suburban bliss

For most of my life I daydreamed of having kids and raising them in the city Kelly Ripa style, or out in the country like my grandmama kelly. I envisioned globe trotting with a baby on my hip like Angelina Jolie or having my ducklings help me churn butter in the field behind our Dad-built home on a farm in Eudora Miss. I sat in my suburban home thinking how boring it was, how much more was out there and how much more fun we could be having in the real world. I'm a lover of extremes. Why get a Lab when you can have a Great Dane? I prefer a chin length bob, or my current uber long locks, loathing the in between. Consequently, suburbia has never appealed to me. And yet , here I sit in my suburban palace, giddy over the milk man's latest delivery, where my biggest tasks will never consist of milking the cows, shared laundry machines in the basement of our high rise, or even what time zone to sched the kids naps around. Instead I fret over the delay of my plantation shutter installation and the amazing amount of fluff produced by new carpet. We have spent most of our previous time in small teeny towns, and of course Alaska, so this is our first adventure into true suburban lifestyle.

So far so good.....but there is one problem. Im loving all the benefits, but one by far sends me running for the hills. It is what the mom of many fears most! The community pool :) For the mom to many, the community pool can be a nightmare. Once you have more children than you can rescue at one time, more children than you and your husband can rescue at one time, the pool becomes a scary place. So far our oldest (11) is the only one who can swim but there it was, the pristine pool in all its glory calling out to my destined-to-drowned blond babies. It couldnt be avoided of course, due to its perfect location. The library, 2 playgrounds, splashpark, summer camps, preschool , baseball field and prob more things i have yet to learn about, are all in one central spot. The oh so cute and perfect community center. I thought this was a suburban myth, after all, i grew up in the suburbs and i never recall a place like this other than on after school specials and episodes of Growing Pains. Its like walking back in time, where strangers smile and wave hello. They ask your name not to steal your identity, but with the intent of inviting you to a bbq, after all Colorado Springs is one of the safest cities in the US.Its all paid for by the lucky folks who play the lottery each week not out of greed of course, but merely to support Colorado's beautiful children. So it was our destiny to assimilate, join the community center, and the first priority was swimming lessons! for all 4 non-swimmers. No small task for a mom of 5 but it must be done. The pool is our home for the next two weeks :)

Today was our second day. Piper and Paxton are testing the waters first. So far they love it. Paxton is in the indoor pool and Piper is in the outdoor 3ft pool for little learners. Parker and Pearce are bouncing back and forth between 1.5 ft pool which is perfect for him (he and pike start official lessons later this month) and the splash pad. Pike is putting his linen wraps to work snuggling and napping while mom snaps photos.

We follow each lesson with an hour or so at the playground and a trip to swap books at the library. Even though the sonic buy one get one free milkshake special is over ,we stop there on our way to the post office (ironically not located at the community center). After all, life cant be so perfect in suburbia, the mailman cant decide who is available to take our route and nobody at the usps is in a rush to install our mailboxes, so we bond with our neighbors as we wait daily to see what goodies have come today :) Life aint bad, i could get used to it, yep i love suburbia but then i allways know there is a move in our future.....