The Middle

We're still in the middle of the renovations. There is dust and tile and doors and stacks of half of Lowe's inventory all over my floors. It has the potential to make me crazy, so I just try not to look down when I walk around the house. There is so much to buy when you re-do a bathroom: floor tile, shower tile, shower floor tile, border tile, shower door, shower faucet, bathtub, bathtub faucet, towel rods, drawer pulls, paint, toilet, toilet paper holder, linens... SO MUCH. Times 3 bathrooms, plus a recent move and a barely restrained urge to sell every single thing I own and replace it with something completely different and it all adds up to a lot of trips to Lowe's and a lot of checking the credit card balance. I'm preaching patience, and trying to practice it, but a year from now I expect to have a whole lot more clean lines, bright colors, and polished chrome. I did stop by T.J. Maxx on Saturday and found a throw pillow that personifies my vision for the living room. Bright, funky, and fun. It all starts with a $16 pillow.

And luckily, while boxes wait to be unpacked and rooms wait to be decorated (and tile waits to be grouted), the pool is ready and waiting. And with temperatures hitting the 90's today, the kids were ready to jump in.

Claire sticks to the top step, but Landon did great with his swim lesson refresher with JP. After a few minutes he was floating on his back by himself and even swam all the way across the shorter width of the pool!

This picture is from Friday night, but the expression on Claire's face just kills me. JP had gone for a long run before dinner and jumped into the pool to cool off. This is her classic happy feisty Bear face.

She may be slightly obsessed with me lately (she marches around the house barking, "mom! MOM! mom. MOM!" anytime I'm not in her line of sight... the woman at the paint store found it hilarious), but she loooooves her daddy too.

In between trips to Lowe's, Home Depot, and Target, we enjoyed another great weekend. We brought over gifts and homemade bread to our neighbors with the newborn who brought us wine and flowers the night we moved in. I got to hold a squishy 4-week-old for an hour while we got to know each other and it was wonderful (the grown-ups seem great too). We found a fabulous local pizza place with a neon plaster cow out front. Landon tried to milk it, much to the amusement of other waiting families. I cooked up a storm for the work-week, singing along to the radio (I must say, the radio stations here are a huge step up from Austin), and listening to the kids giggle and splash in the pool with JP. We had pork tenderloin and twice baked potatoes tonight, we'll have homemade lasagna tomorrow, and chicken enchiladas on Tuesday. I used pretty much every pan I have and every burner on the stove, but I love looking at the fridge and knowing we're going to have good food for the next few days. (Wednesday is leftover lasagna and Thursday is frozen fish. Friday is Mexican food and margaritas, because it's not a Friday without a little tequila.)

And this is one of my favorite moments from the weekend. The kids were playing in their room Saturday morning while I cleaned up breakfast and I realized it had been quiet for a little too long. I tiptoed over, camera in hand (because honestly, with them, quiet is more likely the result of something adorable than the result of anything bad), and found this:

Landon heard the shutter click on the camera and popped his head up saying, "Mommy, we're camping!!" And so they continued to camp on and off for most of the morning.

No camping permit, tent, bug spray, or night spent trying (and failing) to sleep in said tent required.