So, yesterday was my older kids' last day of school. My preschooler's been out for a week. I think classes had been out for a whole hour before I heard the first "I'm bored." At that second, I realized: this is going to be a verrrrryyyy long summer.

At least I got to sleep in this morning, right? Um, no. My husband's getting over pneumonia, so he was coughing up a storm last night. After tossing and turning for an hour, I decided to let him hack it up in peace. I had just settled in on the game room couch (that's how it seemed, anyway) when I heard a loud banging noise. The clock said 6:15 a.m. The banging was actually frantic knocking coming from the front door. Since my 8-year-old had threatened to run away last night after not getting the DVD she wanted at Blockbuster (no, she's not dramatic AT ALL), you can imagine the kind of thoughts that were running through my head as I dashed down the stairs. Thankfully, it was just my little drama queen. She locked herself out when she went to get the newspaper. Why she decided to fetch the paper at 6 in the morning, I couldn't fathom. As I made my sleepy way back upstairs, I cursed the idiot who created summer vacation. Seriously, was it created just to make my life miserable?

A couple hours later, I made my way back downstairs. My 11-year-old was busily sweeping the kitchen floor, my 18-month-old was chattering adorably, and there on the kitchen table sat a plate of cookies with a handmade card from my 8-year-old telling me sorry for her behavior at Blockbuster last night. Next to the cookies lay the newspaper. It made me all sniffy to think that my little girl had locked herself out of the house while trying - in her sweet and innocent way - to apologize. I don't know if I made the stinkers feel super guilty for acting out at the movie store or if they're just good kids. Either way, I win. Maybe this won't be such a bad summer after all ...

And what better way to start off the summer than to announce the winner of Princess for Hire by Lindsey Leavitt? It's ... drumroll, please ...