I Miss . . .

Lupo’s hot dogs . . . sleeping in on weekends . . . the excitement of my kids when they were little and we were about to embark on an adventure . . . soccer games . . . Saturday morning cartoons . . . my hair when it was so long it wrapped around my arm in my sleep . . . how pretty I was back then and didn’t even know it . . . that being-pregnant glow . . . rolling in the grass at any excuse . . . chasing lightening bugs . . . being the age where every party I attended involved wearing a hat . . . summer days at the play ground . . . drive-in movies . . . cruising with no where to go just loving being on the move . . . all my firsts . . . the anticipation of a school dance . . . Easter Egg hunts when I wasn’t the one hiding the eggs . . . roasting hot dogs and marshmellows on a stick . . . being small enough to be thrown into the air and carried sleepily from the car at the end of a long day of sheer joy . . . believing in Santa and the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy . . . getting a new outfit at Easter . . . the beginning of being a freshman and the ending of being a senior . . . being read to . . . when everything I needed was near enough to walk to . . . walking home after school with friends . . . giggling on the phone with friends after walking or driving past the house of the most recent boy crush hoping just to catch sight of him . . . hanging out at the swimming pool all day . . . the smell of Grandma’s cinnamon buns in the early morning . . . having a posse of parents and grandparents have my back no matter what . . . Grandmother Bertha chasing those bullies away with her cane and 1st grade teacher voice . . .