Tag: summer

Summer

Summer was a bit of a whirlwind this year. Paige stayed in Tallahassee, working as a nanny for a local family and taking a class…coming home for beach weekends whenever possible. She also babysat for her cousins and a few other local families and managed to save quite a bit of money for the next semester.

Clay was working two part time jobs, sending out resumés and applying for jobs on handshake and LinkedIn daily, contacting recruiters…and hoping something would turn up. Let’s just say that the environmental field is not what it was a couple of years ago.

Tim and I traveled to North Carolina to visit my mom at the beginning of the summer and to Washington D.C. at the end of the summer.

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Lazy Days of Summer 

It’s officially summer vacation in the VK household!


After slogging through finals week, the kids have finished their semesters. Clay is happily leading paddleboard tours nearly every day and Paige will start her summer job in a couple of weeks. 


Since she has a bit of time before she starts her job, we thought we’d take off for a mom/daughter trip in a couple of days. But in the meantime, we’re all enjoying the slower pace of summer  😊. 


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Looking Forward to Summer 

The spring weather here in Florida has been delightful and Tim and I have been enjoying our evening beach walks immensely. It’s that perfect time of year – not too warm, not too cool – just perfectly wonderful. 


Paige was able to come home for Easter weekend and we had a nice, relaxing family weekend. We had home cooked meals, family movie nights, slept late every morning, (well, the kids did…) and enjoyed lazy beach days. It was wonderful. I think the kids really appreciated the weekend of laziness as they are in the final stretch of spring semester. Clay has final exams this week and Paige has hers next week. 


Paige has been filling out applications, looking for a summer job. Clay will start his summer semester in a couple of weeks and will also be working. I’m looking forward to having the whole family together under one roof again for a few months. 😊

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Happy Days

Clay got home from camp a week ago and has been busy settling back into his off campus house (which is only about 15-20 minutes away from our new house…) and catching up with his roommate. He’s also been doing some fun projects with one of his professors – he spent one day out on a boat in the inlet observing and counting dolphins. He’s managed to sneak in some fishing here and there as well, and he’s been keeping us supplied with fresh flounder!

He had a great summer at camp and can’t wait to go back next year. 

   
    
    
    
    
   
And now, Paige is home too. We picked her up a few days ago and shuttled most of her stuff back with us…only to have to do it all in reverse in another 10 days or so to move her back into her fall dorm. She was very happy she decided to start with summer session – she learned her way, mostly, around campus and got comfortable with a new routine without the hordes that will be there in a few weeks. But she’s quite happy it’s over and that she has a couple of weeks to relax. She’s especially happy that the roommates will be changing. She didn’t have a great roommate experience over the summer…but her fall roommate is wonderful! She’s very excited about fall, and her classes (as a side note, she is only 2 credits away from being a sophomore!), and football games (Go ‘Noles!), and making new friends. 

   
   
    
I’m so happy to have both my kids around for a couple of weeks. I’m so proud of them, both….but I sure do miss them when they’re gone! 

I know this time is going to fly by, though. We are going to be busy scheduling hair appointments and doctor appointments and making sure everything is ready for the dorm (cold medicine? Check. BandAids? Check….) but we’re trying to schedule a little down time as well. 

   
    
    
    
   

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My snapchat story

With both kids away for the summer, I’ve learned to take really fast screenshots of their snapchats so I can see (and share) what they’ve been up to. Coincidentally, I’ve also learned to snapchat, in a middle-aged mom kind of way. 

 I’ll take any method of communicating and keeping in touch with the kids!  
Via snapchat, I learned that the dining hall was serving breakfast foods for dinner…and that Paige and her friend were very excited about waffles!

    
And apparently, they had some free time…

   
I’ve also resorted to stalking Facebook and Twitter on occasion, which is how I found these photos of Clay…

   
 
All the camp counsellors 
   
   
Clay has one more week of campers and then he’s home. 

Paige had a friend visit her in Tallahassee last week, and also received an exciting letter in the mail..

  
     
  

   
And then she came home for the weekend and we went to the beach and talked and laughed and went shopping and had a Nashville (TV show) marathon and had a wonderful, girly visit. 

And then she had to go back. 

But only two more weeks of summer term!

   
   

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I’m on summer Time

  
Summer is flying by. I’m slowly pulling the house together – hanging pictures, and going through the few boxes that remain, and I continue to try to purge stuff. I’m just, for some reason, not in a great hurry to get things done this time around. Usually whenever we move, I’m frenzied about having the house all put together and everything in its place, pictures hung and everything where it belongs asap. This time…not so much. Maybe it’s because the kids aren’t here. I don’t know. But it’s all getting done at a slower pace…and I’m okay with that. 

   
    
 Paige is halfway through summer term at FSU. She had her first mid-term on Friday and has her second one Monday. She’s been exploring the campus and Has gone out to “the Rez” the past two weekends and had a blast. 

   
    
    
    
    
   
Even though I miss her like crazy, I’m really proud of her for getting out there and doing stuff and making friends and (especially) studying! And I really look forward to hearing from her and getting texts and snapchats from her – the highlight of my day!

   
    
    
   
Clay has been working hard at camp all summer. His birthday was last weekend but he wasn’t able to come home…the camp staff had a break between campers and they all went up to the mountains for a 48 hour camping trip and went white water rafting. He loved it!

  
While he was gone, I got his birthday present…

  
Since he’s been missing his bird, Buddy (he had gotten Buddy for his birthday when he was 10, and Buddy died a couple of months ago), we got him a new, baby cockatiel. He named him Dexter. 

I’ve been bonding with Dexter, just a bit. He’s kind of sweet. 

   
    
   
Even the old curmudgeon, Tim, likes him…

   
    
    
   
Clay was able to get away for a quick visit home this weekend. I think he was more excited to meet Dexter than to see boring old mom and dad, but that’s OK. 

   
   
We had a fun day at the beach before he had to head back to camp. I always love getting to spend time with my kids. They’re turning into pretty awesome people. 

   
    
    
    
    
 

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