Winter Wonderland Meet

As usual, this post is not meant to be a mother bragging about how good her daughter is at swimming. This is meant to be a record for me to remember what her times were at this point in time and so her grandparents can find out what she is up to. First, this is a summary of the results:

50 yard Freestyle--33.14 sec (dropped almost 2 sec)
50 yard Backstroke--37.54 (dropped 0.2 sec)
100 yard Breaststroke--1:50.48
100 yard Freestyle--1.18.20 (dropped 0.02 sec)
50 yard Butterfly--37.00 (dropped almost 1 sec)

This was a three day meet and it was supposed to be for the kids who swam faster than the "BB standard" times. They split the events up so that the younger kids (10 and under) swam in the morning, and the older kids swam in the afternoon, except for Friday night when all the different ages participated. There was also another meet going on at the same time which had kids that swam at or below the "B standard" times. Natalie's friend Maddie was swimming at the other meet.

This meet was a little unusual for us because the coach that signed Natalie up for these events was her previous coach, Coach Nyssa, but her current coach is Coach Kris. Patrick got the feeling that maybe Coach Kris would have put Natalie in different events, because she knows her better from coaching her at Lifetime Fitness, but what was done was already done.

For example, Natalie had never competed in the 100 yard Breaststroke before, and she considers the Breaststroke her weakest stroke. That event was right after her 50 yard Backstroke. She probably should have competed in the 100 yard Butterfly instead, one of her best strokes, and then she would have had more time to rest in between events. Despite the lack of rest time, Natalie was still able to get a "B standard" time in the 100 yard Breaststroke. She was crying when she got to us, because she was very disappointed with her time and the fact that she came in last out of all of the 9 and 10-year-olds. What could we do but remind her that a lot of other kids struggle just to make the "B standard" times. We also reminded her that she had knocked off almost 2 seconds off her 50 yard Freestyle time on Friday night. That's huge!

Natalie has high expectations of herself. As a mother, I can't discourage that. I'm proud of her for working so hard. She has improved so much in such a short period of time, and we're so happy that she has this opportunity.

A Few Things

I need to catch up on a few things from this week. We started the week with actual wintry temperatures. Natalie started wearing an old ski jacket that her brothers used to wear--with red on it, of course. Eric also wore hand-me-downs. It was windy so Eric was trying to cover his face to shield it from the wind. At one point he buried his face in my jacket to protect it. Natalie found a red hat that I usually only wear when I go skiing. Eric wore a hat that I remember Alex wearing when he was probably only two or three.

Excuse the grainy iPhone photo. Natalie was NOT going to look at me. Eric was trying to protect his face from the wind.

At least the weather turned sunny, because by the afternoon, the temperature had climbed into the 50s. It's been pretty much that way all week, but it's supposed to get up into the 70s tomorrow. Warm and cold, back and forth--that's the way the weather is here in central Texas.

Patrick washed some more essential laundry on Monday and took it to a laundromat to dry it in their industrial sized dryers. Since then the laundry has been piling up. Finally today, we got our new washer and dryer. We were actually their first stop of the day, so they were on their way here by the time Patrick got back from taking Anthony to school. Oh happy day!

Eric is such a willing photographic model--very unlike his older brothers. A few minutes before I took this picture, he had bonked his head on the raised counter area of our kitchen island. I told him that he was getting bigger and that's why he had bonked his head. He seemed very happy with the thought that he was growing. He said that by the time he turns six, he would be "very big".

I asked him if he wanted to be in a picture with the new washer and dryer, and he said yes. I told him that in the future, when he gets to be much bigger, we can compare and see how much he has grown. He was quite happy with the idea of getting bigger.

We've got a big three day swim meet this weekend, so I'm sure I'll be recapping that later. Until then, I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Happy Birthday, Patrick!

Patrick usually wants a low key celebration for his birthday. He doesn't want anyone fussing over him. He does, however, usually want to relax and do whatever he wants. Unfortunately, we've had a pretty rough week, between Alex and his troubles and Natalie and hers, Patrick also found out that someone tried to use his credit card number in Illinois, and finally, the dryer stopped working. The repairman finally came on Friday and he could have fixed the dryer for about $400, but there were other parts that were worn out, so it'll be better to just get a new one. So, what did Patrick do on his birthday--shop for a washer and dryer. Poor thing.

He also opened and used his birthday/Christmas gift already--a new MacBook Pro. I wanted him to at least have something to open. His Mom also got him a little something. Unfortunately, he got two pairs of slippers. Natalie has been talking on and on about how he needs new slippers. Now he has two. I also got him a Dr. Who shirt.

The day did get a little better. We went out to dinner at Houston St. Bistro, and we had our season tickets to see Peter Pan at the Majestic Theatre here in town. Also, the kids always make life interesting. In this photo, Eric was very interested in all of the presents. He also approached Patrick and said, "Hug Party!" before giving Patrick a big hug. I'm sure Patrick thought that was one of the best presents ever.

Happy Birthday!

First Concert

Natalie had her first cello concert yesterday. I was so glad that I got up on the stage with her while they were warming up to take this photo because the rest of the time I couldn't see her at all. She wouldn't even look at me for this photo, except for one time when she was hiding from behind her cello. At least I caught her smiling! They finally brought her a chair just before the concert started, so she didn't have to try to play the cello standing up.

