Hey, hi. Remember me?

It’s been over two weeks since I’ve posted anything to anywhere (other than Facebook and Gowalla, but I don’t think that counts) and today I’m working on transitioning back to reality.

I’ve ridden my bike into work (and felt surprisingly good after 2 weeks of sitting on my duff and eating out), read my over 700 e-mails (most of it was junk), opened the six boxes on my desk (including another new Manic Mommies calendar from Mead), sorted through the mail and returned calls – but I can’t honestly say I “know” anything more about what happened while I was away. That will take a few more days.

As listeners to the podcast will know, the last two weeks could be best described as the Griswolds meet Caddyshack, complete with road trip, amusement park and poop in the pool.

While there have been plenty moments of insanity – explaining to my husband that while he wasn’t texting, playing with his new ‘droid is problematic; breaking up the kids as they argued about who tans better; setting down a rule that they are not allowed to touch each other EVER AGAIN – the last two weeks have been filled with many more simple joys including quality time with each of the kids; lots of snuggles with the children AND my husband; exploring the cities of Raleigh and Boston (we loved being a tourist in our own town – more on that later), and the rediscovery that we really like each other (even when my son was trying to rip off his little sister’s head when she finally pushed him to the breaking point).

During our vacation my husband and I discussed the pros and cons of taking two consecutive weeks in the summer – while I love completely disconnecting from my job for such a lengthy period (lengthy by US standards, no so lengthy by European standards, but what can you do), would it be better to spread out the time?

While re-entry can be difficult after this amount of time, and I have to rely very heavily on my colleagues to take care of things while I’m gone (thank you, thank you, thank you), I probably won’t change my summer schedule. For me, the extended time gives us the opportunity to decompress, take an adventure, stay at home, and reconnect.

Whether you can only get away for a long weekend, or a few months, I do hope you have a chance to take a summer break. And wish everyone a happy (rest of) summer!