Oh wait, that should probably be “where’ve I been?”

Well, if you follow me on Twitter or Facebook, or hang out on ScrapHappy, you probably know where I’ve been. Moving!

We said goodbye to our lovely house in the Pine Hills, and our wonderful neighbors, and moved a whole 3.5 miles away to Guilderland. Except the post office tells us we’re still in Albany. 😀

Hey, this way my husband gets to say he’s still in Albany, and I get a different school district. Don’t get me wrong. I loved Albany. It just wasn’t a good fit for my geeky, pun-loving, history adoring no.1 son.

So. We moved.

Instead of living in a 100+ year old house with a decidedly arts and crafts bent, we’re living in a mid-century split level (if one step difference counts as a split level) with an upstairs.
We’ve got a garage and a driveway. That means room for 5, count them, 5! cars. As opposed to renting a parking spot across the street. Five steps to get into the house, instead of 15! No sidewalk to shovel. Instead I have a driveway. Which, since I won’t have the whole neighborhood trooping over it before it even stops snowing, will be much easier to shovel. Since I have no stairs!

Although, I thought the heavy, clay filled soil at our old house was bad, the soil here is even worse- it’s all sand. Jonathan and his compost pile have their work cut out for them.

We miss our old neighbors. We’ve somehow managed to go the whole summer without getting together, which is sad. At least we have some wonderful, welcoming new neighbors. I really hope I can manage to introduce the old and new soon. I know! Party at my house! After we get the kitchen remodeled.

Now that’s exciting!

(Oh, and check out my new craft room!)

So have I mentioned that my sister is expecting her first baby at the end of February? Well, she is. And she makes a mighty cute pregnant lady, if you ask me.
Both she and her husband are reading baby books and baby blogs and talking to all their friends with kids to get ideas, advice, and recommendations on what they need to have, and what they need to do, and what they can expect. Of course, you never really know what it’s like to be a parent until you have your own child, but it never hurts to be informed.
Our brother has started a betting pool on when the baby will come. I’ve called dibs on February 29th. My sister is hoping for the 15th, since that was our grandfather’s birthday, and he was a pretty awesome guy.
I’m really looking forward to meeting the next member of our family. I know my sister is pretty excited too.

I make a lot of typos. I correct them as I go, but when I am chatting or texting, typos just proliferate and bloom and take on a life of their own.

At least I have yet to send out an email with my name misspelled. Which I do just about every time I type it.

Hetaher
Hather
Hetahr
Heathr
heather
Heather

See what I mean?!

My to-do list is certainly not shrinking. Last month was super hectic, and I managed to miss a number of things, in spite of having them on my agenda. (I suppose it would help if I had them in my agenda on the correct day.)
Every day has been very busy, but because of the nature of the things I am doing, I have to frequently switch gears. I finally got one thing on my to-do list checked off today: Ethan’s room has been decluttered. Well, except for the two boxes of books and the trunk full of toys that need to be carted up to the attic. But that’s 5 minutes work, unlike most of the other tasks that keep piling up.
So let’s list this month’s highlights, and see how I do getting them done.

1. More cleaning and decluttering. I think I’ll tackle Simon’s room next. And then the dining room and back porch.
2. Painting. I still need to paint the hall, but Jonathan put his last coat of spackle on today, so I should be able to get to that this week.
3. Replacing the paneling in the downstairs bath. What’s there now is just ugly. I hope what’s under it is okay, so I can have beadboard paneling on the bottom and paint on top, but we’ll see.
4. Yearbook. I’ll need to place the order this week, so we can have it before school gets out.
5. Another PTA meeting. And RIF, because last month didn’t work for the kids. Can you say state testing? I think I hate state testing.
6. My craft room! I have left this to last, and have been piling more and more stuff in there as I find more things that should probably live there.
7. There’s more, like this month’s open house and scrapbook social, but those are fun things comparatively speaking.

I just want to be done.

I think I need some curled up with a silly book time, but I’m under a self-imposed time crunch, so it will have to wait until all the big projects are on their way to done.

Speaking of big projects, can anyone recommend a good housecleaning company?