There were around 200 fifth graders playing in the orchestra. That was from a combination of the three middle school Strings programs. Supposedly there will be about 1000 fifth graders at the Spring concert. I'm not sure I want to go to that! It was so crowded already at this concert that was held at one of the local high schools. The Spring one will be in a huge venue. Natalie seems to be enjoying playing the cello, but she recently told me that she's not sure if she's going to stick with the cello or pick a band instrument so she can be in band. Either way, she seems to have a talent for music and a desire to play. Interestingly, Anthony opted to attend her concert because he wanted to watch her play. What a sweet big brother!

In other Natalie news, we just found out tonight that Natalie "moved up" to the next team, Team Sydney, which is coached by her coach from Lifetime Fitness, Coach Kris. We're not sure what the exact criteria are for "moving up", but she's had good coaching at this swim club with all of the teams she has been on. Also, she went on and on about how there is a boy named Jackson who started at this swim club the day after she did, and how he keeps moving up teams with her. She then said something about how it's "weird" that he moves up with her, especially at this time when people start "liking" each other. I don't remember if that was the exact wording she used, but that last part caught me off guard. I had to ask her to confirm, but sure enough, my baby girl has her first crush!

Story Jam

Lots of stress and activities this week, so I'll keep this short. I took this photo on Tuesday. Natalie is holding up the ribbons from the swim meet this past weekend. This was the only smile she could muster, since she has had a rough week, despite missing swimming practice three days. More details on that at a later date. She should be back at practice tomorrow.

The kids had Pajama Day on Wednesday. I was off of work and able to take photos of Natalie and Eric wearing their pajamas to school. These were the actual pajamas that they had worn to bed the night before. They were ready to go early partly because they didn't have to get dressed and partly because Wednesday is Pop Tart day and they eat breakfast faster on Pop Tart day.

Pajama Day was in conjunction with Story Jam, which was an event where parent volunteers read books of their choosing to groups of kids all around the school. Patrick volunteered and read "Horton Hatches The Egg" by Dr. Seuss. Some of the parents also wore their pajamas, as well as some of the teachers. Patrick did not. He got to read to both Eric's and Natalie's class. Eric's Kindergarten class was paired up with a third class, and Natalie's fifth grade class was paired with a second grade class. They had "buddies" from the other class that they sat next to. Natalie was actually sitting next to one of the little girls that lives on our cul-de-sac.

Natalie was so distracted by the pajamas and the pictures, that she almost forgot her cello. I thought it was interesting that she would not only be wearing pajamas to her own school but also to the middle school where she takes her Strings class.

When I picked Eric up at the bus stop after school, he was surprised when I told him that he would have to change into different pajamas for bed that evening. He even got a bath. He just thought it was the coolest thing to not have to change your clothes at all.

C Meet Three

We had another swim meet today. We have had at least one or two a month since Natalie joined the AAAA (or Quad A) swim club in October. This one was another "C" meet for the events that the swimmers haven't yet competed in or the events where they haven't met the time standards (which are published). Natalie's new coach, Coach Nyssa, placed her in two of the events that she competed in at the "C" swim meet last month because for some reason, those times didn't get put in the system. We were fine with her swimming the 50 yard breaststroke and 200 yd IM again, since she can only benefit from swimming those events repeatedly, but we're wondering what happened to those times. Hopefully we'll find the answer to that question this week.

She also swam the 100 yd butterfly today. That's quite a long distance for her, but she did it, and did it well. She seemed a little slow, honestly, but that was because she was at a slower pace than when she swims the 50 yard butterfly, so she can last longer, obviously. She finished in third place for 10-year-olds (out of 8) with a time of 1:33.48.

Her next race was the 50 yard breaststroke. She swam this at the meet last month with a time of 50.24 seconds, but that was one of the times that didn't make it into the system. Today, she finished with a time of 49.74 seconds. She wasn't happy with her time because she wanted a "BB" time, which according to published time standards, is 47.79 seconds. Still, she did a little better than last time, plus she placed first amongst the 10-year-olds at this meet (again, out of 8 ten year olds). Breaststroke is also one of her least favorite strokes. She's supposed to be in the 100 yard breaststroke event at the meet in two weeks, because her coach was confident that she could do well in that event. We'll see how she does.

Her last event was the 200 yard IM. At the meet last month, her time was 3:16.61. Today, she was noticeably tired during this race. This was the last event for the girls. Almost everyone else had already left, with their events done. We had already been at that natatorium for almost six hours. Her friends stayed to root for her and for once she could actually hear them cheering. She finished with a time of 3:17.05, a little slower, but still good enough for a "BB" time with a third place finish amongst the 7 ten year olds.

I have to insert a short mention about something that happened yesterday. I can't go into details in this public forum, but I do want to include it for my memory keeping. Alex got into some serious trouble yesterday, and Patrick and I are hoping that things will work out in the end. I found this great quote on Pinterest that seems very timely and good advice-- "An arrow can only be shot by pulling it backward. So when life is dragging you back with difficulties, it means that it's going to launch you into something great. So just focus, and keep aiming."

Eric's First Basketball Game

I was a little concerned when, after a couple of practices, Patrick told me that only one of the kids on Eric's basketball team could make a basket. Silly me. I should have known that our 5 and 6 year olds wouldn't be any different from any other 5 and 6 year olds. We only had seven players and the other team had nine. Both teams were required to play each player two quarters, so our team got quite a workout.

The other team was very aggressive, though. They kept grabbing for the ball, triple teaming any of our players that had the ball. Both teams had some trouble dribbling the ball, but the ref was very appropriate and reminded the players to occasionally dribble the ball. I don't recall that he called on any players for traveling.

