"I'm leaving for good.....waiting for my ship to come in...leaving for good....leaving las vegas" (insert lake martin). This was playing as we pulled out of Eden Drive this past Tuesday. Quite appropriate since we had packed our bags from the summer and were not planning on being back at the lake until late August. It's sad to leave a place that holds such fond memories, a place where we spent a majority of our summer. Luckily, the next song cheered me up with Ray's Charles' 'Georgia"....
"I said Georgia, Ooh Georgia,
no peace I find,
Just an old sweet song
Keeps Georgia on my mind"
Back to Atlanta, back to school which starts next week, back to the cell phone ringing, me spending hours on the computer 'catching up' and the kids watching cartoons. It was also nice to see our friends, neighbors and our house....our Smyrna house.
We had a few visitors out this month to entertain us as well. Thank you for the fun times!
I will look back fondly on the past few weeks and laugh at all the funny things the kids have been doing. Olivia and Zach's newfound bravery of going life jacket..less off of the dock. We are truly amazed at their swimming proficiency this summer. They love to swim from dock to dock with me. I'm breathing heavy when I make that swim, so I'm especially proud of my 5 & 6 year old for doing it. The look on their faces said it all. They were proud of themselves! Zach and Olivia love to jump off of the dock doing cannon balls or dives. Olivia learned to dive over the last several weeks, Zach is still practicing. He has, however, perfected his cannon ball. The other day, he stepped way back, started stretching, forward, backward, cracked his knuckles and then took off running, leapt into the air and came down with perfect form for his cannon ball. It cracked me up. He says "I do better when I stretch".
Unfortunately, both kids have been treated over the summer for molluscum - a skin virus. The 'beetle juice' treatment they received several times at the dermatologist was not easy on them. Their skin blisters up horribly. This last time, Olivia got the brunt of it. She was blistered for days, would barely move and took several naps. This is not like her, so we have decided to let this skin virus run it's course. Ah, the summer of molluscum will not be one we will forget. I felt so sorry for both of them.
Olivia has also learned to tie her shoes (well, my running shoes), but hey, we didn't have her tennis shoes at the lake. Lefty daddy had to teach her since, they tie their shoes differently than I do as a righty. Zach has been very loving and silly, but also right on time with the 5-year old potty mouth. Anything potty related, it has popped out. Olivia has been saying 'damn it' quite a bit, as in when her gerbil gets out of her hands and runs away, she says "damn it, Charlie. Get back here." She's very quiet about it, but I will have to keep an eye/ear on her for this one. Olivia is in deep thought at times too and then I hear, "mommy, I wish I was a wild dog and lived on this island." Or, "I wish I was a lizard and could climb on that tree." and so on. Why does she wish she was an animal? She almost gave up fishing and started feeding the fish the worms. I wondered why we were going through so many cartons of worms as quickly as we were, but I finally understood.
I would say fishing was our favorite morning and late afternoon activity. Olivia was on a tear one evening and caught one bass after another. We mainly caught sunfish during the day. Of course, they would have to put the fish in a bucket to admire. We were typically a 'catch and release' set, except for when the kids forget to release, leave the fish in the bucket over the course of a hot day. That's when you have smelly, dead fish. My favorite dock, the one with 'fish land' was always so shady. I would sit with a book and the kids would fish, baiting their own hooks and taking the fish off. Ahh, good times.
We trailered the boat up to Lake Wedowee, about an hour away by car, one day while Dave was on vacation. The kids caught blue gill fish that day and were very excited.
Dinner with our neighbors was another fond memory. Mark and Cetta came to our house one time and then we went to their house. Of course, Zach had to act like the big man by walking on their sea wall. He fell in. Luckily it was extremely shallow, but he still walked into their house soaking wet and embarrassed. Cetta put his clothes in the dryer and he was a happy camper. Cetta's sister made a book of, what else, LIZARDS! Guess who was Olivia's best friend from that time forward.... so Cetta was out catching lizards with her. They caught a skink and Olivia kept him for 3 days or more. I finally let him go one morning so he would eat. After I told her I released her skink, she quietly went away. I found her a little later and she had drawn on her art easel, a picture of her skink and a broken heart. How very sad..... Mean mommy for wanting the lizard to live. She wasn't too mad at me, but that's how she expressed losing her skink.
Our last week there with Dave on vacation, we spent a good deal of time with our friend Amy S., who has a house on the lake. Mitchell turned 9, so he had his buddies out for a few days of fun. They were so sweet to include Zach (who was only 5). Dave and I were impressed with Zach at being right in the middle of them, playing, showing them how to do the tree swing, the fish hook game - he's a ringer! and all else. He would stand up on the fire pit, so he was their height and was acting like he was the big man on campus! Oh, that Zach..... the tree swing entertained those boys for hours on end. It entertained all of us :-)
Dave and Olivia went on a horse ride one cool morning at Russell Stables. Zach (since he wasn't old enough to ride), played with the two sweet kittens at the barn. Every one of us had a fabulous time!
We had an amazing summer of growth, independence, suntans and bleached out hair.
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