Here I Am!

Don't put my face on the milk carton just yet! I am alive and well (physically, anyway). I've said it before, I really hate when I do a month in review, but that's what's coming...but not today, I don't think. At least not right now.

This month has flown by, and I'm starting to panic a little because my summer is disappearing way too fast. So now I feel like I have to cram a bunch of stuff I should have been doing a little at a time into a short three weeks. I've wasted a bunch of it--I always do, but it seems like more this summer. I started off with a bang, and read about 20 books in a week (of course, accomplishing nothing else). Then I ran out of new reading material, which was a bummer.

We've been at the lake quite a bit since we came home from the beach in June (although now I realize I never even blogged about that---hell, this might have to be the Summer in Review). Then there was the day I couldn't stop watching the Asplundh guys trimming the trees around the power lines. Seriously--I could not focus on anything while they were in the yard. Aside from that, it's been a lot of playing with Andrew, or watching Phineas and Ferb and Spongebob (yes, kids, we have graduated from "preschool on t.v." (thanks, Noggin!) to pure, non-educational, cartoons. I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing yet--it's certainly a rite of passage, along with the growing pains.

Speaking of growing pains, Andrew has decided that he doesn't nap anymore. That's my one good excuse for letting the blog collect dust. He sleeps, I write. He doesn't sleep, I pull my hair out. It's that simple. He's sleeping now, by the way--the first nap in weeks in which he actually went to sleep. It's a wonderful thing. We also registered him for a full day preschool/daycare this week, which also makes my heart hurt (where is my baby?). I am very excited for him--he'll have lots of kids to play with, a little bit of learning, and some structured activities. It's based in a church, and while we were taking the tour, he blurted out, "I've never BEEN in a CHURCH before!" (He has--he's been to a wedding and a funeral.)

The other big news is that Andrew finally has a playroom. We've had this dark, dingy pantry designated as his playroom for about a year now, and I finally got around to doing something about it. I don't know about other husbands, but if I didn't suggest projects and actually start them and tell him to do things, NOTHING would ever get done around here. And it takes a lot to get me going, too, so between the two of us, things. just. sit. Anyway, it's a tiny room, about 7 by 9 feet, with one window. It had a single light bulb with a pull chain dangling from the ceiling, so that tells you how dungeon-esque it was. I'll put up some pictures in my review post, but suffice it to say that his room is freshly painted, with a new vinyl floor and nice light fixture/ceiling fan. Today, I finally reclaimed my living room, as I dragged the last stray toys out from under the edge of the sofa and from under the cushions to be banished to his little hole in the wall. I even---and I am shocked by this, too---have put back the decorative knick-knacks and candles that were banished from the living room four years ago when he staged his coup.

Okay, I just realized that each paragraph was a little longer than the previous one, so I must be babbling. More to come, soon...I promise! As soon as I get hubby dear to dump some of the summer pictures into a folder for me, you'll have pictorial evidence of why I've been so neglectful. Soon, I promise.