Saturday, May 23
I was so excited to have a long weekend even though I've been working from home for about a month now and the weekends just don't seem to have the edge like they used to. Since I don't leave home very much anymore, except to go local geocaching and grocery shopping, the weekends just don't give me that refreshed feeling anymore, the "we finally made it to the weekend", **exhale**. Work is home and home is work but I can't complain. It could be worse. It could always be worse.
I called Mom to ask if we had any plans for the weekend. Last year we spent this weekend moving from the first house in Lacey to the house we are currently in. That was a lot of work but it was nice to have the long weekend to do it. She said she didn't really but Dad most likely did. I ended up talking to him for a while and he managed to talk me into helping mow lawns on Saturday. He even talked Doug and Erika into helping as well. The more people the faster it will get done. We set up a time of 11 a.m. to all meet over there.
Ben was on a 24-hour shift at the fire station and he left in the morning around 6:30. I slept in until about 9:45. I got ready, ate some food, packed up my lawn mower in the Escape and then went and picked up Doug and his lawn mower. Apparently, Jenn needed the car for some errands. We then, drive into Rainier and to Grandma's house to start there first. We unloaded everything as Mom and Dad showed up in the truck with their lawn mower and the weed eater.
Grandma came out to move some stuff out of the yard and we spend some time getting rid of the mole hills and the small rocks on the lawn. Then we all started in. I got the riding lawn mower on top of the hill going and at one point we had all four lawn mowers going. It went quick and painless. Dad ran the weed eater for a bit and then the leaf blower just to get all the grass off the stairs, porch and cement area. The yard looked really good when we were done. Grandma thanked us for coming over and doing the lawn.
We loaded everything back up and drove over to Grammie and Grandpa's house to do his lawn. His was going to take more time because he has more open spaces than Grandma does. This time Doug ran the riding lawn mower and everyone else ran the push lawn mowers. Dad did some weed eating and stacked some wood out back so it could be brought in easier. We knew Grandpa appreciated our work and he always offered to pay for lunch but this time we declined his offer. We told him probably next time since we still had some stuff we had to do.
Somehow Dad talked us into driving over to our Great Grandparent's property on Tipsoo and mowing that lawn. That property hasn't been mowed in over a year or more. Luckily, the grass wasn't extremely thick but it still took us all a while to get it all mowed because we had to go over a couple sections twice because of the dandelions.
The last memory I have of this pick up truck, named Waldo, (before it was left here) was of my brother, dad and I, and we were driving it from our house to our great grandparents house and a couple dozen bees flew out of the dashboard. Luckily, no one was allergic to bed and surprisingly, no one got stung.
By the time we were done I was exhausted. I walked over 20,000 steps and I could definitely feel it. We loaded all the mowers into the Escape and the back of the truck and Doug and I headed back into Lacey. I dropped him off, he mowed his yard that evening and I went home, unloaded my mower and ended up vacuuming it out. I showered, ate dinner and then relaxed. It was nice to finally be done for the day. I worked on my blog and watched some shows. I called Erika to find out what kind of food Zach wanted for his birthday tomorrow and she said tacos.
Sunday, May 24
I got to sleep in, Ben came home early that morning and then took a nap. I called Mom to see if she needed to go to the store and she said probably. I told her I needed to get some stuff for the tacos we were going to make for Zach for his birthday party later on that day. I convinced Mom to drive out to town so we could go to the Hawks Prairie Walmart. She agreed only because the Yelm Walmart had been pretty cleaned out and she was getting tired of not being able to find the stuff she needed. We brought our masks and stood in line to get in. We got the stuff we needed and found a couple of things for Zach's birthday. We got back to my house, Mom dropped me and my groceries off and told me she would see me in a little bit.
I put everything away and then started getting stuff ready for his party. I mowed the front lawn and then I had Ben get all the tables, chairs and fire pit out front. As it got closer to party time, I started making the taco fixings. We were only going to have nine people over but made sure to make enough so Dad can some food over to Grandpa on the way home.
Everyone arrived around 6ish and I started to bring the food out to the tables and we dug in. I haven't made this volume of taco fixings in two years. The tacos hit the spot. They were delicious. We got into the birthday party portion of our party and Zach wore the birthday hat and opened his presents. We tried to get him some stuff that he could use whether it was food or clothes. We tried to get some ideas from Erika.
I started the fire in the pit and got it going so we could make s'mores and hang out around it. It didn't take me long to get it going because I know how to make a fire. I've had lots of practice over the years. I've actually been complimented on my fire making skills. We let the fire die down a bit so we could roast our marshmallows in the coals. I am not one of those people who like my marshmallows on fire or burnt when I squish it together with my graham crackers or chocolate.
Around 8ish is when everyone was ready to head back home. They helped me fold up the chairs and tables and brought some stuff into the house. We all said our goodbyes and everyone went home. Ben and I finished up the cleaning and putting stuff away. I ended up spending time working on my blog and watching some shows while Ben got on his game and played with Josh.
Monday, May 25
I was so happy I didn't have to work today. We slept in and made some breakfast. Ben was on call at JBLM today but other than that we had no plans. Since Erika moved out, we decided to make the extra bedroom into a guest bedroom so that meant we had to go mattress shopping eventually. I wanted to clean the rugs so I got out the carpet cleaner I had bought a few Black Friday's ago because it was a great deal and I knew we would need something like this since we had pets and carpets. Ben helped me move stuff off the area rug in the living room. We found all the fans and I started with the carpet in Erika's old room first. I made sure I vacuumed it pretty well since Emmett spent a lot of time laying around in this room. I got that one done and then did the smaller ones in the hallways.
I took a short break, cleaned out the soap and water vessel and started in on the main area rug in the living room. This one was going to be especially dirty with all the traffic that comes through here and the cat and dog butts. This would be the first time cleaning it since we got it. The water I dumped out of the vessel was pretty gross. I went over it one more time just because.
I cleaned out the carpet cleaner and let the stuff dry and then got the fans all placed and sat on the couch and chilled with Calvin while we watched some television and rested. I worked on some other stuff throughout the day that I've been putting off and worked on my blog some more. I was determined to get caught up finally since most of our stuff at this point we had planned were being canceled or postponed until next year. I was super disappointed and inside my head I was screaming about how stupid this all was.
We got some laundry done, ate dinner and got ready for the upcoming short work week. We got a lot accomplished this weekend but again, it's never long enough.
Next Adventure: Geocaching in Hawks Prairie and Lacey with a Monsoon
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