Back on the boat...

We took advantage of the long holiday weekend to take the boat out on the river. We had a great time and avoided most of the severe weather that our small town saw this past weekend. Unfortunately, our house didn't fare as well, we came home to some cracked siding and reports of tennis ball sized hail. Thankfully our vehicles were in the garage, our neighbors cars look like someone took a small hammer to it.

The kids were glad to be back on the boat!















Taking Samantha to the island for some relief... she got impatient and jumped out and swam there herself :).



Going through the lock:



Feeding the ducks.... they seemed to like chili cheese fritos the best (smart ducks)...







I'm the king of the world!!!!

Craziness...

Sorry to have been MIA once again, but it's been a pretty nutty past couple of weeks. Kids have started back to swimming, which means that Mom's Taxi Service is back in full swing. It would be too much to ask to have them practice at the same time, though, so on any typical night, I'm ferrying back and forth between the pool 3-4 times. Fun. Even more fun on the days that Madison has gymnastics because that means I'm basically back and forth between the middle school from 3:30 PM until about 9 pm.

We had our spring/summer home SWIM MEET this past weekend, and let me tell you I am still recovering from it. In addition to all my volunteer coordinating work (upwards of 200 back and forth emails and phone calls last Thursday/Friday), I also am now a certified swim official. The officials are the ones in the white shirts and khaki's that raise their hands to disqualify those swimmers that break one of the MANY MANY rules governed by USA swimming. I am really thinking that I should have my head examined for taking on this role, but I committed myself to it, and need to see it out. It is SO MUCH HARDER than I anticipated it to be! With my swim background, I thought it would be a piece of cake, but I did not anticipate the emotional aspects of disqualifying these little guys that are working so hard. It literally broke my heart. Plus, I am WAY too indecisive and unsure of myself to be playing such an important role. I need to be calm and collected, decisive and firm, but instead I was a MESS and unsure of myself and the calls that I was making, and it was completely obvious. I think the only reason I didn't get fired was because they felt bad for me. I hope it gets easier, otherwise my career as a swim official is going to be quite short.

Now.... the kids!!! Wow, they did SO AWESOME this weekend! One of the downsides of being an official now is that I have NO pictures to show off (sob sob sob), but believe me when I say that they were PHENOMENAL! William got 3 or 4 NEW C times, so he's up to 6 or 7 of them now, and he's close to a B time in a couple of events. For those that have no clue what this means, it basically a way to group the levels of swimmers. For each age group, there are different levels of times, A, B, C, and Champ (which is State). It's very fun to watch them progress and improve and earn faster qualifying times. And my little Madison got her first 2 C times too! She was very excited!

Now, this little one of ours is still keeping us on our toes. I truly cannot believe how much more mischievous and cunning this one is than either of the other two. He is just so curious and gets himself into precarious situations all the time. He can climb up on the counters by himself now (no more need to push a chair over to them), and is constantly raiding the cupboards. He's constantly taking tumbles and falls. He falls down the stairs, he falls off his chair. He climbs into the refrigerator in the garage and pulls the door shut behind him. We had a couple HUGE scares with him over the past couple of days, one of which landed him in the emergency room (all is fine), and another that could have been absolutely disastrous - we're very lucky he's still here with us at all. I will not go into details for fear that CPS will land on my doorstep to swoop him up and give him to someone that can keep him safe. But, I think that the shock and fear took several years off my life. Seriously, I am very tempted to lock him in the dog kennel until Kindergarten. He's supposed to be finally moving into his own room here soon, and the idea has me petrified!! how in the world am I going to sleep knowing not knowing what he might be getting into. I think we'll have to install a camera in his room!

Anyways, I'll try to stay better at updating the blog now that things hopefully will be settling down a little. School gets out soon, and I'll be working less hours this summer again, looking forward to that!

Cheese Art!

My creative boy really knows how to play with his food.