Alex Style

I don't usually post here about Alex. He has been busy all summer spending time with his friends. His personal chauffeur, Anthony, will be leaving for college this week, and Alex will really miss him--until he moves into Anthony's old bedroom next month. Alex doesn't usually allow pictures of himself. He is very good at detecting cameras pointed in his direction, even better than Natalie. So, when I told him I wanted to take a picture of his shoes, his face lit up, and I was a little surprised. He even laid them all out for me. These aren't even all of his shoes. He has some running shoes and soccer cleats--"regular shoes" as he put it.

He spends any available money he has on shoes and clothes. He has made some other questionable purchases, but those we won't discuss here. Here is his shoelace collection. He has encouraged his sister to show some personality with colorful shoelaces as well. He also has some colorful belts, socks, and hoodies to match his shoes. Right now he still shares a room with his six-year-old brother, who takes up most of the closet with his clothes, toys, etc. Alex can hardly wait to move into his own room.

As I mentioned yesterday, Anthony still needed some jeans and shoes after our shopping trip yesterday. Alex also asked if I would buy him a pair of shoes. Our first stop at the mall today was Journeys, a shoe store. It was interesting to see how Alex knew exactly what he wanted and what colors would be available. I taught him a few months ago about looking online to see what products are available and at what cost, so he could make his money stretch a little further.

Anthony had no clue what shoe he wanted, only that he wanted a pair like he was wearing--black leather Converse All-Stars. He wandered around in the Journeys shoe store and didn't even pick up any shoes. He looked at pretty much every pair of black sneakers at the Vans shoe store until he found a pair that he liked almost as much as the worn out pair on his feet.

A similar thing happened at JCPenney. Alex went to the table where they had the exact jeans that he wanted. He knew he wanted the Levi's 508 jeans and he knew he wanted the khaki color in 29x30 or 30x30. Anthony did at least know that his jeans were a size 29x32, but he didn't know that the last couple of pairs that I bought him were the Levi's 527. This is the reason why I keep a photo of the last pair of jeans that I bought him on my phone. He also couldn't find his size, but all I did was pick up one pair and the right size was underneath. At least we were able to find him a pair of jeans today. Size 29x32 wasn't readily available, but we got lucky. They didn't have Alex's size in the color he wanted. Yes, they are different, but I love them both. :)

So, one pair of shoes each for Alex and Anthony and one pair of jeans for Anthony. I also bought Alex some bright-colored socks at Foot Locker. I spent a total of $250. Ouch! Patrick also went out just a little while ago and bought Alex some new running shoes and soccer cleats for another $100. It's expensive buying men's clothes and shoes!

Prepping for College

The boys are taking a little breather here in this photo after Anthony was cleaning out his room today, or in other words, packing. Eric is playing his newest obsession, Plants vs. Zombies 2, on Anthony's phone. Alex is enjoying his "new" iPhone 4 (my old one). Patrick and I found it interesting that Alex was the one that pointed out to Anthony only YESTERDAY that he should start packing! We're leaving Wednesday morning!

Anthony has been enjoying his summer doing new things and seeing his friends as much as he can before they start school (some start this coming week) and before he leaves. Earlier this summer he went on a two-day/one-night beach trip with a large group of friends. This week he went on his first camping trip ever with a group of friends (Thursday through Saturday). I was lucky to get this picture from him. I asked him if he was having fun and if he knew when he would be back (on Saturday). He replied "Yes, no." That is his typical wordy answer. I reminded him to take pictures, so he sent me this one. I had to laugh at his serious expression and I asked him if he was trying to look serious or angry. He replied, "Seriangry." I love that boy. I keep bugging him about taking more pictures. I'm happy to get whatever I can get.

About a month or so ago, I asked him if he needed more underwear or socks. I still remember being in college and doing my own laundry. I wanted enough underwear and socks so I wouldn't have to do laundry as often. At that time, Anthony replied, "No, I'm fine." This week Patrick called me and said, "Anthony needs more underwear and socks! Some of it isn't in good shape and he just needs more underwear and socks!" Great--we're down to the week before he leaves for college and we have to shop. I was going to get those things on the way home from work, so Anthony texted me the brand and size of his boxer shorts, "Fruit of the Loom. It says size small." Ok, that cracked me up because he didn't even know what size underwear his wears, since he has never bought his own, of course. He had to look and "It says size small." I didn't end up getting them that day, so he still needed them. Oh, and I also asked him at least a month or two ago if he needed more clothes--shorts, jeans, shirts, etc.

Today, finally today, Patrick made him sit down to make a list of things he wanted to get for college. That list included one more pair of jeans, some T-shirts, and shoes. Of course, underwear and socks were on that list. Sigh. So, today we went to Target and bought $200 worth of T-shirts (5 or 6), boxer shorts (3 packs of at least 5), socks (two packs of 6), a pair of shorts, a plaid long-sleeve button down shirt, and two white T-shirts for Alex. We didn't find jeans or shoes at Target, so we've planned another shopping trip tomorrow, to the mall this time. After we bought all of that, Anthony turned to me, smiled, and said, "Thank you, Mama." Of course I smiled back and said, "Of course. I just wish you would go shopping when I want to go shopping."

So, meanwhile, Anthony is finding things in his dresser drawers like eyeglasses he hasn't worn in years--like one of his first pairs when he was five years old. There was even a pair of broken eyeglasses in there. Does this boy ever clean out his drawers? The answer to that question is obviously "no".

I made dinner tonight (enchilada casserole) and we ate at home after church. I also made some brownies, which I haven't done since before the old oven broke. I had a brownie with bananas, vanilla ice cream, and some chocolate syrup on top. The boys liked that idea but wanted to really go over the top, so they made the concoction in this picture. They had the brownies and bananas plus they put a Magnum bar in the middle and at least two scoops each of Cookies & Cream and Dulce de Leche for Anthony and Mint Chocolate Chip and Dulce de Leche for Alex, and they topped that all off with chocolate syrup. It was almost too much for even Anthony, although he finished his. Alex had no trouble at all finishing his. Then they both sat down to play on the PS3. When I reminded Alex that he still needs to complete his summer assignment for school, he said, "But I'm spending time with my brother who is about to go off to college." Oh well, how could I argue with that. They are both very different, but I love that they enjoy a lot of the same things.

