Another long break between posts as I have not found any semblance of routine in my life yet.

Clean up has been ongoing since the flood mid-April. We're constantly hosting various workers. In the basement, we've had a new wall drywalled and painted, existing cabinetry rehung, a new countertop installed, and ceiling tiles replaced. Jeff just order new materials to put in the floor himself so we can save a little $. Upstairs, we've had new carpeting laid throughout the living and piano room, new vinyl laminate flooring in the mudroom and all our baseboard back in place. Jeff met with the insurance adjuster and the restoration foreman last week to evaluate the condition of the kitchen hardwood floor and the meter says it's still damp, so we reevaluate in August. We're also discussing new cabinetry for the mudroom and leaving the utility sink out of there.

We were able to escape the construction a few time. Kristin and Carlo hosted Easter this year and we couldn't have been happier to eat a home-cooked meal. During spring break, Paige and I joined Kristin, Bella and Lucy for a 3-day road trip down to Indy to visit the Sears clan and finally see Meg's new salon. (Many more pics on my Facebook page.) We also got to celebrate Cooper's 5th birthday and see Bryce play baseball. The kids all had so much fun playing together. And we traveled up to the Cabin for a portion of Memorial Day weekend which was beautiful and restful.

Totally unrelated to the flood, but happening at the same time is our roof! Damaged by high winds last fall, we were always planning to have this done this summer. We found out we have CertainTeed shingles that are part of a class action lawsuit, so we may come by some $ that way. The roofers arrived last Thursday and should finish up tomorrow (Monday). We'll be very happy NOT to see roof granules from our deteriorating shingles littered all over our deck, front sidewalk and washed down the downspouts.

Luckily I have been off work for the majority of this time and have kept super busy reorganizing just about every drawer and closet throughout the house. Many trips to Goodwill, metals recycling and the dump.

Abby and Bryn have come home for the summer from college. Both will begin summer jobs next week. Bryn has been hired by our Park & Rec Dept as a playground supervisor. She'll be putting in 40hrs/week and will be tired! For now, she is completing an online course and likes to get some sun while studying and/or writing. Abby is trying to tackle two different internships as well as keeping her part-time job at Hallmark. The first internship is with Columbia St. Mary's hospital where I temped this past January – March. She will help out in the Marketing Dept where I was. The second intership is with The Cathedral Center, a homeless shelter for women and families in downtown Milwaukee. She will help with fundraisers, their website and any other marketing or public relations issues.

Paige just turned 16 last week so she will be checking in on her application with Hallmark to see if her sister got her in. That would be awesome! We got Paige 16 gifts for her 16th birthday and took her out to a Japanese steakhouse (at her request) for her birthday. Paige is scheduled to take her driver's test next Monday. Paige just finished up her high school softball season and led her JV team with homeruns and triples. Now she can rejoin her summer team, the Sussex SunDevils for their practices and games. (New link at right for Sun Devils schedule).

Jeff's done teaching at MSOE for this schoolyear. It's kept him pretty busy this spring, but now he's ready to jump on some of our own projects around the house.

Bryn just had her wisdom teeth out last Friday. She's recovering well. No reaction to the anesthesia like Abby. Thank goodness! Bryn just had two upper wisdom teeth that the doctor commented were located "in the skydome." He prescribed some antibiotics as a precaution to any infection that could occur in the sinus cavity because the teeth were so high up.

Abby just returned from a weekend in La Crosse to visit friends. You can tell she really misses that place this year. I'm glad she's confident enough to make the trip.

I get to work again (full-time) next week in Waukesha for an ad agency that specializes in healthcare. I got to temp there a couple weeks ago and really liked it. The office is very casual and the work is very similar to what I did at Norman Design. Biggest difference is that it's a larger company, so there's a hierarchy of checks and approvals that I really appreciate. I can learn from that kind of input. Otherwise, it seems that I'm getting more opportunities and will be interviewing at a couple places (through C2) to be put on a few companies' rosters as regular oncall help. So it's working out pretty well. When I'm home, I'm trying to learn a new way to develop websites and using my brother's company as my guinea pig. By subscribing to an online tutorial site (lynda.com), I'm learning as I go.