Division C Championship Swim Meet

Yesterday, we had our last swim meet of the summer swim league season. Although we're glad to get some free time back, it's been an exciting season, with Eric swimming faster and faster and beginning to start swimming breaststroke and butterfly (although not legally yet), and especially seeing Natalie swim in races again.

I took this first picture at Momak's Backyard Malts and Burgers, where we had our team party and awards after the meet. We sat outside for the first time. Usually we sit in the balcony area there, but we had more room outside, and we could keep a closer eye on the kids playing in their large play area. Luckily the weather cooperated with us and it didn't rain, but there was a nice breeze keeping the temperatures tolerable. Interestingly, Patrick went inside a few times so he could keep an eye on the World Cup Group of 16 game of Brazil vs. Chile.

Natalie didn't oblige me with a picture of her with her medals, but at least she let me take this picture of her with two of her friends who swam in the Medley Relay with her.

Everyone got a personalized team trophy. Eric got a fifth place ribbon for the 100 yard Freestyle Relay and a fifteenth place ribbon for the Backstroke. He got a third place medal for the 100 yard Medley Relay. Natalie got four medals--3 gold and 1 bronze (for 25 yard Freestyle). Natalie's teammate (who got first place in the 25 yard Freestyle ahead of Natalie) won the award for being the top point-getter, and apparently Natalie was just behind her by one point.

Now, for the boring part of the post, Eric and Natalie's meet results are as follows:

Eric--
Boys 8 and Under 100 yard Freestyle Relay (Leg 2)--They came in last out of five teams with a time of 1:41.89.

25 yard Free--Converted Seed time 29.25--Final time 30.08 (31 out of 33).
25 yard Back--Converted Seed time 34.34--Final time 31.76 (15 out of 30).

Boys 8 and Under 100 yard Medley Relay (Leg 4--Freestyle)--They came in last out of five teams, but two of the teams were disqualified, so they got third place with a time of 1:58.32.

Natalie--
Girls 11-12 100 yard Freestyle Relay (Leg 4)--They came in first (easily) with a time of 55 plus seconds, but they were disqualified because supposedly Natalie left early, but she was sure that she saw her teammate touch the wall before she took off. Two of our other girls' freestyle relays were also DQ'd, which really hurt since our team came in 4th place out of the five teams only by around 200 points, and the top 3 were within 12 points of each other. Each relay counts as 40 points for coming in first place.

25 yard Free--Converted Seed time 12.00 (not real)--Final time 14.32 (3 out of 28). They were manually timing the races and it looked pretty close. First place had a time of 13.98 seconds, and second place had a time of 14.09 seconds.
25 yard Back--Converted Seed time 16.19--Final time 15.93 (1st).
25 yard Fly--Converted Seed time 15.85--Final time 15.12 (1st).

Girls 11-12 100 yard Medley Relay (Leg 4 Freestyle)--They easily got first place out of five teams with a time of 1:10.84.

Swimmer of the Week 2014

I took Eric to the morning swim practice today. He's been going pretty much every morning, but he didn't feel like going at all yesterday. Today is the last swim practice of the summer swim meet season. They cancelled the one tonight since they have an early swim meet tomorrow morning. The swim meet starts at 7:45am!

Eric and I were leaving when we heard Coach Jesse say that he was going to announce the Swimmer of the Week awards, so Eric hurried back. I think that ever since he and Natalie got it last year, he's been hoping he would get it again. Coach Jesse started out announcing that a couple of families with multiple children on the swim team. He likes to group families together, probably because then more kids can get the award. He ended up saying that he wasn't sure if "they" (referring to Eric and Natalie) wanted to admit knowing each other, before announcing that the fourth and final Swimmer of the Week award went to Eric and Natalie. Eric was SO excited! We cam home and immediately got this picture in our front yard (with our poor parched grass).

Natalie was at home resting her back. She's been at her club swim practice three nights this week, and because of all of that swimming, she said she was a little sore. As with last year, she says that the Swimmer of the Week award is actually Eric's award, since she isn't at the neighborhood practices as much as Eric. She contributes quite a bit to the team at the swim meets, though, since she is usually at least tied for getting the biggest point total of anyone else on the team. She deserves it as much as Eric.

I'm at work right now, so I had to post this photo from my phone. I'll try to write another post tomorrow about the Championship Meet.

Happy 15th Birthday, Alex!

I'm a week late in posting this, but Alex's 15th birthday was last Wednesday. Since it's Thursday today, I thought I might as well post an old scrapbook layout of mine from when Alex was a mere three years old for "Throwback Thursday". Alex has always been a little cutie, and I've always loved these photos of him enjoying  chocolate ice cream. I used to use the photo of him with his mouth wide open for a pediatric airway lecture for work because his mouth was SO wide.

Speaking of wide mouths, Alex has always been a good eater. I discovered Sonic shakes when I was pregnant with him, and he loves Sonic shakes now. Specifically, he loves Sonic chocolate banana shakes. I took this photo of Alex with three of his good friends last Saturday, June 21st, after going to Sonic to get half-price shakes, which they offer daily after 8pm. I was so happy that he and his friends consented to having their photo taken together, just because I asked! I also love how they posed for me.

Because Patrick and I wanted to take a little trip for our anniversary which involved leaving on Alex's actual birthday, we asked Alex if it was okay to postpone his celebration until Saturday. Alex hasn't wanted a lot of fuss for his birthday for a few years, and this was just another example.

Patrick grilled steaks on Saturday, and Alex decided to invited these particular boys because he has known them the longest. He has a string of friends that spend the night over our house regularly. That means that we spend a lot of money feeding these teenage boys, and since they sleep in the game room, there are always lots of extra pillows and blankets there all the time. We like it, though, because we get to spend time with Alex and his friends and more importantly, we get to KNOW his friends. They like it because they like walking around our neighborhood, going to the pool, exploring the "woods", and using the hills to ride our wiggle racers.