I was encouraged that early during Eric's play (he sat out during the first quarter with 8 minute quarters), he tried grabbing for the ball, got it, and even tried to make a basket. This the only photo I have of Eric with the ball in his hands. He didn't make the basket, of course, but I loved that he tried.

The other team made lots of attempts at the basket. Luckily, most of them were not really thrown up in the air, they were mostly thrown at the wall behind the basket. To be fair, the baskets were 10 feet high. That's tall for us grownups!

The rest of the time, Eric was mostly running back and forth, standing, and watching others with the ball. This is another photo of one of the rare times he touched the ball. Oh, and he also seemed to love playing with the back part of his kneepads. Once when he was running back across the court, he looked at me, I smiled and waved, and he waved back. I love that about this age! Anthony actually chose to come with me to see Eric's first basketball game. He really enjoyed watching his brother. Patrick and Natalie were at swimming practice and Alex stayed home.

I love this photo of all of those players with their hands up. In the end, our team won 2-0. That means one of our players was the only one to make a basket. She actually almost made another basket--the ball hit the rim and rolled a bit before falling off.

No matter what the score, they all looked like they had fun, and that's what basketball at this age is all about!

30 Days of Gratitude: Day 30

Can you believe it's already going to be December tomorrow? Christmas is only 25 days away! That's just as well, I suppose, because Patrick and I have been doing our part in supporting the economy and we're pretty much done with our shopping. We've also picked out our own birthday and Christmas presents. This is Patrick's birthday/Christmas present, a new 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display. I already mentioned this briefly yesterday, but I have to tell a story about it.

Patrick opened up his new toy and opened up Safari, which is the Mac internet browser. He usually doesn't use Safari on our desktop Mac, he uses Firefox instead because I use Safari and that way, our bookmarks and saved passwords are separate. Well, he started deleting bookmarks on the Safari browser on his laptop--after he had told the laptop to sync the bookmarks through iCloud. Of course that ended up erasing most of my bookmarks from the desktop AND my iPhone! He felt so guilty and I thought that maybe I should be more upset, but I wasn't. I needed to purge some of those old bookmarks anyway. Nonetheless, he spent most of yesterday afternoon trying to recover the lost bookmarks. The only way he saw that he could get them back was to pay $50 for a recovery program. I nixed that--we're already supporting the economy a lot, we have to draw the line somewhere.

Today, I got to have lunch with Natalie and Eric--always a highlight for me. After lunch, my new iPad arrived. Cool! I spent the afternoon getting that all set up too. Later on, I took Natalie and Eric to Panera Bread (Eric's choice) for dinner, and then to Brindles (Natalie's request) for ice cream before going to swim practice. The big boys got their hair cut and then Patrick took them to the Rush concert. Hopefully they're enjoying themselves right now.

I took this picture at the Natatorium tonight. Eric and I went to the Family Bathroom. There was a shower in there, a commode, a sink, a paper towel dispenser, and then this dryer. When I pointed this out to Eric, he laughed because he's used to using these as hand dryers, but this is obviously a hair dryer. I still think this makes a hilarious picture, though. I'm thankful that Eric does so well in the two times that I've taken him to swim practice despite the late time. He didn't get into bed until after 8:30pm--that's late for him. I supposed that's because I try to have fun with him and because he'll play his iDinobook on the iPad.

30 Days of Gratitude: Days 28 and 29

This was a photo I took yesterday at the bus stop with my iPhone. It was about 40 degrees with some wind, too cold to go without jackets. Of course, the kids didn't look for warmer jackets until they were about to head out the door.

We made do with what we found in the hall closet. The jacket Eric is wearing used to be Anthony's when he was 6 or 7, so it's a little big on Eric. Natalie was going to wear another old jacket of Anthony's, but it was too small, so she stuck with the red fleece jacket she has been wearing. She was a vision of head-to-toe red as she went to the bus stop carrying her cello. I found some suitable jackets after they left. We had put all of our warmest jackets in a duffle bag we took to Colorado last year, so I took them out to use. I am thankful that I found some suitable jackets, because I was totally not thinking of jackets and I would have had to run out and buy some.

We had beautiful weather for the rest of the day yesterday. It was still a little chilly, but sunny and beautiful enough that Patrick and I went out to eat and we ate outside. This time of year is when we're glad we live where we live.

Today was warmer but cloudy all day. Tonight was going to be our "easy" day when we only had to pick up Anthony from soccer practice and take Natalie to swim practice. No practices for Alex and Eric. It got easier, though, because Natalie had to work on her "novel" for school. She has to write a 2000 word essay/book. She was supposed to write at least 1200 words because she is in GT (Gifted and Talented), but she set her own goal of 2000. Patrick and I thought that was unnecessary, but we have to be thankful that she pushes herself in school as well as in swimming. Because of the assignment, she didn't go to practice tonight. That was nice because Patrick could play with his new Mac Book Pro/birthday present/Christmas present. That was nice because I could watch our X Factor tape with Eric and Natalie. That was nice because she wants to go to practice tomorrow night and Saturday morning. It was all good!

30 Days of Gratitude: Days 26 and 27

No pictures today, or yesterday--too tired. Going back to school and work hit us all with a bang, but I'm supposed to be documenting what we're thankful for this month, so I have to say that I'm thankful that I have a job I enjoy and that pays well. I'm thankful that the kids love their schools and teachers, except maybe for Alex, but then he loves his school friends.

