Young boys should never be sent to bed. They always wake up a day older.

What a summer! I wish I were my Mike. He has spent his summer staying away from home. I miss him -- until he's here for a day or two, then I'm ready for him to go again.

My Mike's summer started out with a trip to Florida. He left the day after school got out to spend about a week on a choir tour in Florida. Most of that trip was spent at Disneyworld. He only called me or texted me if I bugged him first. I guess I was hoping he'd miss me a little more than he did and want to tell me about what he was doing. No chance.

He was home for a week, and then it was off to Evergreen Boy Scout Camp on the East Fork of the Bear River. (This is the camp that burned down about four years ago -- big story on the news.) He worked up there this summer. He'd leave on Sunday and come home on Saturday. My Mike, who was so missed by especially his little brother, would get home, drop a bag of dirty laundry (which magically got washed for him) near the laundry room, sit down at the computer and catch up on his facebooking, then run off to meet his Jamboree troop or his friends. He'd get back just in time to fall into bed. Then he'd get up, go to church, and then head back up to camp. That was his schedule until last weekend when we picked him up at camp for the last time this summer. He has really enjoyed working up there and is planning to go back next summer. It has been an amazing experience for him. He even volunteered to go back and work the last week of camp (after he gets back from Jamboree) for free.

Monday, we packed him up and shipped him back east for Boy Scouts of America's National Jamboree. He'll spend about a week touring New York City, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C., then almost two weeks at the actual Jamboree, followed by a day at Busch Gardens, and then back home. I'm so jealous! While I can live without seeing most of the New York stuff (with the exception of the Statue of Liberty), I'd love to go to Philadelphia -- never been there-- and Washington, D.C. -- been there several times and want to go again. My Mike shares my passion for American history. I'd love to be there with him and share those experiences. I feel bad for his "buddy" who will be the recipient of his oration on every site and experience. Sorry, Monde, that's my fault. I'm not sorry for his love of his country and his love of it's history, just sorry that the boy talks so much. On second thought, that's not my fault -- the non-stop verbiage is his father's fault. I write a lot, but I'm not much of a talker.

I wonder how my Mike's going to survive without his phone. I wonder how I'm going to survive without him having his phone. So many times Monday I picked up my phone to text him to see where he was or what he was doing or what amazing places he'd visited, only to remember that his phone was down in his room.

Some people would say that I'm too involved in my kids' lives. I'm not one of those have-to-be-everywhere-my-kids-are Moms, but I do enjoy being with them. Someone once told me that I need to get my own life. I have discovered that person was full of crap! I do have my own life, and 16 1/2 years ago it started involving my children. My life is intertwined with their lives. I know that someday I won't be as highly involved in their lives as I am now, but our lives will always be a part of each other's. Right now it is like the tangled mess of fishing line in the bottom of my tackle box. So to whoever thinks I need to get a life of my own, I stick out my tongue and send you a big raspberry. If the Lord had wanted me to only have my own life, He wouldn't have sent me children.

The saddest part of the whole summer is that it is almost over and then my Mike will be back in school and I'll still hardly ever see him. I think I really hate public school! They stole my son! I want him back.