pause for a summer...

Pause for a moment... no, actually, pause for the whole summer...

There. We had a good summer.

Lots of swimming, lots of roller coasters and even a stagecoach (my own favorite). Casey had a gymnastics meet for Future Stars, the elite track for kids who excel beyond their allowed levels. He did qualify to go on to the Regional Future Stars as one of the top three in the state of California for his age and level, but between the pressure Casey felt, the fact that the required routines turned out to be completely different from what he had worked so hard at all summer, and the fact that none of his teammates would be joining him, he decided to opt out of Future Stars for this year and continue along the regular track of competitive gymnastics. It's really the first time he's decided to pull back from a challenge like this, but it felt to all of us like the right thing to do, and he was the one who decided. He'll be happier, he'll get to be with his teammates and he can work on the usual level 7 routines and know he can do well and have fun.

Riley went off to High Altitude Running Camp, where he ran and ran and swam and ran more up in the Sierra foothills with his Cross Country teammates and some of his favorite coaches. It was the first long sleep-away camp for him and he did great and had a blast, according to his coaches.

And besides the fun stuff of summer with two 11 year old boys, we had other stuff going on. Paul left his job at Zynga and is now actively searching for a new, happier job situation. So there's all the anxiety and uncertainty of health coverage, money and all the rest that goes with being unemployed. Again. It's not like it's new, so we know how it goes. Here's hoping this time is easy and short.

Go ahead, I tell myself, pick a star and open it up, see what wisdom it can give you this time round. Though ironically enough since I picked all the quotes and wrote them on the strips and made all of these fun little lucky stars, all of the messages are already in me somewhere waiting to be applied...

 At least it all has been reminding me to slow down and just breathe. Savoring the fleeting moments seems like a healthy respite from worrying over the unknowns, along with a realization that everything passes. This phase will pass soon, just like summer has. And it's raining outside, in September. It never rains here in September. Wild things happen all the time.