I was at a party last night where people asked me about Anthony going off to college. Every time I replied that I was fine now, but I wasn't sure how I will do when I have to walk away. That time is coming soon. Wish me luck.

Anthony and His Chair

We got Anthony a laptop when he first entered high school, because he needed it for his schoolwork. He used to hang out in his "cave", as Patrick calls Anthony's bedroom, but I convinced him to come out to the living room because then we could at least see him and interact a little with him. He settled into one of the reclining chairs, the one placed to the left of the fireplace. Now that we got him a new laptop for college, he uses the reclining chair to the right of the fireplace, because the power plug is on the opposite side on this laptop as on his previous one. Sometimes he multi-tasks, like reads Reddit on his iPhone while listening to music while something else is on his computer. He was sitting in that corner when we had fourteen 10-12 year old girls over for Natalie's party. The noise didn't seem to bother him at all (probably because he had his earphones in).

He watches videos on his computer, plays games, skypes with his friends, etc. Our Netflix and Hulu Plus subscriptions have been well worth the price we pay for them. Once in while, when school was still in session, he would even help friends with their homework/schoolwork using Skype. Since school ended, he has been on the computer almost continuously, when he isn't out with his friends. He also sits in the reclining chair when he plays on the PS3 (as does Alex), except that he moves it to the center of the room in that case. When I took this particular picture, he was playing on the PS3 while his good friend Alejandro was also playing on HIS PS3, and they were communicating through Skype at the same time. I am still amazed at how easily kids integrate technology into their everyday lives!

Of course, Anthony isn't the only one that is "plugged in". After folding a bunch of laundry (see that stack on the coffee table), Anthony settled into his chair and got on his computer. Eric has his own "chair", a present from his godfather. That little boy has become quite iPad-obsessed this summer. He will miss it once school starts. The iPad does have some educational value, at least. What other six-year-old can spell "Invincible T-Rex"?

At least Patrick and I can rest knowing that Anthony does other things besides be on the computer (just not as much). When Alejandro spent the night this past week, they apparently decided to eat ice cream and Pop Tarts together. Apparently it was an idea they got from the Internet, not surprisingly, and they had good things to say about the concoction. Patrick and I already know that we will have lots of leftovers when Anthony is away at college. The other kids won't eat leftovers.

Even though Anthony was in his little corner for most of the summer, quiet and almost part of the furniture, we will definitely miss his presence this coming school year. I'm starting to get sentimental about everything. Wish me luck next week when we drop him off!

Four Sleepovers in a Row

This is a picture of my two nieces, Emily and Aly, finally getting to eat their marshmallow Minions. We saved these two specifically for them, and they were pretty excited about eating them.

As I mentioned in my previous post, Natalie had two of her friends sleepover the night of the party, Friday night. Aspen and Ally are two of her friends on Team Beijing, which is her particular swim group in club swimming. When I tried to tell them to get ready for bed, one of them, Ally, asked, "Why, we're not going to sleep yet?" They were determined to stay up until at least 11pm, which is when Aspen's mom said she had to go to sleep, and they did just that.

Aspen had to go home at 10:30 the next morning, because her grandparents were in town visiting, but we asked Ally to stay over one more night. We didn't use to do this, but Alex has "broken us in" with his multiple day sleepovers. Ally's mom was shocked that I would want her daughter to stay with us that long and asked if I was sure. I didn't mind and she lives way across town, so I didn't want her mom to have to drive over so soon.

My niece Emily arrived on Saturday afternoon, along with her mother Melissa. My sister Cynthia arrived a short time later with my nephew Nick. My other niece Aly arrived with her father later that night. They had been visiting relatives elsewhere. So, on Saturday night, Natalie had four girls (including herself), sleeping in her room. They were getting along so well, though, that I enjoyed watching them interact. This is a picture of them on Sunday morning playing Twister. Emily was the super player who won pretty much every game. Aly was the tough one who hung in even when they called it a draw between her and Emily. Natalie was usually the first one to lose her balance. Poor Ally broke her elbow a couple of months ago and couldn't straighten it, so she never made it very far and ended up being the one doing the spinning.

Ally went home at about noon on Sunday. Next, I had made plans a couple of weeks ago for Natalie's friend Maya to sleep over. Natalie and Maya have been friends since they were in day care at six weeks old. Maya had been as busy or busier in her Taekwondo competitions as Natalie has been with her swimming competitions this summer, so they haven't spent any time at all together. In fact, Maya was in a competition that weekend in Dallas, which is the reason why she didn't make it to Natalie's birthday party. Maya got first place in sparring and second place in XMA Forms there--yay, Maya!

So, Maya came over soon after arriving back home. She spent the night over on Sunday night. My family all left, except that my sister Melissa, Aly and Emily all stayed in town at the local Marriott Hill Country Resort--so not too far away. This is a picture of Natalie and Maya at the Longhorn Cafe. We went there to eat dinner after church on Sunday evening. The two of them were definitely very quiet and asleep by about 10:30pm.

Maya spent most of the day with us on Monday, and went home just before Natalie had her orthodontist appointment. She had spacers put in with braces to follow. For one last sleepover, Patrick dropped off Natalie with her aunt and cousins on Monday night. This is a posed picture that the girls allowed Melissa to take. I love it because it shows how goofy they can get when they're together. Natalie again went to bed too late, but at least she was starting to sleep a little later. She came home on Tuesday afternoon, when Melissa and the girls were going home.

