Tom Dolan Invitational

Tom Dolan Invitational, December 8-11, University of Maryland

Steven has been training for the Tom Dolan Invitational ever since he qualified last spring.  He initially qualified in the 50 yard butterfly, then the 100 yd breast.  Over the course of this current swim season, he qualified for more events.  At Tom Dolan, he swam 7 events plus 2 relays, which was the maximum number of events he could have swum.  And really,  I wonder if that was too many events because the meet moved along quickly and he only had around 10 minutes of rest between events on most days!  He was quite exhausted by the end of the each day.

In all, it was a great experience.  Steven's coach likes to call this "The Fastest Kid Meet In America" and after watching some of the kids there, I can sort of believe it...  There are some amazing swimmers out there!  We saw some national age group records being broken, as in the kid swimming in that particular race was THE fastest kid in the age group in the USA.  So that's fun to see.

Steven was a little sick going in to the meet.  He started to get a cold with respiratory issues on Monday.  He had some asthma problems (for the first time in many years) on Wednesday, and we started him on a Z-Pack and some albuterol before at that time.  The meet started on Thursday, and he was still congested, but seemed to be getting better.  It's hard to swim when it's hard to breathe, but this is just one of those things.  I'm sure he wasn't the only kid there battling a cold!  Thankfully, his diabetes was in good control.  Sometimes when he gets sick his diabetes goes completely crazy, with huge spikes in blood sugar.  It was great that his numbers stayed around ideal throughout the entire weekend.  We have learned how to manage his diabetes during meets a little bit better than before as well, giving him extra insulin on meet days (we call it a "meet correction") as he tends to get nervous which inhibits the efficacy of regular doses of insulin.  It's a dynamic correction, based on his sugars each day...  I am finding that diabetes is really difficult to manage!  The main thing is to test often, and make adjustments sooner rather than later...  But I digress...  Back to the meet.

The weekend was long because the meet started on Thursday, but fortunately Steven didn't swim until Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.  The meet was held at the University of Maryland, about 45 minutes away from our house (unless you hit traffic, which luckily we did not!).  It was a very nice venue, but a little bit intimidating for parents and kids.  They had a strict policy of keeping parents off of the pool deck.  When Steven walked in to the meet on the first day, he had to follow a path for swimmers and coaches while Josie and I followed a separate path for spectators.  Luckily a teammate of Steven's was there, so the boys were able to walk in to the pool area together.  Josie and I found our way to the stands, and from that vantage, the whole place was very impressive.  Here are some pictures from the first day of the meet:

Waiting for Warm ups

The team is waiting for warm ups to start.  Steven is the boy on the left of the picture- with gray goggles.  He was *very* nervous.

Swimmers in the water...  Steven's team is warming up in the far pool.

More warm ups, practicing starts now...

Can you spot him?  I doubt it!

How about now?  Trademark pre-race position, arms bent, elbows to his side, hands folded under his chin, black cap...  This is before the 50 breast.

There he is...  Almost up and ready to swim.  The 50 breast is one of his best events (the first event he did at the meet), so he was in one of the last heats.  There was barely any time between heats- this meet moved along very fast!

He ended up dropping almost 1 second on the 50 breast, which was really great.  He came in 22nd place.  Then he had a short rest before he went to swim the 50 fly.  He was so nervous!!  I recorded the races on our digital video recorder so that Mac could watch them at home, so I don't have any pictures from the actual races...  The fly went well.  His goal was to make finals...  Except that they didn't have finals for his age division, which we didn't realize until we got there!  Oh well...  He would have made finals, had there been any!!

Placing 15th in this meet is really great.  Just look at how close the times are, too.  They use computerized pads in the water to time the kids; human timers with old-fashioned stopwatches are just there for backups in case all the technological stuff misfires!

