Update

I'm assuming those of you who check this blog on any kind of basis have at least a marginal interest in my life. You might have noticed that quality/quantity of posts has been down lately.

Well.

It's summer vacation and we are in total relax mode now.

Summer school is done. I pulled Isaac out of pre-K and we are just taking a month or so to be together and do fun stuff and take each day as it comes.

My mom commented the other day that I seem so much more relaxed and happy now when we talk. Yeah, not working 40 plus hours a week and being stretched ridiculously thin will do that.

It's LOVELY.

I've just been trying to savor July which is wide open and wonderful. August gets a bit busier with my sister's wedding, family vacations and back to school.

So what have we been doing?

Excercise

I had an unfortuneate mishap with my bike rack (I backed the car over it one day in my hurry to get to work). It actually belonged to my dad and I felt quite bad about destroying it. He is the one who bought me my bike and loaned me his bike rack and has really encouraged me to keep up with it. Anyways, he ended up buying me another one, although I haven't been able to get out on the trail yet. It's too hot in the middle of the day (100+ degrees) when I tend to have a sitter. My body is craving a long ride though, so hopefully soon.

I rejoined a gym and I have been excercising almost every day. I've forgotten how amazing it feels to get sweaty and have warm muscles and endorphins running through your body. I've been doing their Zumba which is totally addicting and yoga. The other day though the Zumba teacher was sick and the replacement teacher did a body pump circuit class with cardio and weights and I really enjoyed that as well, so maybe I will try some other classes too. I even ran for a bit on the treadmill yesterday and miraculously didn't die. I'm not going to try to set some lofty weight loss goal or anything but it feels good to be moving again and hopefully the result will be better cardio endurance/toning up. I tend to eat better too when I have worked out, so I think that helps too. I know I won't be able to keep up my six days a week work out schedule once school starts up again, but hopefully I can keep up with occasional classes.

Home projects

I should get some pictures up. I've been slowly clearing out the basement (which is really unfinished back half of the first floor of my house). It's halfway framed out all ready and my brother Joe says that for 100 bucks he could frame out the rest of it. We have to do the framing before we can lay the tile floor, which is what I really want. After living here barely a year the linoleum in the entryway is totally stained (thanks to potty training a baby kitten) and ripped and I just want it gone. Sadly, I won't be able to afford the new flooring for quite a while but I wouldn't mind having everything ready to go as I slowly squirrel away money.

I also have been trying to tackle smaller projects too. I finally replaced the hideous throw pillows that came with my couch with more attractive ones. I finally replaced my teenager style bedding with something I like a lot more. I ordered some curtains for my bedroom. Hopefully I will get some curtains up in the living room/kitchen before the summer is out and this place can start looking like a finished home instead of a half inhabited fraternity house.

Joe also came this weekend and spent the better part of Saturday painting the entry way and downstairs stairway. I wish I would have taken some before pictures so you could truly appreciate what an improvement it is. Builders white is so unattractive and I think the whole entryway feels so much warmer and inviting now that it is painted a soft beige. We hadn't thought it would take so long, but it took nearly two hours just to tape everything off before we could even begin to paint. The entryway is pretty much just an open space with a series of doors: the front door, the door to the powder room, coat closet, garage, the furnace room, and the unfinished basement, so it was a ton to tape off. Then since the walls really hadn't ever been painted before they really soaked up the paint and we went through more than we had planned. Joe is extremely sought after for his handyman/painting skills, and people pay him a ton of money, so I am so lucky when he agrees to squeeze me in and work on my house for free. He even commented as he was taping endlessly, "This better at least make the blog!" So I will give him an official shout-out: THANKS JOE FOR YOUR WONDERFUL WORK ON MY HOUSE! It looks fantastic! It was fun to spend the day with you! I love you!

Here we are riding around in the back of his truck with the paint (don't worry mom, just around the neighborhood, not out on the open road or anything).

I even helped Joe this time (generally he won't let me anywhere near it). I did all the brushwork and he came behind me with the roller which sped things up I think. I learned a lot of good tips. This only leaves the upstairs hallway/stairwell and my bedroom left to paint. I'm pretty excited. In other home project news I have been doing crazy clean outs. I've been through both our closets, sorted through all Isaac's toys and movies and quite a bit of the garage and basement. I have to make some decisions about a few things still, and possibly list some things on Craig's list and put in some better systems to organize the things that I have decided to keep. I'm trying to tackle at least a drawer or a surface every day. I am not a terrible packrat or anything, but my organization skills definitely leave room for improvement. It is amazing how much stuff just accumulates quickly in the house too. It feels good to clean out and hopefully pass things on to people who can use them. I also borrowed my parents carpet cleaner and that is on this week's to do list as well. The carpets are looking quite shabby. Hopefully a few passes with the cleaning machine will restore them somewhat. Dating I'm not going to elaborate much, but I am dipping my toe tenatively back in the dating pool. Nothing serious yet but I am enjoying myself. PDH randomly called me the other day and we had a decent conversation. Afterwards I realized that I no longer think about him every day anymore, don't find myself resisting urges to text him mundane details about my everyday life, or trying to figure out what went wrong. So yes, things are fine in this department as well. But no details yet. =) Playdates/Hanging with Friends and Family

It has always been my fantasy to have a single mom friend that I could talk to about life, thatI could trade babysitting with, etc. etc. Well, my childhood best friend moved back to the area with her three girls and we have been hanging out with them almost every day. Really, I don't have any friends at all with kids period, so it's nice to have that in common with someone, and to have someone to call up when we are headed to the park. They have a pool in their apartment complex that they have invited us to quite a few times. A few times now she has watched Isaac while I've gone to work out and then when I've returned I've watched the kids while she goes shopping/runs errands/etc. alone. It's really nice to have a non-family member I can call up fairly last minute who I feel totally comfortable leaving Isaac with.

Here are some pictures of Isaac with her oldest Sandra when we took them to a fair the other day.

You wouldn't know it from this picture but Sandra actually LOVED the cotton candy

and Isaac hated it and was in the process of spitting it out.

It's fun now that he isn't totally terrified of rides like he was last summer. Anyways, there is lots more to report but I'm sort of running out of steam. Keep checking back, I promise I will be better about blogging. And leave comments!