Everything and nothing

Ugh, has it been nearly a month since I've been here?  So much for 'meaty content' aka 'I'll be blogging omg So Much!'  Man, kids and summer will do that to you.

It takes me a couple of hours to write a decent blog post and I just don't have that kind of time anymore.  As Sofia gets older and more articulate, she's much more demanding.  As in, "Mom, do you want to play with me?"  Every Day All The Time.  Every time I want to say no, because didn't I *just* play with you, kid?, all the articles and posts I've read about how the time goes so quickly, how play is so important, how they'll remember everything forever, how dare you not play with your kid, but all I really want is some time with just me and my writing, but of course I end up on the floor, playing dolls or cars or blocks.  And I'm not *really* complaining because one day she'll want nothing to do with me and I'll long for the days when she was at my heels, begging me to play.  I just wish there were a couple more hours in the day, just for me.  Just so I can recharge.

Then there's Andrea.  My chubby chunk-a-lunk, happy go lucky, babiest baby.  

Oh this baby.

She does indeed have every bit of my heart.

True story: I texted my girlfriend the other day because I was convinced something was wrong with her because she took a two hour nap and I'd laid her down more awake than drowsy and she just rolled over and went to sleep.  I just knew she had some sort of vitamin deficiency that makes you sleep all the time because Sofia never ever in life went to sleep that easily.  Hell, she still doesn't.  But my little Andrea will sleep anytime, anywhere and it's never a battle to get her to sleep.  Of course, I'm sure I'm jinxing myself as I write this but I really just want to record this for posterity.  At one time in my life, I had a kid who slept easily and often.  I never thought it could happen to me, but dreams do come true, my friends.

She's a finger and thumb sucker too.

I've tried my hardest to get her to take a pacifier but she just

spits it out and puts her fingers in her mouth.

I sure do hope she outgrows it and doesn't end up sucking her thumb for life.

In house news, it's officially on the market and I'm hoping and crossing my fingers and toes for a speedy sale.  We haven't had any showings yet, but we listed it the week of the 4th so I wasn't panicked that no one had called.  This week we haven't had activity and that's caused Drew an insane amount of anxiety and guess who gets to deal with that?  He asks me nearly every day if I've heard from our realtor, as if I'd forget to tell him, or I'd keep it a secret from him.  No really, I'm crossing my fingers, toes AND eyes for a speedy sale because another ten months of that is not the business.  Already, I've been like "BABE.  Seriously.  If I hear anything, you'll be the first to know.  SERIOUSLY."

I mean, who wouldn't want our little house?

We didn't actually intend to do the front purely to sell the house.  We wanted to clean up the landscaping for our own enjoyment, but as the universe would have it, we got the word that we'd have to move after we'd committed to having the landscaping done.  That was a fun little cursing session, and we briefly debated pulling the plug because we didn't want to put more money into a house that we weren't going to live in much longer, but there was that pesky contract we'd signed and hopefully the new front yard would attract buyers.

So they commenced to ripping up the front yard

and Sofia and I spent several mornings watching them work.

At the bottom right, you can see the concrete slab to nowhere that

always bugged me.

I thought a walkway would look better, since you always had to shimmy past the cars

to get to the front porch.

Also, the beds weren't even, as the one on the left (top) was 

much skinnier than the right.

Then there was this nasty mess o' weeds on the right side of the driveway.

There was a tree stump in there, a bunch of big rocks and tons of prickly plants

that of course were Sofia's favorites. 

They dug all this up and now it's a nice bed of grass.

I wish I'd gotten a better shot, but that tree was massive.

The stump wasn't that big, but the roots were insane.  

After a few days of their landscaping magic, we have our new walkway!

The beds are nice and even and it's so much prettier this way.

See, doesn't it look so inviting and symmetrical?

If I were spending more money on the house, I'd get a bench

for the front porch and maybe a planter or two, but

I'll leave that for the new owners.

Remember our awning?

Back in May, we had a hailstorm.  Thank GOD it was before we did the landscaping - I think Drew would have set the world on fire if we paid all that money for new plants and stuff only to have it destroyed mere days later by hail.

As it was, I couldn't do anything but watch as my brand new car

got pummeled.

Remember my pretty azaleas in the dog pen?

All gone bye-bye.

Drew was in China at the time, and this was my first hailstorm.

I know I know, I lived in Kansas and Texas, how is this my first storm?

But it was, and truthfully I was a little scared.

Of course, my Sofia was completely fearless and ran outside the second it was over.

"Look Mom! It's balls!  It's cold!"

Thanks to the hail, we got a brand new roof.

They also took the awning down.  You can see where it's all pockmarked from the hail.

It made no sense to repair or replace it, 

as it was original to the house and they don't even make them anymore.

It looks so much cleaner and more open, I'm not sure why we didn't do this before.

Do you see, New Owners?!  Do you see the awesome house you get to have?  New roof, new landscaping, new laundry room, nice open back patio, I mean really, how can you not snatch this up??

**Please, someone buy my house.**

We haven't even bothered seriously looking at houses in Raleigh because the real estate market is so crazy down there that houses are selling within days of being listed, so there's no point in even looking because we have no idea when we'll be ready to move.  The good thing is that Drew won't have to leave until we all leave so I won't have to mess with getting the house ready for showings by myself.  It's just that however you slice it, trying to sell your house is no fun and having to wait until it sells before we can get on with the next chapter is just a pain.

Yet, I'm thankful that we have a house to live in.  I'm thankful that my husband has a great job that's affording us this move and as always I'm thankful for our collective health and wellbeing that allows us to focus on everything else going on in our lives.  If any of those things weren't there, this would be a much different story.

 Everything's okay as long as I've got them.

And I sure do love that man.

These kinds of pictures are my favorite and I can't

wait until both girls can hold his hand.

Oh be still my heart.

I could take pictures of the two of them all day.

Who am I kidding, I do.

They're my favorite people.

Vacation this year was down to Williamsburg, Virginia.

We wanted to stay close to home as this was the first time we'd taken

Andrea on a trip and we're traveling again in a couple of weeks.

We didn't get out a ton because this was right after Drew's China trip

and I wanted family time more than tourist time.

So we spent most of our days lounging around the room or down at the resort pool.

We did make it out to The Living Museum and that was fun, 

but it was all pool all the time on this particular vacation.

Of course, I got no pictures of our pool time because two kids in the pool requires hyper vigilance and all hands on deck so we have only memories, no photos.  Although, I'm going to have to take some pictures before summer is over because Sofia is really doing so well in the pool.  She can't go without wearing her floatie just yet, but she's almost there; I can feel it.

There you have it - we've been doing a lot of everything and nothing around here, much like all of you guys I'm sure.  So in closing, I sure would appreciate all your good vibes for a speedy sale of our house and hopefully it won't be this long before I get to blog again.

For now, I have to start getting ready to travel.  Yup, this time I'm the one who gets to go out of town!  Oh yeah, I'm taking both girls with me on a plane by myself.  I'm not crazy, not in the slightest.  But I sure would stay home if it weren't for a good cause - namely, my 20 year high school reunion.  

Good lord, I'm old.  Let me go dye my hair and put on some eye cream or something.