Spending Time with my Princess

The rose bushes tied up. Jacob will likely never be accused of having a little head. Here you can see him struggling to support its weight. I woke this morning around 7:30am half expecting rain as a follow-up to the storm that moved through over night. To my surprise, though, it was sunny and bright. That was all I needed to get me going! I was ready to leap to my feet, but Mindy asked that I spend just a few minutes snuggling against her. I did. ButI was eager to get moving with the day. Not only did I have a seemingly endless list of projects to do, but I just like to be moving around in a productive manner before the morning grows too old. I was up and pounding away at my exercises in no time flat. However, I was noticeably stiff after a day of golf and an afternoon of yard work. After leashing up Ykraps, we embarked one a beautiful walk about the neighborhood. This time I took my camera to capture some of our finer moments together. After all, with him running off as he did, you never know when one day he’ll be gone. I want to have memories to pass down to his relatives. The thought of hot coffee was sweet on my mind. I was looking very forward to returning home for that first cup. Once I did, it went down extremely easy and fast. Before I knew it, I was already drinking number two. So not to forget, I took a few minutes to recapture the highlights from Saturday in an email for my blog. I find this is the most efficient manner to capture such days when it may be two or three days before I post. Recalling vivid detail two or three days out becomes increasingly difficult. It does, however, get easier once you remember one significant event as it often leads the mind right to others. By 8:30am it was time to get moving with my run. I scurried along upstairs to get dressed for my Sunday morning run. I needed to wear a shirt today, to be sure, since there was a bit of a chill in air. But not a problem! Mindy continued sleeping. I listened again to David Gilmour on my MP3 player while running. The music is even better in closer proximity to my ears. My run was over in no time at all. I was back at home wandering the yard by 9:30am or so. As I turned around towards the house, I could see Mindy out on the deck having what I assumed to be her first cup of coffee. Not sure if she was joking but she asked if I had just ran through the woods. Ahh – no! I often walk the back yard after a run, processing my day all the while sucking in the beauty of the day. We had a couple cups of coffee together and even made another pot. Instead of making a large breakfast, we opted for some strawberries, cantaloupe, and some of the double chocolate muffins still leftover from last Sunday. We enjoyed all of this on the deck in the sunshine that was warming quickly. After we finished eating we talked about what we wanted to accomplish project wise. Mindy has been such a big help it’s not even funny! I would be working on my front yard lighting project, and Mindy agreed to begin working on my boat cushions. I have all three bow seat cushions here at home needing the wood replaced. To do requires the removal of literally hundreds of staples. The two of us spent the majority of our morning, or what was left, working on these two projects. I had to stop my work on the lighting after getting the hole drilled to the basement and the trench dug for the light because I need two or three more lengths of conduit to complete the task properly. So, after cleaning things up around the lighting project, I began edging the side flower beds. While I did that, Mindy was gracious enough to clean the ceramic tile floor, which was in dire need of a thorough cleaning. After I finished the edging and began putting things away, I took Pat’s extension ladder back home. Just as I walked up, Lisa was trying hopelessly to pull a dead branch from a giant oak tree in the back yard that was inhibiting the path of a new tree swing. I offered to cut it down for her. I went back to my house to get Pat’s chainsaw and returned minutes later to cut it down. It only took a few minutes. After I was done I left both implements at their home and returned to my house where it was time to shower and ready for dinner at Mindy’s mom’s. After showering and dressing Mindy left ahead of me, but I was only minutes behind. I arrived sometime around 3:30pm. We arrived early so that we could take care of a couple of electrical problems her mom was having with her security lighting. The first light over the front porch was not working at all. After removing the motion detector, I couldn’t even get a new bulb to light in the base socket. After checking the breakers, I presumed it be either a problem with the socket itself or a wiring issue, but without a volt meter it’s a crap shoot. I’ll bring my volt meter next Sunday. The next problem is with yet another security light but a newer spot light variety which I am familiar with. Often these just need reset. I moved it to test mode then reset the sensitivity. My guess was that it would work fine once darkness fell. We’d know soon enough. Before dinner was ready, Mindy and I sat outside with the kids getting some much loved sunshine. But before we knew it, dinner was served. Today we had chicken breasts, roast beef, fried potatoes, macaroni salad, and green beans. For dessert we had chocolate pie. All of it was delicious! We hung at Gloria’s until about 7:20pm. As we readied to depart the kids went through their usual decision of whether or not to ride with mom or me. Today Bella chose mom and Jacob chose me. That’s a first! Once we made it back to Mindy’s, we quickly tag teamed the kids baths. As a result, it went pretty fast. I read them a story by P.D. Eastman, Are You My Mother?. Mindy was sure that he was really Dr Seuss’ before he was ‘Dr Seuss’. I, however, was sure otherwise having done some research on this very subject a couple of years ago when I bought Glenn a book about Dr Seuss, or as his mother called him, Theodore Geiss. We made a gentlemen’s bet. And while we were at resolving our debate, we took up the American Idol question too. I ended up staying at Mindy's until after 11pm, which is much later than normal. I knew that the late night coupled with a yard work fatigued body that I'd hurting in the morning. That's OK, though. Mindy wanted the extra company. Once I made it home I walked Ykraps who hadn't been out since the early morning. When done I retreated to my bed where I fell fast asleep.