The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Pool time, that is!  I guess my not so subtle hints worked because my wonderful sweet hubby decided to take the pool cover off this week!  I would do it, but we have one of those heavy duty covers that the dogs can run across (we don't encourage it but it happens) it and not have to worry about them falling in.  The ads show it with an elephant on it, but I am pretty sure that is fabricated and I would not want to attempt putting an elephant on our pool cover.  Anyway, it's a pretty intense job and I am not allowed to attempt up to it.

The one job I do have in this process is getting the salt.  I am convinced one of the smartest things we did when we moved into our house was converting our pool to salt water. We buy 10 bags of salt at the beginning of the summer (about $6 each @ Academy) and the only other thing we add to it is some algaecide every few weeks. No crazy chemicals to balance (I did plenty of that my 3 summers as a lifeguard), and you don't have to worry about your hair turning green or that nasty chlorine film all over you when you get out of the pool.

In my quest for pool salt this year I learned that people who shop and work at Academy are way nicer and more helpful than @ the other (big box) store I've purchased salt at in the past.  I had a random customer and a sales person offer to load the 10- 40lb bags of salt in my cart for me.  I am sure it had nothing to do with the fact that I had on a skirt and  3.5 inch wedges =).  However, I managed just fine getting them in my car and counted that as my weight workout for the day.

I think Hawk was the most excited one of all of us when we got the cover off the pool.  I am convinced he thinks the pool is there solely for his pleasure.  The dog LOVES water (what lab doesn't), and he knows what we are talking about when we ask him if he wants to go swimming. The normal reaction is him about losing his mind, so we usually don't tell him until we are about to walk outside although I think he has figured out what's going on when we put swimsuits on.

We are still working on cleaning it out, but isn't it pretty?!?!  And it even comes with it's own pool boy!  His name is Ramon, I mean Eric.  LOL.  He actually got in the FREEZING cold water after this to vacuum it out which I could not believe.  I had my arms in it to brush off the steps and my hands went numb.

Apparently our pool deck needs some TLC.  We used to have honeysuckle in the corners of the fence but it started looking like a jungle so we pulled it out this year.  I have my work cut out for me.  I have a few plants in pot that I need to put around the edge of the fence and I am contemplating growing some Morning Glories on the fence to give it some color. It will work if I can keep Eric from weed whacking them down!

Even the pups helped get it ready, well sort of. We've got a big weekend planned and I am super excited about it!  I am just hoping the rain either comes through early or skips over us all together!  Happy Friday!


P.S.  I made Rolo-Stuffed Cookies last night for this weekend and they are my new favorite cookies (Pinterest find, of course!).  They were SUPER easy and absolutely delicious!  I think next time I might add some mini-chocolate chips to the batter just for the heck of it!

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