Issues....

I have issues. Mostly with laundry. If I walk in your room and find even one piece of clothing on the floor, I don't do your laundry. Period. Even if you are completely out of clean clothes.

For my girls, this can mean weeks without clean clothes. I stress and stress my "issue" with them, and they choose not to do anything about it but whine about having no clean clothes.

Now that school is in, that is a bigger problem since I prefer they wear clean clothes to school instead of looking like orphans.

It has little effect.

Kind of like when I tell the Ish she absolutely cannot leave her school shoes outside all night, and she does it anyway, just to prove to me that she can, indeed, leave them outside. Now she has to wear dewey damp tennis shoes to school.

They never learn. Issues.

In other news...

We drove an hour away this weekend to a restaurant we barely tolerate with people we prefer not to be seen in public with, especially when it involves alcohol and money, but that is another story for another day...

Then it was back to grandma's house... it was her birthday afterall... and feel free to think it wierd that my husbands grandmother is a year and a half younger than my own mother!
Being a grandma who already has everything and is constantly giving things away (usually to my kids), we stick with simple and gave her some handmade cards and a 5x7 group photo of the kids, which mysteriously found itself ripped in half approximately two and a half seconds after being handled by Ishee, who swears it wasn't her... it's a good thing I like her...
We then proceeded to sing Happy Birthday to grandma ... and after a major weeping and wailing fit over candles, she had to light them again so a certain four and a half year old cousin who shall remain nameless could blow them out all by herself. I tell ya, birthdays around here are all about her... it's a good thing we like her... and that she's not mine... cuz I'd a traded her in by now...
But, I kind of like her anyway, even if she thinks I'm strange because I'm always trying to take her picture, something she detests with every fiber of her being. She usually lets me get one shot before she screams at me.
Before we left for this evening of pain and anguish... okay, it wasn't THAT bad (but close)... we drained the pool. With the weather headed south and the solar cover having seen one too many hot summer days and falling apart (literally), the pool just wasn't getting much above 70 degrees. Nobody dared get in and swim to the bottom and pull the plug, so the husband made a siphon out of the shop vac hose which we used until the boy started playing with it and pulled it out.

We then made him get in and pull the plug.

Ishee cried.

and then she put on her swimming suit (over her underwear) and played...

in the mud...

I love weekends... almost as much as I love sending the kids off to school on Monday morning! Ahhhh.... silence....

Good times... good times...

We gave the backyard pool a break today and ventured 40 minutes to the northwest to one of the few "real" swimming pools in this remote area I call home. Good times are always to be had when I leave home... especially when I take my inlaws with me, or rather, when they follow me since I didn't take them with me. I made them drive their own car, and I didn't even wait for them, because I'm not that nice. Actually, I had to stop and get gas and while my mother in law said they'd be glad to stop and wait for me, I reminded them that they do know the way as do I, so I didn't need anybody to hold my hand. I left approximately two minutes ahead of them and arrived about 30 seconds behind them... after waiting for a semi to turn left, and hitting three different gas stations just to find one with gas and an open spot. I'm such a rebel. With a led foot.

Anywhoozle...

I didn't drown. Not even when I jumped off the diving board. I don't do that often because I have to take off my glasses, and my eyesight is so bad, I can barely see the edge of the pool and I certainly can't see my kids. It makes me nervous. Therefore, I prefer to watch three water dogs jump repeatedly off the diving board (the youngest with a life jacket) while lazily clinging to a couple of noodles.

We had swimming races. The middle child kicked our butts repeatedly. Ishee tried so hard to swim across the pool but gave up half way. I was just beyond seriously impressed she made it that far! As for the middle child... she totally rocks!

My sister in law jumped off the diving board twice... the first time forgetting the sunglasses she'd left on her head (it's an indoor pool anyway), and nearly lost them!

