Fingers crossed

OK, so I am sitting in my pajamas on top of my unmade bed, in the middle of my 3/4 of the way re-painted bedroom with the bedroom furniture closing in on me and away from the remaining painting left to be done. Several laundry bags are out in the hall in my direct line of sight, and if I was not too lazy to get off the bed right now, I would go shut the door just to avoid the guilt of my procrastination.

I believe I have, as runners say "hit the wall." This has seemed like a marathon summer. I look at everyone's facebook and blog updates about their kids first days of school and realize I still have two more weeks for my older two to start and three more weeks for the younger two.

I just need school to start back up!!! I yearn to be able to empty the dishwasher without someone punching me from behind begging for a snack. I need to be able to have a solid hour without hearing a scream or a tattle. I need to be able to stop praying for rain, just so that I have a valid excuse to not feel guilty that I didn't take the kids to the pool that day.

Fortunately, the kids are getting pumped for school to start too. We picked up school supplies already (though I did get an earful from Maddie for not replacing last year's backpack, even though it is still good to go). Andrew is so excited to go into first grade and finally go to "all day school." Make that two of us. I am so excited not to stand at that kindergarten bus stop through rain, shine, sleet, or snow every morning with Mylie at 10:55AM.

Zack is excited to go to preschool for five days a week. Several speech therapists that we have met with assure us that one of the fastest ways to help Zack is to have him in is many days of school as possible. Mylie will go to the same preschool as Zack two mornings a week.

I just have my fingers crossed that we can all survive each other for the final two/three weeks until school starts. My elementary school kids still have not received letters saying who their teachers will be for next year, which we find frustrating, especially since back to school night for fourth graders is a week from today.

Now, for the sake of preserving my family's history of summer 2009, I will bullet point the highlights:

*The flooring replaced and upgraded through out the house (Goodbye carpet...goodbye ugly vinyl from the 1980s...Goodbye ridiculously worn out and destroyed wood entry...we won't miss any of you)
*An entirely redone master bathroom
*New lighting through many rooms of the house
*Gradual repainting of many rooms
*Mylie turned three
*Mylie potty trained quickly (must be my reward from God for what I endured potty training her brothers)
*A trip with the Burton side to Wintergreen where the kids did all sorts of fun day camps
*My mother-in-law having the kids come to "Grandma Camp" where she took them all to her swim club for swimming lessons and also inflated the giant waterslide that she owns for them to play on in the backyard
*Andrew starting tackle football...and actually enjoying it and doing well...


*Andrew giving a talk in church where he surprised everyone by breaking out in song and singing (to his own tune) 'I love to see the temple' (the ENTIRE first verse)
*Maddie and Zack starting up soccer
*Receiving my church magazine subscriptions in the mail and seeing that for the month of September I have articles in both the Friend and the New Era

Well, we've been busy this summer, very busy. Perhaps that explains my desire to just curl up in my bed and sleep away the last two weeks until school starts.

I want to thank my dad for deciding that maybe it was time to update the townhouse after all, and for providing us with such a beautiful new space to live in. It is so much nicer to live in a pretty place, and much more motivating to keep it nice.

Here are a few lessons I learned from a major renovation:

1) The start will probably be delayed by a few weeks, so be sure that if you have arranged child care, that they can be flexible with when you actually send your kids over (thanks Winnie)
2) The project will invariably take longer (by a few weeks) than anyone planned.
3) If you have to have an enormous dumpster in your driveway, neighbors will start asking you if you are moving, and then they will ask you if they can throw things away in your dumpster, or even worse, you will just find their stuff in your dumpster, and of course you are required to pay for how full the dumpster is
4) The dumpster will sink into your driveway and leave a pothole
5) When you redo flooring everywhere, and the workers need to set up their tools in your garage, and even the closets need to be emptied for flooring to be laid, it is very difficult to find a place to put ALL of your furniture, the contents of your closets, everything that is typically stored under your bed, and also make more room in the garage for all of the supplies and workers tools
6) You may have to make multiple daily trips to Home Depot, Lowes, and Costco for a few weeks. If you have a three year old with you, she will make your life in these stores very difficult

The house looks awesome now, and I'm so glad that we are to the point we are now. We still have a few more things to do, but not many.

We did have lots of insane mishaps along the way, including a horrible error on the part of Lowes and our expensive hardwood floors that involved many phone calls to managers at Lowes a trip to another, farther away Lowes, and an entire days worth of hardwood floors getting installed, just to be ripped up and returned because of Lowes oversight. It was a mess...

Anyway, I can't wait for school to start! I just know it is going to be a great year!!