Natalie's friend Aspen actually texted her on Monday to ask if she could spend the night at Aspen's house on Tuesday. This time we had to say "no", with the promise that she could do that another time. Four sleepovers in a row makes for a grumpy, grouchy Natalie. No one needs that!

Natalie's 11th Birthday Party

As if she didn't spend enough time in the water with her swim team practices, Natalie requested a pool party for her birthday. She invited 20 girls--no boys because, as she put it, if she invited boys, she would have to make sure more than one came, and basically, that would complicate things. We had originally planned on having the party on Saturday, but I made a mistake on the Evite invitations. We didn't realize until this past Tuesday, August 6th that I had made this mistake, when we went out to dinner with friends and they pointed it out to us. We already had a dozen girls reply "yes" by then, so we felt like we had to go ahead with the Friday party. Luckily, I had Thursday and Friday off, so I was able to do all of my prep stuff.

The party started at about 3pm. We weren't at the pool for more than about half an hour when Eric discovered that one of the pool lights was out of place with an exposed connection. The father of one of the girls was there. He works at the Natatorium where Natalie swims, and he advised that we get all of the girls out of the pool because of the possible electrical hazard. That is not what you want to hear when you've planned a pool party. We had eight girls by then. They all went into the baby pool instead, along with Eric, the brother of one of the girls, and another little girl who was probably about 3-years-old that was just there to enjoy the baby pool. I thought that no matter what, the girls would make their own fun, but it wouldn't be nearly as fun in the baby pool as the big pool.

There was another neighborhood resident there, and she suggested calling the guy who is in charge of our neighborhood pool. He came and checked out the light and told us it was safe to get back into the pool. He even got some tools and fixed that light so it would stay in place. Hooray--the party was saved!

Now, Natalie had invited two fairly distinct groups of girls to this party--her friends from club swimming and her friends from school and the neighborhood. They tended to split into their own group, so at one point, Patrick mixed them up to play a little game. We had gotten these "mini-water blasters (like water guns) for party favors and the girls used them to propel two beach balls across the pool to see who would get to the other side of the pool first. Patrick did a great job choosing the teams, because the contest ended up pretty much in a tie.

We brought bags of chips, water bottles, and juice boxes to the pool for the kids. The mother of one of the girls is functionally a single parent because her husband works in another city and only comes home every few months. She stayed to chat plus she brought her 8-year-old son. That was wonderful because then Eric had someone to play with too. Anthony and Alex actually came by the pool for a few minutes, but some of the girls made sounds like they didn't want any boys at the party. They weren't even in swimsuits anyway, so we packed up the birthday gifts and Anthony and Alex took them home with them.

This is the group photo I took of the 12 girls that played with Natalie at the pool. Even here you can see the six girls on the left are club swimming friends and the six girls on the right are school/neighborhood friends. We had two more come--one just as we were leaving the pool, and one when we got back to the house. We had planned on being at the pool for only about two hours, but the girls really didn't want to leave and we didn't get back until almost an hour later than planned.

The girls changed into dry clothes, then they all sat down in the living room while Anthony got the movie Despicable Movie going on the TV. I popped probably 7-10 bags of microwave popcorn during the first part of the movie and they kept asking for more. The girls got popcorn all over the living room. The girls all raved about the Minion marshmallows and wanted to eat them right away, but I made them wait until after they had pizza. They loved the marshmallows and the cupcakes--those were worth my time and effort, definitely.

The guests started leaving at 8pm and they were all gone by about 8:30pm, except for two of the guests, Aspen and Ally, who stayed for a sleepover. Natalie has never had a sleepover with them before, so this was important to her. Alex helped clean up the wrapping paper materials and popcorn on the floor so his sister could play with her friends. Anthony had helped a lot earlier. In all, Patrick and I thought this party went pretty smoothly. Natalie was very excited and happy the whole day. That's why we went through all of this trouble, after all.

Party Prep

This is a picture of Eric with his Christmas Minion, courtesy of Alex. Alex got this toy a while back and they found it while they were cleaning this week. Eric hasn't been separated from this Minion since, except for when he went to the pool for Natalie's party today. Patrick took all the kids to see the new Despicable Me 2 a few weeks ago, and Eric has been all about Minion since then, at least when he's not into Star Wars or dinosaurs, that is. He even put a Darth Vader mask on his Minion and called it Darth Minion.

I saw a couple of ideas for Minion treats on Facebook 2-3 weeks ago. Natalie had already asked for a pool party and then we talked about seeing a movie back at the house after the pool party. Because of the Minion party treats and because of the recent release of Despicable Me 2, I decided to make this a Minion-themed party with Minion treats and the first Despicable Me for our feature movie. Patrick and I figured that would be a fun movie that would be acceptable for all the kids and the parents.

This is a picture of a marshmallow covered with a candy coating (yellow candy melts). I used black writing gel and candy eyes for the eyes. There was supposed to be a strip of a blue Fruit Roll-up at the bottom, but I couldn't find any blue Fruit-Rollups, so I went for the plain version. Natalie and I had to make a run out to Michael's yesterday to buy the yellow candy melts and lollipop sticks. Our local grocery store had everything else. The marshmallows tended to be smushed into irregular cylinders right out of the package, so getting the candy coating even was challenging. They're not perfect, but they were a big hit! The girls all wanted to eat them as soon as they walked in and saw them. I managed to make them wait until they had pizza first.

I also made these Minion cupcakes. We decided on red velvet cupcakes for the base, since Natalie still LOVES red velvet cake. The Minion are Twinkies cut in half. The kids got excited even at the thought of having Twinkies. I used the same black writing gel and candy eyes as the Minion marshmallows, and I used individually placed chocolate sprinkles for the hair. The placement of the chocolate sprinkles actually didn't turn out to be as tedious as it sounds or as I thought it would be.