Patrick bought five pounds of steak, and they finished most of it. There were other things to eat--curly fries, garlic bread, corn, and salad. We were also well stocked on extra cookies, other snacks, and sodas. In fact, Alex went with Patrick to the store to get all of these snacks. Alex gets a big smile on his face when he gets a chance to go to the store--sort of like that big smile in the scrapbook layout above. I love that smile! Happy Birthday, Alex!

First Lost Tooth

Eric's bottom front left tooth has been loose for a week or two. Earlier this week, Patrick inspected the tooth while brushing Eric's teeth and said that it was really loose, so we didn't think it would be long before it came out. Last night, Eric was brushing his teeth and I heard him say that his tooth came out. I went into the bathroom and there was blood dripping from his mouth (along with toothpaste). He didn't seem distressed at all. I asked him where the tooth was, and he pointed to the open sink drain--it had fallen down the drain. After he finished brushing his teeth, I just had him rinse his mouth out until the water was clear. No drama. No fuss.

When Anthony lost his second tooth many years ago, he accidentally swallowed it when he was eating some corn. Our friend Gary was visiting at the time and told him that the Tooth Fairy paid triple the usual amount when you swallowed your tooth. Thanks, Gary! Patrick helped him write a note to the Tooth Fairy at the time.

This time, Patrick also asked Eric to write the Tooth Fairy a note because then the Tooth Fairy would give him three times the usual amount for a lost tooth. I'm not sure why he decided we had to pay him three times for a lost tooth when Eric doesn't know anything about when Anthony lost his tooth, but whatever. Eric was tired and obviously didn't want to write that note, so he said, "I don't need money for my tooth." Patrick asked him to just write a quick, "Dear Tooth Fairy, I lost my tooth down the drain." He did it then went straight to bed. We used Natalie's pink Tooth Fairy pillow that Gary (her godfather) had given her.

As you can see in this picture, Eric already has another tooth growing in behind the one he just lost, so thankfully the tooth came out on it's own. The first teeth that Natalie lost had to be pulled because they were not out yet and there were teeth growing in then also. Natalie was always more dramatic when she lost her tooth than the boys were. So far, Eric seems unfazed by the whole experience. He was pretty excited this morning, though, when he found the dollar coins in the pillow.

Regency Swim Meet

Yes, it's another Saturday in June, which means that there was another swim meet today. This one was an away meet at a place that we have never been to before. The Regency pool is a "non-standard 23.5 yards long", which is smaller than the other pools we have been swimming in so far this summer, which were all 25 meters long. They also have only four lanes instead of at least six, so there were more heats than usual for each event, to accommodate all the swimmers. The swim meet started at 8am instead of 9am, apparently so we could be sure to be done by noon. They must have some sort of restriction on their swim meets.

This meet was also unusual in that Natalie did not swim in this meet. She has admitted to her back aching more these past two weeks. For last week's meet, we talked about pulling her out of her events if her back started hurting. She said she was fine, so she swam in all of her usual events. Well, then we find out during her physical therapy appointment this week that she was hurting during last weekend's swim meet after all, but she wanted to swim and didn't tell us. Patrick and I have reminded her over and over again about being in this for the long term. Swimming in these swim meets are short term goals. She cannot re-injure her back again and be out of swimming for several months. So, instead of seeing how she was feeling today, Patrick just told her that she wasn't swimming in the swim meet so she can rest up for the Championship meet next Saturday. She came with us to root for her teammates, however, so she at least got to enjoy their company.

Meanwhile, Eric was a happy camper today. He didn't bring one of his Pokemon books, but he was fine without that or the iPad. Instead, he socialized with some of his friends. I took this picture through some criss-crossing pieces of wood on the side of a big gazebo/cabana structure at the Regency pool. It was a big covered area that they let the visiting team sit in. Eric decided to crawl/step in between the wooden pieces instead of walking all the way around--part of his recent pattern of climbing all over everything.

As for the actual swimming, Eric continues on his quest to swim a legal butterfly stroke. Unfortunately today, his goggles fell to below his nose when he dove in, and instead of just removing them, he tried to swim that way. His strokes did not remotely resemble the butterfly stroke until maybe the last couple of strokes before the wall, so of course he was disqualified. Everyone felt bad for him though, and I could hear lots of "Aww's" and people cheering him on to finish. Luckily he didn't seem too upset when he got out of the water, although he seemed upset when he first dove in and the goggles fell. Luckily also, he did not have to swim the butterfly in the Medley Relay this week. Coach Jesse had him swim the freestyle instead, and another boy who was able to swim the butterfly legally, swam the butterfly leg of the Medley Relay. Eric just barely out-touched the other relay team to get first place. He was excited about getting his first place ribbon.

I'm still not sure where they are getting the seed times, but Eric's results for today are as follows--(seed times)/finish time from last week/finish times today(place):

#14 Boys 7-8 25 Free (29.25)/ 36.34/ 33.11 (9th out of 12)
#26 Boys 7-8 25 Back (34.34)/ 39.82/ 37.50 (7th out of 11)
#54 Boys 7-8 25 Fly (NT)/ DQ/ DQ

#64 Boys 8 and under 100 Medley Relay - 'A' Leg 4 (2:06.39)/ 2:18.49 (1st out of 2)
#2 Boys 8 and under 100 Free Relay - 'B' Leg 4 (2:09.32)/ 2:25.10 (3rd)

As you can see the seed times are misleading. Eric is still getting faster and faster. One more meet to do in this summer swim season. Go Eric Go!