Yesterday was also the start of our "new" schedule with the introduction of after school high school soccer practices for Anthony. That meant that yesterday, Patrick waited for Eric to get home on the bus, gave him a snack, then picked up Natalie from the middle school from her Strings class. I headed home from work and on the way, picked up Alex from the school bus stop at the other middle school. Patrick left the house with Eric and Alex at 5:30 to take Alex to soccer practice, then from there went to pick up Anthony at school. He came home with Eric and Anthony, got Eric ready for bed, then went back to pick up Alex from soccer practice. I left the house before 6pm to take Natalie to swimming, and when we got back at about 8:30, Alex was already in the shower and Patrick was making a pizza for Alex and Anthony to eat.

This week, Eric also starts basketball practice on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 6:30-7:30pm. Patrick has already said that he won't try to make it to both practices, but Eric does need a bit of practice, as do all the kids on his team. There is apparently only one kid that can make a basket. That will make it tough when our team faces some of the other teams that seem to be more "hard core". Still, Eric has a lot of fun, as evidenced by his being thankful for his "basketball teacher" at Thanksgiving.

So today, Natalie didn't have Strings, so she and Eric both came home on the bus. I picked up Alex on the way home again. This time, Patrick left the house at 5:30 to pick up Anthony, whose practice ends a little before 6pm. He came home and took Eric to basketball practice. They got there about 15 minutes late, but there was no way to get there earlier. I had the same schedule with taking Natalie to swimming. One of the other moms whose daughter swims with Natalie said that she doesn't know how we do it, but she has a similar basketball/swimming schedule and she is basically a single mom whose husband only gets to come home every couple of months. That just put it all in perspective. I am thankful that my kids are involved in extracurricular activities that they love. I am thankful that Patrick and I can do this as a team and not alone. I am thankful that we are able to do this for the kids and spend so much time with them. They will all be grown up and gone too soon.

30 Days of Gratitude: Days 24 and 25

The weather was so beautiful this weekend. This is the time of year where we're grateful to live where we live--sunny with temperatures in the 70s. Eric got some play time outside in the backyard on Saturday. He pretty much played by himself, but I went out there to enjoy the weather and so I could watch him. Every so often he came up to me for a hug and kiss, and then he would go along on his merry way. I loved that!

We also went to the library to pick up a book Natalie had reserved. Her GT (Gifted and Talented) teacher had suggested this book for them to read over the Thanksgiving break. She's so excited about reading that she wanted to do this even if it wasn't required. Luckily it became available at our local library so we didn't have to end up buying it. It's a good problem when your child ignores you because she's reading--at least we try to remind ourselves of that.

I helped Eric pick out some books at the library--four involved stories about dinosaurs. I started reading one to him and I stopped at the "popcorn" words and let him read those by himself. He said them rather quietly but clearly. By the end of the book, I started letting him sound out all of the small words--future popcorn words that he'll be learning in school. He could read all of them. He can read "dinosaur", of course, so there were some sentences that he could basically read by himself. It's been amazing to see his reading really take off since school started.

I took this first picture at Barnes and Noble later on Saturday. We wanted to be outside and so we braved the mall just because it's the "outside mall", as Eric puts it. I was amused at his awkward way of squatting to read various dinosaur books. Never mind that there was a table and chairs about two feet away. He is going to be another reader that will ignore us!

Today was very relaxed. The boys didn't even get up until around 10:30-11. They both didn't bother eating breakfast. Natalie and I went out to Target at around 11:30 and I got a few bags of the Ghirardelli Peppermint Bark to give to teachers. I also bought a few home decor items; I can't get enough out of red Christmas-y items. We got back home, had lunch, then I was out again to take Alex to JCPenney. He wanted some new jeans, and I saw some jeans advertised there that he might like. Alex's current jeans are a size 28 x 30 and Anthony's are 29 x 32. It was tough trying to find jeans with waist sizes under 30, let alone ones with the 32 inch inseam for Anthony. Luckily, we did find some suitable ones. I was a little surprised at how much he seemed to enjoy clothes shopping. He proclaimed after our shopping trip that he liked JCPenney!

This evening, Alex spread out newspaper all over the dining table so he could clean his shoes. Sorry for the bad photo, but I have to be secretive when I take photos of him! He really does seem to care about how he looks and puts in the effort to make sure his shoes look good, too. He loves to spend money on clothes and accessories, but we should be thankful that he has his own sense of style.

We went to church tonight and then picked up Chipotle for dinner. We would have done out to eat, except that Patrick wanted to be able to watch the Packers vs. Giants game tonight. I wish I could say that we are thankful that the Packers are winning, but alas, that is not the case. At least he had the opportunity to watch the game! ;)

30 Days of Gratitude: Days 22 and 23

I forgot to include in the last post that Anthony got his first college acceptance! Someone from Texas Tech called him on Tuesday night and told him he had been accepted. Now he needs to apply to their honors program, but for now, they've offered him $4000 scholarship and then another $6000 each for four years. That covers about 2/3 of tuition, but of course barely touches room and board and other fees. Still, we're thankful that he's being offered anything at all. Now we wait until the other acceptances roll in. We may be a little biased, of course, but we feel like he'll at least be accepted to most if not all of the schools he applied to.

I took this first picture on Thanksgiving day. Eric was climbing on everything at my sister's house--the sofa, the stairs, the other furniture. We kidded that it was like her house was a big jungle gym. We're thankful that we could stay there, because they have great toys to keep him busy, like my nephew Nick's old train sets, and some old dinosaur toys. My niece Aly even gave him some of her old dinosaur books. Eric was SO excited.

