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-Summer is finally here. Today. We are madly making double-sided fleece blankets for the senior boys who are leaving TOMORROW for BYU! They graduate tonight, leave tomorrow. We have two done, two to go. They are a big reason my girls made it through the year! We will really miss them.

-Sydney is going to two after school parties until 9 p.m. These are parties that about a month ago she wouldn't have even known about. She would have come home and we would have gone to get an ice cream or something :) My loss, their gain. She's excited.

-Brett's yearly convention is downtown for the next three days. I remember coming a year ago, before we had moved and bringing my mom to house hunt. Remember mom? Wow, it's been a year. In some ways, it feels like it's been 5 years and in others, well no, it feels like it's been about 5. Syd, Kate and I are going to stay in his sweet suite at the Ritz!! Wohoo!! tonight. Tomorrow I think we'll explore the city while he's in meetings. Kind of like a mini vacation right in L.A. I want to go to the Grammy museum, that one pancake restaurant that always has that line around the block. I want to go to Olvera Street and maybe Union Station. Yeah, Union Station for sure. I want to go explore Disney Hall. I love the architecture! So that should be good.

-I have a month left before France. Is it too late to get in complete shape in one month? See, I just don't do it. I'm in the middle of 2 reeeeaaaally good books right now. I figure that now that it's officially summer, I can spin or bike every single stinking day and lose 8 pounds in 4 weeks and become a fitness animal. The France part is good to go. I've studied the route, the places we're eating, staying, exploring. I am so excited. But the biking part....the part where I get used to that seat, my thighs get used to pedaling up hills....eeeeh. Tomorrow training begins. Tomorrow I say! Speaking of France, there is this french gentleman who has a booth at the Farmers' Market that has the best and I mean the best French croissants and brioche. I just discovered him last Saturday. I am counting the days until this Saturday. Now, I know that eating a chocolate croissant doesn't "technically" get me ready for France in a "practical" way, but really it "does" get me ready in an emotional way. It makes me appreciate the culture, which I will need to do in order to leave my children for 9 days. Not looking forward to that. No seriously, I'm really not. Even for France. So-these croissaints..I will invest in this emotional bonding with France. How many calories does one of those babies have anyway?

-Life is sweet. I think this each time I have enough money to buy Rainier cherries at the farmers' market and eat them one by one. I think this each time I buy fresh light pink daisies to put in a vase, and I think this each time I pull Kate out of the bath or the pool and wrap her in a big warm towel. I know life is good when I drop off Sydney at school and then I get to come home and choose what to do with my day. I know it is good each time I get a letter from my son. I know it is good each time I stand up and take a stretch or play a song on my piano. I know it is good every time my cute husband comes home from work and Kate yells "DAAAADDDYYYYY!" As my friend Melinda always says...I am blessed.

Summer is here!