Yesterday was the first Saturday of the summer break. Perhaps you thought we would be working on our huge hole in our front yard, or should I say, simple sprinkler installation? Suffice it to say, no, we did not even touch that project yesterday. It was supposed to be a 1 day project. That was 2 weeks ago, and I'm hoping that "little" (read ginormous) project will finally be completed this week. But, no, it didn't happen yesterday.
My living room right now looks like a somewhat organized mess of little girls clothes, which it is. I'm in the process of simplifying the girls' wardrobe. Simplifying causes messes. It's scientifically proven. My kids' clothes are out of control, and it's ridiculous. They have nice clothes that fit, yet when they get dressed in the morning, they come out wearing pants with shredded knees, or shirts with holes and stains, or pants too short, or shorts too short, or shirts too short. Why are those clothes even on their ultra-crowded shelves? When the dresses are packed so tight that pulling one down causes three more to fall to the floor, OR when the nightgown from when they were 3 years old is still being worn, but now it's small enough to call it a tanktop, then you know things have gotten out of control. We are downsizing their wardrobes and only keeping clothes that fit and are neat, clean, and modest, AND only a limited number of each type of clothing is making it back on the shelf (so they have enough, but not an excess). So, perhaps that is what we worked on yesterday? Nope. Thought about it though. That's a 1 hour project that will likely take 4 days to complete.
A few weeks ago, I signed the girls up for "Golf Clubs for Kids," a free event at the Dinaland Golf Course in Vernal, where they serve the kids lunch, give them a free golf club, and have 3 activities for them to take part in to teach them how to golf. That was the main event scheduled for the day yesterday. Because of that, Tom (my step-dad that is picking up his golf game again), invited Steve to join him for a game of golf before the girls' event at 1pm. Tom picked Steve up at 7:00, and they headed to Vernal. It was just me, my mom, and my girls for the morning, and we thought we'd go yard sale-ing!
We went to 6 or 7 yard sales, I think. It took us 4 hours or so. My mom found several decor items she purchased. Lily and Amara found all kinds of cheap knick knacks that they considered treasures. I didn't buy very much, but I came home with a FREE big armoire that I decided that I was going to refinish and make into a wardrobe for the girls. They need deeper shelves so their clothes don't fall onto the floor so easily, but Steve just laughs at me when I ask him to build me some. So, now he doesn't have to build me any.
Mom bought us homemade tamales for lunch at the last yard sale. We had to go back home and get Tom's truck to bring the armoire to my house. Mom and I hefted that sucker into the truck, then dropped it off at my house. We were running low on time. I told the girls to go use the bathroom and be back in 1 minute or else we'd be late for the golf thing. 3 minutes later they come out and I realized what they were wearing. Lily had on a black shirt, black pants and knee high furry snow boots. It was almost 90 degrees outside. Amara was also wearing snow boots, but with shorts. Dear me. I've put those snow boots away for the season time and time again, and somehow they keep gravitating out of the closet. I sent them back into the house for tennis shoes and clothes they'd want to wear in the hot sun (not black, or I'd never hear the end of the complaining about how hot she was). Lily wouldn't wear a hat, but Amara appeased my request. At least I still had some sun screen for the girl that couldn't tell me why she didn't want to wear a hat. And we were off.
Lily didn't want me to sign her up for the golf thing, but as her mom, I knew it would be good for her (plus a free kids golf club- hello! Those aren't cheap!). "I'm not good at golf. Golf is boring." were her excuses. My responses were "You can't be good if you've never even tried it." and "Golf is only boring if you're watching it, but when you play it, it's a lot more fun!" She wasn't convinced.
We arrived a few minutes late, but that just meant we didn't have a huge line to wait in to register. I could see a lot of kids stationed at different places, and they had just started the activities. When it was my turn to register, I got 2 vouchers for free golf clubs that I'd have to come back for on Tuesday. Because of all the heavy rain this month and flooding in the midwest, the golf clubs did not arrive on time. Bummer. But they were still doing the activities with what golf clubs they did have.
It was a beautiful day. Steve and Tom had finished golfing and were able to watch the girls at 2 of their 3 stations. First they played "birdie ball," which is basically hitting a hollow 1" white pipe-looking thing with a golf club off of a plastic rectangular plate on a mat and sending it off to the grassy area where a blow up target was set up. The goal was to get the birdies into the holes on the blow up target. It looked like fun and I wanted to give it a go. Lily was gently easing the pipe off the plate with a low, calculated, pendulum-like swing while Amara was whacking it with all her strength and sending the plate and the birdie flying on a few occasions. I loved watching it.
The next station was the putting green. Grandpa Tom was there to give the girls tips and pointers and help them improve their putts while I basked in the shade. There were a couple teenagers in charge of that station, but they mostly talked to each other and just let the kids putt around.
Finally, they got to go to the driving range and hit golf balls out as far as they could. Grandpa Tom was analyzing their swings and giving them pointers. They got to hit a lot of balls, and I daresay they got the hang of it faster than I did my first time, and could probably beat me statistically in the ratio of how many swings it took to actually connect with the golf ball.
Afterwards, they all had hot dogs and chips for everyone. Instead of eating the cold dogs, though, we decided to go out to eat at a new "steakburger" place called Freddies. Good choice, I must say. They have thin fries and fry sauce, and the burger does taste a little more like steak.
It was 3:00ish. I was tired, Steve was even more tired, and even though I needed to get some grocery shopping done, we decided to go home and rest. Steve was asleep in less than 1 minute from the time we got home. I fell asleep shortly thereafter for about an hour. Steve slept for 2 hours. When I got up, I was a bit groggy and hot, but I wanted to get that FREE armoire refinished, so I got up. Tom and mom showed up shortly after I came outside, which was awesome. Tom and mom helped me get the armoire out, and Tom took his truck home (but not without first taking the girls for a ride to get more propane for his grill). Mom stayed and helped me with my project. I found my paint but couldn't find my paint brushes and supplies, so my mom went and got hers, and then we started painting. We got a lot done. When Steve pulled himself out of his coma, I asked him to pick up a few things from the market, and he lovingly obliged. I sent him for milk and chicken. He came back with milk, chicken, 2 bags of spinach, 2 bunches of bananas, a piece of pipe we need for the sprinkler project, a quart of moose tracks ice cream and 2 DVDs from Redbox. Check and check.
The day was well spent. Projects still loomed about in priority land somewhere, but we had a fantastic yesterday together with our family. Success? Check.
We had just taken some cactus picture at Bullock reservoir a few days prior. The ones we saw were orange and yellow on that day, but there were bright pink ones at Ouray Refuge today.
