They Call Me "The Nina": Lilac Woes

Recently someone gave me a French lilac to plant in my yard. It had outgrown a pot at her house and she didn't feel like digging the hole to plant it in the ground. So I dragged it home in the backseat of my truck and like eventually got around to planting it in my back yard. Big ass hole, check! Water hose, check! Sunburn and sweat rolling, check!

So I plant this damn bush and am standing around watering it in when a friend calls and asks if I can babysit one of the cutest babies ever who happens to be my honorary nephew for a couple of hours. Hell yeah I can! He loves the Nina. We get along great. He had a bath, and a bottle and played in the floor on a blanket with the toys I bought for here specifically for him. It was a great time.

Fast forward to the time after the baby has gone home and I look out my back door to admire my freshly planted lilac. Imagine my surprise when I see one of the dogs (Kenya the chew monster) gleefully carrying my big ass lilac around in her mouth as my husky (Loki... aka Super Dog aka the Roki-Roki) gives chase because he thinks it's a game. Now imagine a sunburned me chasing the dog and yelling at her to drop it. Eventually she dropped it after making my extremely out of shape self chase her around the yard for a good half hour. Apparently she dragged it out of the ground RIGHT after I wheeled the wheel barrow out of the back yard and shut the gate so my poor lilac is toast. I no live no more and went to the land of shriveled dog chewed shrubs.

Now my son's birthday is coming up in a few days and until then I'd been planning on making his day with a bouncy death-trap aka a trampoline. After the escapade with the lilac I'm sure as hell not putting a $300 chew toy in the back yard for that bitch to chew.

Which now brings me to my dillema.... He's a gaming addict. Meaning he'd just as soon stay pasty white and get his tan doing chores at his dad's to going outside to actually play with something other than a controller. Me, I worry about said child because both his father and myself have family histories with heart disease, diabetes, and obesity and I'd just as soon my precious redneck not start to look like a walking ball and have to poke himself repeatedly to check his sugar. My thoughts are to buy something to boot said midget out into the yard to entertain himself and to save my sanity from the pow! pow! pow! of the ever wonderful zombie mode on one of the latest war games.

So I've bought a basketball goal and basketball, a volleyball/bad minton/whatever the hell else set, two game posters for his bedroom wall, a ball that when you lay your hand on it shoots little spikes of electricity out and causes your hair to stand up (yeah, really intelligent I know), and a season pass to the local water park. Way to get him active right? I gave up the really cool toys (electric scooter) in an effort to get my little monster active. Let's see how big a bomb this birthday really is.

At least the posters will be a big hit. Hopefully.