TWO WEEKS without a post?

What have you been doing, lady? Why aren't you giving me attention?

These are the questions I imagine this site asking me, day after day of ignoring and neglecting.

Well, Dear Blog, I've been running around like mad.

When we bought our house, we noted that the bathroom would need to be re-done soon. Apparently, the little old lady we bought it from didn't actually shower and finished the bathroom with wallpaper. The entire bathroom was covered in 80s-cool wallpaper, including the tub surround. So, for the past 18 months we lived here, we had the shower surround enveloped in gorgeous vinyl shower curtain liners, to protect the drywall from daily showering until the day we could start fixing it.

That day is now. (Actually, it was supposed to be last Spring Break, but we hit a little bump in the road that prevented us from doing it. Welcome Home, Oliver!)

The curtain liners are finally down, as are the walls of the bathroom. After three days of hard labor, our bathroom is gutted. Completely without its own walls, down to the studs. A small dumpster is in the driveway where my car should be and supplies and new things are scattered about the house like Ollie's toys usually are. For a couple days, we had the old sink and vanity in the kitchen, looking sad and cast off.

It's chaos.

I've spent hours in our local home remodel stores, choosing the new look for our bathroom. I've consulted with the (paid) experts about what would work best for flooring and walls, and dashed out when the drywall and plaster started coming down to protect Ollie from the dust. We've stayed away because, well...Ollie's a scaredy-cat and cries when he hears any power tools of any kind.

I'm doing the easy work. I'm spending hours away from home, visiting family, killing time until the project is over, and I'm exhausted. I packed Ollie up in the car and left today with no destination in mind, and I'm pooped out. Poor Matty is doing the tough stuff. I haven't picked up a hammer or other tool of destruction unless it's to move it out of the way to get something more important.

It's crazy. It's dirty. It's expensive. It sucks.

All I want to do is shower. Without walls of vinyl surrounding me.