My sister Cynthia had the turkey ready before 11am. Alex didn't get up until after the turkey was done, so he didn't even bother to eat breakfast. Melissa arrived with the girls and my parents and we had our traditional Thanksgiving lunch. The rest of the day was filled with football--on the big huge TV screen, of course, and Cynthia also took all the kiddos to see the movie Wreck It Ralph. Even Eric went with them. Anthony was the one who really wanted to see it, but he wanted to use his younger cousins and siblings as an excuse to go. In the evening, they watched The Avengers again, since the girls and my parents weren't there to watch it the night before. My mom and sisters hung out in Cynthia's bedroom to watch X Factor and Glee. It was another nice, relaxing day hanging out with the family.

Cynthia also had this idea to print these banners out. They all had "I am thankful for" on them and we got the whole family to fill them out. We were all going to guess who wrote what on the banners, but no one wanted to do that, so we just strung them all together and hung them on the mantel so everyone could see them. Anthony's said "Food, Family, Friends, Everything else--not necessarily in that order." Alex's said "all the kinds of stuff most people are usually thankful for." Natalie's said "Sharks, Swimming, Parents, Food, Shelter, Friends, Family, Being Healthy, Being Me". All were pretty typical of each child, especially Eric.

Eric dictated his to me since he can't spell yet. He said "Strawberries and bananas dipped in chocolate, my basketball teacher, dinosaurs, dinosaur gummies, turkey". He has only had one basketball practice, so his coach must have made a big impression. Patrick has played more basketball with him than his coach. Cynthia loved the comment about the strawberries and bananas dipped in chocolate because she had that ready for us when we arrived on Tuesday. He loved dipping his own fruit, even if the fruit kept falling off his toothpick. The "dinosaur gummies" one just cracks me up. I don't know if he's even had dinosaur gummies before.

We went home on Friday. This time Anthony drove the last hour, from the last rest stop to home. Everything went well. The kids watched Toy Story 2 in the van. Surprisingly, no one fell asleep. Some time after we got home, we were actually brave enough to go to the mall. I wanted to buy myself my birthday present with a coupon that was only good for this weekend (a Coach purse), and Patrick wanted to check out his birthday present (an Mac laptop). ;) Thankfully, we had a coupon for P.F. Chang's so we picked that up for dinner--no cooking. The boys got to play their video games again, and all was well in our household. I'm so very grateful to my family for making our stay in Houston so relaxing and fun. I'm always sad that I don't live close to them, but at least they're close enough to visit easily. Lots to be thankful for. :)

30 Days of Gratitude: Days 20 and 21

This post will go up a bit late because of our holiday travel schedule. We left for Houston on Tuesday, November 20th. We took our time and left after lunch. Anthony drove for the first hour. He still needs to practice driving on the freeway, and the route out of town is the same initial route as going to his school, so I'm thankful that he had a chance to practice. The traffic wasn't as bad as it is when he has to go to school, but the freeway entrances and exits can get a bit tricky, so he needs all the practice he can get before we turn him loose on his own.

The trip was uneventful. We changed drivers at the Bucc-ee's, a popular tourist stop. It's basically a humongous rest stop. They sell a lot of merchandise, including food, souvenirs like T-shirts and knick knacks, and of course, gas. The kids couldn't resist and begged me to buy beef jerky and fudge for them. We got the Hot and Spicy Beef Jerky and six squares of fudge, because as Anthony insisted, "We can get six types of fudge for the price of four!" They ended up deciding on chocolate, peanut butter chocolate, dulce de leche, cookies and cream, vanilla, and pumpkin pie. Eric had wanted the orange creme, but when he tasted it, he said he only liked the orange part. Patrick was patiently waiting for us in the car.

When we got to my sister Cynthia's house, they were getting their new 65-inch 3D TV installed over their fireplace along with surround sound. Their older big TV relocated from the living room to their bedroom, and they also got a smaller flat screen TV for their game room. The guys had been there since 10am and they didn't leave until probably 8pm or so because they were having technical difficulties. This first picture is of the girls and Eric watching TV from the second floor, and the second picture is the second-floor view of everyone sprawled out on the sofa watching Spiderman on TV. That sofa was super-comfortable.

The next day, the kids spent much of the morning watching Avatar: The Last Airbender. One of the channels was having a marathon, and the kids all love that show and wanted to watch them all again, despite having watched them before. They all were certainly grateful that they had that cool new TV and comfy sofa to watch on!

Cynthia and I got to sneak away for a bit to go shopping at the nearby outlet mall. We were waiting for my sister Melissa to get to Cynthia's house with my parents. My mom is much more familiar with driving to Melissa's house than to Cynthia's house, so they basically take the long way and go to Melissa's house and then Melissa drives them to Cynthia's house. I'm always thankful when we can spend time with my parents, and they spent the rest of the day with us and then went home with Melissa to spend the night at her house.

Most of us, except for Mom and Dad, Anthony and Eric, went to see Skyfall, the new James Bond movie that afternoon. It was just nice to relax and hang out with the family. That's the one regret I have with my kids being in so many activities--that we don't have as much time to visit relatives. My sisters and their kids are busy with their own activities too, so it's nice to slow down for a few days and enjoy each other's company.

30 Days of Gratitude: Days 18 and 19

They're good-looking kids, aren't they? I'm thankful that I got our annual Christmas card photo done and out of the way! It was the usual ordeal to get this done, though. I've been warning the kids all week that I was planning on doing the Christmas card photo this weekend. They still plead ignorance today. Alex and Anthony were trying to play as much on the PS3 as possible, and I had to kick Anthony off the PS3 to get this photo done. That was at least easier than if it had been Alex on the PS3. Natalie had her friend Margot over from a sleepover the night before. Eric really didn't want to change out of his dinosaur shirt. Luckily, they all eventually cooperated.

