No Place I'd Rather Be

It's the middle of July and I feel like it was just yesterday that I was celebrating the beginning of summer.

My boss (and very good friend) left the company where I work back in April. Since then, my beloved three-day-a-week work schedule hasn't, well, it hasn't really been three days a week. Trying to respond to emails and write on the mornings I'm home with the girls (while Kate tries to press all of my buttons, literally and figuratively)...trying to wait until the girls go to bed (usually, because of lack of discipline on my part, not until 11 pm!) to tie up loose work ends...catching up on emails til 1 or 2 a.m. most nights. It's caught up with me. And I started freaking out last Friday. On my way to a meeting with a non-profit organization I volunteer for, I started to cry. Feeling like I've lost so much of my summer with the girls.

Then I got home and looked at my ridiculous photo archive. Probably close to 1,000 photos of the girls, just since April. And I realized, summer isn't exactly happening as I'd envisioned. But it certainly hasn't passed us by. At all.

I'm not sure I'll ever really feel like I have 'enough' time with my girls. But I must say, we've fit in quite a few sweet summer memories into the last couple months. I didn't quite make a 'to do' list for summer. But if I would have, I'm sure these would've made the list.

Check: Picnics at the splash pad in Powell. Great for those days when work keeps me emaiing on Mondays or Fridays til noon...



Check: Endless fun in our luxurious baby pool...and belly swinging on the big girl swings in our backyard.







Check: 8 really fun Thursday nights with Amy Rand. A Pi Phi from OU who I fell in love with while volunteering there. She got an internship where I work, and stayed with us very Thursday night for two months, as she commuted from Athens to work Fridays til classes ended in June. That's dedication. And it's one of 1,000 reasons why I love her.

Check: Fabulous Summer birthday party (for Sofia Deluca!) outside. Complete with bounce house. And cupcake Temptation.



Check: Memorial Day Parade with the Shiffer girls.



Check: Random nights in the backyard.



Check: Play dates! Not enough, yet. But we had an impromptu play date with the Sotherden girls; and one with Ellen Griffith, too! I don't have pictures to prove it, but we also had dinner with our BFFs, the Brennemans. I even witnessed a real summer tragedy there, when Ken Brenneman (a grown up, not a kid) slipped outside and had to go to the ER for foot stitches. Ouch!

Check: After more than 10 years, my dear friend and former roommate Sarah finally made it back to Columbus. I got to meet her little people and she got to meet mine (and Chris.) My only regret? That I didn't get to spend like 5 more days with her. I adore her.



Check: One fantastic 4th of July weekend. Friday at the pool with all my BFFs from college and their darling kids (really, I think this was my favorite day of the entire summer). Friday night at Red, White and Boom. Monday brought our first Worthington Hills Parade (the best parade ever! I felt like I was in Pleasantville); and Worthington Fireworks.

















Check: Ella and Kate got to see their Uncle Ed and cousins Kenzie and Tyler, from Virginia, for the first time in more than 2 years. That started a week full of funness. So I missed out on Zoombezi Bay + the zoo. I got to take the girls to paint pottery (check) and shopping at Easton.



Check: The obligatory summer Clippers game. Hot dogs and all.







Check: Visit to North Orange Pool with the fam.



Check: Really cool, fabulous party, thrown by our neighbors. For real. The police even came to tell us to keep it down! And you thought I was a boring suburbanite.



Check: Visit with cousin Olivia, all the way from NYC!







Check: Visit with cousin Molly from NYC!



Check: Strawberry picking with Grandma!







Check: Lots of trips to Graeters.



Check: At least one visit with our Youngstown cousins. And our first drive in movie.









Check: Two successful fundraisers. Team Schumacher raised almost $2K for Gracehaven. And I got to profess my undying allegiance to Jim Tressel at a Kids n Kamp event.





Check: First hair cut for my girls! Yes, I chickened out and only got .5 inches taken off. But it was a fun $50 to spend, nonetheless.





And, next time I'm ridiculously feeling sorry for myself, I'll remind myself that just 2 months ago, I took one hell of an awesome 5 year anniversary trip with Chris, to Bora Bora. A year ago, I didn't even realize Bora Bora was a real place.





So, yes, I'd rather actually work 24 hours a week if that's the number of hours I'm getting paid for. But in the scheme of things, we're managing to fit a whole lot of living in this summer, even if it's not quite at the relaxing pace I'd hoped for.

So it's very worth it. Staying up now, til 2 am, to write this post. If for no other reason, than to remind myself that even when it seems like life is passing me by, it isn't. Because as fast as it's going, I am indeed living it.

I can't avoid it. Have to go out of town for work next week. All week. Yuck.

But when I get back, I intend to actually make an end-of-summer 'must do' list, and stick to it. Because as time relentlessly rolls on, I'm constantly reminded that with my girls....there's absolutely No Place (in the world, including Bora Bora), I'd rather be.