A Few Pics...

So, here are a few of the pictures that have been just sitting around waiting for me to post them...

We had planned a lovely 4th-of-July BBQ with our friends Fred and Bridget. Horse shoes were set up in the back yard, basketball, bad mitten, crochet, bocheeball etc. And a lovely pool that sadly was still not ready to have anyone set foot in it. :( We even got up early in the morning - cleaned the house, mowed the grass, trimmed the bushes... ...And then it started to rain- I mean poor - right at 1:30pm. 1/2 hour before people were coming. Oh, well. We still had fun and there was way too much food. It just turned into an indoor party instead - with a rousing game of Trivial Pursuit - boys against girls! Man we have a lot of fun with that game! So anyway let me put down the names of the people in the picture so that I don't forget when I'm 50.... Starting in the bottom left corner and going clock-wise... Morgan, Jenae, Amy (Morgan's wife), Brian and Grace (Fred's brother and sister-in-law), Fred, Mark (Linea's boyfriend), Bridget (on the floor), Papa, Mama, Baby Molly (Fred and Bridget's baby), and Kris in the middle of the floor.

Last year Grandma gave me the family china. I remember when we were kids going to her house for Holidays and eating on it. I always loved looking at the china in the closet and thought it was so sophisticated! Well, until last year I always thought that it went to the oldest child and I just found out that it went to the oldest girl! I'm excited because I always wanted china in a china closet and its WAY to expensive to buy now. So, when we bought the house we were able to save just enough extra money after closing costs to buy dining room furniture (which we've never had yet) with a china closet!

So, the furniture came in a couple weeks ago and I finally go the china unpacked and into the closet a couple days ago. It looks so pretty, now I just can't wait to get going on painting the kitchen/dining room - we both hate that blue and the ugly wall paper. I think that we have the colors all picked out and we're looking at it being a winter project. :)
Truly, it would bring back to much horror into my poor little head to talk much about the pool - it has been 2 months of torture on every level. We even payed a company to come in and clean it and they gave up $400 later! We kept putting more and more chemicals in and nothing was working. Every pool place we talked to said "Absolutely DO NOT drain the pool - the liner will rip and you will have a bigger problem! Great! We were only about a moment away from deciding to have the whole thing torn down! You have no idea the frustration - especially after all the time, $ and effort put in!
The answer, dear friends, - after so much frustration - is FLOCCULANT!!! I have no idea why no one ever thought to suggest it to us sooner! We put it in, turned off the filter and the very next day we could see into the water for the very first time! It made all the nasty particles clump and sink to the bottom and we vacuumed them out! WOW!!! That was so easy! I think we might try it one more time as the water is just a little cloudy still, but I would swim as is! I'm so excited - after being so frustrated!
WOOHOO!!!