Where Does the Time Go?

Well, so much for my blogging on a regular basis. This was supposed to be in addition to my my emailed "photos of the day" and the babiesonline website. And look, it has been almost 2 months since my last post. Ridiculous! Plus, I haven't sent a 'photo of the day' in about 3 weeks. What is going on? I would like to say that I've been sitting on my butt eating bon bons this whole time, but that would be a big fat lie. The summer really seems to be slipping away and I don't think we've done half of what we normally do. The big time sucker has been our attached rental that we decided to rent weekly this summer. After our tenant, Sandy, bought a house and moved out last fall, we sort of sat on it for a while trying to decide what to do. That was a very expensive waiting period because as it sat empty, we had no one paying us rent and that usually pays our mortgage. Yikes! But this Spring, we decided to make the leap and started frantically working on the house to improve it up to "vacation rental" quality. We gutted the bathroom and painted the rest of the house. We moved in lots of furniture, some we had, some we borrowed, and some we bought new. We listed it online and before long we started getting lots of interest. I think since I posted it in April we've had almost 1700 hits - not bad. My goal for our first year was to book 6 weeks and we've already reached it with two more tentative bookings for the fall. Yahoo! So it will all be worth it. I has just taken most of our time and energy over the past three months. We've already had guests for a week, but not everything was completed (they just really wanted it bad and didn't care that all the painting wasn't finished.) But our next guests check-in next weekend, July 21st, and everything must be done, so it will be a frenzied week for us all. I'll be so happy once that happens because then maybe we can start enjoying our summer.

We did manage to get away during all this chaos for a short vacation. On June 27th we travelled to Pittsburgh to visit with Steve's family and celebrate the graduation of our oldest niece, Sarah, as well as Steve's dad's (Grampa Georgie's) 70th birthday. I'd like to say it was a relaxing stay with lots of rest, but again that would be another big fat lie. We were go-go-go from the get-go. We had a few short hours after we arrived to prepare for the graduation and from then on we were non-stop our whole visit. The average bedtime for the boys each night was 11:30. It was amazing that none of us got sick. But it was a great visit. We had so much fun. Besides the graduation, party, and birthday, we visited Kennywood amusement park where Wesley rode rides with his cousins all day long. We also visited the zoo (a must-see stop for our little animal lover) and spent some time at Ute's (Aunt Luann's) pool, swimming. She had a kid luau one day and a 4th of July party on the 4th. Our only relaxing day was Tuesday when we got to just kick back at the pool for a while, before heading to a campfire at Uncle Randy's and Aunt Shari's where we got to see fireworks as well. We were sad to leave, especially having had such a blast with everyone (Wesley and his cousins, Aurora, Olivia, Henry, and Avery all played so well together - it made me a little sad that we live so far away.)

Now we are back in Maine and I'm having a seriously hard time getting my act together. I'm so scattered most of the time would really just like to find a little more order in my life. So many days I wake up and think, "ok, this is the day that we are going to get things organized." And then by the time my head hits the pillow at night I'm thinking, "ok, maybe it will happen tomorrow." I often feel like I'm living in my own version of a natural disaster . . . one caused by an overworked husband, a rambunctious preschooler, and a recently mobile baby. But then I just have to keep telling myself, I'm soooooo lucky to have my life. I have two beautiful, healthy kids, a husband I get to see lots of, a home to get messy, food in our bellies, and lots of family and friends to complain to - not too shabby. I guess I'm pretty blessed, which makes those hard days a little easier to handle.

On a happier note . . . Wesley will be attending the Cornerspring Montessori school this Fall. I got a call last week that he was accepted and we are even getting some financial assistance, which will help make the steep tuition more manageable. He is very excited about it and one of his playgroup friends, Emmit, will be in the same class, so I know that will be a big help during that initial adjustment period. Preston has been eating more solid foods (fruity rice puffs, cut up bananas, and cheese,) has started to crawl (though still hesitantly, especially on the wood floors,) and just started clapping his hands while we were at the Blues Festival this past weekend. We would clap after each song and I guess with so many people clapping, Preston just felt like he needed to join in the fun. It is just too cute.

So that is what is going on with us. This will be a busy week, but hopefully starting next weekend, we'll be in a much less chaotic frenzy and I'll be able to devote more time to my rambling . . uh, I mean, blogging. Thanks so much for bearing with me.