Wow. I can't believe summer break is almost over. And yeah! Summer break is almost over! As usual I'm torn in a bipolar split that keeps me feeling like I'm always on the edge of sanity. It's motherhood - a bipolar disorder. If I ever write a book that's going to be my title. Don't steal it.

We've been having a great summer. We had a great family vacation in the hills of Alabama, the girls have been swimming their hearts out in swim team, Isaac has gone from swimming like a cat in bathwater to a fish in the ocean( a fish in a large flotation device and turtle goggles that is.) I just returned from a fabulous girls weekend from Blowing Rock, NC with Tim's mom and sisters. (We went zip-lining because we are such extreme adventurists you know.) And don't ask me about the Blowing Rock because we didn't actually see it there was far too many other things to do like eating. It's all been just fabulous. But I find it tends to be more fabulous when I'm not with my children 24/7.

I think I started out the summer on a positive note which is far better than most years. And that was a fairly good first three days and then things kinda went downhill after that. It's usually about a week into summer when I start questioning why I don't have a job and I realize I was never meant to be a stay-at-home mom. Sure, I've been doing it for 10 years but I think it's all just a fluke that it worked out this way. (A fluke that the doctors called baby "A" and baby "B".) But I've hung in there, six weeks into summer vacation and no one's gotten seriously injured. I've shunned a few children and bitten off some heads. Thankfully they were mostly my own children. Some unsuspecting child of mine would walk up to me and ask me the same thing that I'd just answered two children ago and I would respond with "WHAT??!" and "go away" and "I'm sure it's not bleeding that bad, just put a band-aid on it". It's love at it's lowest point. Or they would say something totally uncalled for like "mom". Hey mom this and mom that and it only took hearing the word 50 times in one hour and my head would start to spin wildly around and my eyes bug out and I would begin to drool like a werewolf. Not my best look.

Speaking of lowest points - Phoebe finally kicked the bucket. Actually, we took her to the vet and they helped her with the kicking. It's sad. It was an awful day but we knew it was time and I knew Tim was taking her to her final destination, not me. I think Tim knew that too when I said "Tim, I'm not taking her". We stayed away from home that entire day but eventually you have to come home to an empty house. I'm still looking around for her and hearing her which makes me sad and almost makes me want to get another dog. Almost. The kids want a puppy yesterday. Tim and I are enjoying the dog-poop-free life right now. So we'll just see what the future brings.

Well, I think that's a pretty good summarization of our summer so far. There of course is so much more to share that I'm sure I'll write about in future blogs. It's been fun, thrilling with a lot of crap thrown in but hey, at least we don't have to scoop it anymore.