Another day!

I just thought yesterday was going to be a nice, lazy day! Laundry done, dirty dishes in the dishwasher......Drinking my coffee......Riley comes running in the house crying. "There is a snake trying to bite Rider". I tell her Rider will scare it off and go outside to look. Thankfully, the snake is gone. I love my children! I love my children! I keep telling myself! Riley is going to be the death of me. Yesterday a friend came down to play with Tucker. We decided to swim next door. Our neighbors have a pool with a slide and a diving board. They are on vacation but always tell us to use the pool whenever we want. They are very sweet!! When we get there the kids jump in, I get settled in a chair, get my book out and think this is the life:) I could so be a stay at home mom. After about 30 seconds the friend starts yelling "There's a rat in the pool!" Riley starts screaming, Tucker just stands there. So much for relaxing! I don't think that word should be in my vocabulary. I get up to look and sure enough a mouse (not a rat) was floating in the pool. EWWWW! GROSS!!! Then Tucker looks in the thing that sucks all the toys in, the filter??? and there is a dead frog and a live frog. EWWW! Gross! So I get the big net with the long handle and scoop the mouse out and dump him over the fence. Needless to say the kids would not get back in the pool. I can't say I blame them or want them to get back in. I gather up our stuff and we go back to our house. Rider is happy we are back. He had been sitting at the pond watching us and barking the whole time. The boys decided to swim in the pond. "That's fine" I tell them. I decide to lay out and get my lounge chair out of the attic, towel and book. Ok, now it's time to relax. As soon as I lay down Rider starts nudging me with his nose. "Go Away" but he doesn't. So I get my chair, towel and book and go back inside. Riley comes in and says "Can I play in the sprinkler?" "What are Tucker and Austin doing?" I ask. "They put my car in the pond" she answers. It takes a minute for this to sink in! "What?!?!?! Your purple Disney Princess car is in the pond?" I yell. She shrugs her shoulder and says "Yeah, they are going to use it as a boat" in a Duh! kind of way. She has gotten pretty sassy lately. I run outside and the boys are pushing the car into to pond. I start yelling!!! "Tucker, you can't put that in the pond! It has a battery!" "And it will sink" "Whose idea was this?" Of course, they blame each other. "Help me pull it out" I am still yelling. Did I mention there is a green turtle sandbox in the pond? The lid actually did float for a while. Also, an old red flyer trycicle that Tucker tried to ride across the pond. He only made it about four feet. You can still see the handles sticking up out of the water. So we get the car out, I turn it over to dump the water out and pray it will work once it is dried out. "Riley do you know how much it will cost to replace that car?" I ask. She shrugs her shoulders and says "I don't like it anymore anyway". This is her response to everything now days. If I tell her to pick up her toys or I am going to throw them away, she tells me "that's ok I don't want them anymore". I need a new strategy for that one. Thankfully, the rest of the day was uneventful. Tucker had ball practice. Riley and I dropped him off and came home. Jimmy picked him up. When they got home we gave Rider a bath which did not really help because he gets right back in the pond to wash the sweet smelling shampoo out. Maybe today will be better!