Assumptions. . .

Hello everyone, I hope everyone is having a great day.  This blog will be about assumptions.  I hate when people assume they know things that they don't.  Why do people read into everything?  This has to do with our summers.

OK - two years ago my family moved from Northern Michigan to Florida.  We left the Traverse City area and moved to a suburb of Tampa.  Now, I don't miss the long winters of the Traverse City area but I do miss everything else about that area.  I grew up there and only left for college.  Most of my family is there, although my husband's is not.  I love how pretty it is up there.  I love the lakes, dunes, nature trails, and Michigan people are my people - even if they do piss me off sometimes.  Florida is a different world.  I am deathly allergic to fire ants so I don't like to go outside because I am afraid I am going to be killed.  We live in a suburb so we have little to no property and little to no privacy.  Winters are pleasant out side, but from April to October it is just too hot to be outside not in a pool and it is too hot to have the windows open.  The humidity is oppressive.  I wouldn't trust walking through the woods because Florida is filled with bugs/snakes that are poisonous and aggressive.  Then that brings us to the people - ever realize that all the strange stories come from Florida?  Casey Anthony?  George Zimmerman?  The 2000 election mess up?  Florida is filled with crazy people.  People who eat the faces off of other living people.  Now - I am not saying everyone down here is bat shit crazy - but there are enough of them to where I don't trust these people.  I miss Michigan - my girls miss Michigan - Florida sucks and five of the six people in this house can't stand this state.

So, we moved down here two years ago and we stayed here the first summer.  By the time school started the kids all wanted to kill each other.  Stuck in a house - not going outside because it is too hot - getting on each others nerves.  I don't know why the kids here don't get their break from December to Feb, instead of June - August - because June - August is horrible down here.  At the end of that summer I looked at my husband and said, "I won't spend another summer down here."  What this means is that every summer the kids and I go to Michigan.  We spend about six weeks up there - enjoying family and Grandma's house.  The girls and I love it up there - Gabe being the only one who doesn't want to go.  That being said - my husband can't join us.  He has to work. 

The look on people's faces when they find out the kids and I go up while Nick stays here is just annoying.  You can see it - they think we have marital problems.  Some have even said, "Oh you poor people."  What do you mean us poor people?  Why does it mean our marriage has to be in trouble if we can spend six weeks apart each year?  I know military families who are separated for longer than that.

So here it is - the kids and I go to Michigan for the summer - my husband does not.  We wish he could join us.  We are sad to leave him, but it is better for my kids to go "home" for the summer than to stay down here missing everyone and everything we love up there.  We are hoping my husband can join us for a week or two this summer, but his job may not allow that to happen.  He has to work to support us and we are thankful for all his hard work.  I personally think this makes our marriage stronger, not weaker.  We trust each other to know we will be fine apart for six weeks, and at the same time it makes us really miss each other by the end of it.