Riverwalk Adventures

I'm not very good at taking selfies, but I'd like to get myself in more photos, so I keep trying. I'm usually smiling way too much, mostly because I am laughing at how bad the photo is. Here I was trying to get the Tower of the Americas in the background. Patrick and I took a nice morning walk yesterday. We are standing near the Arneson Theatre where the Spurs Celebration began last night.

We actually started our walk a little earlier, and we went looking for a place to eat breakfast. Soon after we started walking, however, a bird decided to poop on Patrick's shirt and head. He had to go back to our hotel room to take a shower and change his shirt--it was that bad. We had a good laugh about it, though.

I shared this photo on Facebook already. We decided to go to a restaurant to watch the World Cup game that started at 2pm--England vs. Uruguay. We were at Rita's on the River, and they offered a 32 ounce margarita. Patrick already had the 16 ounce version and decided he liked it enough to get the large one. We usually watch games like this at home, and it was cool to be able to order snacks during the game and have someone else refill our drinks. Patrick chatted briefly with an Englishman during the first half of the game. The guy left at the half, not happy with how his team was playing. England ended up losing 1-2.

This is the view from our hotel room balcony last night. We did a lot of walking yesterday, sometimes on the Riverwalk, and sometimes on the sidewalks next to the busy streets. We changed it up for variety. The weather was really nice for this time of year. The clouds kept the temperatures pleasant, and the light breeze felt great.

We had dinner last night for the first time at Fogo de Chao, a Brazilian steakhouse. For those who have never been to that restaurant, there were servers constantly roaming around with different types of meat--beef, lamb, chicken, and pork. They kept coming until we turned over the little cards they gave us from green to red. Patrick and I wanted to taste everything, but we couldn't do much more than taste--there was so much. We took our time walking home because we were so full.

We left the hotel this morning and came home. The kitchen sink was full of dishes, and the laundry that Patrick asked the kids to fold when we left on Wednesday afternoon, was still in the basket in the living room. They didn't seem too excited to see us, but I was happy to see them. Eric was getting smothered with kisses, but he didn't mind as long as he could still watch Pokemon on the iPad. It's back to the routine tomorrow--another swim meet, of course!

Anniversary Celebration

Patrick and I planned a small little trip for our anniversary. I have Thursday and Friday off this week, and we made reservations at the Hilton Palacio del Rio, a hotel on the Riverwalk. We've always thought it would be fun to stay on the Riverwalk and have the opportunity to walk around and explore, enjoy the restaurants and sights, etc. We didn't realize that the San Antonio Spurs would win the NBA Finals and schedule their River Parade Celebration on the same day we would be going on our little trip.

I took this picture when we were in the van on the way to the hotel. That's the hotel in front of us. To control the traffic, the police closed off the street on the way to the hotel--see the orange cones? So, instead of being able to head straight to our destination, it took us another 45 minutes or so to go around several blocks to get to the hotel from the other direction. Several streets were closed, and of course there were lots of cars and even more people walking everywhere.

This isn't the greatest photo, but I had to show how packed the Riverwalk was for the celebratory River Parade. I took this from our hotel balcony with a zoom lens plus I cropped the image to focus on all the people. Patrick was a little horrified that there were even some people putting their feet into the nasty water.

We made dinner reservations for Boudro's Texas Bistro on the Riverwalk for 7:30pm. The parade started at 6pm and ended around 7pm. Instead of walking along the Riverwalk to the restaurant, we walked on the street instead. It would have taken forever if we had to fight those crowds.

On the plus side, we inadvertently got to be there for the River Parade. This is probably the best photo of the 50+ photos I took of the parade. We were on the ninth floor, so it was tough to see who was on each float, but there was no way we wanted to be down there with that sea of humanity. There were something like 24 floats or so, and I snapped away with my camera hoping to get some good photos whenever one of the floats got near.

We only recognized this float because the Spurs logo on the front was covered up by the Argentinian flag--Manu Ginobili's home country, of course. We also got clued in to a couple of the floats, the one with Tim Duncan and the one with Kawhi Leonard, because of all of the cheering from the crowds below. The one with Kawhi Leonard was greeted with coordinated shouts of "M-V-P!" Tim Duncan's float was next to the last one. I also got a blurry photo of Tony Parker.

So, despite the hassle we went through to get to the hotel, the parade added a special touch to our anniversary trip. After all, we can always say that all of those people were there to help us celebrate our anniversary.

Swim Team Party and Team Photos

I've been the photographer for the neighborhood swim team photo in the past, so I decided that I wasn't going to volunteer this year. I did, however, take this photo of the other parents getting their own photos while the "official" photographer took her photo of the team. I thought it was hilarious that there were so many people taking pictures. It's not like they won't get a free copy, but people just like to get their own photos.

For the first time this year, they not only took a team photo, they also took a team photo with the parents included, and photos of the kids grouped into different age groups. That's partly why I didn't want to volunteer to take the "official" photo--because I didn't want to have to take all of the extra photos.

They offered hot dogs as well as pizza at the team party this year. They also usually get rid of some of their extra stuff that people donated for the concession stand--drinks and ring pops included. Natalie got one of the ring pops and I was able to catch this photo of her. She was looking through the ribbons she and Eric had received for the first three swim meets this summer.

Poor Natalie. She was so happy that she has been able to swim, but she was having some back pain again since last week. There was a chance that she wasn't going to swim at the meet last weekend, but she said that her back was feeling okay, so we let her swim. When she went to her physical therapy appointment yesterday, the physical therapist noticed that her core strength had decreased. When she and Patrick gave Natalie the third degree, Natalie admitted that she did indeed have back pain even during the swim meet last weekend. Poor Natalie--she wanted to swim so badly that she didn't tell us how she was really feeling.  That's how her back pain got so bad the last time. Patrick had another talk with her about how we wanted her to look at long term gain. She may not get to swim now, but then she won't aggravate her back and she'll be able to swim pain-free in the future. So, Patrick told her coach that she won't be swimming in next weekend's swim meet. She can still go to cheer for her team and teammates, but she won't be swimming. Maybe this way she'll be pain-free again for the Championship Meet the following weekend.