I ran into a bit of a mess when our kitchen got a bit hot from the oven being in use and such, and the cream cheese frosting started to melt a little and lose it's shape. I had to take breaks and put the cupcakes in the refrigerator to cool down the frosting. On some of them, I must have used too much of the black writing gel, because the candy eyes started slipping down. Natalie joked that it looked like the Minion didn't use waterproof mascara and it looked like the mascara was running down the Minion's face.

I wasn't terribly careful with my lines or the icing or any of that, but in all, I think they all turned out pretty well. The kids all oohed and aahed over the treats, as did the parents, definitely making this a worthwhile investment of my time. We planned on watching the first Despicable Me movie. More on the party itself with pictures tomorrow.

The Big Clean-up

At least once a year, Patrick gets the kids to go through the game room and get rid of broken or unwanted toys and reorganize what's left. They usually create a big mess while the process is going on. The deadline for this year is Natalie's birthday party tomorrow. This year she wants a pool party and then the kids are coming back to our house for a movie. That means the house needs to be clean.

This is a picture of some of the mess this morning. Eric is a blur because of the low light in there plus he is running towards me for a hug. He said he hadn't hugged me for "a while"--I think it had been about an hour or so. What a sweet boy. :)

Just remember that this process has been going on for about four days (since Monday and today is Thursday). Yes, they've been taking their time.

Part of the reason why this has been taking so long is that when the kids find old toys, they start to play with the old toys. Frankly, they were getting along well, so Patrick just let them play along with the cleaning. The Jenga in this picture is not an old toy, but it's definitely a favorite. Alex actually bought some extra sets so he could use them to build instead of actually playing the "game". Eric loves to build things and he especially loves to help his brothers build things.

Eric called me upstairs so I could see this. He and Alex had put together this 3D version of his name. They even taped a ruler to the side of the table to mark exactly where my eye had to be to see the "Eric" to be able to make sense of the bunch of blocks. Notice that some of the blocks are specifically placed a little behind. I thought that was pretty creative.

Also notice the Minion stuffed toy (a character from Despicable Me) on the table next to Eric.  He is constantly holding that stuffed toy since they found it a day or two ago. He's going to love the Despicable Me-themed food I'm making for Natalie's birthday party tomorrow. Stay tuned for tomorrow's blog post for pictures.

End of Summer Splash Swim Meet

I took a picture of Natalie jumping into the pool for a warmup swim today, and I'm tickled that it looks like she's rising up out of the water. Yesterday and today, she was in yet another swim meet, the End of Summer Splash meet. This one is a short course meet, and last year she was at this same meet as an unattached swimmer, her first "big" swim meet. She has come such a long way since then. Even with all of the meets she has been in this past year, this is still a very big meet. Someone said that there were over 600 swimmers at this meet. She only swam in four events last year, because she was just "getting used to it". This time she swam in six events assigned by her coach. She could have been in 10 events, but I'm guessing her coach wanted her to be at her best in these six events.

I missed yesterday's events because I was on call at the hospital. Luckily I got some sleep so I could at least pay attention to today's events. Of note, even though she knocked off so much time on her 200 IM on Saturday, Patrick commented to me about the fact that her breaststroke didn't look good. Her timing between her kick and her arms was off. That just means that she will do better in the future. She has been working very hard on all of her strokes, especially breaststroke to hopefully catch up to the other strokes. The meet results are as follows:

Saturday
100 yard Freestyle--1:09.80 (-6.74)
200 Yard IM--2:55.33 (-15.90)
100 Yard Fly--1:25.47 (+00.52)

Sunday
50 Yard Fly--33.86 (-2.05)
100 yard IM--1:21.53 (-5.84)
200 yard Freestyle--2:43.43 (-5.01)

This was our first meet at the new outdoor pool. It's a nice facility, but it's outside--it's hot outside in August! According to Patrick, yesterday was very disorganized. They started the meet 45 minutes late. They didn't have heat sheets for sale. Instead, they posted the heat sheets at various locations so people could go look up their child's events.

This is a picture of Eric at the start of yesterday's meet. They sold breakfast tacos and various "healthy" foods such as fruit and nuts. The meet was very long and they didn't leave until around 2pm. Natalie and the other swimmers were all in the sun by then. No wonder she didn't do well in her last race! Eric was such a trooper. He played on the iPad a bit, but also played with his dinosaurs. Anthony drove back from sleeping over at his friend Alejandro's house at about 1pm and picked up Eric to take him to lunch. They didn't even sell lunch at the concession stand!

Today went a bit more smoothly, including starting only about 15 minutes late. Patrick volunteered to be a timer today just so they would not have to wait as long looking for more timers. We were able to leave by about 12:30pm. Again, Natalie was not happy with her last race. She had an "A" time in the 200 Free during the long course season, and she wanted an "A" time for short course too. She still has high goals for herself.

Last year when Natalie was at this meet, the Olympics were going on and she had just watched a week of Olympic swimming. She wanted her name on her swim cap just like the Olympic swimmers, and both Patrick and her coach said that she would have to earn that. Well, this year she has a swim cap with her name plus "TAGS team" on it. She has really earned it.

National Cheesecake Day

July 30th was "National Cheesecake Day" according to The Cheesecake Factory. They advertised that you could get any slice of cheesecake for half the usual price on National Cheesecake Day. In addition, they offered a coupon through Facebook where you could get the half-price cheesecake on July 29th with the coupon. We figured that going at lunch would be less crowded than going to dinner. Since I had the day off on Monday the 29th, the timing was perfect. Alex was the only one missing since he would be at his PE Camp, but he usually doesn't care for cheesecake anyway.

I posted this photo on Facebook. We had to wait a few minutes for them to get our table ready, so Eric decided to use his big brother as a jungle gym. Anthony is very accommodating and didn't seem to mind Eric climbing on him. This position is always very tempting for me and for Natalie because we always want to tickle all that bare ticklish skin on Eric.