Getting somewhat matching shirts was another ordeal. Eric is wearing his size 4 shirt that he wore last year. I got him a size 4/5 shirt from Target just in case, but this one still fit pretty well. Natalie's shirt is getting a little short but as she pointed out, she wasn't planning to raise her arms. I did notice that the shirt hugged a few more curves than last year, which always makes Patrick uncomfortable knowing that his dear daughter is maturing. Alex had long outgrown his Boys' Large red shirt from last year, so he was going to wear Anthony's Adult Medium except that Anthony didn't have another red shirt. Luckily, Alex has plenty of white polo shirts that still fit him from his school uniform last year. He also had his red belt and red shoes to match. Those were all his own purchases with his own money. Anthony had to borrow Patrick's white shirt and he was the only one that bothered to tuck his shirt in. All in all, not perfect in any way, but this is the way they look right now and for me, that's what the annual Christmas card photo is all about.

I've also picked out some possible Christmas cards. Now--the annual wait for Patrick to write the text part of the card. This time he has a hard deadline of next weekend for us to save 20%. I need to get these done by the end of the month!

This weekend hasn't been super great weather, but the temperatures have been nice, with the highs in the low 70s, even if it has been a bit cloudy. Because of the warmer weather, Patrick has been going outside to "play basketball" with Eric. Basically he has been showing him how to dribble and to pass the ball. Eric still needs a lot of practice, but he bounces happily outside whenever Patrick suggests playing basketball, so he's enjoying himself. That's what's important. I'm thankful that Eric is enjoying his tour of the different sports so far. We started with soccer and now he's playing basketball. Next will be baseball. Today, Natalie mentioned something about not liking basketball. Eric told her, "Natalie, I'm a basketball player." He is enthusiastic about so many things.

This morning, I got up early partly because I heard Eric playing by himself in the game room. He was doing some writing. He wrote his name (first, middle, and last) several times, along with "dinosaur" and "November", and two of his good friends' names "Christopher" and "Alexander". He still reverses his "b" and "d", but he does pretty well. I'm so thankful that he is enjoying school and writing so much. He has what his teacher calls "popcorn" words like "a" and "the". He also "butters up" the "popcorn" words by highlighting them. His teacher is awesome, isn't she? That is so cute! "Buttering up" his "popcorn" words! We are definitely thankful for his awesome kindergarten teacher!

30 Days of Gratitude: Days 16 and 17

Yesterday, the kindergarteners had their annual Thanksgiving Feast. They've been preparing for it all week. On Monday, we had to bring a T-shirt that we had to cut up into strips at the bottom and on the sleeves. The kids dyed the T-shirts in class with tea bags and then tied beads on the strips. They chose "Indian" names. Of course, Eric chose "Smiling Dinosaur". Is that not the cutest thing, or what? They also made placemats with their "Indian" names on them as well as their headbands. Apparently they were able to earn extra feathers for their headbands too. Eric had five feathers.

For their feast, they had grapes, rolled up turkey sandwich meat slices, and pumpkin pie, washed down with apple juice. Although the feast was after 2pm and they had lunch at 11:40am, Eric ate like he hadn't had any lunch. He started on the grapes as soon as he sat down, then he ate the turkey like it was the best thing he had ever tasted. He tried the pumpkin pie but he said he didn't like it, so Patrick ended up eating the rest of it.

After the Feast, we signed Eric out so we could take him straight home. This is a picture of Patrick and Eric walking towards his classroom to pick up his backpack. Patrick is carrying an extra pumpkin pie that we brought but that they didn't need. There were plenty of parents and family there and plenty of food. Eric is carrying the placemat with his "Indian" name on it. The boys got a kick out of his name when they saw his placemat when they got home. Natalie didn't want to come home with us. She wanted to finish out her classes and then she wanted to take the bus so she could sit with her friends.

Patrick and I were thankful we were able to participate in such a fun annual ritual. Five and six-year-olds are at such a fun age for learning this stuff, aren't they? Eric has been enjoying kindergarten so much. One thing he has been doing recently is counting how many syllables in his name. He even told me that he has one syllable less in his whole name as Alex has in HIS whole name. He is so fascinated by that sort of thing right now, and we get excited along with him.

Today was our first relaxing weekend in a while, and the weather was so beautiful, too. Natalie got to play with her friend Margot all day and now Margot is sleeping over, too. Patrick and I got to take Eric swimming at the gym. Patrick was also trying to teach Eric how to play basketball. This season should be quite interesting. Alex finally got to play his new Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 game that he received on Tuesday. Anthony got to "play" with his friends at his old school, where they were having their annual fundraiser called the "King's Fair". We all got to go out for dinner together at Chili's and then ice cream at Brindles. Remarkably, only Margot, Natalie, and I were the only ones to get ice cream. Alex was content to just hang out there and listen to his iPod and the others wanted to go to the Half-Price Books next door. We all have different things to be thankful for today.

30 Days of Gratitude: Days 14 and 15

I'm not used to posting on my blog this often anymore. It's easy for me to find things to be thankful for, however. This is a picture of Eric dancing to one of the groups performing on X Factor yesterday. They were singing their version of We Will Rock You/We Are The Champions. Eric LOVES this song. Whenever we're in the car and this comes on the radio, he asks for us to turn up the sound on the radio. I'm thankful that he loves music so much. I'm thankful that he feels comfortable enough to just start dancing or singing when he hears a song he likes. I'm thankful to be able to watch him dance, especially with that butt action. The picture is blurry because of the wiggling. It's quite entertaining. I came home from work late last night but I'm glad I came home in time to watch some TV with the kids. Soon after this picture, Natalie got up and started dancing too. Love it.

