We've not yet seen the end of Captain Destructo!

I had been feeling overwhelmed lately with the cleaning.  The culprit?  4 baskets of laundry that were clean but never got put away.  You know what I mean.  The ones that you dig through day-after-day to find the clothes you need and figure you'll just empty the basket rather than put them away.  They'll be empty in no time!!

Not so.  These never-ending baskets of clean laundry are still full to the brim, there are 3 huge piles of dirty laundry and no one has anything to wear.  Leo and Elena were wearing dirty pants yesterday.  Now they just aren't wearing any!! 

Last night, after 5 pm Mass, I went back to my mom's house.  I didn't want to be anywhere near mine.  The disaster areas were messing with my head.  Every corner was taunting me and I couldn't get going on any of the cleaning.  I actually ran out of dish towels.  I have over 20...things were getting bad!  (This is usually when I stuff my face full of junk-food.  And true to form, I had McDonalds fries for the first time in months!!)

So, Jason assured me that our game-plan this morning would be to clean up everything.  Once Jason gets started, I find my motivation.  We got the house spic'n'span! 

Then, Captain Destructo did something he's never done before.  He decided the toy bins would serve as great...well...I'm not even sure.  He just dumped everything out...

Elena couldn't be happier stuck in the middle of the mess!  I just curled up under a blanket...

And in completely unrelated news, keeping with the Gale family tradition, Elena took her first official steps today, her 9 month birthday!!  Leo was exactly 9 months old when he took his first official steps.  As soon as I saw it, I ran to our calendar to check what day it was.  The 22nd!  What are the odds?!?!

She has been attempting steps for a couple weeks now but could only make one half-step before falling.  Today, I watched her take 2 steps away from a toy when no one was assisting.  I'm going to have to put a helmet on her Amazon wish list ;)

(Thudguard image from http://bit.ly/hBCeV2)