I'm back for a while

[ClingingToHope]

Three weeks into summer and things are going well. Had the girls 14 of the past 19 days. I love summer.

D15's job is going well. She's more than halfway to her savings goal for next summer's trip to Europe. As far as I can tell she likes the job and they like her and since it's seasonal and doesn't interfere with theater it could be the job that carries her through high school.

She ended up with a 3.7 in her second semester and a 3.8 for her freshman year. Next year she'll have four honors classes. So all those things are going well.

She had her choir camp last week at a Wisconsin college and she graded it an 8. She got into a dispute at the camp with the only other girls there from her high school. These two used to be friends but this girl apparently is jealous that D15 got lead parts in the plays this year. It caught D15 off guard and she didn't know how to keep the thing from escalating.

For the next four weeks her theater schedule heats up so she'll basically either be rehearsing or working. Not a lot of down time for D15.

With that schedule, I've actually had a lot more alone time with D11. We went to the City Museum in St. Louis and to Lit Fest in Chicago. She's had three different friends over. I don't have my uncle's house for swimming -- he's too old and decided not to open it -- so we've had to go to the beach and the water park. D11 liked having her "own" pool, so it's been an adjustment.

Last night D11 admitted she didn't want to go back to XW's house. She had a bad meltdown last week that at least in part was from XW just being too stressed.

It's exactly what I thought would happen. XW has a one-month old who sleeps a lot so D11 has to be quiet. She can't run around or be loud. If she wakes the baby she gets yelled at. That's very, very tough for D11. She's a bundle of energy on her worst days. Here, it's just the three of us.

D11 also doesn't like the fact that biker guy lives there all the time now and they have to interact a lot more with this other family.

She asked for my advice and I said there isn't much to give other than eventually the baby will get bigger and not sleep as much and she'll "get used to" having the other guy around. My mom married three times. I never liked it, but what could I do about it.

I won't see them again until July 5. Then things speed up. July 5 through July 9 we'll be at a cottage on Lake Michigan with the professor and her daughter. I'm a little nervous about the trip. No internet so they'll have to be off their devices. Plus, D11 and the professor's daughter aren't friendly. They are very different. But it's a big house and we'll have two cars so they can go their separate ways and there's lots of things to do in three days.

Two weeks after that D15 has her play then we use my timeshare for a couple of days in Wisconsin.

Then two weeks after that I have a birthday party for D11 at the water park and we then fly to Washington D.C. I've never been to D.C. I'm probably more excited than they are.

Then two weeks after that -- school.

Still with the professor. With the crazy schedules we find ways to see each other. Dinner tonight downtown while her daughter was with her father. I still don't see happily ever after, but I'm not looking for anyone else. Taking it a day at a time.

Money issues OK. Got a lot of work done on the book for the developer and that with the umpiring money should carry me through the summer. Things will get tight in August and September, but I'll be OK come October. It's still a crazy but now predictable schedule.

Really not much to complain about.