After we ate our lunch, we each ordered our own dessert. Anthony ordered the White Chocolate Caramel Macadamia Nut cheesecake, Natalie ordered the Ultimate Red Velvet Cheesecake, and I ordered the Kahlua Cocoa Coffee Cheesecake. Patrick was going to order his usual Godiva Chocolate Cheesecake and share it with Eric. When the desserts arrived, however, Eric said he had wanted chocolate cake. Before we were seated, we were looking at the desserts and Eric had commented on a huge chocolate cake called the Chocolate Tower Truffle Cake. Sure enough, that's the cake he wanted instead of the Godiva Chocolate Cheesecake. We figured we would have leftover desserts anyway, and in the end, we got half off each of the desserts, so we let him have his own piece of dessert. I posted this photo on Facebook also with the caption, "Happiness is a piece of chocolate cake bigger than your head." I have to give credit to Patrick--he was the one that said that when he saw the chocolate cake in front of Eric. That cake was seriously bigger than Eric's head!

The TAGS Experience

Maybe it's the 100-plus degree weather, or maybe it's the fact that I don't get as much sleep as I need, but I've been feeling very tired this week, so I'm going to have to pre-date this post to when I should have published it.

Patrick and I went with Natalie to Austin again last Saturday, July 27th so that Natalie could swim in two more races at the TAGS (Texas Age Group Standards) swim meet. She swam in the 100 meter Backstroke and the first (backstroke) leg in the 200 meter Medley Relay. This was a more relaxed trip. We got to Austin by about 3pm and settled into our room. We got to eat a leisurely dinner at a local Italian restaurant. Of course, I got a head injury at the restaurant, but that is another long, embarrassing story that I'll have to relate another time (when I've recovered from the embarrassment).

This first photo is a quick one shot with my iPhone camera. Natalie had just finished swimming in the 100 meter Backstroke. We didn't expect a lot from this race since she was seeded 22nd out of 23 girls going into the race, having qualified by five-hundredths of a second with a time of 1:25.14. She ended up 7th in her heat and the time that flashed on the screen was 1:25.00. We thought she would at least be happy with dropping some time, but she came up to where we were standing and asked us to come down because she "wanted a hug". She was crying when we saw her. Patrick did a great job as usual reassuring her. In the end, the official time was actually 1:24.60. She was happier with that. The time standards get faster when these swimmers turn 11, so one of her goals at this meet was to get faster times so that she would already have "A" times when she turns 11 in a couple of weeks. She didn't get that, but she is so close.

This is a picture of Natalie and her friend Aspen (both in black and red) in Lane 5, before the start of their 200 meter Medley Relay. Natalie swam the first leg (backstroke) and Aspen swam the third leg (butterfly). The other two girls were Jesse (2nd--breaststroke) and Sarah (fourth leg--freestyle) and they were on the other side of the pool. They were seeded fourth out of 24 with a time of 2:33.35. They ended up 7th with a time of 2:33.94. She didn't seem unhappy about this one. In fact, we didn't see her for a while because she was taking a shower in the locker room. We had checked out of our hotel room before coming to the meet, so after her races, we had planned to leave for home. We thought her relay team did a great job. They added time, but really, they dropped in their ranking only because the teams that finished in front of them dropped several seconds off their times.

Hanging out with her friends really makes Natalie feel better. This is a zoomed in photo of her with her friend Jesse and Aspen. She was so far away that I had to zoom a lot with the camera plus zoom in when I edited the photo. She actually did visit us in the stands a few times, but she was with her friends during the rest of the meet.

This is Natalie's (and our) first experience with this big of a meet. I still can't believe that less than a year after starting competitive swimming, she was swimming with the best in the state. She definitely drives herself harder than we can ever drive her. We just hope she continues to enjoy this sport for a long time.

Whirlwind Trip

Even a short trip for us requires some logistical considerations. Anthony went to the beach with a group of friends for an overnight trip from Tuesday to Wednesday. He was running late on the way back and Alex needed to be picked up from his PE Camp at 4pm, so the rest of us met Anthony (and Alex) in the parking lot of his school. We gave Anthony the carseat and Eric and he drove home. Patrick, Natalie, and I drove to Austin. This was the pillow on one of the beds in our hotel room. Natalie claimed it as soon as she saw it. We all needed some rest after the trip.

Meanwhile, Anthony took Eric to his swim lessons last night. He had just gotten home with him when we called using the Face Time on our iPhones. Natalie had been relaxing on her hotel bed watching the show Terra Nova on my iPad. When she and Eric got on Face Time with each other, they both started putting parts of their face near the camera to show each other, showing closeups of their eyes, nose, mouth, etc. Natalie was laughing so hard and I heard Eric on the line laughing too. This is a blurry photo of Natalie, but I love this emotionally perfect moment of two of my children enjoying each other's company.

That emotion carried through to today, thankfully. Natalie's friend Aspen wasn't racing today, but she was there to socialize with and support her friends since her brother and sister were racing today. Natalie had someone to "hang" with. Only the swimmers and coaches were on deck, so we had to sit way across on the other side of the pool and one floor up. Natalie used to get to her spot way ahead of time. Now she is "relaxed" enough that she goes to the starting line much later. Today this was only about three heats before her heat. Patrick and I were sweating it out watching her laugh and socialize with her friends, with no way to contact her to make sure she got to the starting block on time.

This is a grainy zoomed in photo of Natalie just before her race. She is doing her usual pre-race routine of cracking her knuckles and other joints and stretching. She looked relaxed enough that she was laughing and socializing with a few other girls that she had just met. There were kids at this meet from all over Texas. I still can't believe that she swam fast enough to meet the Texas Age Group Standards (TAGS) and be invited to swim in this race.

