Summer Daze

So,

On the first day of summer, Marty, Lora Leigh and I all sat down together at the dinner table. And we each made a list of all the things we wanted to accomplish.

I wanted to swim, read, watch movies and lose 15 pounds.

Marty wanted to lead his team to the Legion playoffs, knock off a few household chores and lose 15 pounds.

Lora Leigh wanted to swim, sleep, go the Insectarium, visit Bed, Bath and Beyond, and go see the movie, "Up."

Among other things....

We wanted to go to the World War II museum. That's been on our list for a long time.

I wanted to take Lora to Laura Plantation, where Marty and I were married. And I wanted to take her to ride a streetcar. They weren't around for a while after Katrina, so she's never been on one.

On the first day of summer I took us all out to Walmart and bought Lora a shiny new bike. I was determined that she would learn to ride it so that we could spend summer days riding bikes. That didn't happen. Hard to get a kid with a pool motivated to go sweat her butt off in a 124 degree heat index.

We did go to the Insectarium and to the French Quarter to visit my mom. We bought Pralines and strolled around. Then she dragged her dad back for a second trip to see the bugs. She wanted to go see the Cathedral on that trip, so they did.

But mostly we swam. We stayed up WAY too late and paid for it dearly the next day. We had our annual luau. We made our annual quick trip to Florida. We went to the movies. We spent hours in Bed, Bath and Beyond.

And we watched the days fly by.

Tonight we all sat down with our lists and pens and checked off all the things on our lists that we had done. Marty and I both still need to lose 15 pounds. Lora won. She actually accomplished the most.

I don't know how. Most days she slept til noon. Sometimes later. One day she woke up at 3. It got to the point that Marty would let her sleep just to see how long she could. She sleeps late because we often stay up WAY too late....

She's a night owl, like her mom...

But there was so much we didn't accomplish. And now we're out of time. School starts tomorrow. Tomorrow she becomes a third grader. And I am sitting here wondering just how that happened as well.



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