So close, yet so far

So today was a monstrous occasion in the Alien and Caveman household… the swing set is ready to be complete!

Actually the swing set is simply known as The Park and I am capitalizing it because well for the last year it has been a character of the house that frankly has caused more tears , head aches and fights between Big Papi and I than almost any other issue. I guess I should explain that we did not purchase The Park for the kids, Crazy Grandma did who also just left it saying put this together. This is a woman who for fun built a deck and tears down walls talking to two individuals who barely can hang pictures on the wall. If you have not had the joy of putting together a child's playground let me say right now weatherboarding is probably more fun.

But, Big Papi said that he was up for the job. I wanted to immediately hire a crew of workers to put the thing together but Big Papi wanted to do it himself. He actually had a group of guys come over once including Dr. Richie but I think that was more for the beer drinking than actual construction. The guys did build the frame of The Park and then it sat there for seven months, seven long months. Big Papi is never a man to rush through anything and goes at his own pace. In fact in a race against the Tortuous I truly believe that Big Papi could wait him out. Months and months of bits and pieces of playground all over the yard until finally I tell Big Papi finish the damn thing already.

So he did- first enlisting a friend from church to help get the frame right- then he finally put on the slide so the kids could at least use that. Then for months the monkey bars were kind of attached- in fact I think the only reason that The Park got put together at all was the fact that Crazy Grandma put an entire swing set together in her own backyard in a weekend. With the bits and pieces from her set and a little muscle from Dudepa it looked like the thing would finally be done.

This afternoon I was outside with the kids as Big Papi was drilling holes to put brackets in to hang the swings- the very last thing to go on. He had four to do and on the last one just as we were getting excited that finally this home project would be complete I heard the sound of Big Papi saying (in grown up language) ah sugar. The drill bit he was using for the very last hole snapped in half with half in the drill and the other half in The Park. The last piece and we are stopped.

I knew Big Papi would be upset- I would have a full out temper tantrum. Instead he simply breathed a deep breath and said "Let's go out to dinner."

And we did which is its own big adventure for another time but this whole swing set episode reminds me why the Big Papies of the world are so important. You need people in a crisis to just simply breathe. I need a man that forces me to slow down. Some of the best lessons in life I have learned from my husband- the importance of comfy clothes at the end of the world day (which really means leave work at work) when in doubt slow down and think things through and sometimes goals are going to take longer than expected. The importance is to finish them. And other times it is better to walk away than to force a decision just because you want to get things done- you might reach a better conclusion this way.

So we have an almost completed swing set, but better yet we have the best daddy ever.