Smash Up

When he got home from college, Anthony was excited about a board game called Smash Up. According to Amazon.com, it's "The Shufflebuilding Game Of Total Awesomeness!" We bought the original game plus all three available expansion packs almost three weeks ago, and the kids (and Patrick have played it almost every day. It's cool that my kids, ages 7 to 18, can play it and have fun together. This is a picture of them playing last night while watching the USA vs. Ghana World Cup game. I have yet to play Smash Up (I'm the only one), but I should start participating--maybe this weekend.

Speaking of having fun together, Anthony was off from work yesterday, and he took Natalie to lunch at Whataburger, and then to see the movie "The Fault In Our Stars" at the Rialto Theater where he works. He's been taking advantage of being able to see movies for free, and it was sweet that he took his little sister to a movie. She says she cried, just like she did when she read the book, but Anthony says he didn't cry. I'm going to miss that boy when he goes back to college.

Hunter's Creek Swim Meet

Another Saturday in June means another neighborhood swim meet. This one was at our home pool, which we love because it takes us that much less time to get to and from the meet. The downside is that there is limited parking, so they ask that we leave our cars at home and walk to the pool. Patrick is super nice to us and drops us off then walks back by himself. This week he even got me my favorite Starbucks drink and dropped it off before going home to park.

This is Eric with his friend Sofia. Sofia's mom Alicia remarked that they were both in the same events, so I took a picture of both of them showing the numbers written on their arms. Sofia was in events #1 (100 Freestyle Relay), 13 (25 Free), 25 (25 Back), 53 (25 Fly), and 63 (100 Medley Relay doing Fly). Eric was in events #2, 14, 26, 54, and 64. It usually helps me a lot that Sofia goes first, because when I see her line up for her race, I know that Eric needs to be there too.

In case you didn't notice, Eric was on the schedule to swim the butterfly for the first time in a swim meet. Patrick and I have seen him swim the butterfly in practice. Patrick, of course, knows more about the particulars of each stroke, but it's pretty obvious even to me that Eric cannot swim the butterfly legally. Patrick did his best to give Eric a few tips, but Eric pretty much ignored him. He's just his "Papa" and not his coach, after all. Unfortunately, Eric was swimming butterfly in an individual event as well as butterfly in the Medley Relay. He got disqualified in both. Luckily, he did not take it as hard as Natalie did the first time she was disqualified. Hopefully he will either listen to Patrick before next week, or his coach will give him the same pointers.

Natalie actually posed for a picture for me--yay! She was with her friend Anna, whose father was pressuring the both of them (with me) to have their picture taken together. Natalie was in the same events as Eric, except for her age group, and the same events she has been swimming in this swim season. Her back was doing okay during this meet, so she got to swim everything she was scheduled for.

She again got a first place in every event except for the 25 Free, where she again got second place after her teammate Riley. I'll describe the particulars at the very end of this post.

This meet was unique, however, because about a half hour before the meet started, the skies opened up and it started pouring. Honestly, I wasn't concerned about getting wet myself. It was already so hot and humid that the rain really helped cool things down. I was carrying my camera on my, however, and I was very afraid of it getting wet. Luckily I was under cover already, and I stayed there.

Notice how serene Eric looks in this photo, as if he is just taking it all in. He is clutching his Pokemon book (a different one from last week) to keep it from getting wet. Notice the puddles of water in the chairs behind him. We didn't sit very much after the rain because our chairs were all soaked. Notice the two girls running in the background. Interestingly, several of the kids were saying that they didn't want to get wet--even though they were all wearing swimsuits and they had already been in the pool for warmups! Thankfully, the rain did not return, and there was never any lightning or thunder, so the meet went on as scheduled.

This is Eric with his friend Cameron. Aren't they adorable? It's great that he has friends to pal around with during these meets, because I haven't heard him say that he didn't want to go to any meets since that week before the first meet of this swim season.

We have one more neighborhood swim meet next Saturday, and then the Championship Meet the Sunday after that. Then maybe we can have a little more free time.

The rest of this is boring stats, but I need to record this for my information.

Eric's results are as follows (seed times)/finish times (place):

#14 Boys 7-8 25 Free (32.47)/ 36.34 (11th out of 11)
#26 Boys 7-8 25 Back (38.12)/ 39.82 (6th out of 9)
#54 Boys 7-8 25 Fly (NT)/ DQ
#64 Boys 8 and under 100 Medley Relay - 'B' Leg 3 (NT)/ DQ
#2 Boys 8 and under 100 Free Relay - 'B' Leg 3 (2:07.83)/ 2:19.38 (3rd out of 5)

Natalie's results are as follows (seed times)/finish times (place):

#17 Girls 11-12 25 Free (13.32)/ 16.06 (2nd out of 13)
#29 Girls 11-12 25 Back (17.97)/ 18.16 (1st out of 12)
#57 Girls 11-12 25 Fly (17.59)/ 17.22 (1st out of 10)
#67 Girls 11-12 100 Medley Relay - 'A' Leg 1 (1:15.07)/ 1:19.18 (1st out of 4)
#5 Girls 11-12 100 Free Relay - 'A' Leg 4 (1:03.33)/ 1:09.47 (1st out of 4)

First Week Out of School

This has been the first full week that the kids have been out of school. Eric has been doing a lot of what he's doing in this picture--playing video games and watching Pokemon videos on the iPad. He gets more electronics time because he has more time, but also because he swims almost daily. We tend to be a little busier in June that during the school year because of the daily swim practices.

