Did We Survive Hurricane Katrina or Not?

Many of my readers surely must have noticed the blogging-by-fits-and-starts method of late. Some of my readers may have noticed that my last few regular posts were full of complaints about my health. My most observant readers may have noticed the ticker I installed on the sidebar a couple of weeks ago -- the one with the animation of a developing baby along with a countdown.

For those not interested in muddling through the mystery -- I'll just tell you: We are currently expecting our fifth child. The ultrasound technician tells us it's a boy and he's due to arrive around December 5, 2007.

(Note: I admire all of those women out there that keep pregnancy-related blogs. Pregnancy has definitely interfered with my blogging instinct.)

In other news -- everyone is back to school. For anyone out there thinking "Well at least now she gets to take a break" -- please remember - 'school' takes place in our kitchen every day. We're having fun this year. No. Really. I like our new curriculum - I like our new schedule. It's all good.

On the homefront: We have hired yet another general contractor to finish up the major work upstairs. Yes - despite our previous experience with general contractors -- we're trying again. The fact is we are in no position to do this work ourselves at this point in our lives... and we're also in no position to play general contractor anymore.

The new crew arrives sometime before the end of this month. Work includes:

Demolishing whatever needs to be demolished up there.
Repairing sheetrock where necessary.
Finding and sealing leaks where necessary.
Priming and painting the walls.
Installing door trim, baseboards, and crown moulding (does this sound familiar to you, too?)
Installing floors throughout.

This time around we're not buying our own materials and we're not teaching anyone how to install anything. Wish us luck.