Pool care for dummies (aka John and Me)

Well, we have this wonderful house that happened to come with an above-ground pool.
Great! Beautiful sparkling clear water, fun for the kids on a hot afternoon, you get the idea. I'm envisioning picnic lunches outside on the deck, laughter ringing throughout the yard......

Then reality hits........how in the world do you take care of a pool?!?!
The previous owners told us what to do, we called a few friends with pools, etc. It can't be that bad, right?
WRONG! (I'm definitely a visual learner and need to see it!)

We've had it off limits since Saturday because of algae. It all started after Levi's birthday party when all the kids jumped in and out and we got tons of grass in it. That was another brilliant move on our part--- do NOT cut the grass right before a swimming party and leave grass clippings all over the yard! Over the next week the water got less clear each day. We shocked it several times, put the algaecide in it, you name it. The water cleared up, but I couldn't get the dead stuff off of the bottom for anything. Then of course, the algaecide level caused foaming. Foaming caused mirky, nasty junk skimming the surface in a huge ring. Not pretty.

I told John we were finally going to have to get someone over here who has a clue what they're doing. He agreed. Then last night I googled some more info and saw some short informational videos put out by a lady who owns a pool company. She showed everything step-by-step and explained it all in detail.

My ph levels and chlorine levels have been fine, I've been doing everything right as I watched a "pro" do it and ........then I saw it. The BIG mistake. I won't even tell you or you would laugh soooooooooo hard. Let's just say the vaccuum was hooked up wrong. duh!!! So it really hadn't been vaccuumed in 3 weeks!!! aghhh!

Ok, so maybe I'm wearing the big "L" on my forehead today.

There is a happy ending though..........
After thinking about my big goof-up (which John told me to do, by the way--- hey, do you really think I want all the credit for that one????) I got up at 5 a.m. and hit the pool around 6. I was armed and ready.

By 7:15 the pool bottom was clean, the foam and scum were gone, and the water was clear. woohoo!

I just might be able to do this after all!
(and the embarrassing thing is that it was so easy)

It's kind of like being thrown into the pool and sink or swim, only this time it's "here's a pool---- care for it or destroy it" I guess I learned the hard way.

Oh, and we took care of the grass problem. We got a push mower with a bag for inside of the fenced area. No more grass clippings during pool season for us!!! We'll mulch it the rest of the year and won't use the bag. Now I have a great compost pile going out back. I can't wait for my garden next year!!!