There are morning and evening swim practices for our neighborhood swim team. Eric decided to take a break on Thursday, but he went to practice on the other four days. He usually likes to go in the morning (10-11am), but on Fridays like today, he likes to go to the evening practice (6-7pm) because they have snacks after the Friday evening practice.

Natalie has morning club swim practices on Mondays and Wednesdays (8:30-10am) and the nightly practices Monday through Friday (5:30-7:30pm). She's only been going to no more than 45 minutes of practice because of doctor's orders to increase the time slowly. She has been feeling "crampy" this week because of that time of the month, so she went to morning practice for club swim and the neighborhood team on Monday, but then on Tuesday night her back started to bother her, so she has been skipping the morning practices. On Wednesday, she could only swim 250 meters before her back really bothered her. Yesterday she woke up with her back hurting, so she has not been swimming since then. She says she feels better today, so she thinks (and we hope) that she will do okay during the neighborhood swim meet tomorrow morning. It's going to be a long recovery.

I took this picture shortly after I took the first one above. This is what Eric does when you tell him to get off the electronics and go to bed. He does something similar when you tell him to take a break, but he is doing better with that after our little chat. I told him that the more he complains about having to take a break, the less likely he will get to play with electronics again. Also notice the Minion pajamas. We have to practically tear those off his body--he loves them so much.

As for Anthony, he has been working almost daily. Sometimes he works during the day, like 10-2. Sometimes he works late, like tonight he is working from 2-10. He has had to clean up after people in the theaters and he made a comment about how annoying people are who make a mess just because they know someone else is going to clean up after them. The rest of the time he helps us by driving Alex around, or most likely, he sits in his chair in the living room on his computer. He did also tell us about a board game called Smash-Up. The kids have all been playing that game together and having fun. It never gets old seeing them playing with each other and getting along.

As for Alex, since school ended last Thursday, he has had friends over to sleep over or he has slept over at their houses five nights. Patrick worries about his not sleeping. Both of us just don't like when he doesn't keep up with chores or he doesn't clean up after his friends.

Besides all of the above activities, the NBA Finals have been keeping us up. Go Spurs Go! The World Cup has started also, and Patrick and Alex have been watching daily.

I've had a busy week at work. Besides my usual duties, I have had more requirements to do this week that are related to my new position as a government employee. Everything has been completed during the course of a normal day, but these things are just more to keep up with.

Today when I was about to get on base to go to work this morning, there were a lot of news vans in this small parking lot just outside of the base. Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, an American soldier who was captured by the Taliban, and who was released in exchange for five Taliban detainees from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was reportedly transferred to the hospital that I work, for further recovery and treatment. The news vans were all set to report about the event. I was worried that they would re-institute the 100% security check that they did the last time we had a high-profile patient, but everything was normal today. We'll see what happens in the next few weeks or so.

Tomorrow we have another swim meet. We'll see how that goes.

Inwood Swim Meet

Poor Eric only has three races at these swim meets, and he was done by 10:30am. Usually I let him play on the iPad, but this time, he wanted to bring one of his beloved Pokemon books. Notice also that he wanted to use his brand-new Minion towel that we picked up at WalMart a couple of days ago. This boy has many interests.

Today was the second of four dual meets this summer. Natalie got her love of swimming from these neighborhood swim meets, so they hold a special place in our hearts. Thankfully, it wasn't nearly as hot and humid as last weekend, because the weather does NOT hold a special place in our hearts. Also, we finished up about an hour earlier than last week's marathon.

This is one of the few photos I got of Natalie. Invariably, when she sees me pointing my camera at her, she covers her face with her hands. Of course here she is copying her grandparents and looking away from the camera at the last second. She's grown up with these girls, though, and bonded with them through swimming, so I have to do what I have to.

Eric's events/(seed times)/ results(places) are as follows:
#14 Boys 7-8 25 Free --(45.23 )--32.47 seconds (9th out of 10) 

#26 Boys 7-8 25 Back--(46.02)--38.12 seconds (8th out of 10) 

#2 Boys 8 and under 100 Free Relay - 'B' Leg 4 --(2:55.48)--2:33.64 (3rd out of 3)

Note that I'm not sure where they got the seed times from, because they are different from the seed times and actual swim times from last week. Eric dropped over another eight seconds from his 25 Free from last week, when he had dropped seven seconds from last year. He dropped another three seconds from his 25 Back from last week, when he had dropped seven seconds from last year. Eric swam the third leg of the freestyle relay this time, and his team consisted of two boys who were 6 years old. He's getting better and better! Now, if he would allow his papa to teach him how to swim the breaststroke and butterfly legally--then we'd be golden.

Yes, this is what I get when I try to get pictures of Natalie. At least her fingernails are clean, even if they're a little long.

Natalie's events/(seed times)/ results(places) are as follows: 

#17 Girls 11-12 25 Free--(13.32 )--15.85 seconds (2) 

#29 Girls 11-12 25 Back--(20.15)--17.97 seconds (1) 

#57 Girls 11-12 25 Fly--(17.85)--17.59 seconds (1) 

#67 Girls 11-12 100 Medley Relay - 'A' Leg 1 --(1:16.01)--1:21.28 (1) 

#5 Girls 11-12 100 Free Relay - 'A' Leg 4 --(1:04.94)--1:06.81 (1)

Natalie again lost to Riley by about 0.3 seconds in the 25 Free, the same girl she lost to last week. She won by three seconds in the 25 Back. Backstroke isn't her favorite stroke, but she certainly seems to be good at it. She won by almost a second in the 25 Fly this week, in contrast to last week when she just out-touched Riley. Natalie did the fly in the Medley relay this week, instead of backstroke that she did last week. She was originally scheduled to swim the freestyle anchor leg, and her friend Anna was scheduled to swim the butterfly. Anna's mom (Alicia) and I were laughing at them complaining, so I suggested to them that they ask their coach about it. Coach Jesse surprisingly told them to switch if they wanted to, as long as they got in the right place at the right time. They were happier, and Alicia and I didn't have to hear about it anymore.

