Pool Guys

Well Chris and I are becoming quite the pool experts. Not by choice mind you but because our pool seems to have chronic green syndrome. I think so far since we've moved in our pool has been green at least as much as it hasn't and lately when it's not green it's cloudy.

I have been into Paddock Pools so often that the whole staff knows me. They have had me try everything they know to get my pool back in shape and we've not had any luck so we decided to change the sand in the filter. Maybe that would help. Chris and I decided to do it ourselves, again not by choice but because it costs about $500 to have someone come and do it for you. So Saturday night at the end of July we got started.

First we had to drain most of the water out. After taking the filter apart and starting the draining process both Chris and I went to do other chores around the yard. What caught our attention was water spewing out of the filter pipes all over the yard. We had forgotten to turn the filter off so when the timer came on so did the water. Everywhere!! It also filled the tank back up so we had to start the draining process over again. Several hours later there was still a lot of water so we decided to get it out with the shop vac. That done we started on the sand. Even with the shop vac it took forever. I think I finally called it a night a little after mid-night and Chris came in around 1:00am and we still weren't finished. We still had to put the sand back in but we had to go back to the store the next morning for pea gravel (there should have been some in the filter and there wasn't). After missing church the next morning we were finally able get the gravel and sand back in and get the filter running.



Next came the chemicals. While Chris went to play Quidditch I stayed and tried to turn our pool back to something resembling clean water instead of the swamp look it currently had. The guys at the pool store gave me something called Green to Clean and it was amazing. I put it in and instantly started working. Within an hour our pool looked more like a pool and less like Kermit the Frog's home. Maybe there was hope after all.

Well it did stay blue for quite awhile but it never lost it's cloudy look. Unfortunately this story doesn't have a happy ending though. This morning I woke up and low and behold it's green again. Not as bad as before but definitely green. So back to the pool store I go. Hopefully this time we'll get it back before Kermit moves in.

One very horrible experience

I just have to share something truly disgusting that happened to me tonight. I had been outside trying (in vain) to get the Bermuda grass out of the flower bed and was all sweaty and muddy so I decided to take a shower before bed. As I turned around to wash my hair I spot a roach. Not just any roach but a very, very huge sewer roach. Now for those who haven't seen my shower it is a small corner shower with a glass door. When I spotted that roach I started screaming and for the life of me couldn't get the shower door open. I finally flung the door opened and, still screaming for my husband who was outside, run into my room. Unfortunately the curtains over the sliding glass door had not been pulled closed and all of the outside lights were on. Fortunately no one but Seth was on the patio. As I pulled the door opened I am yelling for Chris to come and of course no one is moving as fast as I think they should. All of the boys have now piled in my bathroom to see this roach but meanwhile I am still standing, dripping wet, in front of the sliding door. Finally Chris got the roach in a kleenex and was headed out with it. Caleb wanted to take it outside and let it go but I told him it was time for the roach to go to roach heaven. Needless to say, the rest of my shower was not very relaxing and I got shampoo in my eyes because I was on the lookout for more of those disgusting creatures.

Chicago

Last week Matt and I went to Chicago to see my dad. I know it may seem strange that Matt and I went together and left Vanessa and Chris at home but let me explain. Since my dad is in Chicago for a few months and I've never been there I thought it would be fun to go up and see him. I originally planned on taking Seth with me but tickets were too expensive. My dad is 5 minutes from Six Flags and about 15 minutes from Lake Michigan so we thought we would go to Six Flags and go fishing while I was there. Since Vanessa doesn't like fishing or roller coasters my dad thought Matt would like to go and although Chris would have loved to go someone had to stay home and watch the kids so Matt and I went.

My dad is half way between Chicago and Milwaukee so since tickets were cheaper to Milwaukee we were going to fly there with a layover in Chicago. It seemed silly but hey, for $100 apeice I figured it was worth it. Well I was wrong. We started our trip with delays in Phoenix. The first two delays were because of mechanical problems and the thrid was because of bad weather in Chicago. By the time we finally go there we had missed our connecting flight and they couldn't get us out until the next afternoon. Well that seemed stupid since we were only 40 miles from where we wanted to go so we rented a car. Unfortunately though we had another car rented and paid for in Milwaukee so we had to drive up there Friday morning and pick it up and then return the other car to O'Hare that afternoon. After all that mess we were finally able to see some sights in Chicago.

