Pool Finale Finally

Our backyard went from this:

To this:

Now, if we can get the water warmer....68 is not quite my temperature for water. I'm a bit of a wimp. Go ahead, gasp in disbelief..but it's true.

Taking the plunge!

This is what we woke up to yesterday. According to my weather station....

Do you see it? 12.9 degrees, 13 mph wind and -1 with wind chill???


I know some of you might be thinking "girl, you don't even KNOW what cold is!"


It is true. I'm the biggest of wimps. I grab a jacket if I know it will be under 70 degrees. 


Go ahead mock me if you must. Others do.


But even my windows didn't appreciate this temperature plunge.

This is ICE the INSIDE of my window in the kitchen.

I will look back on this day as a 100 year old record broken, coldest day of my life and the day I almost let my 5 year old skip school because I didn't want to leave the house to take him to the bus stop (by then it was 19 degrees, 10 degrees with wind chill).


I will also remember it as the day they started digging up our backyard for our POOL!


So, if we ever said it would be a cold day in you know where before we get a pool, that happened yesterday, hence the pool. Just kidding, we've been talking about a real pool for a couple years. Really, I swear!

Summer is just around the corner...I think.

Goin' Under.....

We put a pool in our backyard this year - put UP a pool I should say, but it sounds so...cheap. Well, I guess we are cheap, or practical, but mostly just cheap. Anyway, we put UP a pool this year in our backyard.

A-Dog and a friend making the most of the day!

I have to say, it is a bit of work since I don't have *pool guy* per say (my pool guy is a very busy guy and *pool guy* just adds to his many job titles and frequently shifts those duties to the bottom...). We are the ones in charge of maintaining the level of chemicals, water, salt (because we invested in the salt water generator instead of the regular chlorine method), bugs...etc. And then once a week we have to pool vacuum the bottom. I know this sounds ridiculous, but I actually enjoy the pool vacuum. I'm a freak that way. I like vacuuming the house too. Again, I know, I'm a freak. Plus, no one can be in the pool with me while I clean it...an obvious perk!

This pool is used probably 5 days a week if not more. Since I can walk out my back door and hop in (after removing some floating bugs) - it has been well worth it! I don't have to pack up 4 kids and their significant amount of needed items just to find out someone isn't interested in swimming that day. My kids like the water a certain temperature and off a degree or two can make or break the deal.

ANYWAY.

Agent P is was not a swimmer. He happily spent his time on the ladder, on the side or in the warmth of someone holding him in the pool. That is until...A-DOG! A-Dog taught him how to swim last week.

After school and homework they go out to the pool together. Each day, Agent P showed more and more progress. He started putting his face in. He started getting his hair wet. He started going under and holding his breath. He started swimming while holding the ladder. UNTIL this happened:

(I know it's hard to see (not really), but can you see the proud look on A-Dog's face?)

Agent P is by no means an Olympic swimmer, but finally finally FINALLY he moved past sitting on the ladder! Next step is coming up for air :-). He talks about swimming now ALL the time and can't wait to get in the pool each day.

Except today.

Today the water was 78 degrees. Like I said, temperature can break the deal. 82 is tolerable if the sun is out. 78 was a might chilly!

Technology

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. No, I'm not talking about the movie (I haven't even see the movie). I'm talking about my computer. My computer is not state of the art. It is not even what anyone would consider *new*. It is ahem a throw together. That means it is a little of this, a little of that and some other stuff thrown in as well. Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to complain about it (when it's working), but sometimes.....

The thing has been acting up for months now. I've lost data that I've had to reenter when it would freeze up for no reason. I've restarted it more times than I can count. Finally on Sunday, it just kept restarting and never moving past that. Piece of junk. Luckily, at my sweet husband's work, they have lots of junk laying around (because again, my computer is old and near anything they find for it will be newer, better and faster). 1 new hard drive later, I'm nearly back in business. Of course, I have absolutely NO data files on my computer and my software is very skeletal. But that should be resolved very soon I'm sure.

So, this week I could not work on little league stuff like I should have, I could not play around with my pictures, I could not pay bills, I could barely check email (from A-Dogs computer), I could not blog. It's been tough :-).

However, I do have pictures from our weekend at the pool and playing in the yard. I had to reinstall all the software, so I thought I'd do something with it to make sure it installed with no glitches!!!

Boy oh boy am I grateful for having the pool this year! It may not be be the best (just like the computer), but it's wet and it's close!!! We all played and swam in the pool (which I did not take pictures of - safety first - I must hold a twin while in the water) - and then played on the play set to dry off. (which is why all the boys have no shirts on!)

Now, back to fixing my computer!!!