A long time ago, in a small town far, far away . . .

OK, a pretty cheesey start, but George Lucas was onto something.  Dave and I are soon to celebrate our 13th wedding anniversary and are proud to say that we are in our 30's, living at home (though not in the basement), playing video games all day!  We are actually building a new home and sold ours several months ago, so in late March we moved in with my parents and rocked their world!  It's more than crazy having 9 people in one house (though we are used to 7 so it's not so hard for us), but we are making it day by day.  To make the time go faster we finally bought a Wii and my kids (and Dave) are in heaven.  I am currently living my stay-at-home Mom part of my year, three months that I really cherish.  In a short 4 weeks we go back to full-time teacher/Mom life and all its accompanying frenzy.  Not only that but our house should be done in 4-6 weeks and, yes if you do the math, that's right when I'll be starting the school year! 

In spite of the daily struggles of juggling kids ranging from a hormonal 11 year old middle schooler to a curious, hands-on toddler and a project-crazy husband, not to mention navigating the politics of living with Mom and Dad, we are happy and feel very lucky to have so much in our lives. 

This summer has truly been an adventure, filled with blood, sweat and tears and quite a few laughs as well.  We'll take you through our journey from buying a nasty old rat-hole house to building a lovely, not-quite-dream-home!  Along the way we'll run into interesting companions, some big challenges and more than a few really cranky Erins.

But Dave's and my wild combination of big dreams and crazy schemes always keep things interesting.  IF any of you even care or manage to follow this, I hope you'll enjoy the journey as much as we did.

(Here is a picture of both our house and our family under construction!)