Summer!!!

It's been some time since I've blogged!  The past few weeks have been overlapping events and other duties for us here at the Elliott house!

I'm thankful that it is now summer vacation!  I love that I can have some measure of control over my life for a couple of months.  (Although I will still be taking Ian and Jake to their respective workplaces.) 

It is a drag to have kids bogged down every night with hours of homework.  Then there's the early bedtimes, the early wake up calls, taxiing them all over timbuktu, and spending every weekend involved in school projects.  (That is the worst.  There's never much time to recharge the old batteries.)  Our school district is horrible about assigning projects in the middle and high school levels.  It takes so much precious time away from the hard to come by family time.  I have grown resentful over the years.  It gets expensive, too--we go through ink cartridges like they're water.  Those things ain't cheap, either.  I would think our school board and teachers might take that into consideration.

Yesterday was a busy day.  Maria was finished with school on Thursday, Tony had morning rehearsal for Commencement, JohnPaul and Therese had a half day.  I took Therese to Mass before school, dropped her off at school, then picked up Maria. 

We went shopping for a couple of hours...Pat Catan's--a favorite place to browse--bought some fancy ribbon...then went to Auntie Anne's for a warm oven baked pretzel...browsed at Rue 21, then went leisurely  through the whole antique store.  I got her a miniature vase and a gold wooden shoe (knick knack).  She and I like antiques.  We topped our trip off with iced coffees; but poor thing!  She had a reaction to the toppping on the whipped cream--it was a mix of cocoa and cinnamon.  She's allergic to cinnamon.  I thought they just used plain cocoa on it! 

In the afternoon, I picked up JP and Therese and we went to get pizza.  We had a combination lunch/dinner so we could get ready for Tony's graduation. 

The graduation ceremony was very nice.  The only complaint I had was the chaos following.  I remember the same kind of thing after Ian and Jake's graduations.  I would think that the school faculty would work to straighten things out so they'd run smoother.  If there had been a fire, there would have been a stampede, and people crushed.  If I was in charge, I'd dismiss the people in attendance row by row.  Instead, like a zillion ants going in all directions, people take off.  Everyone is in a hurry, yet no one is getting anywhere!  It's a bit like trying to pour a gallon of water thru a straw. 

Tony took off for Miranda's afterwards, then spent the night at Eddie's.  Now he's at Tyler's party.  I bought a cake to celebrate if he ever decides to stay and hang out awhile. 

HUGSxxxAnnie