Sunday, June 27, 2010

Our summer has been flying by. Baseball/softball has been taking up so much time that we rarely have time on the weekends to do anything fun as a family. The house needs work*, the lawn needs mowing and the garage needs de-junking. However, for Father's Day, we decided to go to the local water park for the afternoon. It was a great success. So, the kids expressed interest in heading to a nearby (sort of) bike trail for some more family fun today. Viv had a long nap, so by the time she woke up and we got the bikes loaded and ready to go, it was getting close to late afternoon. It was near 90 degrees and the threat of pop-up showers was looming. We figured we'd beat whatever rain was headed our way as the sky was clear as crystal as we drove. Once we got to the trail and were nearing the turn-around point, a call came from Jeff, who was at the house. He said it was raining hard and lightning. We made the decision to turn around right there and head back to the truck. We didn't make it. We still had about a mile to go when it started to rain. The kids and Eric were on bikes, Viv was in the trailer behind Eric's bike and I was on roller blades. By the way, roller blades have little traction on wet pavement. It didn't just rain, it poured. There was lightning and thunder that is a whole lot louder outside - or at least that's what I told Ally as she began sobbing as she was trying to see and steer her bike toward the parking lot. The girl gets very nervous when storms hit, anyway, so she was really not having any fun at all. We made it back to the truck and loaded everyone in. It was quite the rush and will live fondly in my memory as a fun, yet unpredictable, Schreiber family outing!!

*Of course there's always things to fix/build/maintain in this house. The latest project was not necessarily planned. The fridge we brought with us from Georgia via Wisconsin did not fit in the space allotted due to the location of the cupboards built around the existing fridge. We put our nice, spacious fridge in the garage for overflow. The fridge that was in the house started to freeze food that got pushed past the midway point and then began freezing fruits and veggies in the crispers. After deciding to re-do the cupboards instead of buying a $1000+ NEW fridge, when we had a perfectly good one already, the renovations began. Let's just say that the man who built this house has been cussed out numerous times amidst the projects attempted here. I think it has come down to more of a shake-your-head-and-find-the-humor, acceptance. Eric knows what's in store when he starts tearing apart cupboards, walls, floors, etc. Jeff, on the other hand, hasn't accepted the haphazard ways of the builder. He will. We all have. Needless to say, the cupboards had to be rebuilt and will still not fit correctly. I could give a flying fig newton, but my anal retentive husband and dear friend are still bothered by the non-flush cupboards. Hey, it holds shit and won't fall on my head......I'm happy.

2 comments:

natther said...

I hate to tell you this, but these projects will go on forever and ever, in some form or another.

You guys have done so-o-o much with that house - and are very, very good at it!

kim said...

We lead parallel lives, my friend!
Max looks awesome and handsome as always playing bb... he's beginning to look so grown up!
Your last sentence cracks me up. I'm turning it into my life mantra.... I love it. = )
And how on earth does every home improvement project become something insane - cost....labor...and more often than not both. Oy!
I'm pretty sure when we're out of here, the next owners will be rolling their eyes at us though.... ;)

Enjoy the holiday weekend!!