Today we watched the end of last night's show and then the X Factor elimination show that aired tonight. Natalie was at swim practice with Patrick. As per our X Factor routine, Eric gets completely ready for bed first. I make him do that because he likes to snuggle on my bed under the blankets and I want him to be clean when he does that. What mother doesn't look for any excuse to snuggle with her five-year-old? I'm grateful that he still wants to do that and that I have someone to watch the show with. We didn't make it through the whole show though. Apparently, Taylor Swift isn't one of his favorites. She was performing during tonight's show and right after she came on, he wanted to turn off the TV so he could play with his dinosaurs. I watched the rest of the show on my own after I picked up Alex from the school basketball game that he attended, so I could find out who went home on the show. I got to watch a little of the end with Natalie. These reality shows are more fun to watch with the kids around. I'm thankful for that too.

30 Days of Gratitude: Days 12 and 13

I know that I was already grateful for a lot with Natalie this weekend, but I'll have to continue that trend for Days 12 and 13. Yesterday when Natalie went to practice, she found out that she moved up into another team, "Team Atlanta". I spoke to her previous coach, Coach Tanya, who said that Natalie and one of the boys from her team (Jackson) had to move up because they were so much faster than the others. They often had a lot of down time waiting for the others to finish. Coach Tanya said that it was good when they were both on her team because they were able to challenge each other. Now both of them have moved up. Natalie was excited because now she will be on the same team as her friend Kate, who used to also swim at Lifetime Fitness.

Patrick and I were pretty happy with Coach Tanya's coaching. I mean--look how much Natalie has improved in the less than month and a half she has been there. Now she will be in Coach Nyssa's team. They started out swimming two 100 yard butterflies, then they swam 100 yards of each of the other strokes too. Natalie needs to be challenged, and this will be a great move for that.

This picture is of Natalie in her new swim parka. This seems to be standard wear for the swimmers, to keep their muscles warm in between events, and to keep them warm after practice when the weather turns colder. Patrick only ordered it last Thursday, and it was already ready, so he was able to pick it up today, just in time for tonight's temps in the 40s. We're definitely thankful for that! Natalie was so excited that she could barely hold still for this picture. Patrick complained a little about how fidgety she was, but I asked him if he would rather have "always enthusiastic" Natalie or "never enthusiastic" Alex. He agreed that the excitement was easier to handle.

That parka is huge on her! We were told to buy it big, because it supposedly lasts a long time. I'm not sure she'll grow into that parka, but buying it long also keeps her legs covered--again, a plus for keeping her warm when she's wearing her swimsuit in the winter months. She had her name embroidered in red, of course. I was amused when she told me that she also had her last name initial on there, because she's "not the only Natalie around". No, she's not the only Natalie, but she's the only one that's important to me.

Tonight I'm grateful to be able to eat together as a family and that we were able to give back to the kids' school. Natalie and Eric's school has a fundraiser "school night" at the local Willie's Icehouse on the second Tuesday of each month, where 15% goes to their school. Really, it was an excuse to eat out. The schedule was a little tight, because we usually have to leave by 6pm to get to Natalie's swim practice. We got there at around 5pm and they served us pretty quickly. Of course our family eats pretty fast, except for Eric, and we were pretty much done by 5:30. Family togetherness AND a good cause--you can't beat that!

30 Days of Gratitude: Days 10 and 11

Yesterday, I was grateful that Natalie was able to get a little better time for her 50 yard freestyle (35.11 sec--still a BB time). She swam the 50 yard backstroke for the first time competitively since joining Quad A, and she was amazing with a BB time of 39.47 sec. At that time, I didn't know what would happen during the swim meet today--more on that later.

Alex spent the night at his friend's house on Friday, so Patrick picked him up Saturday afternoon. We are glad that the kids' grades are available online so we're able to keep up with how they're doing. All of the kids did very well on their 9 week report card (even Eric), but since then, Alex's grades have dropped a bit. He had something like a 65 for one grade and a 75 on another. He has an 88 in two classes. We are grateful that he does relatively well in school, but he seems to only want to do the bare minimum and his dropping grades are concerning. So, because of that, we didn't allow him to go to the movies with his friends yesterday evening. He was not happy, but hopefully he'll understand in the end.

I took all of these pictures today. The first one is of Natalie at the start of the 50 yard backstroke this morning. Usually Natalie would not have been able to swim that event yesterday at the B meet and then again today at the C meet, but because of her coach's slight error she was able to swim that event on both days. Thank you to Coach Tanya for that mistake, because Natalie swam even faster today. She dropped one and a half seconds from her time yesterday for a time of 37.74 seconds (A time)! She knew exactly what she needed to do to improve her time today. One of the dads told Patrick that Natalie looked confident and looked good.

This is a photo of Natalie with Coach Tanya today on deck. This natatorium is set up differently and I wasn't allowed to be down on deck with her, so this is as close as I could get. Natalie also got a B time on the 50 yard breaststroke (50.24 seconds) and a BB time on the 200 yard IM (3:16.61). It's ironic that her coach is doing such a great job of teaching her and that will only result in Natalie leaving her "team" and moving up into someone else's team.

