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Nearing the End of Summer

Last night we took the boys shopping for school shoes and football cleats. We ran to the Outlet Mall and ended up visiting three stores before finally settling on soccer cleats instead of football cleats. That's right. Neither Nike, Reebok, nor Adidas carry football cleats for anyone with a foot under a size 9. And, to be fair, only Nike carried those. The other two stores only had soccer and baseball cleats on their shelves. Craziness! We'd have been better off driving into the city and visiting Dunham's.

While we were there looking for football cleats, we decided to get the boys their school shoes, too. We spent more on three pairs of shoes than I did on eight pairs of jeans. I can't imagine how much the bill would have come to if we hadn't insisted on buying sale-priced merchandise.

With their jeans and shoes out of the way that leaves backpacks, lunch boxes, shirts, underwear, and socks. I'm hoping if I wait until the weekend before they head back to school I'll be able to find some killer sales. Hope, hope, hope!

Of course, as I turn my focus to school shopping, I realize my summer is almost officially over. This weekend was our last vacation. I can't complain, though. It's been a great summer. We've spent a lot of time together as a family and that's awesome. We've also seen some great movies (Transformers 2 and Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince are the only two that come to mind, but I'm sure we've seen a couple others). We've celebrated graduations and weddings. We even managed to get our flowerbeds redone with perennials that were abundant and beautiful throughout the long summer months.

It was a good summer.

I'm sad to see it go.

The truth is I'm not sure I'm ready for school to start back up. Keeping track of sports and school schedules, helping with homework, keeping the lines of communication open with the boys' teachers, field trips, and sleep overs is a never-ending race. It's exhausting just thinking about what the next 9 months will likely hold in store for us.

It's also exciting. Every year the kids seem to develop another facet of their personalities. Every now and again you can catch a little glimpse of who they may become, what type of men we'll someday be turning loose into the world. It's nothing short of amazing.

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