This was not on the to-do list.

Dear Baby,

Since your Dad and I are planning for your arrival well in advance, we are using our double income to fix up the house. For example, the upstairs (main) bathroom desperately needed remodeling, so a few months ago we hired a contractor and set to work. Now, over two months later, it's almost done. I'll spare you the ugly details as to why a 5x7 bathroom would take more than two months to remodel. Let's just say that in no universe should it ever take that long for a space that small. We did learn two very valuable lessons though. 1) Never let your contractor talk you into starting a job before you are ready, and 2) have all of your materials on hand before you start. Moving on...

Our next task is to repaint the inside of the house and rearrange the furniture. It just needs a little sprucing up now that the bathroom looks so awesome. We also planned to replace the pillars holding up the roof of our front porch because, really, those things could collapse any day now. They are little ticking time-bombs.

We have a lot on our plates already, no? So imagine our frustration when our basement flooded this past weekend. It was right after we had finished our first shower ever in the new bathroom too, so we freaked out that our bathroom was somehow broken. Long story short, we think there are tree roots growing in to our sewer line. I know, fun, right? The plumber is coming today to snake the drain, but if that doesn't work, the next fix is to dig up the front yard and physically repair the line. ::sigh::

Your Gammy has lived in a construction zone for five years, kid, and I have no idea how she does it. We've had minor construction going on for two months and with all the other things I have planned, it will likely be another two or three of drop cloths and clutter before we're done. Here's a tidbit you'll learn about me later on: I am a borderline neat freak. I hate clutter and mess and dirty stuff. I can live with clutter longer than I can live with filth (like dirty dishes), but it's still a fairly short time period. I may go nuts before it's all over.

Your Dad suggested we should be going crazy doing all the "young couple in the city" stuff we can before you come along, but all this work is going to put a serious crimp in the party budget, kid.

Sorry for such a boring letter today, Baby. I'm just tired of rehashing how tired and sad I am all the time. This is me trying to be normal. Normal Mom is less interesting, but ultimately more stable. I think you'll appreciate it later in life.

Love you forever, kid.
Mama