Crystal's Stew: Is Summer a Vacation?

Summer has been keeping us mighty busy. The Mister always triples his workload in the summer which means the baby and I have lots of time to go swing and swim and play play play play play and it gives me time to make all sorts of new and delicious treats!!

Instead of photo-bombing you with all the fun I will specifically stick to the fourth of July, (since it is still July.)

Last year, I remember exactly where I was and how I was feeling on the fourth of July weekend. Instead of enjoying the holiday with my family and watching Clara experience fireworks for the first time I was in the hospital, sitting by the Misters side closely monitoring the machines he was hooked up to and doing the best I could to help his pain management. Due to the way he received his injuries and strict hospital regulations I wasn't allowed to speak to any of our friends or family at all. When he did sleep for short bursts I watched the fireworks from his hospital window. (He was going in and out every ten minutes or so.) I started thinking with those three days I had by myself. I have always been a back up plan b, c, d, e, and f kind of girl. If something were to go wrong in life it would be okay because I had all those other plans to fall into. For the first time ever I realized that I didn't have a backup plan. What was I going to do if he didn't make it? Where would the girls and I live? Where would I work? Raising one girl alone was hard enough, how in the world was I going to raise two? The whole experience made me realize how incredibly foolish I had been the past four years that we had been together. No matter how happy you are with your life you absolutely never in a million years know when life is going to throw you a curveball.

Since we both missed out on Clara's first Fourth we were very excited to celebrate with her this summer. On July 3d we packed up the car, headed to the burbs and enjoyed an evening together under the stars starting with a good ol' fashion picnic.