I can't sleep. Yes, it is like 4 a.m. I get insomnia at odd hours. So figured I'd get up and tell you what happened yesterday afternoon. Well, it actually started a few days ago. It is finally warm here (at long last) and the kids have been dying, begging for Bruce to put up their swimming pool. We picked it up late last fall when the stores were slashing prices to get rid of them. We had one when we lived down South and it was fabulous. This one is much bigger - 24' around and framed. Anyway Monday he and the kids worked on leveling the spot, raking it out and wetting the ground down to compact the dirt. Yesterday morning Bruce worked on it some more but then had to get in to work and the kids were so determined (and impatient) that they figured they could assemble it themselves. I took Benjamin to a birthday party at 1:00 and Trent, Teagan, and Brilee were hard at work outside with Teagan reading the instructions and Trent leading the assembling. When I returned around 3:30 I was shocked to pull in the driveway and see the entire thing put together! It was a lot bigger than I realized it would be. The kids began begging to fill it up with water. Bruce had said it would take a day to fill. I was reluctant and wanted him to check it and make sure they had gotten everything right and tight so we wouldn't have any problems down the road. I know if it wasn't perfectly level the sides would bulge.
Brilee kept calling Bruce at work to find out when he was going to come home and check it. She was beyond ready to swim! I began folding clothes and finishing laundry. A while later Brilee came in to tell me the wind was blowing the pool away! I looked out the window - aaahhhhhh!!! 'This can't be happening!' I thought. Sure enough this fierce gust of wind was mangling the pool! It had been calm all day and the wind was suddenly turning on us. I panicked. What do I always do when I panic? I call Bruce! He said, 'Tell all the kids to go climb in it and I'll be right home!' It would have made a great blog picture but I certainly wasn't thinking about grabbing my camera, I was thinking, 'HOLY CRAP, this can NOT be happening!!!' I mean what a day for a huge gust of wind!!! I also said a few words (which we shall not print here) that I heard my sweet little Benjamin repeat, huh huh. Three of our neighbors working nearby came running over to help us hold it down. I jumped inside and they got all the poles out so it would lay flat. Boxes and other stuff were blowing across the street. Finally the wind calmed and I mean calmed. It was as if Mother Nature wanted that pool down and then she moved on to other parts. Sigh. What do ya do? Some of the poles got bent so now it must be fixed before we can put it up. Sad kiddos... I wonder if it even had a little water in the bottom if it would have stayed put? Or would that have been a bigger mess? Or would it have depended on how much water was in it?
Anyhooooo, Grandpa can we have a ride in your boat this weekend? Maybe we will enjoy some other bodies of water...
Congrats to Teagan who learned she got an Award of Merit at the state level in the PTA sponsored Reflections program again this year. An Award of Merit is basically an honorable mention. Here she is holding her trophy with her picture on the shelf above her. The theme was "Beauty is..." Teagan titled her picture "Friendship is Beautiful". There was a 'Required Artist Statement' in the paperwork where she had to explain how her work related to the theme. For that she wrote, "Do you have friends? Do you like them? Friends help you endure hardships. They help you fix mistakes. Friendship is beautiful." Her picture has friends doing all kinds of things like playing basketball, soccer, red rover, having a picnic, walking a dog, jumping on a trampoline, taking pictures and watching ducks in a pool. Way to go Teagan girl!
