Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Taking a break from the chaos and having a normal day

Today started off dark, dreary, rainy and 68 degrees which in Las Vegas this time of year is cause for celebration!  So I decided I was going to take a break from the chaos of moving and try to do some normal things.



Fortunately, I had already arranged a coffee date at Einstein Bros. Bagels with my friend Liz whom I met as soon as I dropped Madison off at school.  Being the frugal monster that I am, I had a coupon.  I'm not sure if they send out coupons in all areas (if you like bagels, you should look for them) but we get them about once a month in the Red Plum insert that comes along with  the "junk mail" (which I do not consider junk at all!).  I chose to use the coupon for a free bagel with purchase of any beverage on Tuesday only.  You can use this coupon once every Tuesday while it is valid.  Yes, that's right, they give it back to you!  Of course I placed my order and then promptly handed the coupon to Liz so she could score the same deal.  There we sat, a couple of frugal monsters (and one monster in training) enjoying our free bagels.  It was nice to just sit and relax for an hour.

We then swung by Walmart to pick up a few things and headed home just in time to meet the refrigerator repair man.  He took one look at the refrigerator and told me that we needed a new compressor.  Luckily, this is our extra refrigerator that is used for my stockpile which we have been consuming in preparation for the move.  If you know me,  you will understand what I mean by "stockpile".  If you don't understand, I'm sure at some point after we get settled in Phoenix I will grace you with stories of the acquisitions that lead to my stockpile.  The refrigerator parts are on order and it looks like it's going to cost about $300. I figure that is worth it considering all the money I  will save on the stuff I'm gonna cram in it.  Again, there will be more detail on this one day soon, just keep the word "frugal" in your mind and it will all make sense.

The refrigerator repair man was gone by about 11:15am, the rain had cleared and it was 70 degrees and cloudy.  What a perfect opportunity to actually do something outside!  Connor and I threw on our sandals and headed out into the vast dust field that is our backyard and looked around for something to do.
Inviting, isn't it?  When we first moved in I was thrilled to have such a large backyard but it turned out to be quite disappointing.  Long before we ever resided here, there was grass on that there dust.  If you look closely in the lower left hand corner, you can see a fuzzy green mass.  This is the green netting that was once used to hold sod together.  This green netting is all over the backyard but still somehow fused to the ground in places.  It is very easy to get your foot caught in it while doing the simplest of things!
Sorry my toenails weren't painted for this photo but I have been a little busy and toenail beautification has not been on my list of priorities!  Anyhow, you can see how nasty this stuff is.

It wasn't long before I realized there was nothing to do out there, so I began to pack-up all of the outside toys including the sand and water table (which never has water in it because it evaporates too quickly).  That took all of 5 minutes so I looked around and realized that it was time to rake up all of the sun baked dog poop briquettes around the dust field.  Connor and I got to work.  Good times, enough said.


We had some lunch and then there seemed to be a lull in our momentum so I decided to get some chores done.  Taking advantage of the cool breezy weather, I opened up all of the windows (I had already opened a few this morning) and doors and had what I call a "blow through".  This is such a treat because it has been a long hot summer and we have had the windows closed and the a/c on consistently since June.  It was quite invigorating to do laundry and change sheets with fresh air blowing through the house.

I decided that I would take advantage of the weather once again and take the kids and the dog to the park after school.  This was a perfect opportunity to drop off Dorothy.  What?  Oh that's right, you don't know about Dorothy.  Well, let me tell you about Dorothy.  I started geocaching with the kids last spring.  Geocaching is a real-world outdoor treasure hunting game. Players try to locate hidden containers, called geocaches, using GPS-enabled devices and then share their experiences online.  I highly recommend this for anyone with kids and a GPS device or iPhone.  We have visited caches in California, Arizona, Nevada and the UK.  Whilst visiting these caches, you may be lucky enough to find a trackable item.  When you find these trackable items, you must take them and place them in another geocache.  I was lucky enough to find Dorothy while geocaching with Michael, my Auntie Wendy and my cousin Emma.  We found her on a bridge to nowhere in the middle of nowhere.


I knew of a geocache at a local park that we had visited before.  It was a perfect temporary home for Dorothy.  I picked up Madison from school and headed to the park.  First order of business was to drop off Dorothy but when we got there the cache had been moved.  We were forced to search for it once again and in the end we were successful.  Woo hoo! Now Dorothy is tucked quietly away in a metal tin stashed at a local park waiting for someone to find her and take her to the next destination.  The kids had a great time playing at the park before it was time to go home and take care of the usual late afternoon/evening duties such as homework, dinner etc.


Other than the 5 minutes spent packing up the backyard toys, I managed to stay away from all duties involved with moving.  Although I did plenty of chores, none of them were related to our move.  It was a great day!  I'm not sure if it was the weather, the fresh air or just a break from the chaos but it sure was nice!  Maybe it was all of those things combined?

Oh yeah, and guess what? I even had time for toenail beautification!



Shar
 





4 comments:

Dwija {House Unseen} said...

Ooooh, geocaching is one of the field trip options for my girls this year! I didn't know what it was, but now I'm pretty sure we have to do it :)

Shar said...

You have to do it! We have so much fun doing it and it is so exciting when you find your first one! We have found a total of 28 so far.

Vicky said...

Love the toenails! Best of luck for the reinvention.

Shar said...

Thanks Vicky!

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