Dragon Friend

While on the back porch Sam had a little dragonfly repeatedly come back to him. He would just hold up his finger and it would come rest and stay a while. Both Josie and I held up our fingers, but he would not cometo us. I guess Sam has the magical touch.

Swim Meet # 3

Sam rocked the freestyle with his best time yet! He also swam in his first relay race and did Awesome. I'm very proud of him and although swim team is a tough commitment he has come so far with swimming.

Lane 2, in position. backstroke

Prior to this meet Sam was ranked 44 in the county for backstroke in boys ages 6 & under (he missed the cut off for the 7 & 8's by 4 days.) This is out of approximately 700 boys- Go Sam!

Resort Style

One of my girlfriends lives in a neighborhood that has a resort style pool. Outside just being massive, it has -a baby pool, a rocking water slide with it's own pool an awesome kids area with mushroom and palm tree. The kids area is unique in that every 15 feet it gets a foot deeper leading all the way up to the Olympic size pool, so it is perfect for every age group. We had a blast and this time I have pictures.

Josie, Sam and my girlfriends kids Taryn & Brett. Sam under the mushroom.

Josie and Sam playing.

Sam jumping into the float.

Josie diving down for a toy.

Sam having an awesome time.

wooohhoooo!

Almost made it without tipping over.

Even Mom and Jo went down the slide about 10 times. I think the best part for all of us was the slide. The ride home was about 30 minutes and Josie was fast asleep before we got there.

The Heat is On

It has been disgustingly HOT for 3 days now. I think it has hit 97 everyday, which means it is just below 97 in the upstairs of our house. In an effort to be cool we have been spending a lot more time in our basement. While the air mattresses aren't helping our backs, it sure feels good in the nice cool basement.

The family who sleeps together...is nuts.

Trying to focus first thing in the morning...my sleeping children.

39

Happy Birthday to the best Daddy and husband! Eric and I were born 4 years and 1 day apart. With 3 birthdays over 6 days this week it is like one big celebration of life.

35

Today I turned 35 years old. I'm not one of those people who dread turning another year older, I'm looking forward to it. I think the 40's will be the best...maybe early 50's too. So bring it on father time, I can't wait to be older and wiser.

Swim Meet #2

Another great swim by Sam in back stroke. I think he placed 5th overall, but we were against a large team. He did come in first in his heat beating out the other 4 kids. My job this meet was bullpen Mom for Sam's age group, which basically means babysitter to about 35 kids between the ages of 4-7. We have 20x20 area we are forced to stay in with no shade...and it was HOT! While I felt bad for the kids at least they did get to jump in the water a few times. I got no relief and before I knew it I had a pounding headache and felt nauseous, not too mention no part of me was dry. I think the other Mom working bullpen with me must of thought I looked bad because after 2.5 hours she suggest I go home. No pictures again...but I don't think I want to be reminded of the misery.

The Daddy and Jo Show!

Eric hosted an open mic at a nearby restaurant and Josie couldn't help but to steal the show. While she first went with the typical ABC's, she quickly realized the audience of about 25 people weren't feeling it. She switched it up and sang most of "Crazy Car" by the Naked Brothers Band accompanied by Daddy on guitar and did a great job. The audience loved her and began asking for autographs, too bad she hasn't learned how to write her name yet. Thanks to Aunt Joan, Ross, Betsy, Sean, Heather, Daisy and Jack for coming out and sorry for our quick get a way.

Daddy tunes up. Josie sings for the crowd.

Getting more comfortable towards the end she turns to face the audience.

Camping lake side

Can you believe I forgot our camera!!! Oh, well we have the memories and the end result was the kids loved it. Eric and I will be willing to go back once our backs stop aching. (I guess our bodies have decided they are old even though our minds still think we are 25.) Since we had a beach 40 feet from the tent the kids spent most of the time in the water. It took 5 hours to pump up 1 and a 1/2 air mattresses since the car battery died and we had to get a jump... we couldn't find our good air pump. The tent almost blew away while setting it up, but a neighbor came over to the rescue...just before complete blackness the ranger came by and told us we had to move our tent....grrrrrr, couldn't he have told us while we could see. We grilled out fish from our recent fishing trip and had smores just before bed. The kids were out cold after threatening them the Ranger was going to come back and kick us out because of the noise....Sam instantly thought a man dressed as a power ranger was going to physically kick us and never made another peep- LOL. Don't worry we explained to him that was not the case. We woke up in the normal camping fashion...sticky and without coffee in hand and we were back home within 2 hours of our eyes opening.It really was a great trip and the kids are begging to go back already. We would do a few things differently, but I think this will become a yearly family outing.

