But yes, there is a story behind it…. and only the salesman at Patterson’s and Jake know how it played out.

We are replacing the refrigerator in the kitchen (soon to be the kegorator) with a brand new fridge. But the space was limiting, so we decided to knock out the cabinet above the fridge. That ended up not really helping the situation… and like always, you can’t ever go with the original plan.

We decided that we will reconfigure the kitchen and utility room. Probably end up with new cabinets, since we tore one of them out. And we were already planning on a new floor anyway, so we tore up a corner of flooring to find FIVE layers of flooring. Wow. Looks like we have ourselves a new project. It’s gonna have to wait until we get the boys rooms painted and we finish the small things in the new den.

And we finally found ourselves a refrigerator that we like. (that wasn’t fun shopping) It will be delivered next Tuesday. YAY!!! 

And the size of the hole won’t be an issue.

It’s been an awesome week. We were on vacation for 7 days- didn’t go to Bonaroo like we had planned. Instead, we continued remodeling our den (which began as just replacing the floor).  Floors, walls, ceiling fans, baseboards, AND - we built a bar. Tiled top and swinging door. Yep. It’s all awesome. And it’s done now, too. A big ol’ empty, BRAND NEW room! Now we have to add the finishing touches. We’ll get some pictures up soon.

The boys are spending some quality time at the BBF and I’m sure are enjoying themselves immensely. We both are back at work now, but feeling quite refreshed and accomplished from the past week.

It doesn’t make any sense, but it sure feels awesome.

A 1 lb box of 2-inch deck screws is sufficient to screw down ONE 3/8 inch 4×8 piece of plywood.

Screws around the perimeter = 3 inches apart

Screws through the middle = 6 inches apart

So- if you have 10 boards to screw down, buy more than 3 boxes of screws.

We live on a hill. The front yard is “flat” and there are a couple of places at the bottom of the backyard that we thought would be close enough to level. It took us a month to even get to setting up the poor boy’s birthday present. But we decided to do it.

We wanted the pool in the backyard (which is fenced and would keep kids and critters out). We walked and talked for 2 hours trying to decide which slope was the flattest. hee.

We played with the idea of renting a machine to rip up the earth in the backyard and make a little pit for the pool to sit in, but come on… it’s an 8ft pool that’s only 30inches deep. So- we decided that we were making this harder than it needed to be. We picked a spot, put down a tarp — and started filling the pool with water.

Dragon came running out of the house with his swimsuit on.

After about 6 inches had filled part of the pool on the down-hill side — it started sliding. Down. Down.
Landed about 6 feet from where we had it sitting. It wasn’t going to work.

Much to the sadness of both of the boys, we gave up. Not going to happen. We basically blew $50-ish and about 3 hours of time messing with the pool that we shouldn’t have bought in the first place.

It does have to be EXACTLY-ON-THE-DOT LEVEL. Grumble.

Wildcat said “thanks for trying anyway, guys.”

Three days have passed since our attempt to make our little pool work on our hill. Today, while we were painting the den that we’re working on, we decided to give it one more attempt. That stupid pool can’t beat us. Maybe we’re just stubborn. Well… no maybes. We are.

The driveway is gravel. The Blueberry Farm has their pool set up on their gravel driveway. So- we decided to try and level a spot in the gravel.

And after a few last minute tweaks in the “grading”… we laid the pool down and started filling it.

It worked.

We now have a pool in our driveway at the side of our house.

We pulled the fence from around our garbage cans and in conjunction with the dog exercise pen with a tarp on it, we managed to “fence” the majority of the pool area. At the least, the big blue pool won’t be AS noticeable. My neighbor saw all the ongoings and doesn’t seem bothered by the “white-trashness” of the setup.

It’s just for a couple of months, anyway.

The boys had fun today. They played in the pool for about 2 hours before afternoon thunder rumbles came in.

