Where has my summer gone?

It seems like only yesterday that we'd just gotten out of school. The whole summer stretched gloriously before us. Now, June's about gone. July is knocking at the door. And, since we are on an alternative school schedule, we go back to school in late July. YIKES! So the arrival of July officially indicates that summer is almost over. Well, summer break anyway. Nothing says summer like recess duty in August. Sitting on the playground, supervising a couple hundred 4 and 5 year olds in 99+ degree heat definitely feels like summer. (Truthfully, it feels like Hell some days.)

We have lots of things to get done around here today. My mom got back from Brazil yesterday and went straight to bed. We are trying to get a cookout thrown together and invite her over to tell us about her trip. The only detail I have so far from her is that she got a stomach virus there and sick for about 5 days. Alli and I have a little shopping to do. Tomorrow is Boy Wonder's birthday and I need to get him something.

I'm doing some creative refinancing on my rental property and some debt consolidation. This, of course, requires an appraisal of my house. Let's just hope the appraiser can overlook clutter and chaos. My house is fine structure-wise. We do need to do some basic cleaning and straightening before he/she comes "some time early this week." (Things the appraiser will just have to ignore: the fact that my kitchen, laundry room, and my bathroom walls have been stripped of their wallpaper but not painted yet, the huge pile of Cori's stuff that needs to go to her new foster home, the insane amount of equipment belonging to Elvis - wheelchairs, standers, bath chairs, and adapted toys all take up lots of space, and the leftover construction materials that are still hanging out waiting for disposal.) (Things I hope to have done before appraisal: rehang my bathroom mirror, install new bathroom light fixture, haul huge pile of stuff to Good Will, semi-organize leftover construction materials so they appear to actually be leftover construction materials and not just junk I choose to decorate my home with.)

It's going to be a busy day!