The fly was his last event on Friday.  He had more events on Saturday and Sunday.  On Saturday, he swam a relay at the start of the meet (he did the 50 fly in the relay), then he did the 100 Breast, the 50 Back, and the 200 IM (that's a 50 of each stroke- fly, back, breast, then free).  He dropped 0.22 seconds in the 100 breast, and stayed about the same for the other events.  On Sunday he started off the meet with a relay; this time everyone swam a 50 free.  Then he swam the 100 IM (dropped 3.56 seconds which is a pretty big drop), and the 100 fly.  He didn't drop for the fly.  By Sunday he was mostly better from the cold and respiratory issues, but he was pretty exhausted from the meet!  There really wasn't much rest time between events.  He complained that he didn't even get much time to play DoodleJump on the iPod or to finish a level of Plants vs Zombies on the DS...  Priorities...

On Sunday, we all went to the meet to watch the events.  Yes, even Katie!!  After the meet was wrapping up, Mr. Tom Dolan himself was in attendance to sign autographs.  Tom Dolan is an Olympian who won a couple of golds, and is involved in running a swim school out here somewhere and obviously supports this meet.  So, the kids lined up for a bit, and were able to meet Tom Dolan.  Unfortunately he wasn't wearing his medals! 

Here he is trying to get the spelling of "Isabel" correct...  Took a lot of concentration!  Everyone wants to make her a "Belle"!!

He is a very nice guy!  Steven had a special swim cap from the meet autographed "To Steven", and Tom Dolan signed the meet program to all of the kids (Luke, Isabel, and Steven).

After the meet, we went to IKEA for dinner and finally made our way home.  It was a long weekend, we thankfully did not have any traffic issues, and Steven survived his first Big Meet.  Good times.

Gerbils, Thanksgiving, and Swimming

Pancakes and Waffles, Pancakes is the brown gerbil, and Waffles is the black one.

Many things have happened in the last few weeks!!  Here's a quick run down of the Best of November...  And a little bit of December.

First, a few weeks ago, it was FINALLY Luke's turn to bring home the classroom pets, Pancakes and Waffles, for the weekend.  This was a Big Deal.  I'm pretty confidant that this will be The Big Event in Luke's mind for all of 2nd grade!

I picked up Pancakes and Waffles from Luke's teacher (we love her!) on Friday after school.  Luke and I warded of all the elementary kids who wanted to check out the gerbils-- *there's nothing to see here, keep moving*-- and once we made it through the mob to the car, we were able to bring those suckers home for some Good Times. 

First on the agenda:  cover the gerbil ground rules.  No gerbils out of the cage unless an adult is touching them.  No one feeds the gerbils anything except for Luke.  No one touches the gerbils unless an adult is there.  Gerbils can only come out of the cage in the bathroom, since there aren't many hiding spaces for them in there.  OK.  Ground rules covered.  Luke was verrrry serious about all the rules!  Now it was time for some Major Fun... 

What did we do with the gerbils?  We pretty much left them in their cage and looked at them.  Sometimes we gave them a toilet paper roll to chew on, or other various pieces of cardboard.  We did take them out to play every night after dinner- but only in the bathroom.  Good thing too, because Waffles, the black gerbil, is pretty sneaky and he has a way of escaping...

Anyway, here are some pictures from the fun:

Josie meets Pancakes

Izzy is holding Pancakes.  Waffles and Pancakes are chewing on a piece of cardboard in this picture.  They made a decent mess!



Luke can handle Waffles, the little escape artist. 

And for dinner on Saturday night?  Who could resist eating waffles!!  Ha Ha!!!

Anyway, we clearly had a good time with the gerbils.  Everyone in the family enjoyed them, but I think when we finally finish Mac's training, we'll go for a dog instead of gerbils!  Luke is planning to have gerbils as part of his own managerie when he's a grown up though.  Gerbils, cats, dogs, sting rays, sharks, and parrots. 

Anyway, the weekend of the gerbils, we also had a swim meet.  This was Isabel's first official swim meet.  I worked as a timer so that I could be on the deck when she was swimming (parents are usually banished to the stands during these meets-- there are just too many people on the pool deck!).  She came through my lane for two of her three races.  She was very nervous, but she did great!  Steven also swam in the meet, and dropped time in lots of events.  I didn't get any pictures from the meet since I was working as a timer...  Mac was going to take pictures on day 2 of the meet, but unfortunately Isabel got sick and couldn't swim the second day!!!  Steven did take pictures, but Mac just took video, so...  sorry Steven.  No pictures.   

