I'm sure it seems like I've fallen off the earth this week. No time for blogging, unfortunately. So here's a quick recap of what's going on in the Loudon house(s) to keep us so busy:

• We're continuing to get the old house ready for market. Greg is working incredibly hard until wee hours of the morning every day to get things done. His work is terrific and it will undoubtedly return to us in terms of an easier sale and higher sales price (if he doesn't drop dead from so much work before that happens). Truly, the man's stamina and ability to work hard without complaint is amazing. He's paying attention to details, which is great for a buyer, but takes some time. He's had to deal with firing contractors, too, which hasn't been fun, and fixing their messes. I've been on cleaning duty. The contractors were not very thoughtful in keeping a clean house while doing their work, so it's required actual scrubbing on hands and knees over all the hardwood floors to clean up overspray from the paint. The good news is that once scrubbed, it does look nice. Just wish the contractors had shown greater care and forethought for throwing down more drop cloths!
• Christopher's school has had lots of busy fun stuff this week. Janet Carr-Campbell, who is the Musical Director for the Music Machine, a well-known Anchorage children's performance group, was the "Artist in Residence" for the past 3 weeks, so the school put on quite a show this week. Truly, I'll have to find some photos from the video to post because it was stupendous. Wednesday was World Celebration Day for them, where they dressed up in costumes from around the world, sampled food fare from various locales, and used their passports to visit various world locations on their round the world trip. A cool school-wide celebration with a variety of educational goals.
• Daylight Savings -- this has been tough for my kids this week, so we've had some grumbly kids. It's tough for them to fall asleep at the new time, especially when the sun is still shining brightly at bedtime. But they have to get up pretty early for school, so they don't get to make up the sleep on the tail end. Last night, Christopher walked up the stairs at 9:00 pm crying that he wanted to sleep, but just couldn't. This was 2 hours after initial bedtime. On Tuesday, Christopher was too tired to go to swim lessons -- after the daylight savings troubles and the school performance, he didn't have it in him. They (and we) are looking forward to catching up on sleep during Spring Break, which starts tomorrow, and maybe getting some black out shades to help the kids sleep.
• Work is keeping me busy. I am working on finishing up one project and signed a contract for a new project starting next week. And I had to turn down another project this week because I just didn't think I could give it the attention it would need. After a bit of drought with my clients, things seem to be picking up.
• It's been a tough 24 hours for Ramy. He had a dog die during the last day of his trip to Nome. He's absolutely devastated by the death. Greg has been keeping updates on Ramy's website about it at www.ramybrooks.com. Keep him in your prayers.

Sound busy enough for you?