Life according to John

HELLO summer!! Well sort of. School is out, and the pool is open. Kids are running around the neighborhood as we speak. This is my second favorite time of the year. (Next to Christmas of course) When I was in school, I used to look forward to this time of year so much! Going to my Aunt Sally's house in VA Beach...going to the waterfront, watching them make fudge at the Fudgery....it was a great time! My favorite memory from back then was going to this hat store...and picking out a crazy hat every summer! My favorite was the purple and black jester hat!! Anyway, I really don't have a summer vacation anymore. So those days are hard to come by. Now that I've been a 12 months employee for the past few years...my summers are filled of roaming the empty halls at South County and fixing all of the computers and getting the school ready for the next year. But we'll see...this summer could be different.

I had plans of going camping this summer, catching a Yankees game, seeing a show in NYC and possibly going to VA Beach for a long weekend. It's looking like some of that may be possible...and some may not...we'll just have to play it by ear.

However, this summer is starting off a little differently...there has been an addition to my house...WELCOME CJ!!

CJ the turtle just joined us today. CJ was MJ's turtle when she lived at home...and well, let's just say it was time for CJ to find a more suitable place to live.

SO...CJ kinda is a "Father's day" gift...I suppose. More for the girls than for me...and they seem to like CJ. I took him out of the aquarium when they got here..and let him crawl around. Bailey started screaming and ran to the couch. Emma jumped up on the chair and just pointed at CJ. So I picked him back up and put him in the Aquarium. Once CJ was back in the aquarium, the girls were much more comfortable and went right up to him and looked and talked to him.

Bailey was full of questions, asking do turtles talk? What does he eat? Where did his head go? It was so cute watching her and Emma interact with CJ. So I think we'll keep him.

Well, tomorrow is Father's Day. And it's the first Father's Day with just me and the girls. My mom is coming down tomorrow, and the girls and her have put together something for me...Bailey is horrible at keeping secrets and told me that my present is in the closet but that I can't look at it yet. So tomorrow should be fun. We're heading to church in the morning...and I'm so glad that the girls will get the opportunity to go to sunday school for 3 weeks in a row. They only get to go to church when they are with me...and fortunately, they have really taken to FCC, and love going.

So it's Saturday night, the girls are in bed...and I'm looking around the apt...and so glad that it's back to normal. This week has been ridiculous. The A/C -water heater unit...started leaking, the A/C stopped working...the carpet was soaked, and it was really hot in here. The staff here brought a de-humidifier to dry out the carpet...and after about 4 days of that the carpet is finally dry. So I bought carpet cleaner and cleaned the carpet before the kids got home. So now the apt is clean, smells fresh and is ready for the week. The de-humidifier is still here and is rather loud...but hopefully they'll come pick it up Monday morning.

But looking on the bright side, I have a home to live in, where my girls and I can share time, and memories and love. It's not huge, it's not fancy, but it's home and it's our home. So here's to the next 5 months in this apt...and then maybe a change of scenary will be in order. Who knows, anything is possible and God will show me the path to take.

So for all of you that have summer off...enjoy!! Go to the beach, swim in the pool, enjoy it!! Hopefully I'll see you all on the weekends from time to time. Until next time...