smooth and stamp ..

after the concrete is poured .. they smooth it out .. just like in my movie .. cash says ..

see .. nice and smooth .. after they smooth it out they throw gray powder all over it ..

then they lay these rubber stamps on the nice and smooth concrete and then stomp on the stamp .. and it leaves an impression ..

see .. stamps and gray powder .. this is very messy ..

and the result .. stamped concrete .. they will let it cure for a day or two and then power wash it really good and then seal it .. then i can move all my patio furniture out of hank and denise's garage and back onto my pool deck ..

and the pool work continues ..

well good morning there bobcat .. thank you for letting the sunrise before you started to move dirt around ..

this guy was in charge .. he is setting up his super fancy laser level so that my pool deck is level ..

they had to move a little more of the screenings around on monday morning ..

it was hard to talk cash into going to school on monday .. he wanted to stay home with his dad and drive the bobcat and watch the pool guys all day ..

when we got home from school on monday i asked these guys where the electricity was going to be on my outdoor fireplace .. you want electricity on your fireplace mantle they said .. i said .. i would love electricity on my fireplace mantle .. i need to be able to plug in my twinkle lights .. again with the twinkle lights jeff says .. these fellas said no problem .. you just show us where you want it and you will have it .. they were discussing what size conduit they were going to have to run .. something about making a 3 inch fitting fit into a 2 inch fitting .. not to worry .. they got it handled and i will have electricity on my fireplace mantle for my twinkle lights ..

and yes .. cash got to drive the bobcat around on monday night .. while his mother was not around ..

A work in progress ..

time to load up ..

when we were walking out of dinner we ran into this .. this giant tractor trailer with seadoo all over it .. oh .. cash says .. his eyes as big as our dinner plates .. mom .. look ..

they were loading up the demos .. so of course we had to stop what we were doing and watch what was going on ..

they hook a harness up to the sides of the watercraft .. push some buttons and lift it up ..

then they swing it around ..

and slide it in ..

look how cool this is .. and then they stack it up with all the other ones ..

this was it for cash .. this is the coolest thing that he has ever seen .. oh  mom he says .. i want one of those .. can we stop at walmart on the way home and get one ..

dad .. did you see that .. they picked that seadoo up and then put it in the truck .. i saw that cash .. so .. jeff being jeff .. says .. hey there guys .. mind if we give it a whirl .. sure they say .. come on over little man .. play with our cool toy .. i am pretty sure that they are talking to cash and not jeff ..

so .. the little boy .. got to push the buttons ..

and move things up and down ..

sounds i love

while i was driving cash to school on wednesday i got to thinking about sounds that i love .. we all have a list of noises that make us cringe .. but if you had to list all the sounds you love to hear .. what would they be .. and i am not talking about music .. i am talking actual noises .. this is my list of sounds that i love .. in no real order .. i am an equal lover of sounds .. for the record ..

1 .. the crunch of a fresh oreo when you take the first bite .. i swear these are not in order ..

2 .. the way that cash hollers hello when he walks into granny's house

3 .. the sound of cash breathing in the monitor at night ..

4 .. the way that ellie whispers "i love you daddy" in jeff's ear .. she thinks that i can't hear this but i can ..

5 .. the sound of rain on a tin barn roof

6 .. the snap crackle and pop of a fire

7 .. the silence of the morning .. just before the sun rises ..

8 .. the sound of gravel crunching under my shoes when i run ..

9 .. the whirl whirl noise my dryer makes .. it is very soothing ..

10 .. the crinkle of clean sheets

11 .. the pop and fizz when you open a can of diet coke

12 .. that sigh that comes from the end of a very long and good day ..just as you lay your head down on the pillow to go to sleep ..

13 .. the click click of the shutter on my camera

14 .. the pop and fizzle of the flashbulbs in my makeshift studio

15 .. the creaks that my floor makes when i walk on it at night

16 .. the noise my kitchen aid makes while it whips up a batch of chocolate chip cookies ..

17 .. the humming noise that ellie makes while she draws .. it is the sound of pure happiness and contentment ..

18 .. the engine noise when jeff starts the boat

19 .. the snap of the tow line when jeff jumps the wake while he is wake boarding ..

demo rides ..

jeff had meetings in the morning while we were at the seadoo show .. but in the afternoon he had demo rides .. this is the best part if you are cash and ellie .. the demo site is easy to find .. you just look for the flags ..

to participate in the demos you also have to wear one of these .. this means that you are over 18 and have signed the medical release and hold harmless agreements .. and yes .. i know my kids are not over 18 .. i was not there when this happened .. this must be what ellie was talking about when she said that she had to sign her name .. i was thinking that she signed a ticket to buy a sprite .. not sign herself up for the demo rides .. not to worry i say .. when we get to the demo site they won't let her or cash on .. don't need to say anything about it now ..  why burst the happiness bubble .. right ..

look mom .. we are going on a demo .. WHAT !! .. i shriek .. it seems that it took me a little longer to get to the demo site .. it was about a 5 mile walk .. uphill some of the way and on very skinny walk ways .. i was also lugging my camera and the swim bag ... it seems that jeff and the kids walked extra fast for a reason .. jeff knew that the kids were going to get to ride and if i showed up at the same time with them, i would have had a chance to say something about it .. tricky .. so .. the guy .. dude was his name .. don't ask .. anyway .. dude was telling jeff how to work the ibr .. you would really be amazed at the number of seadoo dealers that don't know .. i mean really don't know .. how to operate seadoo's .. ok cash tells dude .. can we go fast now .. sure little man dude says .. you can tell that my kids are loving dude .. so off they go .. dude says to me .. ma'am .. yes i say .. after cringing that i have just been called ma'am by a boy named dude .. anyway .. you gonna ride .. no thanks i say .. i don't have a wrist band .. you really don't need one .. you can ride if you wanna .. no thanks .. i am going to take some pictures .. ok dude says .. if you change your mind i will be right over here .. ok dude ..

