Lots of Chaos

It seems that the to-do list these days is growing considerably longer each day--even though we are checking things off. With every thing done to the house, it seems two things creep up that now need to be done. So far we have packed countless tubs full of things, replaced the chandelier in the kitchen and the ceiling fan in the room formerly known as "The Baseball Fan Room" (I'm now at a loss as to how to refer to this room), painted the upstairs bathroom cabinets (white), painted the upstairs master bathroom (toffee crunch), regrouted several areas of our tile countertops in the kitchen, recaulked some areas in the upstairs bathroom, ripped out a strip of t-moulding to replace it (only to find out they don't make that size anymore and we'll need to go to a lumber place to have one special ordered and then try to find a stain that will match perfectly). I say "we", though Lance has completed most of these tasks. I have helped with packing and throwing away a ton of stuff I'm sure we will end up buying again in Michigan. Today I will start touching up the grout in the kitchen and entry area--a relatively easy, though tedious process. I also have to meet a contractor who is going to give us some estimates on painting and fixing parts of our ceiling and a few other minor repairs that would take us way too long to do ourselves.

Amidst all of the chaos, we've been able to have a little fun with Rowan. This weekend we finally had to rake our yard. Since we have, literally, around 50 mature trees in our yard, you can imagine the huge piles of leaves for Rowan to play in. She liked them for about .2 seconds and then just wanted to rake with us. Still, it was quite fun and cute. She also got another haircut and is now sporting a very adorable little bob. We went out to lunch wiith Trang, Mike and Nathan. Yesterday I took her to the indoor waterpark at the Y. Today we had our moms group at church and we may go watch Lance's soccer game tonight depending on if I need to tutor or not.

Rowan's new obsessions: Last week we went on a very long "nature walk" with Stacy and Madison. Somehow the walk ended when Rowan sat in an extremely large anthill and was covered head-to-toe in ants within seconds. Stacy and I had to rip off her clothes (socks and shoes included) to get all the ants off of her. Somehow she ended up with only 4 ant bites. She now likes to point to the bites, say "ant bite" and hold her arm or leg up so I can give it a kiss. She is very into her ant bites. She also has a "booboo" on her knee that just won't heal. Every time it's close, she falls, scrapes it again and ends up bleeding everywhere. Anytime her knee is exposed she points, grabs, scratches and needlessly irritates her "booboo" all while saying "booboo" over and over. Rowan also continues to be obsessed with saying "Matt" and "baby" It's been a month since we've been back from Hilton Head, but she still talks about everyone who was there constantly. Often this is the conversation we have.

Rowan: "Matt, Baby, Aunt Michelle, Grandma, Susu, Lily, Deedee" (sorry Judy, I just don't think she got your name down)

Me: "Mmm hmmm"

Rowan: "Matt, Baby, Aunt Michelle, Grandma, Susu, Lily, Deedee"

Me: "Mmm hmmm"

And it continues...over and over and over. She is getting more vocal every day which is quite fun except when she repeats things I say (such as "diarrhea") over and over. Fortunately without reinforcement she tends to forget these words.

Well, I'm off to have a date with the kitchen floor.