And we had fun today. We got the den painted (sidenote: the new floor laying was delayed due to the “floor” not arriving -it’s coming on FRIDAY now — ugg) and Wildcat’s swimming pool is standing steady on the driveway.

Score: Pool-1 Us-1

Yep. It’s a tie. But it’s better than losing to a stoopid plastic pool.

After a year of classes chock-full of C’s,D’s and a couple F’s (and sporadic A’s and B’s) — Dragon managed to pull off an A, B, C report card for the fourth 9-week period. Even managed to get his overall year average up in a couple of classes– with only 1 D in the final tally.

Wow. We are so proud of him. (And WE’ve never looked so forward to a summer vacation– whew!)

Here’s kinda how it’s going– click to embiggen….

Whew! Be back soon. We promise.

We spent most of the weekend on the dock with stocked coolers. Boat rides were frequent. Dogs were tied up in the shade some of the day and lounging in the sun on the dock some also. There was some fishing (and catching, actually) in the evenings and early mornings.

Aunt B (hee. sorry…we will work on a name for ya!) got the boys some masks, snorkels and flippers. They had a blast floating around trying to see through the TN River green/brown water. Spotted a few fish. And Wildcat found some very cool rocks with “cave writing” on them. Dad used the mask to find his sunglasses that he was wearing when he jumped into the water. (sidenote: these were the replacement sunglasses for the pair that went into the ocean the same way).

On Monday, I showed the boys how I can ski. They rode in the boat because they wanted to see me fall (and they got to see it twice). While Dad was attempting to ski on skis made for short people, my brothers and I managed to talk Dragon into trying to knee board. He decided to try. He actually went out twice behind the boat and loved it!! Woot!

Wildcat rode, too… with me behind him. It was good for him to see what riding behind the boat was like… he also rode (aka…almost drowned in) the tube with Dad, but “liked the knee board better.” We are so proud of both of them.

We also turned my Cami’s ashes loose in the lake at sunrise on Monday am. It was good. Made me happy. She loved that place. She’d swim off the beach even when no one was throwing sticks for her. She’d bark when she wanted someone to play. And just stand in the water to keep cool and wet. She loved it. I love to remember her there. It was always a happy place for her.

Relaxing for the adults, exciting for the kids and the dogs. No major drama, no injuries, no troubles……….no sunburns…we had a super, super awesome weekend.

Here are some pics. Enjoy!!

Good times.

Its days like this, with the kids baiting fishing hooks and swimming like otters that the crazy high-octane beauty of life spills out, and you’re captive to it. It takes you along, and if you have the damn sense to just relax and ride with it, boy, it shows you things you just can’t imagine.

My last few weeks have run together. One week, really bad cold. Next week, getting the congestion out of my chest from the really bad cold. Then… a 2 day trip to Myrtle Beach (drive included).. add a really BAAAAADDD sunburn (another week). THEN- I started my 12-day run at work (my co-manager has been out for foot surgery). Add into the mix the diagnosis of my dog’s cancer and the departure of her sweet little doggie soul….

And…well… I’m tired.

It’s over for now. I enjoyed an evening on the back porch with the boys (people boys and doggie boys).

The pups enjoyed their cow hooves (with only a couple of rumbles). This is only the tip of the iceberg–a glimpse into Mikey’s world of dealing with this puppy. (The “puppy” is the large, blue colored creature on the right with his mouth open far enough to catch a small plane). Mikey is 8 years old, set in his ways and TRYING his best to be patient with our piranha-pup….but it’s hard sometimes. Puppy teeth are sharp.

Then we ate dinner and went to bed exhausted.

This weekend will be great. A 3-day weekend at my family’s lakehouse on the Tennessee River. My whole family will be there (in increments). Everyone is so busy these days. I think we will all be there on Sunday. I treasure all the time I can get.

Oh- and we sold the other house as of 3pm today!!! (well, offers have been accepted on both sides–fingers crossed from here)

YAY!! Hooray for Realtorchick!! You rock!!!

Everyone have a super-awesome weekend and be safe.