I took my kids birthday shopping yesterday to get something special for my husband’s upcoming big day.  We spent much longer at Target than we needed to–does this need an explanation?–so we were away a few hours.  When we got home, the back door of our house was standing open.  Listed in order, we blamed: my 11-year-old son, my 9-year-old son, the dog, the ghost who lives in our basement, and a potential but unlikely burglar.  Both of our domesticated indoor cats took advantage of the security breach and were tentatively high-paw-stepping around in the back yard.  The dog went crazy and chased them around even though he would never bother with such a spectacle inside the house.  After we rounded up the animals, shut the door, and gave up trying to figure out the mystery, another one cropped up.  My sister came over about two hours after my Target trip and discovered the door of my car hanging open.  While it’s true that it was probably my 9-year-old who jumped out and forgot to close it, I decided to go big on an explanation. 

 Come on, in one day I had two doors mysteriously standing wide open?  It’s a sign from the universe! Open doors!  So I checked my email and there was a nice note from my editor at Carina letting me know that I could send any future submissions directly to her instead of going through the slush-acquisitions pile.  Now that’s an open door I’m happy about!

Summer in Ohio is short, but it’s still nice and hot and sunny.  My husband and I have talked about putting in an inground pool for years, and that conversation finally became reality.  I did have hope earlier this year that my New Year’s resolution of playing (and winning) the Lottery would help make this dream a reality, but we sold out to the lure of the home equity loan.

My sage friends all assured me that a pool was a wise parenting move because “you’ll always know where your kids are” and “the party will be at your house, so you’ll have control” and “your kids will be grown up before you know it.”  With a shimmering pool now taking up its share of the backyard, I can confirm that my friends were all correct.  They did forget to mention, though, how many wet footprints I’d find to my bathroom and how much ice cream my freezer would have to cough up.  And the towels to wash every night? I have job security as a Mom.

Seeing my kids have fun in my own backyard is totally worth it, though.  Especially since the monstrously rainy spring has handed over the keys to an exceptionally sunny and dry summer so far. Now, if I could just convince our 90-pound Labrador that he cannot walk across the solar cover, I’d be swimming pretty.