Our Dandelion Field

I never thought I'd say this, but I'm very glad it's Monday. I had kind of a rough weekend. On the plus-side, my mom and my brother and my sister came to visit us for the weekend. On the minus-side, I'm not very good at playing hostess and it really stresses me out. I feel like I have to be on top of everything all the time, and that's just not my style. But we did have a lot of fun, too. On Saturday morning, we went to the park and played soccer; David gets together with buddies and they all play every weekend, but I usually just watch all the kids (half of which are mine), since I can't run much anymore and I don't want to get hit with the ball. So this Saturday we went as usual and Roz and Kevin played too, and I guess they enjoyed it quite a bit. And my mom helped me with the kids, which was nice, 'cause there were a couple more than usual.

Then, Saturday afternoon, I went with David to get my Mother's Day present, but we didn't have a lot of time because he got called to work, so we're going to continue the hunt today (I'm getting new shoes, which sounds like a lame present, but I love shoes, and kind of need new ones, so I'm excited).

Saturday evening dinner was fun, but crazy because it took longer to cook than expected, and people were starting to get cranky (mostly me). We had our back door open as we were sitting down to eat, and our neighbors' grandkids were outside playing on their trampoline. Every time they jumped up we could see their little heads pop up over the fence. Then we heard, "Look at all those dandelions!"

"Where? Oh! That is a dandelion field!"

They were talking about our backyard. It was kind of funny, in a self-pitying kind of way. Our yard is a constant source of irritation to me. We have some weed-n-feed, but I don't want to put it on the grass until we get our sprinkler system going, because I'm afraid it won't get watered in well enough otherwise, and it will kill what's left of our lawn. We haven't been able to get the sprinkler system going because we don't have a key long enough to turn it on. We don't want to purchase a key until we're sure of what size we need. So we called the landscaping company that blew out our system two seasons ago, and they don't answer their phone or return messages (we've been trying for a year to get ahold of them). They obviously don't want our business. In the mean-time, we've asked people at church if we can borrow theirs; some don't have keys long enough, and others say, "Oh, yeah. I'll bring it by sometime" and never really do. So that's why we have a dandelion field. I feel like the guy with the hole in his bucket from that little kids song.

I'm going to leave this post at this; I need to go mop the kitchen floors (I mopped them a few days ago, I'm pretty sure, but it looks like I haven't mopped them for years) and I've already exceeded my daily allotment of Internet time. Then, I'm going shopping!!