Thoughts.

N is finally finished with his ginormous project at work -- hooray! No more Saturdays or Sundays at his office, and less late nighters. He has a new position at SRP now; I've been too occupied to figure out what all it entails yet. Not sure if he gets to keep the temporary pat raise or not yet. He's hinted at getting the AWW back though (alternate work week where he has every other Friday off) but we'll see if that actually happens.

I am owning the fact that our house is simply too big. Too much to clean, too much to maintain, and entirely too much to pay to update and furnish! Ugh. We've reached the two-year mark since we moved in, and though we've made vast improvements there's still a LONG way to go. Sheesh. Speaking of improvements, we recently replaced 540 square feet of flooring downstairs... Office, guest room, bathroom, laundry room, and hallway... From ugly tile and scorpion-colored laminate to a gorgeous hand-scraped dark wood-look ceramic tile. Super cool. Our installation job wasn't the most level, though, so I'll be looking for an alternative installer to finish the rest of it when the time comes. In the meantime we've got a little more than three pallets of tile sitting in our garage, waiting for install (and for me to pay it off first!)

 S has finally gotten back to work after a monthlong floor-related hiatus. Finally got most of the dust cleaned up from tile removal (still have to wipe down a few walls) and the furniture back in place. Baseboards are finished in one room at least! Bring on the orders! Mama needs a new countertop and shutters!!

I got into a car accident on Friday May 3rd. Was heartbroken about my car. So totally not my fault, but my incompetent insurance has yet to determine liability. Which means I had to pay for my rental car out of pocket, as well as my $500 deductible to get my car back out if the repair shop yesterday. Good times. I will be leaving Progressive Insurance next week because I don't appreciate how they've handled this. Any recommendations?

Gandalf is back alive and well and unscathed. Kids are SO happy to have him back! They were tired of squishing in the rental car.

The kids are SO ready to be done with school! M comes home cranky almost daily and has had an increasing number of meltdown tantrums lately. A and M are fighting like crazy, and both totally want to quit piano. UGH, how do I handle this? It's pulling teeth to get them to practice every day, all they do us complain and argue with me! "Why do you force me to do piano mom???!!!" Etc.

J is the only pleasant one to be around lately it seems. He's in a good behavior streak at school with SEVEN "Os" (outstanding) -- it's taken all year! He's doing pretty well with reading and he is fabulous at math. And SO super excited for his upcoming Soccer birthday party!! 

I went through 12 weeks of Crossfit since January - it was great. I'm still kind of a wimp but I'm not nearly afraid of burpees and pushups and pullups and weights anymore... : ) And I felt like I always got a way better all-body workout with Crossfit, versus some of the classes at the gym. I will probably get back to Sarah's workouts in the fall again when it cools down. For now I'm keeping up with Body Attack and Combat, etc. Trying to make myself get back on the treadmill to run, too. Desperately need new shoes though, mine literally have holes in them and absolutely no support anymore.

Kids are signed up (only one against her will) for swimming all summer. M is doing swim team, J is doing lessons and A is taking diving classes. Hopefully A will love it - she's been a pill about everything else lately.

We are TRYING to go to San Diego for a week this summer, and would love to do Seaworld and Legoland and the beach, but unfortunately I've got 5 nights already booked in Anaheim that I cannot sell for the life of me!  UGH, may have to cancel it and book a couple of 1-Bedrooms for a different week so I can sell them easier. I don't know.

J had his "Let's Play Music" recital a couple of weeks ago. All the kids are so darling, I love that program and our teacher!  He will be playing his last soccer game of the season this weekend, as we'll be out of town for  the final game = bummer. Kids had their school's "Spring Sing" last night, which is always fun. And simple. Have I mentioned how simple it is to participate at our school? Because it is.  And it works very well with my laziness.

Off to the treadmill and to hopefully find something interesting on Netflix. Pics to be added later of all this stuff.