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Health & Fitness

How to Survive an Astro's and Felice's Summer - Frantic, Flustered and Crying!

I love my life, I love the summers in the Hamptons (it's all know).

It's the summer and in the Hampton's never-less, who wouldn't want to spend their whole summer in the Hamptons?  I was raised in Southampton (I'm still a Southampton girl at heart) and born in Portugal — I moved to the States when I was just shy of six (I'm a Figueira da Foz girl by blood and proud).  After getting married I slightly became an Amagansett girl and marrying into a family who owns their own business for over 40 years. 

However, nine or ten months out of the year Anthony and I live in Bayside with our twin daughters.  Well once March and April hit my husband starts to "prep" me for the summer.  Being married into a family who owns their own business is by no means easy. Summer is their busiest time.  They all put their heart, soul and will power into their business.  And "this" family member, referring to myself does not work in the restaurant.  

So what do I do when my husband packs up his car in June drives to work for his last day of school (where he is high school teacher) and then drives out to Amagansett to start work again? I will briefly describe three years of what it was like for me.

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  • 2010:  I was pregnant with Ava and Liv, who are identical twins.  I was still working in Southampton and didn't realize how much he was truly working. I was too busy trying to make it through each day with morning sickness that lasted throughout my whole pregnancy.  Along with that I was diagnosed with absolutely every single possibility that could go wrong with carry identical twins.  So needless to say Anthony working was the last thing on my mind. The survival of my daughters was always number one on my mind.  However I was blessed with two perfect healthy little girls born at 34 weeks.
  • 2011:  Okay, now it begins to get interesting.  I moved to Amagansett for the whole Summer.  So under one house was my father-in-law, mother-in-law, two younger brothers-in-law, Anthony, Ava, Liv and myself.  Thank goodness the house is big.  The hardest part of this summer was actually seeing Anthony go to work and sometimes not seeing him until the next morning, that was mostly on the weekends when they are open until 3 am. Or the whim he'd get a phone call that it was busy.  And at night I was alone in a huge house, it was lonely.  I felt like I never saw my husband and the fact it is I never did.
  • 2012:  Okay, I'm actually laughing out loud as I begin to write about last summer. Hmm, where to begin?  Last summer we purchased our first home and I made the decision to stay in Bayside because it would be easier with the twins. The house was baby proofed and who doesn't love being in their own house? So basically we were under contract and I was with one and half year old twins, alone.  Apparently buying a house is no easy task, no matter how good your credit is or how much money you have.  It takes forever and mentally draining!  The icing on the cake is two 1 and a half year old twins who now believed they owned the World.  Okay I'll admit it, working full-time was much easier than being a full-time mom.  I love it! But wow! The stress of buying our new house had taken over me. I had to pack up a whole house with twins and our dog chasing me.  And suddenly our weekly babysitter quit, hmm wonder why?  Somehow my girls managed to scare off a 19-year-old. There went my 4 hours sanity break. Everything in life became so stressful that I would call Anthony all frantic, flustered and crying.  And being the good husband he truly is he would drive after work to Bayside, spend the night, help me out in the morning and leave to go back to Amagansett to be at work by three.  Now I'll admit it.  I did that quiet a bit — okay a lot. Twins, packing, unpacking - it's a lot for one person to handle.  
  • 2013:   "Prep" work plans in progress.  I was sitting on the couch with Anthony the other day and asked how he felt if the girls and I went to my motherland - being Portugal for two weeks to visit my grandmother.  He replies "Why don't you go for a month?."  I was shocked! He goes "You're so close to your grandmother and I know it would mean a lot to her to meet Ava and Liv." Clearly that's not what he's thinking — he's thinking no more frantic phone calls and driving two hours.  So as of right now that might be a possibility, but my fear of plans always seems to take over. Being raised by my grandparents until the age of six was a blessing, not many people have the bond I do with their grandparents  My grandfather passed away, which clearly broke my heart.  Therefore returning to Portugal has grown harder for me, it has been since his death. But it is no longer the same.  My grandmother has been to the States more than I to Portugal since his death.  So it seems I might have to take one for the team and get on a plane for my daughters to meet my true role-model. And leave Anthony stress-free off any frantic phone calls.

So with all this written, don't get me wrong.  I love my life, I love the summers in the Hamptons (it's all know).  It just can get lonely and hard with twins.  But at the end of it all, it's family and the legacy Felice Lupo created.  And Anthony is part of still carryng it out. We've been blessed with buying a house due to Anthony's hard work in the summer and teaching (since we can't party hard, we save hard — remember my past blog).

If I don't go to Portugal we have a great cozy home that I'm in love with.  I'm a very lucky girl, just not in the summers. Otherwise life is good and a blessing for all four of us!

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