Feliz Navidad

I woke up extra early today and dragged Mr. Man out of bed, because I was much too excited to sleep.  It felt like Christmas, and I greeted the crew with a cheery, "Feliz Navidad Juans!"  This is what Mr. Man looks like prior to 7am, I wouldn't exactly call him Mr. Sunshine.

 In spite of everything, I am finding great amounts of joy in even the smallest things,  such as concrete! Today the pool decking and sports court goes in.  The retaining walls had to be finished before the pool decking, and the retaining walls turned out to be troublesome.  A word of advice, just say no to retaining walls.  They are expensive, hard to engineer, nearly impossible to get through the city planning committee and in the end, you could be driving a fancy car instead of enjoying those 3 extra feet.   While those retaining walls are being built there are some tough conditions you have to put up with.  Such as the massive piles of dirt... ugh... don't even get me started.  Those dirt piles are sneaky, they pretend to be all innocent, but slowly they move into your house, eat all your Ben and Jerry's, stain your carpet, and hide your keys.

 Then there are crazy rebar contraptions all over the yard that make for some dangerous conditions for playtime.

Hola Juan, how do you like hanging out in a 12 feet pit?  Every night before bed, I would do a headcount to make sure I didn't have a kid, dog, or spouse stuck in the pit.  I dreaded hearing the phrase, "Mama, Timmy fell down into the well!" 

It takes a whole village of Juan's to get the concrete poured. 

It was at this moment, that I pretended to step out the back door on to my new steps and all the Juan's screamed, "NOOOOOO! ALTO!"   I was only kidding, but man I had them for a second. 

 

You don't have to wear a tutu and dance for the concrete trucks to get a smooth finish, but I don't think it hurts.