What I Did on My Summer Vacation

- I spent a ton of time with my little family (I only worked a total of TWELVE hours this summer! Not per week - total!)

- I spent not enough time with my extended family (This is due both to being ridiculously far away and being ridiculously busy. Keep reading.)

- I learned that we would be moving to a new house - a beautiful, mid-century modern Eichler house (...and not to a new state, as we discovered in the eleventh hour. Seriously, our bags were practically packed for Texas. Oh, but to that point...)

- I learned that there's no such thing as packing ahead of time when you have a toddler. (Unless your family lives in the area and can spend some QT with the cutie, while you tackle the packing. But I suppose I've already addressed this in an earlier bullet point.)

- I witnessed countless selfless acts from some pretty incredible, super fantastic friends (Friends who will stay up until two in the morning helping you pack and move and paint - several days in a row, friends who will drive over ninety minutes one way to help with heavy lifting and baby wrangling, friends who will wake up early and meet you at your old place at 6am to help you clean before the move-out inspection, and friends who recognize that the process of moving will suck the life out of you and offer to babysit so that you can recharge. I love, love, love each and every one of you!)

- I did more painting than I've ever done, collectively, in my entire life (We painted the entire house a cool-toned gray color, with a great deal of help from the aforementioned amazing friends! It was a lot of work, but definitely worth it. The previous color was a terrible shade of peachy yellow.)

- I did a lot of celebrating (Ryan's grad school graduation, his thirty-somethingth birthday, our sixth wedding anniversary, Ethan's second birthday...)

- I learned how to keep my house immaculately clean and showroom-ready at all times, and I have the pictures to prove it (Or, maybe we did a super duper cleaning job before Ryan took pics of our new place - and staged the dining room table. Guess you'll have to drop by unannounced and see if the table is set when you arrive to find out the truth!)






I start my new job on Monday, marking the end of what I think was a pretty fantastic summer. It was fast and furious, and not always (or hardly ever) relaxing, but it was perfect.