You are my sunshine

Fixed the leak all by myself. Opened the pool. Life is good.

Saturday I invited some friends over for a little get together. I bought Aiden and Alyssa a kiddie pool and Alyssa absolutely loved it.

I never met a kid with so much personality. She always makes me smile.

Overall, I enjoyed/struggled through one of my most productive weekends. I received two new blisters from lawn mower I borrowed since ours decided not to work this weekend and had this conversation with my love:

Him: It is a brand new lawn mower. Did you put gas in it?

Me: Eat shit

Him: Haha. I miss you baby

Me: I miss you too, especially on days where I cut the grass.

Him: I guess so

Blonde Genius

You know as much as I want him here with me all of the time. Today might be one of the days I am kind of relived there is an ocean seperating us. So he does not know what kind of mischief I am getting into with our home and my car.

Yesterday I finally opened my pool, meaning I paid someone to open it. When I came home, I still needed to vaccum and fill it with some water. I started filling it around 6pm. At 10pm, I noticed the water level did not change much. I headed out there with a flashlight and stepped in a nice little puddle.

My pump was leaking. I called them first thing this morning and very calmly said:

I paid $250 for you to open my pool. If I wanted a leak in it, I would have opened it myself


They immediately sent someone and told me they took care of it.

LIARS

I walked in the door around 6:15pm and my pump was still leaking. I located the problem. You see there is a spout on the bottom of the pump to drain the water in the winter time. It needed a cap. I went into the shed and miracously saw the cap laying there. I twisted the cap on tight and water still poured through due to a crack on the side of the cap. I repeated my motto over and over again in my head that if you want something done, do it yourself.

This doesn't mean I will do it correctly, but I will solve the problem. I decided to wrap thick electrical tape around the cap many, many times. I then took the cap outside, tried it again.

Still leaking.

It began leaking from the top of the cap as well. I wanted to stop the leaking. I called Barrett and asked him if he wanted an entertaining trip to Lowes He said oh yes.

At Lowes, I ran into a friendly customer service rep, Chris, who asked if I needed help. I asked him how much patience he had left in the tank and he responded by saying, a lot.

I then proceeded to explain my problem with a water bottle. I told him I just wanted to jam something in the spout to slow it down or stop it. I suggested a caulking stick, a sock, a bouncing ball.

He thought for awhile and came up with this solution:

I arrived home and proceeded to coat the cap with this stuff. Right now I am letting it dry and attempting this one more time, probably again at 10PM.

While I am waiting for it to dry. I share this other story with some hesitation.


My Regional Sales Manager and I met with a potential client for lunch in a small town outside Nashvegas. The lunch went so well. While walking out, I started searching for my keys and could not find them. We reached my car and one of the guys raced inside to go look. The other lady yelled "I see them in the ignition".

I left the car open and running for our entire hour lunch. The four of us could not stop laughing.

And I am still laughing...I think that might be enough story time for one day.

Rant

Oh I am blogging well before 8am and from work. I need to vent in order to put it in the past, move on, and have a fantastic day with my Regional Sales Manager who flies in this morning.

I dropped my clothes off at the cleaners on Tuesday morning. This would be my third attempt at trying to find a decent cleaners. Maybe my cleaners back home spoiled me rotten. They knew my name, never paid more than $30 (and I brought in weeks of clothes at a time), and sometimes they even carried my clothes out to my car.

Tuesday morning's conversation at the dry cleaners:

Me: When will these be done?
Lady at Cleaners: Definitely by tomorrow
Me: How much do you think it will cost?
Lady: Probably around $30

I stopped by yesterday in the only 5 minutes I had to spare in my day around 5PM.

NOT DONE

So I needed to be there at 7AM this morning because I needed my business suit.

Lady: It might be a little more than what I told you.
Me: How much?
Lady $75

HOW IN THE HECK CAN YOU BE OFF BY $45!!