Sam is officially seven

To celebrate Sam's birthday we went back to our favorite fountain with family and friends. We ate cupcakes, ran through the water, played frisbee, soccer and had a great time.

You have no chance against me water. Attack.

Get ready, set..

Nice Jump.

Mr. Dale and his girls

Uncle Sean and cousin Jack

Josie loves her chocolate

Ella and her mustache, mmm.

Eric and his Mom

Barb and Aunt Joan

Jess and Jonus

I think Sam may have had enough of the water now.

Mission - Music for Haiti

Eric has become very passionate about raising money for the children of Haiti. Specifically the children at The Good Shepherd School in Pele. We are in the process of putting together a series of mini-concerts to try and raise some funds for this much needed group of children. We are hoping the first concert will this August and we will be looking to our friends and family to help volunteer (hint.) This picture was taken across the street from the school. These children were looking through the garbage for food. Animals were also looking through this same garbage for food. The Good Shepherd school provides each student with a meal, for most it is the only meal they get all day. Please visit http://www.haitichildsponsorship.org/index.html for more information on how you can help....and stay tuned for more information about our upcoming concerts in support of this organization. With God's help anything is possible.

My Pet Ant - Joan

Josie took a little swim today with her pet Ant named Joan. Besides her pet being plastic, in real life she has an Aunt Joan.

Mommy, please take a picture of my pet ant!

Wheeeee!

Meet #1

Swim team is insanity! I don't think I have ever witnessed something as chaotic as this. If Sam wasn't having a blast I would say we are out of here. There is nothing like packing about 250 kids and their families into one pool area while shuffling them in groups to swim in their heats. And just for fun, lets add in a rain storm with no shelter for us all. Now I know why they call the roped off areas that they keep the kids in BULL PENS .....but Sam had a Awesome swim and although unsure about swimming in the rain at first, he thought it was fun. Luckily the first hour it was just over cast, but once the rain came in we waited for 20 minutes under a table for Sam's next heat. As soon as he swam we threw damp towels over our heads and started our 1/2 mile walk to our car with no umbrella...come on you have to laugh, I was. I'm so glad I wore my white shorts with dark pink underwear today...now you are laughing.

Ready for his first heat. Get Ready. (lane 2)

Set.

Go!

Off to a good start..is he underwater? - Go Sam!

Almost there.

Heat Winner!

Whoo Hoo, 2nd place out of 23 boys...is it about to rain?

Freestyle...in the rain, a hard rain. Go Sam!

Heat winner in both his races!

The Fan

Well it seems the ____ has hit the fan. Our AC went out about 3 weeks ago and because we know it will be costly (unit is 20 years old and they don't make parts anymore) we have been dealing with the 90 degree temperatures (inside & out) with lots of fans. The last few evenings when it is hottest in the house I felt like I could hardly breathe unless I was directly under the fan. So.....to add to our luxurious home life the hot water heater decided to flood last night and Eric and I were up to 2 AM trying to fix it ourselves and clean up the mess. Unsuccessfully I might add, so we have turned the water off to the house since we couldn't get it to stop leaking. What really ticks me off is that we had heard many neighbors say how this happened to them. We decided to be proactive 2 years ago and purchased a new water heater just so we wouldn't be in this predicament. This morning I got up at 4:30AM to go shower at the gym before work...2 hours of sleep. No AC and now no water, does this qualify for unlivable conditions? I'm thinking yes. Hopefully the plumber can come out early today and with any luck it will be a cheap easy fix. UPDATE (2 days later) We had a new water heater installed (while we were at the swim meet) ahhh, relief. The rain has made it cooler so dealing with no AC will improve. I also had a girl friend loan me some box fans for our windows which has made a huge difference. They may be loud, but sleeping in a wind tunnel sure felt good. We still aren't sure if we need to replace the carpet yet : (

Dance

Josie started Tap and Ballet today and it was the funniest thing I have witnessed in a long time. I could tell Josie was struggling right from the beginning when she was told where to stand. Within 2 minutes, she turned to me professed she was not good at this and quit. After sitting on the side line for about 10 minutes she jumped back in, but she definitely was the dramatic one of the group. Hilarious...I can't wait to see how she progresses over the next 8 weeks.

Confused, all the dancers waited for class to begin. I'm not any good at this. I'm done.

Okay, I'll give it a try.

Shaking it out.

Being Silly with Josie's signature funny face.

Cute!

How Sam spent dance class.