Knee Deep. Head Barely Above Water.

Dear Laney,

We just had one of those weekends that I could legitimately turn into six days' worth of blog posts. But if I shared it all in little bite-sized pieces, people might not get an accurate sense of just what a marathon it was.

On Friday after work/school, we took you down to the river to swim, and I brought along your new life jacket that I ordered for your birthday. Hey readers - if you know anyone in the 30-50 pound range, this thing is amazing. If I were Oprah, this is when I would start hollering, "YOU get a life jacket! YOU get a life jacket! YOU get a life jacket!"

We have had a ton of fun at the river so far this summer, and your early interest in swimming does not seem to be petering out. Here's a little Laney Swimming highlight reel I've been working on for a few weeks that makes me happy every time I watch it:

On Saturday, I worked on putting together the invitations I designed for my friend Will's wedding rehearsal dinner. This is Will:

And someone looked at that face and said, "Yes, I'll marry you and live with you forever." Like I always say, there's a lid for every pot. Will keeps reminding me how hard he worked when he was a bridesman in MY wedding; all I remember is that he drove to Troy, Alabama to pick up a keg, but everyone has their own definition of hard work.

Anyhoo, the rehearsal dinner is being held in a train car-turned-restaurant, so I made vintage train ticket invitations.

Since I used someone else's money to buy all the materials for these invitations, you and your fudgesicle had to stay on the other side of the room while I put them together. You thought this was NOT COOL.

Saturday evening, you were running in the driveway when you tripped and fell to the ground, and your forehead hit a rock. You started bleeding from the head - every mother's nightmare. We applied pressure, a Band-Aid, and an episode of Go, Diego, Go! (recommended by WebMD, sponsored by Nickelodeon). The whole process from crisis to full recovery took 20 minutes, give or take, and at least two weeks off my life.

On Sunday, we started cleaning and "staging" the house, so we could take all the pictures necessary to put it on the market. Most of the day was spent moving all of our junk from one room to another so we could trick the public into thinking we have a clean home take great-looking pictures, and I could put together a website to help sell this house. If you know of anyone considering a move to Alberton, Montana, let them know I have a house I can put them in yesterday.

By the time last night rolled around, I think we were all pretty much exhausted. In fact, I still haven't recovered, and I would very much like to spend the rest of the day lying on the couch, drinking iced tea and watching the miniseries North and South (recommended by WebMD, sponsored by crazy southern women everywhere).

Love,

Mom

As a parting gift, enjoy this outtake from the Laney Swimming video: