Surprisingly.

Alex had two softball double headers. They won both sets. The remarkable things about them were that the first set was against the local team to where we live and the second was played in chilly rain against a super-chanty team. Alex’s team beat them all.

Phoebe got her hair cut on Wednesday and she looks super cute. She loves her new look. She has been wanting her hair cut for a couple of months, but I refused until after her dance recital was over. I sure did not want to mess with putting shortish hair into a bun that would stay in!

Today, Phoebe and I got together with some friends for swimming. Sadly, the weather did not cooperate and shortly after everyone arrived, the clouds rolled in and the wind picked up. The kids tried to swim and Phoebe was one of the ones that stayed in the longest. That is until she was shivering uncontrollably (yet, she said she wasn’t cold and still wanted to swim!) and I made her stop. It was still a great time hanging with my girl friends and the kids.

After Phoebe and I got home, Ray graciously went and fetched me a yard of mulch. Yay! Which I used immediately upon his bringing it home. Kind of a bummer because the place is closed until Monday and I can’t get more. But, WOW! What a beautiful difference it makes in the beds! Amazing, but not surprising!

This evening, Ray and I ditched the girls and went to a free concert. One of the towns nearby does a free weekly concert on Friday evenings. Ray wanted to go to this one (his first) because he used to know one of the guys in the band… twenty some years ago! The music was great. They played with an 8-piece band and I’m sure Alex would have loved it (there was lots of saxophone playing!). After the concert was over, Ray chatted with the guy for a little while. It was a nice time out just the two of us. Too short though, we were home before the sun had set!

It was a nice, though rainy and chilly, week! Hope yours was good too!

Today, we had the family birthday bash for Phoebe’s sixth birthday. SIX! We had Grandmas and Grandpas, Aunts, Uncles and lots of cousins over to help celebrate.

It turned out to be a great day. The weather was beautiful. The people were great. The pool was even able to be used (and it was!)!

Happy 6th Birthday, Dear Phoebe!

Happy Birthday, Darling. I hope your sixth year will be everything it should.

Our week was kind of full. Not in the minute-by-minute sense, but full nonetheless.

Three days in a row we had softball related gigs. Monday was practice, Tuesday was a team “party” to hang out, and Wednesday was a game. Practice was, well, practice. The party was a fun time for the girls to hang out together away from the field before the end of the season. Wednesday’s game was awful. It was enormously hot. It was really humid. There was hardly any breeze. Did I mention it was HOT? Alex did pretty well, relieving the pitcher in the last inning of the first game. She pitched well, although didn’t seem like she was putting effort into any other aspect of the position. Right after, she was the lead-off batter. She ended up making a hit, but walked four steps toward first base then stopped.

While we were understandably disappointed in the lack of effort, it turned out that she was in the throes of heat exhaustion. Yes, she was well hydrated. Yes, she was continuing to hydrate during her time there, but this time it just wasn’t enough. Ray and I got her out of the dugout into the shade, and took care of her. She recovered pretty quickly, but we did not stay for the second game of the (usual) double-header.

On Thursday, Phoebe had her annual checkup. She’s doing just dandy and right about 4 feet tall.

Friday the girls and I headed to a friend’s pool for the day. Both girls ended up with nice sunburns. Alex had declined sunscreen every time I asked her (which was often). Phoebe had tons on. I doused her before we left our house and when we got to our friend’s (about 40 minutes away). Then, every hour after. She still burned. Her lower back was the worst, by far, right at the spot where her swimsuit bottoms sit. Poor thing, she was miserable. Alex was too.

Saturday we spent doing yard work. Both girls stayed mostly inside and out of the sun, whimpering about how much their sunburns from yesterday hurt. I felt horrible for them both.

Tomorrow, we will be having Phoebe’s birthday party with the families. My oven died this week, so I have not baked anything (other than some yummy artisan breads in my turkey roaster). It’ll be a nice time tomorrow. For now, we’re going to go watch the American premeire of Doctor Who: The Next Doctor on BBC America (yeah, it was the Christmas special for 2008 over there across the pond in the UK, we are just now getting it here in the US).

So, the pool is patched (hopefully well) and is currently filling up. It will take a very long time to fill though as we have to do it off of our well… slow going, but, hey! it’s going!

***

As of this afternoon, there is about 4 inches of water in the pool… Lo and behold, the liner isn’t seated in quite right, so we’ve got to pump the water back out, try to shift the liner and start filling it up again. I guess it is better than it tearing the liner and then we can’t do anything this year. Right?

After a season of critters tunneling under the pool, eventually a hole happened.  Over the winter, all of the water drained out. The weight of the winter cover, filled with snow, ice, and debris, began to buckle the walls. Fortunately, we saved the structure by loosening the cover and allowing it to fall into the pool. It was already torn so it will need to be replaced also.

Today, we began the laborous and gross task of cleaning and repair. After several days of draining the foot or so of nasty water. Today it finally was pretty much empty… of water. I climbed on in and started scooping out debris. Then scrubbed the walls and floors with cleaner and scrub brushes. Ray helped from the outside of the pool. We used the pump some more to get more ick out.

For a while, when it was mostly cleaned up, Phoebe was in there with me. She did a bit of spraying with the hose, a bit of brushing and a lot of playing.

Finally, in near darkness, we called it a night. It is pretty much cleaned out, just a little bit left to sop up. We found the hole (hopefully the only one) and have patched it. Yay!

Tomorrow, we will finish the cleaning, check the patch and begin filling it up. Ideally, we’d have water trucked in, but that isn’t an option for us at the moment, so we’ll be filling it up from our well.

Wish us luck!

This weekend had a lot of things going on, but not so many as seems typical.

On Friday, I took Phoebe to playgroup. It was a fun time (always is!) and the weather was gorgeous. Alex stayed after school for their “yearbook dance” in which the students pay to go to an after school function so that they may pick up their yearbooks (otherwise, they wait until Monday). After Phoebe and I left playgroup, we picked Alex up from her school and headed home. A snack and a nap (for Alex!) later and we were on our way to Alex’s softball practice.

Apparently, back at home while we were away at softball, there was rain and hail! We only saw a few dark clouds slip past otherwise it was warm and sunny.

Arriving home, we found that the power was out. Oh the joys. Made that “report a power outage” phone call to the electric company who replied “at this time a restoration estimate is not available” (rarely is). Ray hauled the generator out of the barn and it was VERY resistant to starting. Finally, he got it started and running and switched the house over to the generator. Then we discovered that most of our outages are during the day as not one single light in the house is on the generator circuit! Ooops. So glad I never packed away our two rope lights!

So, once things were running, Ray went to take a shower and discovered that the water wasn’t going. Now, we have a well, but it is purposely put on the generator (as is the fridge, deep freezer and our corn stove for winter), but no water was coming out. Turns out it had lost its priming (or however you say it). Ray had to get water to fill the pipes to be able to prime the pump again. (It’s in our dug out basement.) Normally, he would have gone and pulled water out of the pool… we haven’t opened it and are not likely to this year (sadly) so there isn’t much water and it is nasty. Well, in the end, that is where he got the water to finally get the well pump going again. In the mean time, the power came back on.

Too much drama of the negative kind for a Friday.

Saturday was a lot of chore type things. Mowing the lawn (but only half was finished), planting the garden (finally! it’s only mostly done though), repairing hoses, grill cleaning, and a bunch of other mundane tasks.

Saturday evening, I went and met some girl friends for a drink. We hung out for a while and talked and laughed and had a great time. While the hockey game was on at the bar, I really didn’t pay much attention (just happy that the Red Wings won!). On the way home, I stopped at the grocery store. That was nice as it had hardly anyone shopping, but the deli counter was closed.

On Sunday, we spent the afternoon celebrating my neice’s first birthday at my sister’s house. It was a fun party with nearly perfect weather!

Sunday night was watching the Red Wings beat the Penguins (3-1) again while getting things ready for the Monday morning grind.

This will be a busy week chock full of activity. The girls end their school year this week. Phoebe on Tuesday and Alex on Friday.  At least, then, I can sleep in a little every day!