Summer Blues

Many times lately, I have told myself, "OH, gotta blog about that!" or "OH, gotta blog about this!" There's a lot going on my life, but when I stop and think about it, it all amounts to so very little. My summer has been boring, people. I know, feel sorry for the teacher who gets to stay home for two months with her darling baby girl. But, I'm telling you, I start school 4 weeks from tomorrow and I can't say I have much to show for this summer vacation...unless you are counting the MASSIVE MESS of a home makeover we have going on right now. No trips. No pools. No getaways. Not really even going out to eat at a restaurant. No frozen alcoholic drinks. No parties with friends. A few highlights, such as Amanda's wedding in Mackinac Island with the girls...and Noelle's baptism...and Noelle's first 4th of July...but other than that....I don't have many warm fuzzies about this summer, though it has been rather...warm...

But back to that home makeover. If you recall, there was a hail storm around the end of May, beginning of June in 2009. Our house was pelted by TONS of hail (I have a video http://ernstbergerfamily.blogspot.com/2009/06/what-hail.html), and as a result, we were awarded an insurance settlement for a new roof (praise the Lord because our roof was the original 25 year old roof), and then we were later awarded a settlement for brand new siding on our house. We got the roof done in October, but it took a while to get around to doing the siding. We finally picked it out and chose a high quality, insulated siding in a NEW color. Yes, no more light blue/gray house. It is a nice beige/warm tan color called Prairie. The siding went up last Friday, and now we are left with the task of repainting ALL of our trim. This doesn't sound like a lot of work until you start and realize that the more you paint, the more you have left to paint. The trim used to be a blue/gray color, and now we are making it an off-white. Luke has been working really hard, and I have been trying to help in between watching Noelle. We try to maximize her nap times as much as possible. We are painting our garage doors a dark brown color, which is a big change from the white they used to be. We have new house numbers, we are painting our mailbox post, AND we got a new atrium patio door because the old one was a piece of crap and let in all kinds of bugs. It also let in WORMS when it rained. Sick! We have made a lot of changes, but it has taken so much work, effort, money, and time. I really want it to be done, and many times I question why we didn't just pay the money for someone else to do it so we could enjoy this time together. But, we didn't, so we have to deal with it. I can't wait until it is done, but unfortunately that will probably be about the time I go back to school.

There are some important days coming up-- like....my 26th birthday on Friday :-) and our 3rd wedding anniversary next Wednesday. Also coming up is the one year anniversary of when I told Luke we were having a baby, which was July 15th of last year. Pretty cool to see what has transpired over the last 12 months.

I will get around to typing up those blog posts I have "saved" in my brain. I am also nearing my 300th post on my blog, which is pretty nuts. I should do something special for that. Or you should send me a card with money in it.

Hope your summer isn't suckin'...