SUMMER!

Ben and I both finished our terms today!!

Sure, there's lots of stuff I COULD be doing, but for the rest of this week and part of next, I will ignore it all!!

(Summer school begins on the 13th of June for me, and I need to get ready for maternity leave, but today? T-Ball practice is the only thing on my agenda.)

Chillin

Ben and I are both grading like crazy trying to wrap up the semester. How is it that I can only have one class of 17 students and STILL have so much freaking grading?

Ben had to go to the office today, and I worked from home after dropping the kids off at school and taking a quick trip to the gym, and I worked all day. I didn't even turn on the TV until 4:30 when I watched Jeopardy while folding the laundry. I was terrible at Jeopardy, by the way, proving that I have in fact gotten dumber since I had kids.

I am watching the Real Housewives of New Jersey premiere and loving their super tacky kitchens while trying to work up the motivation to go into my own kitchen and make apple bread. I feel like it's not going to happen.

OMG. A tree fell on our house today. In our house. On and then in.

Ben I were standing in the kids' room this morning frantically cleaning for an open house we had this afternoon (that people actually came to this time!!), and we had a conversation about how we'd like to have more plants in the new house when we move because we only have 3 in this whole house.

Then we heard a horrible, rumbling, prolonged crash, and the house shook a little. Because, you know, a fucking TREE fell through the roof. Plant problem=solved.

And then I realized what I will miss about living in a condo: not being responsible for anything that happens outside. We called the condo management company's emergency line (after a brief debate during which we came to our senses and realized a fucking tree falling on the house was an emergency), and 20 minutes later, tree guys were there to haul it away. Roofers (and I hope drywallers) to follow tomorrow. Landscapers after that. Easy peasy. Thank god we weren't playing outside.

At first, we thought the inside of the house was spared, but then Harry emerged from his toy closet with some drywall and roof in his hands.



Oh, and no. It wasn't stormy. Just a little breezy. The tree was really old and totally rotten because its trunk was home to about 40 billion ants who have since been released INTO OUR YARD. Um. Shit.

This picture is teeming with ants and ant clusters.

Blragh: Foiled at the Pool

Harry has a playdate this morning, so I asked this guy

what he wanted to do. He said go to the pool "only us" because he wanted to jump in. I slithered into a maternity suit and crammed his feet into his Tevas faster than you could say hysterical temper tantrum, and we ran to the Y only to find that the pool is closed for the day due to chemical imbalance. Fudge.
Randomly, here is my lovely and delicious birthday cake:

My cute new Cubs shirt

And Harry helping me blow out the candles


Also? Bridesmaids was hilarious. I laughed until I cried at 2 separate points in the movie. But, it was reaaaaaaly long. Still, we loved it!

Blogger was down-- not my fault-- NaBloPoMo still on

Due, you guys. Blogger shut down from 5-11 until now. In fact, you will notice that most of your awesome comments on our house post and on my latest swim lesson rant are gone, and so is the whole sim lesson rant. Blogger assures me that my post will be re-added today, so let's see if it is.

Anybody have any suggestions for backing up my blog? Becca suggested making a Wordpress blog, and I think I will do that. I am also archiving it all on my hard drive (and my back up hard drive) but that's kind of a PITA. I looked into printing it into volumes, but that'll be about 1K, so, um, probably not gonna happen.

Thanks for all the Facebook birthday wishes! Ben got me some super cute maternity sundresses and an adorable t-shirt that says "We love the Cubs." He and I are going out for pizza and to see Bridesmaids later tonight. My criticism students gave me a giant pile of take-home exams, so I look forward to grading those while the kiddos fight-- uh, I mean play.
Jack was so cute the other night watching t-ball:

He spent a lot of time kicking back on the grass and looking at the clouds, or, as he called them, "the animals in the sky."

Uncle Jon sent him a Thor costume for his birthday, and Jack LOVES it:

Swim lessons suck

This week, we did make it into our swim clothes (all 3 of us-- fun times), but as soon as Jack had his trunks on, he lost his shit and tried to tear them off his body. Because I am stupid and a glutton for punishment, we were 35 minutes early and planning to all 3 swim together at open swim before lessons. I carried a progressively more hysterical Jack onto the pool deck, telling him over his screams that he and I would sit on the edge and watch Harry, figuring he would calm the fuck down. Not so much. Then Harry freaked out because I tried to put a float belt on him, and he hasn't worn one of those in MONTHS. The indignity was too much for him. But I said since I wasn't getting in, he needed one. Then he started jumping up and down screaming, meaning I had 2 hysterical kids, so we left. Which was exactly what Jack wanted and did not sit well with Harry, who came home and pulled all the arms and legs off Jack's favorite Power Rangers. We had lunch and then went back for open swim. Harry and I swam, and Jack sat on the edge, inching closer and closer to the water. I pulled him in briefly when he was flat on his tummy trying to blow bubbles in the water, but he clung so tight, I set him right back on the edge. We are all 4 going to open swim tomorrow night.

Oh, totally forgot to mention WE BOUGHT A HOUSE LAST MONTH

I have been silent about it because we have been waiting on a million things-- blueprints for the basement we are finishing, the appraisal, our loan paperwork to process, a thousand trips to meet with the realtor and our designer to pick out finishes-- you get the idea.

We bought the house already built, so we didn't get to pick the cabinets, countertops, light fixtures, bathroom floors, or wood floors on the main level. BUT with the exception of the counters and the bathroom floors, it's all stuff we would have picked anyway! We took our long-suffering realtor on trips to view about 64 (no joke) existing homes before we fell in love with a brand new neighborhood. We almost built a 2-story house in the neighborhood, but one day, Ben and I drove through and noticed an adorable already-built ranch with a walk-out basement. We looked in the windows for awhile then called the realtor. She happened to be driving home that way, stopped to show us the house, and bam! We bought it and designed a basement build the next week then took the kids on a hellish trip to pick out appliances, then took the kids on a hellish trip to pick out paint and carpet. Then stopped taking the kids on house errands, except for buying furniture, which is so far the shittiest thing I have ever done with kids.

Today we walked through with the electrician to add 7,000 extra outlets because Ben never wants to be more than a finger-length away from a plug and a cable jack, and we took some terrible pictures. Terrible because the painters haven't come through, so everything is beige, and there is no floor in most of the house, and the basement is all 2 by 4s right now.

That's me where our kitchen table will go.

That's the electrician in our kitchen.

Some of the great room

Ben in the future playroom (I think)

95% sure that's gonna be the downstairs bathroom because of that circle where I think the toilet goes?

That's the guest room for sure-- I can tell because of the electrical box on the wall

Part of the family room

Laundry room shelves? I took some seriously random pictures

Master

Master bath

Closet


Me looking out our bedroom window. The guy who lives behind us has lived there for a long time, which is good because there won't be any building right behind us and bad because he has a van and a propane tank in his yard.

Randomly, here's some more kitchen

Deck

This wall in the kitchen/great room will be a bookcase

Kid bathroom

Baby's room

H and J's room

Their closet

Cute little front door


So. Yeah. We are so excited and can't wait to close and move. Except, you know, moving sucks. Also, no. No we haven't sold our condo. Yes, that also sucks. Hopefully we do.