The Clean Up Day!

We had a successful "get ready for pool season" day! Stephanie, Nicky, Mindy and Mitchell showed up. Morgan was supposed to be here. When she was an hour late, we started to worry. Finally we were able to reach her. She overslept and didn't hear her alarm.  She's a nurse and works nights. She has trouble with her sleep cycle!! 

Stephanie told me that she had plans to make a game out of the work. She set it up like a "rob your neighbor" game that we play often---mostly during the holidays. And that's how we do our mother/daughter ornament exchange every year. 

Everybody took a number. All the jobs were written down and put in a bowl. Whoever drew #1, picked a job. Whoever got #2 could either steal that job or draw another and so on. As soon as the game was over, it was time to work!

Mindy and Nicky drew furniture. We have a lot of furniture on the patio and around the pool. That's why we put two people on that.

Mitchell got pool floats. 

Stephanie got cushions. 

Everything requires scrubbing with soapy water and then rinsing. Unfortunately, there was a chill in the air--as you can tell by the long sleeves and sweatshirts.

Morgan was supposed to do the flowers with me. I started working on them. When someone finished their job, they helped me. We have a lot of flowers! I used to love doing the pots. Not so much anymore--for a couple of reasons: 1. I'm not happy that I can't always find the plants I want to use. I'm at the mercy of what's available. 2. I don't enjoy the work anymore either. It's always a mess. 

But in the end, it all came out pretty nice! 

This is the only picture I took, but there are flowers by the pool and on all around the patio. Right in time for the first pool party of the season--May 22! 

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It's so nice to have it out of the way. It took all 6 of us an hour and a half. That's nine hours that Butch usually does himself! He actually already had an hour or two in to the process. He cleaned out the pool shed. We still have to sweep the leaves out of the pool works area. Maybe tomorrow.

We had lunch together and then everyone got a Starbucks gift card for helping. We were done by 12:30! Not bad!