Yeah, so the one thing I love about myself is how self-aware I am. For example, I know I tend to bring most of the stress in my life on myself. On Friday I went out to get the mail, and spotted a “For Sale” sign in front of our next-door neighbor’s house. They moved in about a week before we did, and we watched as their family of two turned into a family of three.

Although we aren’t “close”, we are friendly and…they’re good neighbors. No loud parties, and their son is still itty bitty enough to where he hasn’t been able to turn into too much of a demon…and they take good care of their yard and home. So in the grand scheme of things…it’s upsetting to know they’re moving.

The signs were there…a random U-Haul a couple of weeks ago for example; but, the kicker was when in the middle of last week, a yard service came through to mow and edge. That was a huge red flag, as he always did his own yard work…I’d hear his mower and weed eater going every Friday morning during the summers. It’s the same thing as when you go to work, and one of your co-workers is really dressed up. The first thing you say is, “Where are you going, a job interview?”

Anyhoo…that sent me into a bit of a panic. I started wondering if we had been in our home too long…after all, we’re surrounded on all sides by new people. Our immediate neighborhood has completely turned over in the past 5 1/2 years, and the demographic is already starting to change. So of course, that conversation led us to sit down and make out lists of things we wanted to do with the house (since really, we don’t want to move), which led us to finally junk the “place holder” hodgepodge of furniture that had been in our breakfast nook for five years, which led us to deciding to wallpaper the nook the same as the kitchen, which led us to looking at new slate flooring and start imagining a world with refaced cabinets. Oh, and we’re also talking about replacing all of the blinds in the house with plantation shutters. And getting the windows washed. And having someone come out to check our sprinkler system, because the coverage is lousy.

As if all of that weren’t enough…we went to IKEA Saturday night. I’m trying to remember why…oh…we were looking for new dishes for our short-attention-span lifestyle. Holy crap…I figured no one would be there. Wrong. Turns out, that’s the Saturday night family activity of choice in the greater Plano/Frisco area. I keep forgetting IKEA is like one great, big thrill ride at Disneyland. You walk inside…and just ride the wave until it kicks you out at the end with Stuff and a bag of meatballs. Completely spent, we went to our new weekend hangout, where we skipped the tasting and went straight for the glasses of wine.

Then…on Sunday morning…we did the Big Backyard Cleanup where I pruned roses, CU relocated shrubs and we put our poor hibiscuses out of their misery. We’re all set up and ready for Spring planting.

It was a rather manic weekend…which is probably why I crashed hard Sunday night and have been lying low in general ever since. So much going on…yet, nothing is really going on. Does that make sense?

It doesn’t help that TV has been mostly reruns, save a new episode of The Amazing Race where…yawn…Bahston Rahb & Ambuh Of The Smokin’ Ass came in first…yawn…again…and Dave and Mary went home. I was so upset, because I needed Mary to stick around long enough to kick Charla’s bellisima ass.