The next weekend was Thanksgiving.  We had a very nice, relaxing day.  We stayed home, and I didn't even cook a proper bird (they didn't have any left when I went shopping!!).  But no problem- we had a turkey breast from Costco that was quite tasty!  Mac really didn't miss carving a Big Bird.  And I didn't miss the extra mess, or the dark meat...  So maybe just a turkey breast is the way to go?  On Thanksgiving Day, we went to the movies.  Since I didn't have a Big Bird to worry about, I went along with the family.  Usually I kick everyone out to go to the movies and I stay home.  It was kind of nice to go along for once!  We say "The Muppets".  It was fun- but smack dab in the middle of Josie's regular naptime.  She was quite tired by the end of the movie.  She held it together until we were all locked inside the car for the drive home.  Then we were able to listen to her mammoth meltdown during the drive home.  Nice.  She had a nap, after which we had the Big Dinner, and that was pretty much it! 

The rest of the weekend Steven and Isabel did a lot of swimming.  There were special swim practices, Christmas Tree decorating at the swim team coach's house, cookies, pizza, etc., etc.  Mac cleaned out the shed outside in preparation for The Big Move, and I cleaned up our front yard.  We also did some more sorting of stuff in the house, donating of stuff we don't need, and just general chores.  Nothing too exciting, but it was nice to have Mac home for the weekend! 

This brings us to this past weekend.  The kids had a swim meet AGAIN!  This is the busy time for the winter swim season.  Pretty soon it will settle down to just a lot of practices, and not many races...  The meet this weekend was the Christmas Championships meet.  Steven only swam in the Saturday session, since he is doing an invitational swim meet this weekend too, and enough is enough!  This was Isabel's second swim meet, and she was very nervous.  And she was sick.  She had a fever, sore throat, stuffy nose... 

Anyway, she really wanted to swim.  So we let her.  What can I say?  Her next meet isn't until mid-January.  She has been practicing hard and looking forward to this meet.  And she's 10, not 3.  She knows how to keep her germs to herself!  Plus The Doctor said it was OK!  

Anyway, after some motrin, her temp was down and she felt good to go...

I was there on the first day of the meet- Mac did the second.  This is a picture of the aquatic center where they swam. 

The girls all swam in the far pool, and the boys swam in this nearer pool.  There were 10 lanes for the girls, 8 for the boys.

Steven swam first in the meet, doing the 200 free.  This isn't his favorite event!  He did fine, but he didn't drop time from previous races.  He didn't make the finals (which I think he was just as happy about, because that meant he didn't need to swim the 200 free again that night!).  Next, Isabel had her first event of the meet:  the 50 yard butterfly.  She really started to catch on with the fly towards the end of the summer swim season, so she was looking forward to this particular event a lot.  She was so nervous though!!

Looking at the pool, waiting for her race to be called.

She's standing right behind the white flag in this picture.  She was so nervous.  First heat of the 50 fly!  She's next up on the starting blocks! 

There she is-- out in front of her heat!

And finishing strong.

She did it!  The meet went on and on...  She was still quite nervous for her next race (the 50 free), but having finished the 50 fly and done well, she was happy.  She was glad she swam.

Steven also swam the 100 back (which he ended up making finals in, and having to return to the pool in the night to swim in the finals.  He ended up in 5th place, and dropped a HUGE 9 seconds from his previous best time before this meet.)  Steven's last event was the last event of the session, the 200 Butterfly.  Why would anyone want to do 3 minutes of butterfly straight?  I don't know.  Ask Steven I guess.  He loves the fly, so that must help!!

Here are some pictures from this event. 

Faithful Isabel- cheering on Steven in the race!

Flying right along...  I think this is coming in at 75 yards of 200...

And finishing the race.  He ended up 5th in the race, which was great considering it was a 12 and Under event...  And only the 2nd time he's ever tried a 200 fly before.

Post race breakdown with the coach...

Who likes to keep a lighthearted attitude at the swim meets!

All in all, it's been a busy few weeks. 