One other comment--Natalie is wearing her new racing suit. All her friends have this fancy Speedo Fastskin suit and she very nicely requested one also. We were going to wait until her birthday in a couple of weeks, but decided that we had bought her brothers fancy soccer cleats in the past. With her hard work she qualified for this meet in three events, the 50 and 100 meter backstroke and the backstroke leg of her team's 200 meter Medley. She deserved a fancy suit, right? ;)

We had hoped that the suit would give her a boost of confidence for this big swim meet. She came into this race today seeded 17th out of 31. We had no expectations that she would make the finals, although almost all of the seed times were so close together that there was a possibility. They were only going to take the top 8 to the finals in the evening session, no top 16 as in previous finals she has been involved in.

Her seed time for the 50 meter backstroke was 38.83 seconds and her time today was 38.82 seconds. She has been upset with small drops in time in the past, so we weren't sure how she felt about this one. We were all the way on the other side of the pool. When we finally saw her, we knew. She was joking about dropping a whole one hundredth of a second and she was smiling. She actually dropped to 19th place out of 30 (one girl did not end up swimming for whatever reason), but she wasn't upset at all. She was happy to have this chance to swim with the top 10-year-olds from the state. Patrick and I sighed in relief and just hugged her and told her we were so proud of her. She has really matured emotionally as well as physically in this past year. It was all good--after all, then we could go home after checking out of our hotel instead of staying around until this evening.

This is a picture of the T-shirt that Patrick bought for Natalie and me. I love the colors and how they made the Texas shape with all of the words "2013 Texas Age Group Swimming TAGS Long Course". We'll be back for her other two races on Sunday. We hope to have a similar positive experience.

A New Oven and A TAGS Party

YES! We now have an oven!!! We have been without a working oven since May 28th when ours stopped heating up. It would have cost over $300 to fix it and we had already planned on redoing the kitchen after Anthony goes off to college, so we waited until we could get a new one.

I finally got my double oven! Because the new one is bigger than the old one, they had to redo the area of the kitchen that holds the oven. This picture only shows one, of course, with brownies baking inside. I've been itching to bake and Patrick had this in the new oven when I got home from work and picking up Alex this afternoon. This one is a 30-inch oven, bigger than our old one. The top oven is a smaller one that doubles as a convection/microwave oven. We tested them both out today. Alex made his beloved HEB (store-brand) pizza in the lower oven and he heated something up in the microwave. We'll redo the rest of the kitchen in September.

Tonight, they also had a TAGS Party during swim practice for Natalie and the other 28-29 swimmers from their club that made it to the TAGS Championships this coming weekend. Isn't the cutest party favor bag? One of the moms made one for each child complete with a personalized, laminated tag. All the parents brought a little something to contribute to each bag. The idea was that the swimmers would each get a bag to take with them to the TAGS Champs, with items such as healthy snacks (and some not so healthy snacks), and fun stuff like water guns. We contributed a small bottle of Gatorade to each bag. Natalie apparently also gets a free swim cap with the AAAA logo and "TAGS Team" on it plus a 2013 TAGS Long Course T-shirt. She didn't get the T-shirt yet, but we're hoping she can get it by this weekend. We had already bought her the swim cap with the "TAGS Team" on it plus her last name. Now it's slightly easier to pick her out amongst the crowd of yellow swim caps.

Today she also got her new personalized swim bag. Do you notice a "red" theme here? Natalie has a red water bottle and two red gear bags plus red shoes and red shorts. Notice that she is wearing her shark towel around her neck after swimming. She loves having a towel around her neck to keep her shirt from getting wet from her wet hair.

They had a ton of food at the party. Patrick, Eric, and I had already eaten dinner. Patrick made pasta for dinner then put the rest in a crock pot to bring to this TAGS Party to share. We also brought those brownies shown above. The kids ate and socialized together then they finished off with an informal group photo. Natalie was having a blast being part of this exclusive "club". Patrick, Natalie, and I will be leaving tomorrow afternoon after I get home from work to go to Austin for this competition. More details on that later this week.

Other Things Besides Swimming

Besides being at the Natatorium for four to six hours total per day for three days, we did a few other things. On the first day, Friday, Natalie was done with her events by about 10am, so we had until she warmed up again at 4pm to do things. We let her decide where she wanted to eat lunch, so we tried a local burger place, the Padre Island Burger Company, which was located close to one of the beaches. After lunch we drove around to see the beach, but Natalie wanted to go back to the hotel to relax. She also has that eczema on the back of her legs and salt water is not her friend. I stayed with her and she even laid down to rest, but didn't sleep. Eric really wanted to go to the beach, so Eric and Patrick got into their swimsuits and went back to the beach to play.

Of course, Eric loves to play with sand, but we didn't bring any sand toys. Still, he played with the sand and water with his hands and feet. They walked along the beach and played a bit in the water. Patrick was afraid to get his iPhone wet, so I'm thankful he took a few of these pictures to show me later. We never had enough time on the other days to go back to the beach.

Poor Eric--he really needed some active play time, so the beach visit was good for him. We had planned on more pool time at our hotel but the water was cloudy and the hot tub had a leak (the hotel is a whole other story). On our last day we did have a chance to run around the local mall. We had to check out of our hotel before noon, and it was still too early to go back for the evening session at the Natatorium (warmups that day were at 3pm). We got to shop a little that day. Natalie and I were able to make a big dent in shopping for her school uniforms for the upcoming school year.

This is a fun photo I took at the La Palmera Mall. They had this cool circular seat. Like a moth to a flame, Eric was drawn to it, and once there, he started moving his arms and legs as if he was making snow angels, except without the snow, hence his arms and legs look blurry.

The rest of the time, Eric had almost unlimited iPad time because of all of the waiting for warmups to start, to finish, for the races to start, and to finish, etc. He played a lot of Angry Birds Star Wars and Where's My Perry, among other apps. He had brought a few dinosaur toys, but he barely played with them. We also brought coloring books and crayons, but he didn't want to use them. He only wanted to play on the iPad. Every so often we got him to do something else, like eat a snow cone. They sold snow cones at the concession stand at the meet. At least Eric got to focus on something farther from his face. He also got to walk around outside to get some fresh air.

