Memorial Day weekend

It has been a good holiday weekend.  We didn’t go on any camping trips or make any trips to cemeteries, but we do thank those who have served our country.  

Projects were the name of our game.  It actually didn’t rain for 2 days!   Miracle!   The city pool was supposed to open Saturday.  We woke up to the phone calls for Jim. Equipment malfunctions.  He left to help.  The little girls and I worked really hard.  We got the house cleaned, the laundry done, sheets washed, and a few projects finished.  Then we set to work on the pool.  We tried hard to get the pump running but just couldn’t get it to maintain the right amount of pressure.  I was sad knowing that Jim spent his Saturday working on the city pool, only to come home and deal with problems with our pool.  Preston came home from work and announced that he would do anything we needed help with Saturday evening and Sunday, but that he was proclaiming Monday as a day to sit and play video games and hang out in the basement all day.  I said “deal” and promptly put him to work. 

The city still doesn’t have their pool fixed, but it turned out our problem was that I didn’t have the water level quite high enough.  Our pressure issues were resolved by adding a few inches more.  Thankfully!  

The kids were a ton of help on Sunday.  After mass, they managed to get the yard mowed while Jim trimmed.  I worked on the pool some more, finished a few things, and we had Sunday dinner.   It was a great day of productivity.  After dinner, Andrew, Evie and Quincy went fishing. Q landed a pretty nice one!   Evie was so excited. She kept calling it a baby shish.  

Quincy spent the weekend babysitting for a very spoiled cat. The directions for this job were actually hilarious.   Luckily, she kept the cat alive the whole weekend.  

Today has been about as lazy as a day can get.  We slept in, watched tv, Preston hasn’t left the basement except to come up for some pizza we ordered for lunch.  I am still working on the pool, but now that the filters are running, I am just overseeing the filtering process.  Doesn’t matter anyway since the rain moved back in and it is 60* today.  Ain’t nobody swimming this Memorial Day!   It could be worse though, Spencer and Colin went to Colorado for vacation.  Colin texted to tell me that it is 35 and  snowing there!   

Other excitement of the weekend- and it’s not much- Saige’s ants created a new tunnel and love apples.   Also, some friends of ours had a 50 gallon fish tank and stand in their garage.  I surprised Jim with it.   (He loves my surprises).  We cleaned out our old tank, and gave it and the 3 goldfish we had to Evie.  This tank needs a new lid and light but otherwise is in great shape and everything so far works.  Jim was actually excited about it.  He was ready to upgrade.   He likes the tropical fish and is excited about getting some different stuff.  Me, well I just like a project.   

Not sure that I am ready for work tomorrow, but at least I can say there was some relaxation this time! 

How’s your summer going?

It has been raining for days.  And days.  And days.   Seriously I have lost track of how many days and how much rain.   We had 3 inches last night!  Trust me when I tell you that as the manager of a watershed district,  a place that is supposed to control, redirect, slow and contain flood waters, it has been a nightmare of a couple weeks.  

Usually, when things are rough at work, I take solace in being home.  I feel very blessed to live where I do, and I love having a list of projects to do.  In the spring, I like to put in a garden, and have my yard looking freshly mowed.  I like taking walks and doing outdoor projects that I put off in the winter.  I bought plants and seeds.  I had envisioned the things I was going to grow this spring.  Preston volunteered to help me by tilling a garden spot.   The tiller had a ruined tire.  We had to order a new one.  It took 24 hours to come in at the local Napa store, and it has rained every stinking day since.  Plants are sitting on the front porch looking a little sad to not be in the ground.  Seeds are sitting in the kitchen, unopened.  Lawn is about a foot tall because it is just too wet out there to mow and not get stuck.  So I turned my attention to something that is supposed to be wet!   I thought to myself, if it is going to rain every day, at least I won’t have to pay the water bill to fill the pool!   So, with Preston’s help, we put the plugs back in the filtration system.   We started the vacuuming and chemicals.  We utilized our new leaf vac (that thing works amazing!). And then, we decided it was time to go ahead and fill it the rest of the way up.   

