2010 Year in Review

Our year* in less than 5 minutes

After multiple technology failures and a whole lotta drama, I finally got this posted.  It's bugging the heck out of me that you have to click on it again after you get to Web Albums to view it, but I really think this is the best I can do.  Seriously, I could write a blog post about how this simple little movie was such a pain to get posted.  But I won't.  Just enjoy the movie.  

*note: I know this is supposed to be a house blog, but I didn't really find any of our home improvements this year (landscaping, furnace repair, insulating, new toilets, pipe repair, new roof, bathroom remodel in progress) interesting enough for our YIR.  Stay tuned for updates on our DIY projects.

Let's do this!

Joe's right.  I long ago declared the blog dead.  As many of you may painfully remember, my last post was October 23, 2009.  The day our daughter, Lucy, was due.  I was overwhelmed by the support and feedback I got from that post, and I truly planned to continue posting to our little blog about our house and our lives.  But every time I thought about opening up the blog and making a new post, I just couldn't do it.  Somehow, it just felt wrong to me to follow-up the post about our dead daughter with something about installing new toilets...  So one day recently, Joe brought up the blog (again) and I finally told him why I haven't posted for over a year.  I may be biased, but I'm pretty sure my husband has the most beautiful soul I've ever known.  I'm not sure if he understood my feelings at all, but he acted as though he did.  And he made a simple offer that actually meant quite a lot to me.  He asked me, if he redesigned the blog and made the first post-Lucy entry, if I thought I could keep going.  I said yes.  So he did.  And I will.  And I just read Lucy's Garden for the first time since posting it almost 15 months ago.  I have to say, I'm pretty damn proud of the words I wrote and the clarity in which I was able to express myself in such a time of grief.  And reading the post allowed me to reflect on how far we - me, Joe, our family, and the house - have come since then.  This house and - more importantly - our family have stories to tell, and I think this is a great place to do it.  

So I say to you, Joe, resurrector of the blog, let's do this!  Let's bring the blog back.  For real.  None of this wash, rinse, repeat stuff.  As I type, I am brainstorming a pictoral Peaches "year in review" post...

And let me be the first to introduce you to the newest member of our family, Charlie, who entered our lives quickly, a bit unexpectedly, and absolutely perfectly last September.

GMaCP (gratuitous Max and Charlie picture)

Redesign, and a (Possible) Return to Posting

It all sounds familiar, doesn't it?  A blog falls out of use, and then the author comes after 6 months and says he or she will resume posting, and then stops blogging for 6 months, then says he or she will resume posting . . . wash, rinse, repeat.

I spent a bit of time redesigning the site (and by redesigning, I mean changing the default Blogger template) in the hopes that it will jumpstart me on providing regular updates.  The last year has soon a lot of work done to the house, and a new addition to the family--our four-month-old son, Charlie.  Right now we are in the middle of a tub/shower overhaul that is consuming a lot of time, and we recently put on a new roof, which consumed a lot of money.  Stay tuned for some substantive posts; if nothing else, I need to post just to prove Kendra wrong, who has long proclaimed this blog as dead.

So what type of posts are on tap?  Here is a short list of improvements in the works or that have been completed since we last updated:

*Refurbishing the first of 12 old windows

*New roof

*Extensive landscaping

*Minor exterior repairs

*Insulation of pipes (because they burst!)

*New tub/shower/tile job in downstairs bathroom

*Removing four loads of tree trimmings from our beautiful maple trees

*Construction of outdoor play set (not an improvement to the home, but a major construction project nevertheless)

I'm guessing that we can also get some pretty serious "before" and "after" shots done.  But in any case, I feel like I owe it to someone (who, I don't know; the house maybe?) to keep this blog going.