Skinny Living

Last week I mentioned that I let Jake go skinny dipping in the pool one day which he has taken to the next level with skinny walking around the house.

Anyway, here is a picture I just couldn't refuse when he was swimming. Pretty artistic, huh?

A big step

Here is a picture of Jake jumping into the pool for the first time! He's finally overcoming his fear of the water.

A new addition for the pool deck

I know what I want for my birthday! A canoe full of beer for the pool deck.

Unintended consequences

The good news: The patch I put in the pool during my little swim last week is still holding and looks to be hanging in there for the long haul.

The bad news: My little swim in the untreated pool - and subsequent long hot bath - resulted in a delightful little bacterial infection on my person.

No good deed goes unpunished.

Pool update

The hole in the pool liner has been repaired. It's holding for now but I guess we'll have to see how it works once winter sets in and then spring thaws everything out.

I climbed into the pool - which was at 55 very tropical degrees - wearing my version of a wet suit. I was wearing heavy sweatpants and a long sleeve shirt. It wasn't so bad on the legs once I got in but the times I had to go under with the goggles and the snorkel while fixing it were a little overwhelming. The first few seconds after I would go under my brain would freeze. Luckily it was a quick repair job and I was able to get out after only a few minutes. I probably wasn't in there for more than 5 or 10 minutes. I had also prepared a hot bath before heading outside so I immediately went in and climbed into that. Between that and the heated towel bar that my husband had installed last winter I quickly forgave him for taking down the tent earlier.

As of this morning the patch is still holding and the pool is not leaking but we're keeping our fingers crossed. I'd hate to build this beautiful new pool deck and not have a pool in the center of it.

Not good.

Lincoln and I have been out working on the pool deck all day and have actually been fairly productive. Things were going smoothly until we noticed the drill was gone. Where had it gone you ask? In the pool of course.

First thought: Crap, are we going to have to buy a new drill?

Answer: Most likely not. Once we fished it out it still worked. Will it work once it is dry, who knows? At this point, who cares?

And why do we not care? Because the drill tore a gash - not just a hole, but a gash - in the lining of the pool. As the water was rushing out of the pool I had the idea - THANK GOD - to put a "stopper" in it to slow it down until we could drain the rest of the water out of the pool. If the water goes out through the hole it will eat away all the sand and dirt under the pool making it that much more difficult to fix. If we can pump it out with the sump pump we can at least salvage the bottom of the pool. Lincoln got a hand towel, wrapped it around some PVC pipe and stuck it on top of the hole. For now it's holding.

Once we managed to stop the water from leaking we started pumping out the pool. That takes quite a bit of time so I headed in to do some quick research on whether or not we were going to have to replace the pool liner or if we could repair it. Luckily it looks like we can repair it even though it's on the bottom of the pool. We have a couple of solutions that can be done under water.

Under water? Yes, that means I'm about to jump in the 55 degree pool full of leaves and dead bugs (the filter has been turned off for a week or two) and do a little late summer swimming. Lincoln is now - finally - on his way to Ace Hardware to pick up the stuff that will hopefully work to repair the pool. If it doesn't we're really screwed and will have to replace the whole thing. Not cheap.

My biggest frustration? The fact that when I came in to do the research, and went back out to tell Lincoln we had an underwater option, he didn't jump in his truck and run to Ace before the pool was completely destroyed. No, he decided to disassemble his tent from the camp out last night. Really? REALLY? Not quite as important as trying to fix the pool before irreparable damage is done or before THE SUN SETS and I have to get in the 55 degree pool with no sun to at least pretend to warm me. No, he had decided to disassemble the tent while I was inside doing the research and since he thinks differently then I do he decides to finish one project before moving onto the next one. I tend to move to THE MOST URGENT ONE even if it means leaving the tent half up and half down.

My husband is perfect 99.999999999999% of the time and it is incredibly, incredibly rare for us to have an argument. I am happy to say we didn't have an argument over this. And I'm even more proud to say that I didn't take the pole from the tent and jam it through his head.

Deck building weather

Two years ago we built a great big deck on one end of our pool. It was necessary to have a deck of some sort around the pool so we really had no choice but to start on the deck at the beginning of the summer. Our plan was to take the next summer off and then build the rest of the deck (going around the rest of the pool) the following summer. Well that would have been this summer but when the nice weather finally came around we had no desire to be outside working on the pool deck when we could be in the pool itself. We decided to be lazy and push the project off another year.

Until yesterday.....

Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day but it wasn't terribly warm. It was only in the high 60's/low 70's and the pool was definitely too cold to go swimming. Instead we were just sitting out by the pool enjoying the weather and I was having a glass of wine when I decided that this was perfect weather for deck building. Instead of just filling up my glass of wine again and hoping that I would forget the idea Lincoln immediately broke out the measuring tape and graph paper and started planning out the deck.

This morning found us at Lowe's and many dollars later we started working on our deck. Hopefully we'll have a bunch of nice weekends in September and early October and we'll be able to get the whole thing done before winter. The deck isn't nearly as big as the one at the far end of the pool but it will still be quite the project. We're extending the current deck out on either side of the pool so that there is a three foot walk way on both sides. After that there will be a small 6-foot wide deck at the other end making it roughly 6 ft by 24 ft. Next spring we'll start to landscape around the area so that eventually the pool and the pool deck will actually be hidden from view as you come up our driveway. It will be our own nice little hideaway.

As much as I hurt right now - and let me tell you, I hurt - I'm glad that we're taking on this project now. I know that we wouldn't have wanted to do it next June when the time rolled around and this way we can go into next season with a great new deck around the pool.

At least that is what I have to keep telling myself.

A great Sunday

Today we got up and did Hannah's school shopping and went to lunch before heading out to lounge by the pool. We were in there from about 2:30 until 7:30 and had a great time despite one small injury. I was showing Hannah how I could do a double back somersault in the water but didn't take into consideration how shallow the pool was and whacked my nose on the bottom of the pool. I was wearing Hannah's goggles at the time so most of the injury was from actually pushing the goggles into my nose and not from actually hitting the bottom of the pool.

In the evening we ordered pizza and ate pool side before roasting marshmallows and eating s'mores by the fire bowl on the pool deck. All in all it was a GREAT day.

Pool / S'mores.....a great day

Here are some more pictures from our weekend. This was Sunday afternoon into evening.

By the way, the pair of pants that Hannah is wearing in this last picture is a pair of pajama pants from a few years ago. They still fit around the waist but they've gone from too long in the leg to adorable capris.

Monkey see, monkey do

Jake is continuing his obsession with doing everything that Hunter does. Here are a few pictures from the pool the last few days for evidence.

Feeling a little bit better about the weather

Every now and then a pick a random month from my archives and read my postings. It's amazing how much stuff I forget even after I take the time to write about it on here. Anyway, today I was skimming through July 2008 and came across a posting on July 16th that said I had only been in the pool 3 times so far that summer. This year I've been in 3 times and it's only June 15th so I feel MUCH better about the fact that I'm STILL WEARING MY WINTER WARDROBE IN JUNE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sun Goddess

Don't worry. She had on lots of SPF 50 sunscreen.

Summer is finally here!