Then the real drama started.  When the water level rose, we found a leak. It was a small tear just above the winter water level  line.  I had a repair kit, so Preston and I got the patch successfully in place and it stopped leaking.  I thought the liner was under warranty, so I made that phone call.  It is under warranty, but they said this was due to winter weather and ice, (remember that polar vortex that froze over Clinton Lake?....well it was stupid then, and it is stupid now!). Ice damage is not a warranty issue.   Of course.  They told me that vinyl patches really are a great solution and it would be fine for years.  Disappointment that our 1 season pool had a tear was felt by all of us.  But hey, at least we found the leak and it was fixed.  Jim came home from working and we went out to show him our progress.  That is when we found a second leak.  Preston and I went back to work and patched the second leak.  I went to bed happy that we were going to get a lot of rain overnight and the pool would be filled and ready for me to get the filter running!   We got 3 inches of rain overnight, but this morning, the level of the water wasn’t any different.   That is when I discovered all of the PVC pipes coming out of the skimmer were cracked.   Now is when I tell you that Preston has been working for the vineyard people for a number of years, and in that time has picked up an amazing collection of knowledge.  He has helped with irrigation systems up there, and said this isn’t anything he hadn’t done before.  I threw him my keys, debit card and a warning to abandon the project if it exceeded the budget I set for him.  A couple hours later, he had all the bad pipes replaced, new shut off valves in place, and was adding a little extra glue around the joints.  To say I was impressed is an understatement!   Tomorrow, we  will do more vacuuming and then get the filter going.  I hope by the weekend we are able to swim, although I saw the high for tomorrow was 61, so maybe we will sit out on the pool deck and  watch the water sparkle.   It is bluer than it was, but we are a little ways off from clean!  

Right as we were finishing up the pipe repairs, yet another torrential downfall happened.  Saige then asked if she could go take pictures of the waterfalls.  We do not have any place on our property that should be a waterfall,  but she was right, there were some!  After about 20 minutes of being out there taking pictures, I heard her blood curdling screaming.  She was running full speed toward the house  I met her at the door and she about knocked me down to get inside.  She says she saw “an unnaturally large cat” out there in the trees.  I’m not clear on what she saw, and she was very unamused with my asking if she got a picture or not. She thinks it was a mountain lion.  It could have been, we know there are some out here.  I think it is more likely a bobcat. We see a lot of them out here!   Either way, with that screaming, I’m sure they aren’t out there anymore!   

And Harper’s first game

Harper had her first official game last night at Osage city.   She started the game at pitcher. She did a great job, but the other team’s chatter sort of messed with her head.  I’m proud of her for trying so hard though. She also played some at right field, and scored 2 of the 4 runs that their team had. All of these girls are pretty rusty on top of being new to this set of rules.  Due to the crazy amount of rain we have had, they didn’t get too much practice time.  They will get better as the season goes along I think.   

Cameron went to Wichita for a little mid week get away.   Colin sent me some pictures.  It makes me happy that they like doing things together.  

Saige’s first official game

Summer hasn’t really felt like summer yet.  It’s been rainy and cool.  That just means that Saige thinks she should practice her culinary skills.  She baked these cocoa sugar cookies yesterday with Evie.  Madison came to get Evie, and told Saige she did good.  That is like the ultimate stamp of approval!   

Saige had her first official game last night against Harveyville.   It was a pretty good game. Saige’s team (the Carbondale Lucky Clovers) did not win, but they played so much more aggressively than the night before.   Saige played third and first bases.  She is a go getter!   This is her first year of kid pitch.  She is going to have to practice reading pitches a little bit better, so she isn’t swinging at the bad pitches.  That skill will come with time though.   