My mother in law jumped off the diving board just once. The boy had to swim out and save her with a noodle. She also lost the claim tag to her clothes during the same scary dive. The middle child found it under the diving board and tried with all her might to swim to the bottom and fetch it, but just couldn't do it. I assured the MIL that it surely wasn't the first time in the pools 50 or so years of life that they'd lost a claim tag to the bottom of the pool and it surely wouldn't be the last. I couldn't imagine they'd hold her clothes hostage because of it. Besides, that's what she gets for putting it on her wrist instead of her ankle like normal folks.

The four year old niece, despite being the child who normally won't get OUT of the water, even if it's a puddle, announced she was not getting IN the water for nothing. It took about 15 minutes of begging and pleading just to get her clothes off her! We finally succeeded... and it was totally worth the wait after hearing her laugh her head off when she saw grandma jump off the diving board. Afterall, it was a spectacular jump and I hope I never have to witness another one again.

I also hope I never have to witness another teenage boy lose his swim trunks... not totally, just showing me way more than an innocent bystander should EVER see! Whoops. Luckily, he was turned the other direction and the kids didn't have to witness the debacle as it took him several moments before he noticed something had gone awry (I don't even want to know what was visible from the other side). Some things, you just don't want to see. I don't do crack. Period!

My final thoughts on these good times is...

**Diet Dr. Pepper just doesn't taste the same out of a can as it does a bottle. It's borderline undrinkable.

**Hot house tomatoes grown in what is probably old swimming pool water are the BEST!

**Double check with the kids to see if they have all their stuff... you might just get home and discover they left your favorite beach towel there.

Gluttons for punishment...

They didn't last long... the water temperature the next day after filling the pool was only 62 degrees... they got in anyway.
They made it about 10 minutes before they were frozen the first day. And a good 20 the next.

Today, Sunday, it's a whopping 77 degrees, they are dying to play in it, but alas, we don't swim on Sunday.

Oh yeah, and the husband still has yet to put together the ladder, so we have to just throw them over the side. You know how when it's really cold and it takes you forever to get in, especially past certain parts of the body that just can't stand the pain? When you just throw them over the side... it's a whole new kind of shock.
Guess what else? Even though she is nose deep with the filter outside the pool, she's only neck deep inside the pool! Her swimming ability has already tripled from what it was last year in only three days! I'm sure glad I cancelled those swimming lessons.

Pool sweet pool...

Tips for the pool!
(according to the Ish meister)
Step 1 first you get the sides and put the up!
Step 2 you plug the water in!
Step 3 you get the hose!
Step for you fill et up!
Step 5 you wate for the water to get warm!

It's much cuter with the diagrams and heart shaped exclamation points.

Instead of the blow up pool that raises as it fills, we went with the metal framed kind. It's larger, it's has more swim area, it's costs more, but it was bound to last longer. Hopefully, the carpet we put under it this year will keep the rocks from penetrating it's big blue skin, too.
Took some doing, but we got it done.
Now we are faced with a whole new myriad of issues:

1. It's deep. We knew that when we bought it, but we figured we just wouldn't fill it all the way. However, in order to use the filter, we have to have it filled a minimum of about eight inches from the top. Having it that deep puts it nose level with Ishee. She was not at all excited to see that one. Sorry to all the short relatives who played in it last year and may visit me again this year...

2. The filter return is also quite close to the top, which means it sprays it's water out above the water. This was fun to watch until we put the solar cover over it and realized it sprays water on top of it therefore sinking the solar cover and making it useless. The only way to remedy this is to add another six inches of water, therefore making it way over Ishee's head. We're still working out a solution for that one, in the meantime, we just unplugged the filter for a day or two until it warms up!

3. The ladder we have is too short. This is not really an issue since the new pool came with a ladder of appropriate height. However, this is an issue for the husband who didn't want to put another ladder together. Those are a pain!

4. Is 60 degree water really too cold to swim in when it's only 78 degrees outside? I'm thinking... yes....