One more thing about Natalie--she came up to me looking a little upset during this morning's warmup. Apparently, the suction cups on her favorite pair of goggles came off or something where they weren't seating correctly. She has spare goggles, but she didn't feel like they were as comfortable. She wears goggles daily, and I felt like a good pair that she was comfortable with would not only help her confidence in her races today, but also be worth the price because of how much she uses them. Luckily, they had a pair on sale there that she was super happy with. I don't know for sure if that helped her do so well today, but it sure didn't hurt. Meanwhile, I also bought her a cool quick-drying towel they were also selling there. It was red, her favorite color, and she was all smiles after that.

I feel like I'm rambling today, but I have to tell one more story about Eric. His teacher told Patrick during their parent-teacher conference that Eric is very close to reading. He has been trying to read "popcorn words" (short words like "the") and he has also been asking how to spell certain phrases so he can write them down, like "Christopher's friend" or "Which one is a T-Rex". This morning, Patrick saw Eric playing "Hangman" by himself. I guess they play this at school, and his brothers weren't up to play with him yet. I guess Eric was pretending to guess the different letters and included some wrong ones. He was up to drawing in the legs of the hangman. The word was "t_e". Patrick suggested that he try the letter "h" as the middle letter. Eric acted surprised and said, "Oh! That fits!" How cute is that? We're definitely grateful that Eric likes reading and writing so much. It won't be long before he's actually reading books.

Tonight, we were actually able to go out to eat as a family. I definitely have to be grateful for that!

30 Days of Gratitude: Days 8 and 9

Yesterday, I was thankful that bought some little coloring book/crayon packs at Target. I let Eric have one in the car when we had to go pick up Alex and Anthony from school. Alex had stayed at school to finish some in-class work before the progress report today. Poor Eric was in the car for about an hour with the round trip and waiting for Anthony to get out of school. He was busy with the coloring for most of it, thank goodness, but he started crying on the way home.

He usually starts complaining about being hot when he's tired. I'm grateful that Anthony was in the back seat with him and that he started fanning Eric. After a bit, Eric said that his bottom was hot too. I had to laugh at that, but then told him that we would have to take care of that later since he had to sit in his car seat a little longer. We picked up Wendy's for the kids' dinner and they were all happy about that.

Today, I'm thankful for the fact that Anthony is such an intelligent, considerate, wonderful boy. Patrick was just telling me this morning that one of his teachers (his advisor) told Patrick that Anthony was such a smart kid but what struck her was how nice he was too. That's something every parent wants to hear!

He also got a 219 on his PSAT and that qualified him to be a National Merit Semi-Finalist. He sent in an application which included an essay to hopefully be a Finalist. Wish him luck! His school was honoring the six  "National Merit Scholars" with a breakfast this morning. This is a picture of Anthony with the principal, who had presented him with the plaque. We also got free tickets to their football game this evening, and apparently we get to be on the field with Anthony at halftime. I'm hoping that there will be someone taking pictures for us.

Alex is on a field trip today with his class. He's planning on going directly to his friend's house to spend the night. That means that we'll have to take Eric with us to this football game tonight. If everything goes well with Eric staying up way past his bedtime tonight, I'll be grateful for that too.

30 Days of Gratitude: Days 6 and 7

Yesterday, I was grateful that Patrick and I were able to have breakfast together at Magnolia Pancake Haus. It's the only time I've gone there and gotten seated right away--they're usually super busy, but then we're usually there on a weekend or federal holiday.

I'm also grateful to be able to take lunch to Natalie and Eric at their school, although I was running late. I had gone to the grocery store and got back home a little later than I had planned. I could have made it to Wendy's and then to their school in the right time frame, except that I was stopped by a train. In fact, the train stopped on the tracks for some time. I wasn't worried so much about Natalie. I knew she would just assume that I was running late. I was worried that Eric would think I wasn't going to show up with the expected spicy chicken nuggets and Frosties. Luckily, Patrick had gotten home from Costco already and he went to the school to wait with Eric until I got there. I was grateful that he did that for me and I was grateful that we live close enough to the school that he was able to do that for me!

By the way, Eric is raising his hands here to indicate that he's ready to go after lunch. I'm pretty sure they only have to raise one hand, but they seem to all want to raise both hands. Five year olds are so adorable.

I was grateful that today was my only other work day this week. I might regret that later when I need hours at the end of the fiscal year, but for now I'm enjoying it. Alex had a lot of homework today, so he wanted to skip soccer practice to finish it. That freed up Patrick to take Natalie to swimming. That meant that I could take Anthony and Eric to Pei Wei for dinner. Is it bad that I'm grateful that Alex had lots of homework?

Anthony had one of his favorites, Thai Dynamite Shrimp, and I had that new very spicy Sriracha Shrimp dish. Eric had his usual Kids' Lo Mein and we shared a Fanta orange soda. After we ate, Anthony ran off to Half Price Books while Eric and I ordered some Pei Wei Spicy Chicken for Alex. We love spicy food. This is just a picture of Eric trying to ham it up for the camera while we were waiting. A big fire truck also drove by and Eric got so excited watching it. I love that exuberance.

We met back up at Brindles. Eric and I shared a Creme Brûlée Gelato. I love that flavor, but once again, I'm grateful that I don't have to eat the whole thing by myself. This way I can satisfy my ice cream craving without as many calories. When we first walked up to the counter, he saw a flavor that ended with "Blackberry". He said, "Look Mama. This says 'black' except for the b, e, r, r, and y." I'm grateful that he is finally starting to read!

We went home, got Eric ready for bed, then we watched our X Factor tape together. I'm grateful to Patrick for doing the driving tonight so I could do all of this. It was especially worth it to see Eric dancing to the musical numbers on X Factor. So cute!