Murphy's Law

"This summer is the summer", I kept telling myself. We have been at this house for 3 1/2 years and have yet to do anything to our backyard. Sure the previous owners had it "landscaped" if that is what you would call it. But some grass here and there and a whole lot of rocks just isn't my thing. I hate pulling weeds in the rocks (yes there was the tarp thing under the rocks...but after a few years it's not so great at keeping the weeds from growing from the rocks down into the top of the tarp...)

Yep, I couldn't take another year of weeds, weeds and more weeds. I couldn't take another year of having this great-sized backyard, and the kids coming in complaining that they're bored, and then having to yell at Trent to quit throwing rocks for the umpteenth time. So I put my foot down, then begged and pleaded and got what I wanted. I got Tracy to agree that we needed a fort/swing set. Not just some cheapie metal one, but a wood one that would last forever. So we did our research and found this kit at Home Depot that had what we wanted at the right price.

But before we could put up the swing set, we had to do some "landscaping" of our own to level the land. There's lots of clay, so we rented a bobcat. And boy it was worth every penny!

(Aleana and Tracy above, and Trent and Tracy below)

Then we got to looking at where we would move the rocks to and what we would put under the swing set., and decided that since we would have the bobcat, that it was the best time to move in some good soil to plant some trees. 15 tons to be exact.

(Trent's dream come true. Dirt, dirt and more dirt.)
(Site for future swingset, from the deck)

So after multiple trips to Home Depot, with some friends help, some help from the family and alot of sweat, we finally got the dang thing up. And the kids wasted no time playing on it, neither did their friends, or their friends' friends. And while we were at it, we decided to put up a tube slide from the deck. (Our friends were moving, so we bought it from them, and installed it.) And all of the sudden the neighborhood kids wanted to play at our house. Hmmmm...wonder why.

Ahhh. Hear that? Silence. The kids are playing outside. No fighting, no crying no whining of boredom. Yep, I could get used to this. This is what summer is all about.

2 days later...

Tracy comes home, and informs me that he has just been "let go". "Due to the current economy, they could no longer support his salary". Yep, 2 days. 2 stinkin' days of peace that I could actually enjoy. We had some major decisions to make, and let me tell ya, they were made fast. Within a few hours we knew what we were going to do, and within a few days we knew where we were going to go. Yes, we decided to move (to Idaho - and I will fill you in on that "adventure" in my next post). Decided to put the house for sale once again, and decided that it was going to be somebody else who would get to enjoy the lovely fort/swing set. Gotta love Murphy.