This is the sort of picture I get when I point my camera at Eric. Even after he got tired of reading his Pokemon book, he got up and started playing. We don't necessarily want our kids to be competitive swimmers, we just want them to exercise and be comfortable in the water. It's especially nice when they're having fun despite the long waits during a swim meet. Next Saturday--another weekend, another swim meet.

School's Out!

I haven't felt like doing a lot of blogging in the last few months, so those of you that read my blog regularly may notice some posts popping up with earlier dates that you didn't notice before. I have to catch up on my old photos and stories for the blog book I'm eventually going to make.

Yesterday was the last day of school. Eric came home with this paper the day before yesterday. On the left (complete with misspellings and lower case letters starting some sentences), it says, "I'm exited that there'll be no school. I'll get to play all day! Sometimes I'll play on my ipad. I like to watch Pokemon." On the right it says, "I'm also exited to play with my biggest brother anthony. he's very funny. he's also a very good brother."

I thought it was interesting that he called my iPad HIS iPad. We had a conversation a couple of weeks ago about how both of our iPads are MY iPads. He said something like, "Well, but I use it the most." I replied with, "But it's still MY iPad." It's true that he uses it the most and in fact, I barely use either iPad at all, but I still need to be able to control his time on them.

I took this picture last weekend, when Alex covered Eric with pillows as Eric was watching Pokemon on the iPad. When he got up this morning, he came to my room and asked to use the iPad. He was very reluctant to get off the iPad last night at 9pm when I sent him to bed--after all, there's no more school, right? I told him that he could play on it this morning when he got up. He knocked on my door at about 6:45am. He was in a similar position to the one in this picture except sprawled out on my bed. Now he moved to the comfy chair in my bedroom.

This is Anthony in the chair he has been sitting in almost continuously since he came home almost a month ago. I came home from work many times and found Eric watching with him on his computer. Apparently the current favorite is "Adventure Time". Anthony also Skypes almost nightly with his friend Julia, for hours at a time. We haven't put any labels on that relationship, because he doesn't know the exact status, but you can make your own conclusions.

He has seen a few friends, especially Alejandro and Jake. He has been really useful driving Alex around. Yesterday they went by the grocery store to pick up snacks on the way home from Alex's school. They spent $70 in mostly snacks. I was happy that he did pick up pizza rolls that we ate for dinner.

He has looked for jobs, too. He almost became a lifeguard at Six Flags, but in the process of becoming certified, he lost interest. Patrick and I were fine with that, since we worried about him being outside all day and about him not being so vigilant about sunscreen. He found a job at a local movie theatre instead. He has a couple of friends that work there, and his first day is today.

These are Natalie's beat-up Toms. She wore these shoes every day for the last four months or so because she couldn't participate in PE and therefore didn't need to wear her sneakers. She had already asked me for another pair so she figured it didn't matter what this one looked like, so she allowed her friends to sign them. She wears them like this and she's okay with that, so I'm okay with that too.

I'm off work today so I can be with the kids. Patrick left yesterday for Milwaukee so he could attend his aunt's memorial service this morning. I'll be a single parent this weekend, and thankfully it should be fairly relaxed. I just need to get through tonight and tomorrow morning and I'll be more relaxed. I have to get Natalie and Eric to swim practice tonight, while going to a graduation dinner for the residents at work. Anthony will be at work until 10pm, and Alex will have an undisclosed number of friends sleeping over. Tomorrow is a swim meet for Natalie and Eric. I actually think the summer is busier for us than the school year.

Back to Swimming

This is Patrick taking the helm again at Melanie's request.

Natalie is finally back to swimming with her club team, as well as the neighborhood team. After the physical therapist asked me to get her swimming a few times before our appointment with the sports medicine doctor Wednesday morning, I was fairly certain that she would be getting back in the water again. I didn't know what the restrictions would be, or what the plan would be to get her back to swimming at the level she was before.

Natalie's relief and excitement showed up almost immediately in the form of her being her chatty self talking about whatever random topic popped into her mind (she was hungry and cold at the doctor's office). The doctor got a chuckle out of it as I tried to keep her focused.

It is strange to think that we are relieved to again be driving her back and forth to practices, but we are certainly happy with the change in her mood. Right now she can swim her neighborhood practices (and join the neighborhood meet on Saturday) but she has a number of restrictions on her club practices (and other swimming too).
First, no breaststroke until she is swimming 100% in practice for all 3 other strokes (butterfly, backstroke, and freestyle).
No Dry Land training until she is 100% in training on breaststroke.
She will start practices at 50% in terms of time/distance. This means she needs to swim hard in practice but will only do half of the normal practice to build up endurance and to make sure she doesn't re-injure anything. This will slowly increase over time.
We are hoping that in 3-4 weeks she will be swimming full practices as she was so many months ago before the injury occurred.

I guess this is a fairly short update, but we are all excited that Natalie is back in the pool--it is much harder for her to be grumpy at us when she is in the water.

Memorial Day Weekend Activities

My weekend started with a day off on Friday, since I was on call for all of Saturday. As per the usual routine, I took Eric to the bus stop in the morning. Eric was in a funny mood, and not only did he feel like sitting down at the bus stop in the morning for whatever reason, but he also felt like clasping his hands together as if in prayer. He did something similar at church yesterday, but at church this is more normal.

