We are house sitting for my parents this week. And while they only live a couple of miles from our house out in the country, we feel like we are on vacation. Every year we jump at the chance to house sit because to us, dwelling at their house is luxury living. The high life has its pros and cons though, and they are as follows.
A considerable amount of payment is a big pro. With a long paved lane, an and large cement driveway pad, the girls love the vast space for bike riding and scootering without the fear of traffic. I love not being paranoid about them riding around as well!
A con of luxury living is the fact that it takes place in the country, thus there are gravel roads, thus it is dusty. Our vehicles are filthy. People could write messages to us all over them.
A pro/con to luxury living is the care taking of the beloved (sort of) and elderly german shepherd. The girls and I value her companionship. She is a very nice dog. Grant has learned to tolerate her without complaining or spewing nasty remarks. I rather enjoy her presence....aside from the masses of hair. This friendly beast is shedding like crazy, and I couul do without that. I don't know how my mom can stand it. At least she's outside or in the laundry room all the time.
Something we love about LL (luxury living) is riding the Gator around the yard! I wonder how many miles are on this thing...an alarming number, I'm sure!
A large perk to LL is the swimming pool! It's not a gigantic pool, but it's bigger than our baby pool at home, and the girls love it. Grandpa and Grandma are tossing around the idea of getting a really big pool next year. To that idea, I say "yes, please" and go ahead and book our reservations to house sit again. We want to try some synchronized swimming the next time we stay.
A retro pro of LL is moped riding. The Honda Passports are the sweetest rides of all time. This is an adult sport only. So far it's been too blazing hot to ride, but some night this week we'll be buzzing around on the masses of pavement and the masses of lawn.
The mammoth television with Dish Network is a huge pro, since all we have at home is an old 29" tv with no network/cable service and no antenna. HGTV is so much better than gray fuzz, you know?
The most horrible and gigantic con of LL is PICKING MY MOM'S BEANS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ugh. I hate this task as much now as I did as a kid, and while I am trying to be thankful for God's gift of healthy provision, there is nothing that can make bean picking a good thing. The only worse task I can think of...well there are two...cleaning up puke or detassling corn. Those two things might be a touch worse.
Uncle Chuck is letting us use his Wii for a few days. This is a really fun pro, as we have no gaming systems at home. The only con will be listening to Bennett complain about how horribly her arm muscles hurt from too much sword fighting.
And a final pro/con is the plethera of tasty foods that my mom has that we do not. She loads up her candy jar before we house sit, and there are a variety of other unhealthy food options. This is a con because we do not need to eat these things. But we do get to enjoy fresh beans (did I mention that picking them is terrible?), tomatoes, yellow squash, zucchini and such from the garden. Hopefully those veggies zero out the Milky Way Minis and the Raisinettes. I'm sure they must.
Bedtime is one of the best times for being together, being silly, remembering and making memories. I love that Dad is involved with putting the girls to bed each night. They love it! I admit that sometimes I get "demanding," as I'm told, when he gets them all silly and worked up when my goal is to get them to go to sleep, but in reality I love his sense of humor and how the girls love it as well. The other night, we were talking about how the girls are growing up and we were remembering their baby days. Dad dug out his "dad sweatshirt." He got this sweatshirt back in college, and he had a picture taken in it while holding Bennett as a newborn. The girls decided we should do some reinactments of their newborn days. In the above picture, taken by Ainsley while I was doing real bedtime tasks, is dad pretending to have some back labor...I think. He's kind of smiling. That's how you know it's pretend back labor. Oh, and the fact that men can't have babies. I guess that tips you off as well.
Here is Dad, holding Bennett as if she's a baby. She's smiling in the picture. She did not smile much as a baby. She cried. A lot. It's nice to see she's a happy baby these days.
Ainsley wanted to take a picture, pretending that Bennett had just been born. Fine. Here it is. I am smiling in the picture. I was not smiling when Bennett had just been born. I was happy, but I was exhausted and terrified. I would say that Dad's expression is similar to the one he had when Bennett was born, but I don't recall him flashing the "hang loose" sign back in the day. We were not hanging loose. And as I type, I realize that Bennett is almost as long as I am! Oh dear!
Here is dad, holding his second born. He is smiling, and rightfully so. We had a little better of an idea of what we were getting into the second time around. Ainsley was a generally happy baby, so that helped.
Hmmm. Sideways picture. No idea why. Anyway, the expressions on these faces are very real. Ainsley and Dad are always cutting up. She finds him ultra amusing and they laugh together quite a lot! It is awesome. Thank you, Dad, for the bedtime silliness. You are blessing our kids (and me) with wonderful memories!
