Good grief where do the days go?

Every single year I sit watching Independence Day fireworks and say "I cannot believe it's the 4th of July already." Then I'm struck that my Spring To-Do list is still sitting on my kitchen counter, less than half finished.

Case in point: the kitchen ceiling is still not fixed (more about that in a minute).

Here's a recap of the past week, in the extremely unlikely event you've been hanging on the edge of your seat.

--I didn't go "Home" on the 4th because the two weather reports I looked at 15 hours ahead of time (after I'd started packing my car for the 7am departure) said it was to be 53 degrees and raining starting at 9am. For a minute, I was all excited because I look really good in my green rain poncho! I called my girlfriend, who was already in the mountains staying at her parents' house, and she said the weather was terrible, but "bring your swim gear and we'll go swimming instead of going to the parade." I spent a solid 2 hours stewing about how much I was NOT dying to get up at 5am, pack my half sleeping kids into the car, drive 3 hours in bumper-to-bumper traffic into the mountains in the rain and then squeeze myself into a swimsuit, just to turn around at 2pm to head home for that BBQ we needed to attend at 5pm back in the city, followed by fireworks and driving home at 11pm. So I canceled. I slept until 7:30 and we spent a family day together then hit he BBQ and fireworks. I'm sure it won't come as a surprise to hear that there actually was no rain in the mountains that morning and it was sunny and beautiful.

--I realized that friends using the words "bring your swimsuit and we'll go swimming" is pretty much a deal breaker for me. Go figure. Me + a toddler who isn't fond of water and refuses any sort of sunscreen + a 5 year-old who thinks she can swim but really can't = no fun for Mommy. Not my idea of a swell time at the pool.

--Remember my kitchen ceiling? The one that's been a gaping hole since April 1st? 2 weeks ago, Mr Hyphen went to buy supplies to start fixing it. He got some lumber cut to start to frame out where we'll need more framing to attach the "cover", but then we've come to a stalemate as his schedule has had him working a lot. The great thing? During Tuesday night's deluge, water started dripping (then pouring) out of that open ceiling... running off the pipe that runs from the roof, through the 2nd story walls, to the first story, onto my kitchen floor. Seems the roof has taken a beating from the recent weather. But the very best part is that if we had gone to the trouble of patching that ceiling, we'd have had to have torn it out on Tuesday night--well, that's if we'd have realized there was a HUGE leak. If we hadn't realized it, we'd have had that funky mold smell and it could have been months figuring it out and THEN we'd have had to tear the ceiling out again. Anybody want to guess what kind of hissy fit Hyphen Mama would have had over that? As it stands now, insurance will send out a claims adjuster to take a look and Mr Hyphen braved the second story roof yesterday to tar the living daylights out of the leaky pipe.

--On a very good note, I went to see an endocrinologist this morning to try to figure out what.is.wrong.with.me and I'm so very happy because I worked with one of the RN's there who thinks he knows what is WRONG WITH ME!!! I'm so happy I could spit. 3 gallons of blood was taken and I'll have results in a week or so. Getting a diagnosis would be bittersweet: I'd be happy if it's something that's not just in my head and upsetting because it could actually be "something"... you know, not necessarily good. We'll know in a week or so.


--And lastly, I'm giving myself a break in the blogging world and I'll be blogging intermittently, and I'll be around to read you all and comment when I read if I've got something to add, but I'm not really feeling it right now and I'm going to take a breather. It's not you... it's me.