Memorial Day Weekend
We went into this Memorial Day weekend with no plans. Part of me was relieved that we could just kick back and relax but part of me wished that we had that time with friends or family.
There were many last minute discussions. Should we go visit family for the weekend? We couldn’t leave until Saturday evening so that was a no go. Should we invite friends over? Should we go camping? It was a lot of “should we” but no definitive answers.
Saturday morning we knew for sure that we had to be at a swim meet for the oldest two girls.
It was hot and we were at my least favorite pool to compete at. The water at this pool doesn’t drain properly from the cement surrounding the pool. You’re constantly stepping into hot puddles of water and the water gets tracked into the grass so everything is muddy.
It’s kinda miserable.
I was so happy to leave that pool that I packed up all the supplies by myself at the end of the meet including the tent while Mr. Byrd was volunteering.
But all that hot muck and mud couldn’t take away the joy of that meet. Our middle child, Clara, was scheduled to be on a relay team. It would be her first relay to ever swim and she was so excited. However their team was scratched from the relay because two of the girls on the team didn’t show up for the relay. One of our neighbors, who is a mom to triplets, saw Clara crying and stepped into offer a few extra swimmers in the form of triplets so that they would have a 4 person relay team.
Technically they finished the race in last place but actually they’re the real winners.
We came home and I promised the girls I would take them back swimming at the pool if they would just let me rest for a bit first. I might have fallen asleep and everyone might have let me sleep. I woke up 30 minutes before the pool closed.
Yet I decided to save the day and take the girls on an epic adventure involving Diet Coke, Mentos and a wide open field. Our epic adventure failed miserably.
First one of the bottles of Diet Coke was kicked over and we lost most of it.
Then our oldest daughter chickened out of putting Mentos in the bottle and ran away before there was enough to create a big splash. So we had a little tiny geyser of diet coke.
We’re going to try again – we are not defeated yet!
Sunday we had plans to pick up the house and do some yard work but…… the couch was comfy and there were good movies on TV. Then we headed to the pool in the afternoon and found friends already there. So we swam like fish (or whales) and came home happy.
Monday we had discussed meeting friends at their pool in the afternoon but we canceled those plans because we really needed to get the huge load of mulch we have sitting in the driveway actually put into the flower beds where it belongs.
Of course is started raining about 30 minutes after we started digging, transplanting and clearing out the flower beds. At that time we had too many plants pulled up to stop so we just kept going, and going.
We went for two more hours until our gloves were so caked in mud that we couldn’t hold the shovel. Then we saw the first bit of lightening and quickly picked everything up and called it quits. Half the mulch pile is still waiting for us in the driveway. It’s never going to go away.
Remember that our house was a disaster on Sunday and we hadn’t cleaned it yet. In fact it was pretty much destroyed. That’s why when we got the text that Mr. Byrd’s aunt and cousin from San Antonio were 20 minutes away and headed to our house with car trouble, we moved faster that jack rabbits pumped full of espresso.
Somehow the house got picked up. I’m not saying the laundry is in the closet but it might be.
Dinner and frozen yogurt followed by a beautiful sunset with family was the perfect ending to this weekend.
And somehow this Memorial Day weekend turned out to be everything we could have asked for and then some. We got to spend time with family that we miss and don’t see enough, we spent time with friends, my house is mostly clean (don’t look in the closet) and we are a few steps away from yard of the month. First step is to convince our neighborhood to start a yard of the month but we have hope.