Ran out of fruit this morning so I thought I would treat myself to breakfast at Starbucks. Bought their oatmeal and definitely will be the last time I buy oatmeal from them.


And time to start my day.

Feel the love

You know that feeling when you walk in the door and realized you haven't peed all day and immediately race to the bathroom.

Well that happens to me everyday.

As soon as I walk in the door, I let the dogs out and run to the bathroom. However, I cannot tell you the last time I used the washroom in complete privacy.

Everyday I forgot to close the door and every single day after work, I have two puppies trying to jump on me while trying to do my business.

You think I would learn my lesson.

Looking up...

I swear he is my good luck charm. Today I heard his voice for the first time in about 2 weeks and we spent the entire 20 minute conversation laughing so hard, my mouth started to hurt.

After our conversation, I gained another client at a time where I needed it the most.

And nine years later, our fighting/arguing is at a bare minimum because of honesty and laughter. Before he left, we talked about communication. I said:

I do not care about emails, flowers, or phone calls, just make sure you write on my FB wall once a week to let me know you love me and/or you are alive.

Seems simple enough. Oh its been over a month and of course I let it slide until I saw him writing on one of our best friend's wall for his birthday.

Our first conversation in two weeks started like this after our initial greetings:

Me: So I saw you can write on Brandon's wall, but not mine?
Him: (loud eruption of laughter)
Me: Do not laugh at me. I only asked for one thing before you left (I start laughing)
Him: (continued laughter)
Me: (me yelling his FIRST, MIDDLE, LAST name)
Him: I just wrote Happy Birthday
Me: Well you know you can write that on my wall every once in awhile too

Well he wrote Happy Birthday on my FB wall. We're still 4 months away from my actual birthday, but boy did it make my day.

The laughing did not stop. I shared how Daisy brought a dead bird into the house on Thursday night at 1AM. And how I always kill flies that get into our house with our kitchen towels and now Dakota likes to grab the kitchen towel out of your hand and bury it in the backyard. We think she's confused on whether the towel is the bad guy or the fly.

Or how his dad forgot to pick me up for church on Sunday. And when I walked into church 10 minutes late, he let out his infamous chuckle. No worries, he bought breakfast afterwards to make it up to me.

So after an amazing weekend of laying out at the beach, hanging out with both families, and visiting my alma mater, an amazing phone conversation, and a pretty good day at work, things are definitely looking up.

I hope this lasts for awhile.

Deliver me from cupcakes.

Last night I baked cupcakes. I love baking. Its an instant source of happiness.

I love baking cupcakes because I love passing them out to random friends, clients, etc. Today I passed out 15 cupcakes to clients and made sure I saved 3 for Super Jeni and her two kiddos.

In what might be a huge break through...I only ate ONE cupcake.

HUGE accomplishment considering I normally eat close to 4-5 each time I bake. (Did I just say that out loud?)

My mom always tells me if I didn't work out, I would probably be the largest woman ever to weigh in on the Biggest Loser. I am a horrible eater.

And since I am very much into P90X, I convinced myself I should probably eat well too. Hey, only 2.5 months to R&R. I can do this.

In other self-control news, no coffee this week! Only orange juice or protein shakes. I typically NEED to have at least 1 cup a day.

Although fighting off cupcakes took a lot more "self-talk" than the coffee.

Nightly Routine

My nightly routine:

Wash face
Brush teeth
Face moisturizer
Chap-stick

My new routine:

Wash face
Brush teeth
Face moisturizer
Chap-stick
Hand lotion

Why hand lotion? Calluses are beginning to form on my hands from lifting weights. Ah, I hate calluses and I am too stubborn to go buy gloves.

His other PL is now home on R&R. With no family or significant other around just yet, I invited him over for dinner tonight. I made a yummy pan seared chicken with veggies.

In return, he brought over a pull-up bar for me to use while he is away. Setting up the bar was the highlight of my night, by far. I even did a little dance.

What is wrong with me?