has been an off and on venture, which more times than not was off rather than on. Thanks to local friends and even a few "not so local" friends and facebook.....my little one woman cheesecake show is starting to get some recognition....and dare I say....fans?! So look out world....here comes the Cheesecake Chick!

So....this morning....a beauty of a morning might I add, I was thinking of those old school assignments where when you head back to school after summer.....the teacher says..."I want you to write a paper about what you did over your summer vacation." And I thought about all that I have done, seen, felt, and been a part of over the last few months. So if I were given this assignment....here is what I would write:

What I Did Over My Summer Vacation

What I did over my summer vacation? Well....lets put it this way....there was no vacation involved. I worked! I worked at home, away from home and I baked cheesecakes......many....many....cheesecakes. 

I spent a lot of time running back and forth between home and the ER and home and the hospital. I spent Memorial Day in the ER as well as Father's Day and we watched fireworks on the 4th of July from the 5th floor window at the hospital. 

I began a lifestyle change and found exercise to be more of a friend..... instead of just the acquaintance that it once was. I also finally realized that 30 min. of cardio a day can change blood pressure numbers dramatically. I started on a  road to rediscovering who I really am instead of just who I was allowing myself to become.

I learned a lot about science, ethics, and theology and spent a great deal of time voicing my opinion on all of it. 

I voted in the primaries and became very disillusioned with politics on both sides of most issues.

I learned to breathe and remembered to pray. 

I fell in love with a  cousin who was 4 years old and who taught me that life is short so you have to live it to the fullest. I followed his life as he showed the world that even cancer could not break his fighting spirit. I cheered for him during his high's and I prayed constantly for him and his family during his lows. Finally, when it was evident that God's will was not that Nicky stay here on earth.....I cried. I cried for his family, and yet couldn't help but smile at the fact that heaven had its' newest angel.....who was cancer free (which is what we had all been praying for all along). 

I learned that I have friends. Many good and wonderful friends who have my back, who are there for me at a moments notice, who are willing to push me to be my best self......and best of all.....friends who are willing to stop and say a prayer for me when they know I need it most.

Finally....as summer was coming to an end...I got to actually have some fun. I got to reconnect with old friends, make some new ones..... and just  let my hair down, play a bit and actually enjoy a weekend for once. 

So to sum it all up.....my summer had some pretty good highs as well as some pretty drastic lows. But for the first time in many years....things started to change....for the better I'm thinking..... and nothing good or bad happened that in the end didn't work itself out. 

So folks....as leaves are beginning to show their fall wardrobe and the temperatures are starting to dip.....looking back.....this is how I spent my summer vacation!