I'm back, baby

Well, hello bloggy friends, I have returned from a long summer hiatus from blogging. It was unintended, and then the days just kept piling on top of one another until 2 months later I realized I hadn’t written one post. There were a couple factors at work here, impeding my ability to blog: the recent move into our house, and a new gig at work. Perhaps some people are able to juggle the demands of domestic organization, the corporate jungle, and parenting effortlessly, but I have never admitted to being an overachiever. So as they say, something had to give. Frankly, the amount of brain power I have exerted recently at work left me with little energy to even form full sentences, so writing witty, entertaining content was an impossibility. Besides, it would have been an endless bitch session anyway. So as of today, I hereby officially blow off the dust on Eucalyptus Pillow. Even though I’ve been a silent lurker on some occasions these past couple months, it’s time for me catch up on some of my bloggy friends. I’ve also cleaned up my site a little and gotten rid of some things that were just not applicable anymore. I don’t mean to insult anybody, but it’s time for de-cluttering.

There’s been some interesting debates going on the blogworld lately, especially one that piqued my interest about advertising. As a marketing associate, I would have to say that advertising is ubiquitous, and who’s to say some mom in Idaho can’t jump on the bandwagon and get paid for her writing if she wants to put McDonald’s in her sidebar. The one part of blog advertising that I do find irksome are the posts that written like ads. I know there’s a word for these, but I can think of it right now. And the endless contests and promotions. It’s a little too commercial for me. It’s not why I got into blogging. But by all means, not that I’m looking to piss everybody off on my first day back, and people can do whatever the heck they want with their own sites. It’s like the argument for censorship on the radio, you can turn the dial. I can keep clicking.

OK, now that I’ve gotten that off my chest, here’s what I did on my summer vacation in photos:

Before and After (excuse the brown grass)

My uncle did the work on the porch, as well as some painting in the house. Landscaping is next year’s project. And the kids are growing up way too fast. CJ starts kindergarten on Tuesday, and Andrew is feisty little toddler who is now walking all over the place. I thought that kid was never going to walk!

There’s so much to share over what’s gone on in the past 2 months, so not sure where to start other than with the pictures. More to come later about the kids in the neighborhood, why I’m now broke, our car that died, and who ate my black-eyed susans.