The Pool

Last week we got a special present from the HOA president in our neighborhood. You're probably thinking this is going to be bad, but it was actually a great surprise. A little background: when we first bought our short-sale house, it came as-is. That meant it was missing some things... like a mailbox key, or even a mailbox number, and also the community pool key. Well, we payed up the nose to get our mailbox key because the HOA wanted the USPS to take care of it and the USPS wanted the HOA to take care of it. This meant that nobody was going to take care of it, so we had to. Anyway, after that was settled and it started getting warmer, I wanted to take advantage of the pool. I called up the HOA and explained that I didn't have a key and never had gotten one. I was told that I needed to pay $25 to get one. Looking back, that wasn't too expensive, but frankly I figured with our dues each month they could probably afford to provide us a key to the pool. They refused and with other more urgent expenses piling up, I refused to pay. As a result we went through a summer without the pool. Fast forward a year and as it started getting hot this summer, I figured I'd better just bite the bullet and buy a key so we could enjoy the facility we are paying for each month.  I'm kind of an accomplished procrastinator, so naturally I put it off a couple days. Then, the HOA president came by and told me that they had changed the lock on the pool and were in the process of distributing new keys to everyone. How fortuitous! So this week we have been swimming nearly every day. It's been such a fun way to spend time with the kids. I'm teaching them to swim. It's not always fun for my girl. I'm not mean to her, but I do make her rely on herself more than she'd like to. She wants to stay in her Strawberry Shortcake swimming ring forever, but all that does is teach her to peddle a bike.  I decided that they both needed to ditch the "floaties" and I got them both kick boards instead. The boards force their butts up and their legs back in a more effective swimming position. Jade was screaming today when I put her on her board, but she can totally do it when I let go of her! It's hard to watch her wide eyes and scared face, but I do it because if she ever falls into water, she needs to know how to save herself. I'm hoping the kick board will help prepare her for unassisted swimming. Braden learned how to swim a couple of feet unassisted yesterday after practicing on the kick board which is very encouraging. He needs to get stronger at it, but I think he's on his way to being much safer around water. With the temperature reaching over 110 today, I'm really grateful that we can still get outside and play by enjoying the pool.

(Photos courtesy of my mother)