Spring Fever

This incredibly warm weather has everyone ready to come out and play! (and I do mean everyone!)

Because my ankle surgery was postponed a bit, I felt especially lucky to be able to be out and about to enjoy it. From a little raking to a little weed pulling, to playground hopping-- the weekend was incredible.

In March, we're typically the only ones to be venturing throughout Austin Lake. Spring is kind of our special time to not only work, but to also reap the benefits of the family business with a little solitude. Don't get me wrong, without scrillions of customers, there wouldn't be a family business, but sometimes (well any of the times) I am just grateful to have the place to ourselves for quality time together. Even the Cables need time to play together and too typically the Cables are just working, working, working. I'm not sure that registers much to folks.

This warm start to spring though has just about everyone down to their campsites: golf carts going and playgrounds full. Anytime someone sees Austin, they assume he's able to perform the whatever task is being requested at the minute they spot him. This is what's rough on me. I'm not the best at understanding with grace all the time that Austin has to bail on us to help someone else. It does, however, make me more aware when I ask of something from someone. I try hard to make sure that I respect their time and am not offended if it might take some time before they can help me with whatever. My girlfriend who lives on the lake with her two sons called it paparazzi time for the Cable's when Austin got scooped up from his family time. (At least I'm starting to have some real friends here, though!!) When we find people who start to truly understand that our lifestyle simply is what it is and is quite different than the average family, it sure does make me feel a lot more supported.

So with that aside, the real news is how much we got done over the weekend:
Gage was out and about again on his bike, sans training wheels. He was very afraid to get back on and go. It seems over the winter he forgot the two months' worth of riding all over the place without his training wheels and he was pretty afraid to try again. Thankfully for Jake, the boy who lives up the road, Gage had an older buddy to pair up with and it made it much better. Soon enough the two of them were off and the two crippled moms were left with the two 3-year olds--who were long overdue for naps. Stacey just had major back surgery and had rods put into her back just two months ago and I am not supposed to be traversing much ground but we made it work because these kids just love this place.

Leila listened so well and was so daggone dirty that I remembered why I've never bought her brand new summer clothes before--I've always done the second-hand shops for her. This year, afraid for not being able to drive and shop this spring, I loaded up both kids already with what I hope will be the wardrobe to get them through until fall. Poor Leila might be looking like a dirtball come June if she continues her fun ways of puddles, rocks, and sliding down sandpiles. (Then again, one more reason to love being here... nobody cares what kind of look my child has and before we know it, swimsuits and flip flops will be her daily norm.)

In preparation for a HUGE yard project coming up, Austin moved the kids' big swing set up to the back door area of our house and we had our first bonfire to try to get rid of the pile of wood that is down in that part of the yard. The kids couldn't understand why I didn't have a bag of marshmallows in the house and as I tried to explain to them that it was only March, we finally just busted out a bag of mini marshmallows and played a great game of trying to throw them into Leila's mouth. Gage was not happy about wasting marshmallows, but we kept going... hoping to 'mallow' him out a bit. lol

Although I couldn't walk up the hill back to the house at the end of the day, I just couldn't be more thankful for the great weather.