We joined a pool
!!!
It’s 10 minutes away
!!!
And all of this came with it…get ready (don’t you just love people’s inane lists?)… 8 tennis courts, 2 ping-pong tables, tetherball, shuffleboard (!), four square, basketball, volleyball, a ginormous waterslide, a baby pool, a playground built on SAND with buckets and shovels and watering cans ALREADY THERE to play with so you don’t have to REMEMBER not to FORGET your own…
PLUS? A super-awesome concession-y food area that serves food that I actually don’t mind eating. Hummus and pita platter with fresh veggies? Yes, thank you. Spinach salad with gorgonzola and walnuts? I’ll take one right now. The novocaine from my morning dental torture (¡¡¡) is finally wearing off and I’m starving.
But, before I run out for food or eat my foot, let me share with you the summertime !!! I’ve snapped so far, because this place might provide a summer’s worth of happiness, but it’s the little moments on and off the pool deck that make this !!! thing intentional.
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Large, Dunkin Donuts dark roast iced coffee to super-charge me through the last baseball game of the season which is, of course, on a weeknight during dinnertime when I’m single-momming it cause my husband is, ahem, working late again!
!!!
My kid is cute. And definitely one of the only ones dumping full buckets of water over his head twenty times in a row. And I’m definitely the only mom who thinks it’s hysterical and actually encourages it.
But, when he’s not being so cute, there’s always lifeguard eye candy to distract me from his tantrums (you might have to zoom in on this one–and I might have to get a better picture and stop trying to be so damn inconspicuous). I’m not one to ogle the younger men–okay…boys, they’re boys–but when I saw this fine specimen I stopped dead in my tracks, gawked for a loooong moment, realized I was gawking, and then put my shorts back on to cover up my thighs. Boom-ba-boom-ba-boom doesn’t go too well with Baum-chicka-baum-baum.
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Yes, I’ve written about Toy Story figurines before. So shoot me, I’m doing it again. But when you find that one thing that will keep your B-O-Y entertained by himself for great stretches of time, well, you kind of go nuts for it, too.
So, finding slinky dog at Ocean State Job Lot for about $3? Hellooooooooooooo !!! How Are Ya? Thanks for coming MY way!
!!!
And last, but certainly not least…actually, this probably tops my list of !!! for the week: The WORLD CUP. Why yes, I do listen to it in my car if I cannot watch the game, forgot to DVR it, or just can’t wait until later.
Seriously, people, seriously! My boy Landon Donovan scored the winning goal for the United States soccer team in the World Cup match yesterday against Algeria. And not only did he score.the.goal but he scored it in additional time! What does that mean, you ask? It means that Sarah was pacing, jumping and smacking pillows for all 90 minutes of regulation time during a game that was WIN OR GO HOME. When four additional minutes were added to the clock due to injuries and whatnot, she might have just said a prayer. MIGHT HAVE. Or cursed really loudly and with with equal parts optimism and frustration. Take your pick at which is more likely.
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Starting next week, the !!! posts here and at Bad Mommy Moments will include a way for you to upload YOUR !!! photos into the comment field. Get ready to play!
Or link up below and we’ll check YOU out…
Cause we wanna know what makes you
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This cracked me right up: “Boom-ba-boom-ba-boom doesn’t go too well with Baum-chicka-baum-baum.” Even if I know that your thighs are not even close to Boom-ba-boom-ba-boom. No way.
And Landon Donovan yesterday? Amazing! Husband and I yelled so loudly in glee that Tiny Baby started to cry hysterically because he thought one of us was injured or had become suddenly really mad at him. That’s right: we are all-star parents.
I jumped so high when he scored that goal that I scraped my knuckles on the ceiling. After play resumed I look down at the blood and had to take 30 seconds to figure it out.
It was such a thrill that I made my husband watch the last 30 minutes of the game as soon as we put the kids to bed. And then when HE saw the goal he yelled SO LOUD I thought he’d wake the kids.
Hello Saturday afternoon at 2 pm…you are booked up! Me and a margarita and a bowl of guacamole will be watching some good old American…futbol!
I am right there with ya on Saturday…futbol y guacamole!!
Ahem, Sarah? Me thinks I am not the only Grow sister to be sports devout. You are cracking me up. (And bringing me right back to the sidelines of your own soccer-playing days.)
We are avid football fans and both of our kids cry when people shout. I hope they don’t grow up hating football.
Not to take anything away from USA Soccer but did you catch any of the marathon Wimbledon match? 139 games in the fifth set alone. Three days on the courts to finish the match. Loved it!!!
And soccer on the radio defeats part of the reason for watching it. There are some fine specimens of maleness from all countries out on the pitch!!!
I feel so out of the loop on the darn Wimbledon thing. And that’s not like me, either. If the World Cup weren’t going on right now I’d be totally keyed in to my favorite players–hello Roddick! Alas, I am a sucker for the soccer.
(But of course, now that I heard about this match–for the second time–I must find a replay online!)
Okay, Nicki, I think you’ll be happy to hear that I caught the end of that fantastic match while I was running at the gym last night. Holy Cow, Batgirl. A-mazing. Because I am both an avid soccer fan AND tennis fan, it’s a tough time of year with World Cup going on and all. So, keep me tuned in on what I’m missing over at Wimbledon as I scream for the US on Saturday and scrape my knuckles on the ceiling.
Hugely tough time for the international sports fan. I am going to throw the Tour in the mix shortly here. not sure how I can watch it all at one time.
Top off the fact I am running a 15K road race on July 11th so the day of the final World Cup game and my life is pretty full right now.
