so this is summer???

The phrase "summer vacation" generally brings to mind images of ice cream cones, lazy days by the pool, eating lunch outside, bike rides, baseball games, and the like. According to that definition, my "summer vacation" hardly qualifies. We kicked things off with a two-week experiment in Parenting 101. Rey and I were chosen to house sit/babysit? (not quite the right word...stay with?) two teenagers from our church while their parents went to Scotland for the graduations of their other two children. Our main responsibilities were driving them to school and feeding them. Ok, seems simple enough, right? Well, why not make things a little more interesting by scheduling this right at the end of June when we have to be packed up and moved out of our old apartment and into the new place by the 30th. Ok, so the game plan is, take the kids to school in the morning, go to our old flat, spend the day packing and cleaning up, get the kids from school, start dinner, and crash by 10:00. Go team Phillips. :) But that still seemed a bit too easy, and we like a challenge, so why not throw an infected cavity in there for Rey just to spice things up a bit? When he was finally in so much pain that he agreed to go to the dentist, his blood pressure and sugar levels were so high they couldn't do anything for him until they came down. So that left me rushing to the emergency room two nights in a row so he could get an injection of painkillers and left him so drugged up for the next week that I was suddenly a single mother of three. We somehow managed to empty our old place and bring it all to the new apartment, but that girl wasn't leaving until the 30th, so once our housesitting gig was up, we were homeless for a few days. Living out of our car and plastic bags and sleeping at Rey's parent's house, we managed to survive.

At this point, I've had enough excitement for a while and am ready to just get into our new house, start settling in and begin unpacking and organizing everything. It's Friday morning, Rey's tooth is out and healing nicely, and we are getting ready for church in the morning. After church we are finally going home. Or so we thought. We got a call in the morning from India: one of Rey's uncle's has passed away. He had cancer and had been suffering for quite some time, so it wasn't exactly shocking, but still. Rey's dad was close to him, so he decided to go to India for the funeral. And if Rey's dad was going, then his mom was going. And if both his parent's were going, Rey should also go too so he can help them out. So instead of settling into our new place, we spent the day getting flights, packing, and rummaging around for Rey's clothes. They flew out that night leaving me alone for a week in a house full of boxes. I spent a fairly quiet week unpacking and setting up as much as I could, although for those of you who know Rey and know about his obsession with electronics and wiring, there was only so much I could do by myself.

Thankfully now, things are pretty much back to normal. The house is unpacked. We've painted some walls (a topic of a future blog post). The outside temps are a steamy 110* that feels like 120. Things are as they should be. There have been no days lounging by the pool, baseball games or picnic lunches. Instead I've enjoyed teenage-sitting, a drugged up husband, and unpacking. But on Tuesday, Rey and I leave for our three week vacation in India where fried bananas, elephant safaris, tree top apartments, and houseboats await us. It certainly wouldn't be called a "normal" summer, but since when have I done what's "normal"? :)

Happy summer!