so they loved the red one .. lets ride the brown one dad ... ok jeff says .. hop on ..

ellie is telling dude that while they were riding they fell off into the lake ..which means the kids were hot so they stopped and swam for a bit .. and we just fell off .. just like that dude .. ok .. i say .. lets go back to the pool and swim ..  see ya dude the kids holler .. i am certain at this point cash is wishing that he had his john deere tractor hat on backwards and sideways .. dude would totally have loved that ..

so we did .. we ordered some cocktails .. swam and played a little football ..

a small side note .. dude is a test rider for seadoo .. he gets paid big bucks to ride the heck out of seadoo's newest and greatest stuff and then come back and tell them whats wrong with it .. i would love to meet his parents .. !

my yard .. or what's left of it ..

so we get home from a very long drive home from austin .. when we left austin it was pitch black .. we watched the sun come up from the car .. 2 kids and jeff .. up very very early .. eat breakfast and lunch in a car .. and then drive 8 hours and stop only twice .. we were all in the greatest moods when we got home .. well the kids were because they were about to be reunited with granny and grandpa so their little worlds were great .. my world was full of laundry and jeff's world .. well .. i am not sure what words to use on that one .. so .. this is what we see when we pull in .. mom had been sending pics .. but there is nothing like seeing it with your own eyes ..

 jeff beings to mumble words .. i tell the kids to hurry quick into the house .. why mom cash asks .. i think i see a wasp .. screams from both children while they bolt into the house .. jeff begins to turn red and shake his head .. then he starts to walk around .. he is going to survey all the damage .. babe i say .. why don't you just come in and take a quick shower .. wash all the car grim off .. then go to work .. you can look at all that tonight .. no response .. just more heading shaking and mumbling ..

after dinner that night jeff and the kids fished the boulders out of the pool ..  me .. i went running .. i went into my little world with bon jovi and jack johnson .. where all things are good .. where there is no mumbling .. i did not want to stay and fish boulders out of the pool .. before i left i turned the volume up on the outdoor speakers .. just in case jeff started to mumble again .. i didn't want the kids to hear any of those words .. notice .. cash is wearing his life jacket .. we didn't want one of those rocks to sink him .. that was ellie's idea .. smart girl .. she said that it will make him more bouyant mom ..

broken tiles were scattered like confetti .. all around .. like the pool guys had a big party after they drank all the beer out of my pepsi machine ..

the outdoor fireplace is going on that big pile of screenings ..

can't you see it now .. outdoor fireplace .. twinkle lights .. happiness all around ..

don't feel bad .. jeff can't see it either ..

i'm here ..

i'm here .. i promise .. it seems that the pool people dug up my internet cable and mom's router got hit by lighting .. so we are experiencing technical difficulties to say the least .. not to worry though ... i am going to use the internet at work today .. so just hang tight and i will be back soon .. i promise ..

austin ..

this is where we have been spending most of time .. the slide is closed .. it is only open on the weekends .. something about having to have a life guard on duty so that no one will drown .. silly rule .. i know that jeff and the kids were so thinking about jumping the gate and dumping a bucket of water down the slide ..

the kids thought that it was neat that the water from one pool flowed over into the next .. can we do that to our pool .. they asked ..

they also had a swim up bar .. it was closed .. jeff had to go inside to get our "cocktails" .. but the kids thought that it was fun to sit on the bar stools in the water ..

not a bad place to spend a day or two .. to bad jeff has to work all day today ..

OMG !!!!!

these are screenings .. you use these as fill when you build things .. these came yesterday mom says .. they also delivered more this morning .. i know this because apac called and woke us up at 6:30 this morning to let us know that they are on the way with more screenings ..

we also got an inch of rain on tuesday .. so the bob cat drove around in the mud all day long that was called our yard ..

this is where our table and chairs used to sit ..

this is the south end .. we are adding on a little more concrete here .. for an outdoor fire place ... i keep telling jeff .. don't look at this mess of destruction .. envision sitting in front of a beautiful out door fire place .. sipping a glass of wine and looking at the stars .. no babe .. don't see that .. not at all ..

this pic about made us crash .. do you know how long it is going to take me to clean all those bits of rock out of the pool .. i said to him .. you mean you wonder how long it is going to take ME to clean out all those bits of rock .. right .. ? .. no answer from him ..

oh look .. my knockout roses seem to be ok still .. i say .. he says .. who cares ..

jeff sees all the mess and wonders if his yard will ever be the same .. i look at this picture and wonder just what is going on at my house .. do you see all the coors light lined up on my porch .. so are they drinking and driving the bob cat in my yard at the same time .. or are they drinking a bit at the end of the day before they go home .. which they are staying in the house right next door so it's not like they are driving .. i am going to assume the later on that one .. it makes me feel better ..

this is how we started out our day .. viewing these  pics .. lets just say that doom and gloom jeff was grumpy for a bit .. me .. i am thinking about the wine .. stars and pinon wood that i am going to burn in my outdoor fireplace .. oh .. i can't wait to get home !!