We started by driving by Wrigley Field followed by a trip to United Center to see the Michael Jordan statue. After that we went to the Sears Tower for a skytower tour. It is truely incredible how far you can see from 104 stories up. We saw Soldier Field, United Center, Oprah's building but was was truely amazing was our first glance at Lake Michigan. It is HUGE!!!! It looks just like the ocean. I can now say I've been to the top of two of the world's tallest buildings (I went to the World Trade Center in 1985). Pretty cool I think.

Saturday we spent the day at Six Flags. It was so much fun. One of the roller coasters that we went on goes up to 78mph! I didnt' open my eyes the whole ride but it was so much fun anyway. My other favorite ride there was the Batman ride. The wooden roller coaster was also pretty cool. Fortunately it wasn't crowded so the longest time we had to wait in line was about 30 minutes, which I didn't think was too bad. Sunday we got up early (4:00am) and went on a fishing charter. We were fishing for salmon, which I didn't even know they had in Chicago. We caught a total of six good size fish. Matt caught the most but I caught the biggest. We had a lot of fun but we were exhausted when we got back to the hotel. We spent the rest of the day napping and looking a some shops around the area and then went and played trivia that evening. Since my dad had to work the next day and we were heading back to Phoenix we turned in pretty early.

Monday morning my dad took us to breakfast before heading to work and then Matt and I headed to Milwaukee. On our way we saw a sign for the Jelly Belly factory so we took a little detour and stopped there for a free Jelly Belly tour. It was neat seeing how Jelly Bellys are made and at the end we got a free bag of Jelly Bellys to take home. Like any good touristy place there was a gift shop filled with fun Jelly Belly items. I had to rearrange my bags by the time I was finished in there. Good thing the tour was free!! After that we went to the pier to see Lake Michigan (I still can't believe how big it is) and then to downtown Milwaukee to get some lunch and Starbucks. By then it was time to head to the airport. Of course it wouldn't be much of a trip if we didn't have delays going home also. Our flight out of Milwaukee was delayed almost 2 hours for wind in Chicago. As Matt pointed out, Chicago is known as the windy city so how do they ever get flight in and out if they delay flights for wind. Fortunately we had a 4 hour layover in Chicago so we still had time to catch our connecting flight. Of course that didn't matter because that flight was also delayed almost 2 hours. By the time we got back to Phoenix it was a little after 11:00pm Monday night and we were utterly exhausted.

Aside from the bad flights we had a blast and I can't wait to go back. There is so much more I'd like to see in Chicago I'm already planning my next trip.

4th of July

For the 4th we had some family and neighbors over to BBQ and swim. After swimming the Standages joined us to watch fireworks from the parking lot at Chris' work. Tempe Town Lake puts on a pretty good fireworks display and we have a great spot to watch without getting into too much traffic. We had a great day! We're very lucky to have family close by and such great neighbors to spend time with.

Six Weeks Later - Vacation Part II

Well we've been home from Iowa for six weeks now and I never got around to posting part II of our trip. Oh well, that's life I guess. I'll add some more pictures to our Missouri slideshow and call it good.

For the most part the rest of the trip was a lot of fun. It rained a lot! Almost everyday we were there we had rain and we got to see Aunt Phyllis's basement when the tornado sirens went off. The sirens went off twice that night so we got to see a lot of the basement.

We did so much while we were there. We went to the butterfly garden in Ames, The Living History Farm, Winterset, the zoo in Des Moines, took walks along the old railroad path and went to the movies a couple of times. In Iowa there is so much to do and so little time. We could easily spend all summer there, well at least the kids and I. I'm not too sure about Chris. He did have fun but I think he was pretty sick of the rain.

So that's our Iowa trip in a nutshell. As always we had a great time sightseeing and especially spending time with family. We can't wait until next year. The boys already have a list of things they want to do. I guess I better start planning now to fit it all in.