Eric behaved very well despite all the waiting, despite the lack of sleep from going to bed late and then having to get up early again every morning.

One other thing that we all did was eat out a lot. This is a picture of the Oreo Cheesecake that Natalie had for dessert at Grimaldi's Pizza. She had just finished gobbling up three slices of their 12-inch "personal" pepperoni pizza and she almost finished this whole cheesecake piece all by herself. On the first night we ate at Chili's to eat her favorite dish Grilled Salmon with Garlic and Herbs. They serve broccoli in that dish and that's the only time she eats broccoli. We also made the rounds of Schlotzky's and Wendy's, two of the kids' favorite fast food places. We even got Starbucks--twice. I joked on Facebook that Natalie got to swim (and exercise) while the rest of us just got fat from all of the eating out!

Long Course A Championships

First a warning--this post is long with details most of you will probably not care about. Feel free to skim. This is my way of recording our memories since I never have time to scrapbook anymore.

As I mentioned in my post yesterday, Natalie had a swim meet in Corpus Christi this past weekend. She usually adds and drops time in different races, but she dropped time on everything during this meet. This picture is one of the few I've gotten that have caught her smiling. She tends to run away from the camera nowadays, but for this weekend, she had a lot of reasons to smile.

This was one of those preliminaries and finals meets where she swims in the morning, and if she makes the top 16, she gets to swim in the evening too. All the participants had to have an "A" standard time in their events in order to even be at this meet. Natalie qualified in five events, the 200 meter freestyle, the 50 and 100 meter butterfly, and the 50 and 100 backstroke. She also swam in three relays, the 200 meter freestyle relay, the 200 meter Medley Relay, and the 400 meter freestyle relay. Her goal was to try to achieve the TAGS (Texas Age Group Standards) time standards to qualify her for the next meet in two weeks. She already had a TAGS time in the 50 meter backstroke from the meet held in Austin two weeks prior. She wanted more TAGS times.

Friday, July 12

200 m Free Relay--
Natalie swam the third leg of the 200 m Free Relay and had a split time of about 35 seconds. That's faster than she has swum the 50 m Freestyle in competition thus far and is fast enough for an "A" time. She told Patrick that the pool seemed shorter. Patrick replied, "That's because you were faster and it didn't seem as long!" :)

50 m Fly--
Natalie came in fourth place with a time of 38.81 and ninth place overall. Her seed time had been 39.09. She wasn't that happy because she had hoped for a faster time, but she handled it okay. In the evening, Natalie came in first place in the consolation final (and ninth place overall) with a time of 38.49, but when we saw her after her race, she was in tears because she had wanted a TAGS time. We talked to Anthony in the phone when we were in the car going to dinner. He made her laugh, which was what a good big brother does. Eric also talked to Anthony and Alex too.

Saturday, July 13

200 m Medley Relay--
Natalie was the first (backstroke) leg of the 200 m Medley. Her team got first place with a time of 2:33.91, which qualified for a TAGS time (TAGS is 2:43.59). Yay!

200 m Free--
Her next race was the 200 meter Free and she got a time of 2:54.19. She dropped 1.86 seconds from her previous time of 2:56.05. She placed 18th, which was up from 22nd for her seeded time and qualified as a second alternate for the evening final. She didn't get to swim the 200 m Free that evening, but it was wonderful that she dropped time again.

100 m Back--
Natalie got a time of 1:26.70. She added 0.19 seconds to her previous time of 1:26.51, but she came in second overall instead of where she was originally seeded, in third place. Natalie swam in the 100 meter Back finals in the evening. She was in the Championship final and came in second with a time of 1:25.14, which was 1.37 seconds faster than her previous best and also a TAGS time. TAGS is 1:25.19. She rejoiced with a bunch of her friends, who seemed just as excited as she was.

Sunday, July 14

400 m Free Relay--
Natalie's first race was the 400 meter Freestyle Relay with Aspen (1:18.08), Brooke (1:16.75) and Kailey (1:23.37). Natalie was the anchor leg and she swam her fastest 100 m Free ever with a split time of 1:20.00. They were AAAA Team B and they came in third place behind AAAA Team A and the Lonestar Aquatics Team.

50 m Back--
She came in first in her heat (one of three) with a time of 38.84 seconds, 00.16 seconds faster than her personal best of 39.00 that she got at the Texas Open in Austin on June 28th. That's a TAGS time. She also got first place overall. She was happy. Her time for the 50 m Back final was 38.83 seconds. She laughed about how she dropped only one hundredth of a second, but she was still in first place overall.

100 m Fly--
Natalie got a time of 1:36.56. Her previous personal best was 1:38.29 for the Long Course 100 meter Butterfly. A long course "A" time is 1:36.79, which she had not been able to achieve before now, so she got into the "A" Championships by virtue of her "A" time in the short course 100 m Fly. She knocked 1.73 seconds off her previous time AND got an official long course "A" time, but she was on the verge of tears because she "barely made an 'A' time". She was in 13th place overall. In the final that evening, her 100 meter Butterfly time was 1:33.71. She was 11th place overall (four people scratched) and dropped another 2.85 seconds off her time in the preliminaries. She dropped a total of 4.85 seconds off her previous personal best. She had to be happy about that!

Lots of numbers, but it all boiled down to one thing--Natalie is getting faster and faster. She is working very hard with 3 1/2 hours of practice each weekday. We are so proud of her for working so hard and being so dedicated even at such a young age. I wanted to at least share one fun photo. Natalie also has fun. This is a blurry iPhone photo, but I still love how she is laughing and goofing off with her friends before her races. Having a lot of friends to enjoy swimming with just makes it more worthwhile for her!

Tomorrow I'm going to talk about some of the fun stuff we did this past weekend.

