The above photo was taken last week. The magnolia trees are in bloom all around - my favorite time of the year!

We are doing absolutely nothing for Memorial Day. We are simply flat-out exhausted. Just going out for burgers later tonight (because what's a good ol' fashioned American holiday without dead cow and cheese slapped between soggy buns) almost seems like a chore...

Yesterday we headed back to Tampa Bay to sign with our new realtor (love her), and arrived at the house to find that the realtor we affectionately refer to as had already removed his signs and lockbox from the door. Good, considering our contract with him officially ends on 6/1, right? Not so fast there, my friends... He still has our listing in MLS meaning we are still legally under contract until the midnight release next Friday.

So basically what he has done has screwed us out of a full week of being able to show the house. With no sign in the yard, our neighbors weren't even sure if we'd taken the house off the market when we returned yesterday. And wouldn't you know it, in the 90 minutes we left to eat lunch and grab lightbulbs at Target, a couple with a realtor showed up at the house to see it. (Psssst, there is no lockbox on the door now.) And being as our soon-to-be-former realtor doesn't exactly pick up his phone or return his calls, it's not like they were going to get inside either. They saw one of our neighbors outside and asked him if he knew if the house was still on the market. I guess they acted very interested in purchasing it. But our neighbor didn't know what to tell them because he hadn't talked to us yet. The couple and their realtor acted very confused when they left, and we're not sure if we'll ever hear from them again. We are FUMING. Even if someone calls to see the place this week, he won't be able to show it to them. Because as requested, he left our key on the table when he collected his things. He can't get inside! (Of course, we were expecting him to leave our key the day we listed with a new agent - not a full week prior to the deadline he gave us.)

So yeah... We put our own sign on the door and a sign in the yard that will hopefully fill the gap between our listings. But thank goodness we went back yesterday or we'd have no clue any of this was going on!

One of my blog readers sent me this form (thank you!) to file a complaint on , and you'd better believe they are getting a 1500 word or more essay from me as soon as the calendar hits June 2nd!

And of course, while we were there the air conditioner started having issues so we get to make another trip back as soon as we can get a repairman to the house. Ummm, yay.

Now for something completely different...

Todd mailed me this link last week titled "E-Mail Reply to All: 'Leave Me Alone'". I'm seriously thinking about making the link my auto-responder. I kid you not, my Gmail has 488 e-mails in the inbox. I have good intentions. I have a disclaimer on my about page that warns, "She has...the inability to return e-mails in a timely manner..." And yet, I never seem to catch up. I keep everything "unread" because I truly do mean to reply to them all. It's just overwhelming. The volume is too much. I'd need one secretary to screen it, and another to reply to it all. And since my 3-year old's typing is pretty much limited to "hiiiiiiiiiii daaaaaaddyyyy" right now, I don't see that happening any time soon.

So e-mail bankruptcy it is. Are there filing fees or court costs involved?

Say, do y'all remember Lisa Loeb - that chick with glasses from the "Reality Bites" video? Well I'm beyond excited to report that she's just as nice as she is cute. A few years back when the oldest was a baby, she released a children's album with Elizabeth Mitchell called "Catch the Moon". They would play the video for the title track on Noggin all of the time, and I would often dance around the living room with the boys cradled in my arms and sing it to them. So of course it was a song I wanted in the gallery-jukebox of my professional site... And this weekend I just received written permission to use it! I'm seriously floored. It's just perfect for me! I never link my business site here in my entries because I prefer to keep my two online lives separate with a neat little dotted dividing line down the center, but in this special case, I'm breaking that rule — so head on over to Buttons and Bows Photography if you're so inclined. Truly my biggest coup ever as a professional photographer.

If you have little ones of your own and don't have a copy of the CD, get it. It's worth every penny for just the "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" rendition alone!

UPDATE: I've also just been given permission to use "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star"! Yay!

Thanks so much Lisa and Elizabeth!

And happy Memorial Day everyone —
-Robyn