Snapshot Saturday or The Summer That Started Out With a BANG!

It's summer! It's summer!

And MM and I have looked forward to this for a month (or more)! Songbird? Not so much. Many of her friends are Seniors and have now graduated. She was very very sad to see them go.
But I must say I belong to the class of mom's that LOVES having her kids home all summer.

So I was in for a shock. I shouldn't have been - but MM was sooooo looking forward to school being out that I wasn't on top of my game.

When I picked MM up from the bus stop she was all smiles and we skipped home. I was in the middle of making a side for a picnic so she went her way and I went back into the kitchen. But, about 10 minutes later I realize she has not asked me for a drink, already bounced out into the back yard or bothered me in any way. And the tv wasn't on. Where is she? Did she sneak out the front door or something???

So I go in search of.

And find the biggest crying, wailing, snot covered, tear soaked, wounded animal sounding mess you ever did see.

WHAT???

So of course I go in and try to find out what is going on.

She misses Mrs. B.

30 minutes into vacation and she's over the top missing the teacher. Wow. And then it comes out about missing Bones also, etc. ect. (And yes, I've had another child that went through a form of this but it just does not compare to the despair and depth of feeling poring off of my little mouse.)

This poor kid. When you say goodbye people disappear forever. I should have seen this coming. After all, even though she was a baby when we got her, those first two times she lost everyone she knew - they had scarred her soul and trust in people to STAY in her life. This is a big reason her attachment to me is so anxious. She's afraid we could disappear at any time and she will have to start all over again. Poor baby. And lets face it - all these military moves only compound the problem. Bad on us.

Of course no amount of consoling or explaining that Mrs. B isn't gone helped. So I had to just set everything aside and sit in a chair with a grieving child soaking me down for about an hour and a half. Not pleasant. And to be 100% transparent - these type of breakdowns tend to make me ANGRY. Angry at the parents that let her go. Angry that there are thousands of children that live with this type of grief. I don't let on that anger to MM, but its up there in my head.

The world is not a fair place.

Luckily we had a going away picnic to attend of a family on our block. (Speaking of which - we have about 12 houses on our block and know 4 families that are leaving in June. We havent even been here a year and we are about to be one of the old families. The house next to us has a new family with college aged twins. Glad they aren't really good looking as I do have a 14 year old. Just sayin.) So I was able to distract MM with the upcoming fun....and it solidified us going as it was rainy and I was considering skipping it.

The picnic was awesome. Chassity - way to go. You know how to throw a party! There were 3 inflatables, a magician, face painter and a guy on stilts that made balloon animals. MM bounced and bounced and bounced and ran and played -- and there was even mac n cheese so she actually ate also. Bonus! We took home one tired little girl! Thank GOODNESS!!! (Songbird was at a friends end of year bonfire -- oh to be a teen again.)

And I did promise to try to get in touch with Mrs. B to see about a quick, private, goodbye for the summer and show MM that she is still HERE.

So first thing Friday morning I got an email back from Mrs. B saying she'd love to see her and she would be up at the school until noon. I put MM in the car and took her for a private goodbye, see you next year kind of thing. And MM was much better. Still cries off and on but its more like my Songbird used to do -- sad but not soul deep.

And from there I took her to the bookstore to pick a summer bridge workbook to keep her up on some reading and math over the summer. I wasn't in any hurry to go home since we have a broken water main in the neighborhood and we were to have no water from 9am to 7pm.

And when daddy got up he called us home and we collected the teen animal and jumped in the car to head for Cincinnati.

There we checked out Jungle Jims. It's a huge collection of shops and a large food store with food from all over the world. And they have thousands of kinds of hot sauces that are funny to browse. We love to try new ones! Hubs found the digestive biscuits he loves from England. And we found the cracker nuts that he used to bring home from Guam. I found the Tabasco soy sauce I love but have a hard time finding. They carry Hubs favorite hot sauce that he has been having to bring back from Texas....and my favorite salsa (Hell on the Red). Like anybody really cares right? They also carry my Lirio soap! (And I checked the package and phosphates are not listed.)

Anyways - on the way home MM got to pick dinner...which means the rest of us had to choke down McD's. And then Songbird wanted to stop at Rue21 at the outlet mall.

And since its Memorial Day weekend there were some good sales.

Which totally rocked because I was supposed to take the girls shopping for their summer clothes before the 6th when we go on vacation. And I was really dreading it as I had just done all that shopping for the DC trip. But I found EVERYTHING they needed right down to the swim suits!!! Yesssssss! (You have no idea how much I was dreading that shopping errand!)

And at home MM got to play out on the back porch with the neighbor girl until 9:50 and then fell into bed about 10pm.

Whew.

I think its going to be a good summer after all.