Catch Up

Wow, I didn't realize that it's been almost two weeks since I posted to this blog. That's about the longest I've gone without posting. I'm at work right now, on call for OB, so I can't upload any photos. I'll do a summary of what's been going on with us for the past two weeks and I'll start filling in the details tomorrow with pictures.

--I was on call last Friday, July 5th, as well as tonight.

--Patrick and I have chosen a new oven to replace the one that isn't working. The new oven should get here and hopefully be installed next week.

--Alex has started PE Camp at his high school. That will be Monday through Friday for the next three weeks. Before that he spent a lot of time having sleepovers with friends either at our house or at his friends' houses. He has also been going to Fiesta Texas this summer and dragging Anthony with him to the gym to exercise.

--Anthony had been going out with friends and staying out late. He has also been driving Alex to PE Camp every morning and then running at the track there before coming home. Otherwise he has been a slug at home, sitting in a reclining chair on his computer or getting lots of game time on the Playstation 3.

--Natalie had a swim meet this past weekend in Corpus Christi--more on this tomorrow. Her best friend was gone all last week, but now that Margot is back in town, they've seen each other daily. She has also been reading lots of books borrowed from the library. She and Patrick seem to be the only one reading books around our house.

--Eric started swim lessons Monday through Thursday at the same time that Natalie is at her nightly swim team practice. He seems to be doing well and has already advanced from level 3 when he started last week to level 4 a day or two later, to level 5 yesterday. The rest of the time he has spent probably too much time on the iPad, especially during Natalie's three day swim meet this past weekend.

That's all for now. I'll be back tomorrow with pictures.

Happy Fourth!

Every year we have a neighborhood parade on the Fourth of July at 9:30am. It's usually way too hot already at that time, and it was again this year. This year we had a slight variation in that Patrick and I took Natalie and Eric to Starbucks for breakfast first. :) Natalie has been asking and I've finally got a day off. We came home then walked to the area where the parade started.

We usually only walk around a couple of blocks, but it's a long walk in the hot sun. Some kids ride their bikes and scooters that are decorated for the occasion. My kids can't ride bikes, or at least the two-wheeled kind, and Natalie had never really ridden her scooter (after begging for it for Christmas one year), so we just walk. We usually also carry the banners from the Championship swim meet that is usually held the weekend before the Fourth of July. Our girls aged 9-10 got the most points from all the teams swimming at the Championship swim meet, so that is the banner that Natalie carried. Our girls aged 11-12 and our boys aged 7-8 and 9-10 also won banners last weekend. Natalie, of course, hid her face as soon as she saw me with the camera. This is one reason why I take photos with mostly my camera phone nowadays. I can whip out the camera phone a lot quicker than the big camera, but alas, she can still see me with enough time to hide.

After we had walked about halfway, Eric started complaining about his legs being tired. I don't know how that boy can swim for hours but when he walks any larger distance, he suddenly gets tired. The heat was affecting him and that did play a factor, however, so I carried him almost the rest of the way. Thankfully, that was not a long distance. I was chatting with various friends along the way and that made it much shorter.

After the parade, the organizers served popsicles, water, and red, white, and blue iced sugar cookies. Even Patrick had a popsicle and he remarked at how good they were. He hadn't originally intended to get one, but Eric got an orange one and he wanted a blue one, so Patrick volunteered to take the orange one.

Every year they also have a fire truck come to lead the parade. One year they came late, probably because they were actually working, but this year they got there in plenty of time. After the parade, the kids that are interested line up to talk to the firefighters and to explore the fire truck. This year there were two lines, one for the back of the fire truck where Eric spoke briefly with one of the firefighters. I couldn't hear what they were saying but I could tell that the firefighter had to lean in a bit in order to be able to hear what Eric was saying. The next line was to be able to "drive" the fire truck. Eric loved both.

This is a picture of us walking to the parade. Patrick was happy that Natalie was the one that actually grabbed HIS hand to hold it. She's growing up but at least she'll still do stuff like that. It was pretty cute too that when she was in the parade holding the banner, she also held on to Eric's hand since we were walking in the street, after all. She held onto his hand until he got tired of walking and I started holding him.

One of the signs of "growing up" around here seems to be kids wanting to be at their friends' houses all the time. Alex has barely been here this summer. He is always at his friends' houses sleeping over. When he's here he is usually with one to three (or on the weekend after his birthday--six) friends. We've gotten used to the extra children. Of course he never wants me to take a picture, so I have no pictures of him this summer. So, yesterday afternoon, Patrick took him to his friend Dylan's house. He was invited over there to watch fireworks and to sleep over. On the way, Patrick took Natalie to her friend Margot's house. Natalie did not sleep over at her friend Margot's house, so at least we had three of our children at home with us last night.

Anthony is my other child that I've barely seen this summer. He has been spending as much time as he can with his friends before he has to go off to college this August. When he's here he is usually playing for hours on the PS3. Sometimes he even plays while he has another friend on Skype on his computer on the table next to him. I was happy to spend a little time with him yesterday afternoon/evening.

We were invited over to Natalie's friend Margot's house for a cookout and for pool time. This is a picture of Anthony and Eric in their backyard pool. The pool really made it easier to stay cool on this hot day. I was also happy to see Anthony interacting with the rest of us instead of being away with his friends or being present but not really there while playing video games. He and Eric played in the pool for quite a bit. Eric stayed in the pool for most of the almost four hours we were there. Margot and her family are leaving today for vacation, so Natalie was getting as much play time in as possible. They had invited Natalie to go with them, but with the "A" Champs next week in Corpus Christie, she did not want to give that up. She really does drive herself harder in swimming than Patrick and I could ever push her.

I'm on call tonight then hopefully I'll be able to spend more time with my family this weekend. I hope everyone had a fun and safe Fourth of July! Patrick was able to chat with his brother Geoff on his birthday yesterday, but I want to wish Geoff "Happy Birthday" again!