After Eric was picked up by the bus, I took Natalie to Starbucks for breakfast. We used to go there together more often, usually before a swim meet, but of course we haven't had any of those for four months. She has done some swimming starting last week, so she is doing much better, but I'll have to write a whole update after she sees the sports medicine doctor this coming Wednesday. I'm crossing my fingers and saying some prayers that she'll be able to officially start swimming again.

Anthony's best friend Alejandro (on the far right) took his girlfriend Alexandra (middle) to her prom on Saturday. Anthony went with Alexandra's friend so they could go together. Apparently, Alexandra's friend wasn't that interested in going with Anthony, but at least Anthony got to hang out with Alejandro. They are really two peas in a pod. I asked him for pictures, but he thought putting the pictures on Facebook was good enough. I guess I should be happy with whatever I get, even if they are low resolution photos like this one. They are a good-looking trio, aren't they?

Eric had a baseball game on Saturday that I missed. He hit the ball for the second time during a game, and this time he made it to first base for the first time! I missed it because I was at work, but apparently he was very excited. Unfortunately he didn't repeat the performance on Sunday at the game I went to. He only has baseball practice left this coming Wednesday, and one baseball game left this coming Friday. He still hasn't found a sport that he really loves. He has said that he enjoys the baseball practices, but not the games. We might try some gymnastics and/or some karate this summer.

We had some thunderstorms and heavy rains last night and then for most of the day today. We had planned to go swimming today, but not with the thunderstorms. Going to the movies was perfect for a rainy day, though. Patrick, Natalie, Eric, and I went to see "X-Men: Days of Future Past" today. We would have taken Anthony, but he saw it last night with a friend of his. A couple friends of theirs work at a movie theatre, so they took the opportunity to see their friends and to see the movie. He wouldn't have minded seeing the movie again, but since he didn't get home until about 1am, he preferred to sleep.

We would have also taken Alex, but he was sleeping over at a friend's house. Anthony picked him up after we got home from the movie. He didn't tell me until later that we could have picked him up in the morning so he could see the movie, but of course he didn't tell us that before.

This afternoon, I made some stuffed jalapeños for dinner and Chocolate Chip Toffee Bars for dessert. After dinner we watched "Thor: The Dark World" with the whole family. We had offered up some other movie choices, but in the end, Anthony wanted to watch this movie since he had not seen it yet. We didn't get the outside time that we try to have on Memorial Day weekend, but at least we got the family time.

I'd Have No Photos Without This Child

Last night was Natalie's Spring Band Concert. I didn't even bring my big camera because during their Winter Concert, she gave me looks as if she was shooting daggers at me when I took out my camera--even my iPhone camera. Also, she is a percussionist and therefore she stands in the back behind a lot of other people, instruments, drums, music stands, etc. It's impossible to get a good picture of her being uncooperative. If it weren't for Eric, I would have nothing to take pictures of.

Here is my youngest angel climbing in the kitchen. He has been climbing everything lately. When we were at my sister Cynthia's house for Mother's Day weekend, he was constantly climbing on the outside of their staircase. When I saw him doing this on Saturday, I told him, "Just so you know, Eric, you shouldn't be doing this." I said this because I didn't want him to think that it was okay just because I was taking a picture. He has been more inquisitive lately, so he asked, "Then why are you taking a picture?" I accurately predicted he would ask that, didn't I? So I answered, "So I can show Papa what you were doing." So maybe that wasn't the best answer, but it was true.

Patrick and I are embarrassed to say that we let Eric wear these shoes. We bought these shoes less than two months ago. He wears them daily, even to baseball practices and games (because he prefers them to his cleats). As a result of the daily wear and tear, he also likes to kick at the ground and other such things that are bad for shoes. Finally, this weekend when we realized that how big the holes were in BOTH shoes, Patrick ran out and got him an identical pair, except in a bigger size 12 instead of a size 11. Even Anthony was shocked when he saw this picture.

For my final story (and picture), I was cleaning out Eric's backpack this morning when I found this. He has not more GT (Gifted and Talented) classes this year, so she sent home their work. They took a picture of him and he cut it out and glued it onto this piece of paper behind a clear plastic circle with small white circles inside. The caption says, "If I lived in a snow globe..." He filled in the rest as follows (complete with spelling errors): "I whoud always follow the orders from my minion dad." That answer is so typical for him right now. He totally relates everything back to minions and it just cracks me up.

Eric brings a lot of joy and laughter to all of our lives. Alas, I know that he won't stay little forever. Just last night when I asked him if he wanted me to sing a bedtime song to him, he replied, "No thanks." Sniff, sniff--it's the beginning of the end. This morning he still gave me a big hug while he was waiting for the bus. I had to ask him for the hug, but I was happy with that for now.

May Art a la Carte

On Wednesday of this past week, Eric had his last scheduled art class of the year. The lesson was about Eric Carle and his colorful artwork. They didn't use painted tissue paper like Eric Carle uses, but instead they used a simpler, faster method--crayons.

As you can see from the bulletin board teacher's example, the kids were going to draw seahorses. The teacher took them step-by-step through drawing the head, then the back/curly tail, then the belly of the seahorse. They started with using a pencil, then they darkened the pencil line with permanent marker.

The permanent marker made me a little nervous, especially in the hands of a couple of the more hyperactive children in the class. There is one child that almost always had an extra adult watching him. This time there were three adults watching his table of four kids. Two were teacher assistant-type people and one was his mother, who volunteered to help with this art class. Luckily, another mom was helping me with the other four tables (three tables with four kids and one table with five).