I could tell that we are still on quarantine time though, as it was the late game and Saige was sort of worrying on the way back about how late it was getting.  When we came through Scranton, Casey’s was closed. She was worried about getting home as soon as possible.  I can’t say I disagree with her.  I’m getting too old for the late games.  ;)

Carlos hasn’t been feeling the best.  We got him treated for parasites.  Hoping he feels better now!  The other dogs and cats were not amused with him, as it meant they got treated as well!   

This child keeps us all on our toes.  Today, she stayed with us most of the day.  Mallory came to get her so she could watch her while Madison worked at the bar.  About an hour after they left, Mallory called me laughing.  She changed Evelyn’s diaper. When she unsnapped her onesie shirt, she found my WIFi box!   It is small like a phone size.   Mallory asked her “what is this?”   Evie replied “dat my phone!”   I had to call Jim and ask him to stop by Mallory’s on his way home so we could have internet again!   Little turkey.  

We did get started on the great pool water rehab today.  Colin is right, you really can learn anything on YouTube.  The first steps turned out exactly like the pool guy on the internet said it would.   I hope the weather will cooperate with the rest of this process!  

Summer vibes

We had a fairly decent weekend.  It was great to see my big boys, who came home for Gavin’s graduation.  Well....graduation party since covid restrictions were in place on how many people could attend the graduation. I failed to get any pictures at the graduation party, but it was nice to see everyone, and to have a night off from cooking!  I am very proud of Gavin.  He has grown up to be such a great man.  

We had Sunday lunch instead of Sunday dinner due to Saige and Harper having scrimmage games.   The games were supposed to be held Saturday, at Carbondale’s opening day celebration.  Unfortunately the monsoon season hasn’t let up at all, and Saturday games were rained out.  Harper, Saige and Quincy are all playing on teams at Carbondale.  After staying home all last summer, they are all more than excited to be playing again!  

And yes, this photo looks like Harper isn’t happy to be playing, but I promise she is excited about ball, just hates that I want pictures of her.  I keep telling her I am documenting her childhood and that someday she will want to look at these photos, but she doesn’t believe me.  I figure she will be glad I took the time to take the pictures someday, even if she always looks mad.  

Both girls played a little bit at right field.  Saige also played at catcher, and Harper pitched a couple of innings.  It was a fun afternoon of softball, that went on longer than I expected.  As a result, we ate dinner out with Colin and Cameron before  they had to head back to their jobs.  

Things here look like summer, hoping for less rainfall, and warmer weather so that it feels like summer soon!   

Last freaking day

I remember when I was a kid and time seemed to stand still.   As an adult that just doesn’t happen.  Time flies faster than I can keep up with.  This school year has flown by.   Until this week.  This week has been ultra slow!  I guess when you’re looking forward to something it slows time down!   This has been an interesting  year.   Mask mandates, occasional quarantines, worries, watching numbers, sanitizing and social distancing protocol, it has all taken a toll on all of us.  We are all feeling done.  My bus kids were pretty good about following protocol until about a month ago.  It has been a nightmare since then. My own kids are also feeling exceptionally ready for a break.  I know we shouldn’t complain. We have been in person all year.  We had a couple weeks of shut downs, but overall, we are very lucky.   It went far better than I thought it would!  I appreciate everything that was done so that the kids would Get an in-person education.   

That being said, Saige is done with 3rd grade, Harper is done with 5th.   Quincy finished her freshman year, and Preston finished his sophomore year (no last day pics of him since he is spending the night at a friend’s house).  

Cameron finished his junior year at KSU.  He had some photo shoot for his vice presidential photos.  They turned out great and I’m so happy he shared!   

Saige took a lot of photos with the timer on my phone this afternoon.  It took me 2 hours to clean the bus!   Luckily my girls are easily entertained.  They all played in the mud!   I have been told that we have had 8.25 inches since Saturday. All I know is that I am ready for summer weather!  

Mallory and Madison both get one day off and then they start right into summer school and the summer food program!   Poor girls. 

Onto summer!   Ballpark nights, ice cream runs, afternoon field trips, relaxed schedules and poolside sun soaking!  I am so happy to see you summer, my old friend!