I can't believe the second week of school is almost over (the third week for Karlye). This summer just flew by in a blur. Most of the things that make summer feel like summer to me didn't happen nearly as much or at all this year. I started a second job in December, so I worked more this summer than any in recent memory. That meant more chores for the kids, less get togethers with friends and less day trips to do fun stuff. Until last year we had a whole gang of neighbor kids hanging out and playing almost every day, but a couple families on our block moved and it's been really quiet around here ever since. Overall the weather was pretty cool, so we didn't hit up the beach much and we only went to the pool once. No family camping trip and no family vacation. We had the "fun" and expensive task of rebuilding our increasingly precarious deck instead. On the plus side, we now have a safe and gorgeous deck over twice the size of our previous one with stairs leading down to the back yard. Hooray for that!

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