After they drew the eyes, they colored it in with white crayon. They then used colorful crayons to color in the body. One of the boys at Eric's table named Marcus (one of the kids that attended Eric's birthday party), colored his seahorse red and yellow. He has had an "Iron Man" theme on past art projects, so when I asked him if he was choosing Iron Man colors, he looked at me as if he was thinking, "Hey, how did you know that?" I had to laugh. Marcus also decided that he had to draw lightning bolts radiating from his seahorse (even though he knew that seahorses live in the water). Eric decided this was a good idea and therefore added some similar shapes to his drawing except in blue instead of yellow.

After the seahorse was done, they were supposed to draw bubbles and waves in white or blue crayon, and seaweed in green. Eric decided on red for seaweed for some reason.

The last step was to cover everything in blue watercolor paint. The crayon give a "resist" effect and the watercolor doesn't cover the crayon but instead colors the paper that doesn't have crayon on it. I couldn't convince Eric to paint over the crayon with the watercolor paint. Instead he sort of painted around the seahorse. As usual, Eric did what he wanted (as did most of the kids in the class), but in the end he was happy with his creation, and so was I.

The teacher gives each class points according to their behavior--if they line up quickly and quietly, if they raise their hands, etc. She usually cuts them quite a bit of slack, of course. She totaled up all the points from this semester, and Eric's class won for the first grade. That meant that they get an extra class. They got an extra class in January, and I didn't even know when that happened. It so happens that this time, I found out about it ahead of time. They're having the extra class next Friday when I'm off work. I guess I can volunteer for one more class, which I really enjoy, so I'll be reporting back on that class next week.

Lunch with Eric

I know I have way too many photos in this post, but I just love all of them. These pictures are just further proof that Anthony is HOME, and that Eric is really enjoying his company. I took these photos yesterday (Wednesday, May 14, 2014).

Anthony had just gotten out of bed when I left home to go to Wendy's, to get food for Anthony and Eric, so I got to the school first and Anthony met me there. Eric, of course, gave him a big hug and Anthony seems to enjoy lifting Eric up for a big hug.

Interestingly, Anthony commented that the school looked smaller than he remembered it. Alex said about a year ago that he remembered the school ceilings being much higher than when he went to school there. Obviously, both boys have grown quite a bit since they went to school there.

I had to take a picture of the two boys together--sort of a comparison shot of their sizes and what they were eating. Eric had his usual spicy chicken nuggets (10) and a small vanilla Frosty. Anthony had the Double Baconator and a large vanilla Frosty. He usually gets the chocolate, but that machine was broken .

Anthony likes to post photos to Snapchat, so I took a picture of him taking a selfie with Eric, a photo that Anthony then posted to Snapchat. They really look happy in this picture, don't they?

I also took a short video of Eric raising one eyebrow and then the other. He wasn't smiling because he was concentrating so much. I then cut to Anthony's face. Anthony is much more skilled at alternately raising one eyebrow and then the other. I posted the video to Facebook, so if you're on Facebook, go look it up--it's hilarious!

Of course, I had to take one close-up of the two boys. I love these two so much!

I had to go so I could help set up Eric's art class. Anthony stayed with Eric for a couple of minutes more before Eric rejoined his classmates. Tomorrow I'll post about Eric's last art class of the year.

Mother's Day Gifts

My sister Melissa gave me this card. The front of it says, "Have a Happy Mother's Day, Sis, and Remember", and the inside is show in this photo. "Your kids will always think I'm cooler than you are." When Eric read this, he just smiled sweetly and didn't say anything. Natalie flat out said that she agreed with that statement. Anthony was the one that laughed and said, "Of course not, Mama!" I didn't realize that Alex had not read the card until just now. When I showed it to him, he said, "That's what you were talking about." I guess he had heard me saying something to the other kids but he didn't actually see the card until just now. He quietly shook his head and then said, "Of course not, Mama." Anthony and Alex have gotten so sweet! :)

Eric had a Mother's Day card in his school backpack that I discovered in there when I was cleaning it out on Sunday. I'll have to describe that one another time when I take a picture of it. I thought it was funny that he didn't remember making it.

A couple or so weeks ago, I mentioned to Patrick that if he wanted to get me something for Mother's Day, he could get me an umbrella that I had seen at Barnes and Noble when we were there a few weeks ago, or a bamboo lap desk that I had also seen at Barnes and Noble. We haven't made it a habit to get each other gifts for many, many years, but I seem to be getting more sentimental in recent years, so I at least give him some suggestions. He never gives ME any suggestions, although he is much easier to get presents for than I am. I wasn't sure if he would take my suggestions or not, since, like I stated, we haven't made it a habit to give each other anything for birthdays and other special occasions for many years.

So, when I found the huge gift bag sitting on the sofa, I was surprised. I thought at first that it was one of the gift bags for Eric's birthday gifts that have been empty but still in the living room for a month now, so I peeked inside to see if it was empty and then I planned to put it away. I was truly surprised when I saw the umbrella, but having seen the umbrella, I knew immediately that the gift bag must be for me! I didn't want a plain photo, so I had Eric hold the lap desk and balance the umbrella on his head for fun. He makes a cute model, doesn't he? :) Thanks to my loving husband for surprising me with these fabulous gifts! They're exactly what I wanted! ;)

The best gift was later, when Natalie had gone to bed early but the boys were still up and playing the game Soul Calibur IV on the PS3. Patrick took this picture because I was upstairs at the time. They all took turns playing each other, even Patrick. Eric looked like he was in absolute heaven, being able to play with his brothers AND his father. He had spent some time discussing Pokemon with Anthony earlier and showing him his new Pokemon books that his Aunt Melissa had given to him for his birthday. He has really been enjoying having Anthony home again.

I've been enjoying having Anthony home again also. I missed my baby boy. What perfect timing for him to be home for Mother's Day.