Yes yes yes! Nicki, wasn’t that INCREDIBLE! Love Wimbledon. Gonna have to lock the kids in their rooms this weekend so I can watch tennis AND soccer!
I am slowly counting down the hours til 2:30. Glad I can work the graduation parties around the World Cup games.
Now come on… You’re a skinny-mini and we know it… And these are indeed happy shots of summertime!
As for our little menagerie, I’m just happy nothing’s broken in the past 16 hours (dare I even SAY that for fear of jinxing it????), the sun is shining, and the coffee is plentiful. And hey – my son and I managed to NOT electrocute ourselves last night.
All told, I’d say it’s a good day. !!!
A good day when nothing breaks and you’re not electrocuted? I’d say. I’d say yes, indeed, to the !!!
But, uh, “skinny-mini”? Don’t be fooled. This mama’s got some flab. And some none-too-scrumptious stretch marks, to boot!
That pool sounds so incredibly !!!
(Please don’t hate me for learning everything I’ve ever known about world cup soccer from your post. I mean, I’ve seen other people watching it…but that’s about it.)
I hate you.
I hate you hate you hate you. You must be schooled in the awesomeness that IS World Cup Soccer! I’ll be writing up a tutorial on it tonite. And sending you a copy of our World Cup Wall Chart, where Jamis keeps track of all the goings-on, who’s moving up in the bracket, etc etc. It’s a full-time gig over here. (Now excuse me, I must get back to the match between Japan and Denmark. Japan is up by 2 right now…)
So THAT’s who that Donovan is all over Twitter yesterday. I’m with CK – totally clueless about World Cup.
Oh but I know all about the Dunkin Iced Coffee. Nothing kicks off summer for me like the first iced coffee of the season. And the pool? My daughter is a water baby, and I’m all excited to share some hot days in the pool with her. Now we just need us some of those hot days… Come on summer!!!
I am BLOODY jealous of that pool. And my use of the word bloody is in honour of your love of the World Cup. You people and your world cup. Don’t get it! But I do get that hot bod. Wow wow.
BLOODY BLOODY BLOODY…Just like my knuckle after I scraped the shit out of it with all that enthusiasm I got going on
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Summertime at the pool is how I imagine heaven. A good book, sun-kissed warmth, ice cream treats. The sound of kids playing and water falling. Awesome. Definitely !!!
And oh, it would be so much more enjoyable if those sounds of kids playing were OTHER PEOPLE’S KIDS!
Sigh. I’m learning how to let go a little more each day. By the time school starts again I think we’ll all be able to say we had a GREAT summer this year. I hope I hope.
Double !!! for iced coffee in the summer time. I love those things!
Sounds like you are going to have a fabulous summer! Enjoy!
Sarah,
You’re just evil for posting that Dunkin Donut Coffee cup. I love their coffee and miss it so much. It’s been years since I had some. I used to stand in line every morning at 5AM to pick up my Dunkin Donut Coffee fix in Boston just before I go to work. And that line was out the door so I get to spend about 20 minutes chatting with all the truck drivers and construction workers.
Too funny, I had this same experience when I lived in Boston. Nothing gets between New Englanders and their DD!
Well, it’s not to be helped, really. There are literally about 6 DD in a 1 mile radius of my home. What IS that? I don’t know. I just don’t know. But it’s so prevalent that there’s really no place else to GET coffee. And Iced Coffee? Come on, they do it well, for sure. I mean, it’s actually MADE to be Iced Coffee. Instead of hot coffee poured over ice which is just wrong, wrong, wrong.
That pool sounds great. I used to love watching the world cup but now David Beckham is no longer playing it has somehow lost some if its appeal – but my husband is still an avid fan and this is the only time he really gets to watch what we call football anymore :-)
Oh Beckham, Shmeckham. Seriously, catch the US on Sat at 2 pm and keep your eye on Donovan. He’s understated on the field, but when he gets his shot, he always makes it happen. See me? Talking like a futbol addict? Yes, yes, I am.
:)
Soccer…alright…but your kid dumping buckets of water on himself at the pool !!! Love it! I would say that it sounds like something my daughter would do, but she’s only 15 months and the truth is, I’d probably be the one doing it to myself. It gets hot lounging out by the pool. :)
Okay, you totally threw me off with the word “lounging.” I mean, you don’t really lounge, do you? God, I would give anything to lounge. The very word “lounging” makes my limbs go kind of limp and my head turn down a bit, as if it’s going to crash on a pillow, or the arm of the couch.
Siiiiiiiiiigh. Days of lounging? I will see you in 10 years, maybe?
I am another one clueless about World Cup, but I’m well schooled in the pool and it is The Awesome. I just get in on my noodle and pedal around while the kids burn off all that excess energy. Perfect naps and bedtimes after one of those trips!
Oh, the sleep that comes after a day in the water. It’s like a drug. Yes, indeedy!
Awesome!! there’s a lifeguard at our pool that I check out daily! I think he’s in his 20s so I don’t feel so creepy…ok maybe 19 but still!!!
I read this post yesterday, Sarah, on my iPhone, two kids whining or crying or doing whatever it is they do to keep me busy. But I love it. It put a smile, a !!! on my face. So thanks for it. (And thanks for helping me along the bloggy world, too. You’re fab.)
We should have gotten together for some soccer viewing! And…. TENNIS viewing! Who knew you were a tennis fan!
I need to get myself a hottie lifeguard at my house. One downside for sure of not belonging to a pool club. Maybe I should make Tim wear a whistle around his neck?
I watch the World Cup for the eye candy. Much like going to the pool to drool over lifeguards with humongous pecs. That’s !!! that is certainly worth a sunburn and bloody knuckles. =>