Summertime, Summertime, Sum-Sum-Summertime

Hi there, readers.  Did you miss me?  (Don't answer that.)

It's been six days since I put up a post, which I believe is the longest break I've taken since "String of Pearls" was a start-up blog back in March of 2011.  I guess I just needed a short summer siesta.  Make that a long summer siesta. My husband and I have been visiting with about 50 Pearl relatives at the family's lakeside homestead in Upstate NY, and it's just been too busy and chaotic and fun and exhausting (because bedtimes have been thrown completely out the window--and I'm not just talking about kids' bedtimes here; I'm talking about grown-up bedtimes) to even think about firing up the old laptop, much less blogging.  I haven't even had time to read the blogs I normally follow, so I've got a lot of catching up to do.

But summertime is for relaxing, right?  And there's been a whole lot of that going on up here.

This picture of some of my adorable nieces and nephews giving a clinic on what summer relaxation is supposed to look like makes me a bit nostalgic for lazy summer days gone by, when my own boys were sprouts and school was out.  My husband and I are about to pack up the car and head home (and then tomorrow we're winging our way out west, because it's been two months since we saw our granddaughters and we're going through withdrawals), so I don't have time to write as much as I'd like to here.  Instead, here's a re-run of a blog post from almost two years ago, featuring a couple of my sprouts back when they looked an awful lot like their hammock-riding little cousins.  To me, nothing says summertime like a kid-run lemonade stand.

Sunday, August 28, 2011

They're Just Takin' Care of Business

If I wanted to be topical with this blog, I'd talk about Hurricane Irene today, the effects of which we should be feeling here in New England by this afternoon (it's already raining cats and dogs out there); but I just don't feel like talking about the weather. I know, I know: I promised yesterday that I wouldn't obsess about my children and use this blogsite solely for the purpose of posting nostalgia-inducing pictures from their early childhood days. Remember, though: I promised that with fingers crossed...and I just became a true empty-nester, so I think I deserve a little latitude here. It's a tough adjustment to make for someone whose whole identity has been tied up with being a mom for the past 28 years! I think when you look at this little gem of a snapshot, though, you'll forgive me. It's just too cute for words, in my opinion. And I know that just about every apple pie-eating, flag-waving, all-American child has set up a lemonade stand in front of his house at least once in is lifetime. But this lemonade stand is special, you see; it's special because it's my two adorable little businessmen who are running it.

That's my #4 son (now 23) on the left and my #3 son (now 25) on the right. This lemonade stand was son #3's brainchild, of course, because he was the one who was always so interested in money. He liked to earn it, to count it, to spend it; he always insisted on being the banker for epic family games of "Life" and "Monopoly." He became a math whiz before he ever started kindergarten because he became so adept at making change during those board games! My fourth son wasn't the one who came up with the "get rich quick" schemes (and don't laugh--those dimes really added up!); but he was always game for being a partner in his older brother's business endeavors. It should come as no surprise that my third son majored in finance in college--my husband and I predicted he would go into business when he was about four years old!

The funny thing is, these two childhood business partners haven't strayed all that far from the old lemonade stand, figuratively speaking. They remain extremely close to this day. They are actually both working now in the civilian contracting business down in VA (which is just a tad more lucrative than the lemonade selling business). They not only work in similar jobs that utilize their Army Military Intelligence training; they even work in the same building, though on different floors. They drill as Reservists at the same Army base. And just as they shared a bedroom growing up, they share a condo now, along with their cousin's boyfriend. Some things, thankfully, never really change!