By the pool....a day in our lives...No, I don't make this stuff up

Well, it was a holiday weekend, I suppose.  Happy July 4th from our house to yours.

Saturday, Ken was catching up on outside work, clearing wood from some trees we had cut, burning brush, etc...I had purposed to spend the day doing heat and ice on my back, which has been bothering me a lot for a long while...and, spend time with our new dog, Cow-belle.

 She is a Blue Tick Hound.( Ok, the name on her AKC papers is Belle....but she answers to both! And, she needs to earn her keep by being the new mascot for our Tuesday night jewelry show on YouTube, "Coffee and Jewelry with Barbie and Ken.") Ken closes the bidding on each item by ringing an orange cowbell.

It got really hot out on the deck, even with the ice packs.  I mentioned to Ken at one point that I would love to have my new pool put up.

  My daughter and her husband bought it for me for my birthday. Melissa knows I love to read in the water. Until she started college, we belonged to a pool which was a relaxing part of our summers.


It is a nice inflatable pool with a bench in it, also inflatable.  Ken knew I have been dealing with some anxiety lately, so he stopped what he had planned to do to put it together for me.

 We laughed at the tag which came with instructions to put on a string . Someone had to be the "water watcher" at all times, to be sure the kids were safe in the pool. You know it.....

Of course, Ken had that around his neck in two seconds.

He started the filling process, and I didn't wait long to get in with my current read, a story- type-account of the Old Testament. I popped a photo to my daughter with a "Thank you."

"You need a lifeguard, " she said.

I immediately responded with this picture.

Yep, this is life with her dad, and she wasn't one bit surprised. Her dad on a stepladder playing lifeguard probably seemed pretty normal to her.

So, he finally went back to his yard work, and I spent hours in the pool. I was out drying off when he came out in some kind of lifeguard get-up and got in the pool.

 He wanted me to get in, so I did. We both had the same Bible books studying an account of 1 Kings for our Tuesday morning Bible Study. I decided, since I was freezing, that hot coffee with hazelnut creamer would taste good.

I dried off a little, but I was still dripping on the laminate floor. I was walking across the floor to get Kens favorite mug and my feet flew out from under me....I fell into the dishwasher, injuring a finger, but I caught myself with the other hand on the sink, avoiding broken bones, thankfully.  However, I was a bit sore once again from the twisting. Lol.