All I Want for Christmas is a Riding Mower

I now see why when my house was purchased Mr. No said.."Wow, that's a big yard". I remember thinking at the time, um duh..more room for the kids to play. Now that I have taken over the current mowing situation I realize it kind of sucks. Alot. My dad always thought I had two left feet so he never taught me to mow. I specifically remember him saying.."Don't touch the mower, ever." And I was all, uh don't worry dad. So after a very quick mowing tutorial from my mom last week (basically showing me how to turn it on) I gave it a whirl. That shiz is not easy, and after you're done your arms feel like jello. The first mowing session was just a series of random zig zags with no apparent rhyme or reason. I'm pretty sure that my neighbors were peaking out of the blinds thinking..what the hell is she doing? Regardless, the job got done. With my second go round I tried to follow more of a pattern. In my head I was thinking, it's like vacuuming with blades.  Again, it got done. This time I noticed far less holes of random tall patchy grass. During the mowing I was daydreaming about filling my overly large sized back yard with rocks or pebbles. Like they do in the west where it's really dry. I mean I would totally keep the front yard grass, just fill up the back with Santa Fe type rocks. Of course, then that damn grass would probably grow through the freaking pebbles and I would have to figure out how to mow over them to get to the grass. That could be tricky. Someone could lose an eye. Okay, so I don't really have all the logistics figured out, but I'll keep it on the back burner just in case. Overall I think I'm on my way to being a mowing rock star..or at least until I can hire a really cheap lawn boy next summer.
So in conclusion. The moral of this story is times change, families change, lots of things change. I WILL not only be teaching my sons the great art of mowing, but my daughter as well. I can already here her whining in my head saying "Mom, I'm never ever gonna have to do this." My reply is going to be "Okay dear, just in case you decide not to fill your yard with pebbles, you should learn.".....
Happy Monday