We are now gearing up for Christmas.  We got out our extremely pathetic 4 ft tall Christmas Tree last night (Kate had to leave the room when Mac was "assembling" it.  She said "It's just so sad and pathetic!"  Haha!  It is indeed. It's not making The Cut and will be donated after this Christmas!).  We have some advent calendars out for the kids, and we are trying The Elf on The Shelf this year.  This is a program where a little stuffed elf watches the kids in the house during the day, flies home to Santa at night to report on what he's seen, and then flies back to your house the next day to continue spying.  The fact that the Elf was watching Josie as she threw a magnificent fit last night was probably the ONLY thing that caused her to stop and come to eat dinner...  She knew that the Elf (we named him James Bond which the kids don't understand at all) was watching her and will report back to Santa on her behavior...  She's no fool.

Tomorrow I will drag out the 2 boxes of Christmas decorations and knick knacks, we'll fancy up our living room, and we will decorate our pathetic tree.  Once it's covered with preschool-ish ornaments and other random plastic ornaments it will look so much less pathetic.  Everyone is pretty much just looking forward to the Green Pickle ornament which a teacher gave us a few years ago.  I need to look up the story behind the Green Pickle ornament...  The kids always get excited about it.  It could be that they are just excited about it because it is a Green Pickle ornament.  But I think there is a story that goes along with it... Who knows? 

In the midst of all this, I continue to try to pack up as much as I can for storage and for donating.  I've been sorting through books a lot lately.  It's very hard work, and tedious, and slow moving!  And I haven't even gotten to the kids' toys.  Shudder. 

Halloween Rewind

October 31, 2011

Has anyone noticed that Halloween has become this very long, drawn out process?  And I do mean process. Every year we have so many different Halloween functions to go to (including the Harvest Festival type of things-- for the PC peeps).  The kids used to really worry about what they would be for Halloween, but now...  it's all about the candy and the parties! 

I remember when I used to SEW costumes!!!  Every year!!!  I can't say I miss sewing costumes, or stewing about the perfect costume!  After 15 years of Halloween, we now have a good stockpile of dress up clothes, old costumes, and various accessories I've picked up on clearance...  To keep things "fresh", I only leave out about half our dress up clothes for Everyday Play.  That way when OLD dress up clothes and OLD costumes come out of the Halloween storage bins, the kids feel excited about choosing something from the OLD stuff.  Win Win.

Anyway, to the pictures...

The first Halloween event was a Cub Scouts party.  This party was on the 18th of October!!!  That's way too early to worry about Halloween, people!  Anyway, Mac was of course working, and not able to help with the main focus of the Cub Scout party-- the pumpkin decorating/jack-o-lantern contest.  So, I got to manage this wonderful task for the second year in a row. 

  First I had to schlep all the kiddos to the garden store/nursery that's closest to our house to pick out The Perfect Pumpkin.  Kate wasn't part of the fun- she was too busy with school soccer at the time.  Not that she'd go with us to pick a pumpkin, but whatever.  Anyway, they all chose well, no one was run over in the parking lot, and everyone was happy to get started on the carving...  Except for me because to be honest carving pumpkins scares me.  Way too much can go wrong.  Knives, ONE adult, and excited kids...  Oh My!!

Since we were running a little late, I decided to only let the boys carve their pumpkins at the time, and told the girls that they could carve their pumpkins closer to Halloween (the actual day) and that Dad would help them...  And that they'd be getting a professional pumpkin carver out of it.  Not that Mac has carved many pumpkins in his life, but he is a surgeon and 5 years of cutting people up should count for something, right? 

Anyway, Isabel bought it, Josie not so much.  But everyone went along with my plan and so I let the boys draw their designs, and then I cut them (to the best of my ability).  Isabel and Josie helped "gut" the pumpkins, pulling all the goo out and making a wonderful mess.  Isabel (bless her) separated the seeds from the stringy slimy stuff, and I roasted the seeds. 

Luke and his jack-o-lantern

Steven and his jack-o-lantern...  

Which he decorated in his own special style for the contest...

Next, costumes.  We of course had not dragged out the Halloween storage bins yet, so it was a "go find dress up stuff" kind of an event.

 

Josie has plenty of everyday dress up attire.  She is a princess, of course.  I found a magic wand somewhere too, so she felt extra special with her "accessory".  And of course, she insisted on Make Up.  When I put a tiny bit of blush on her, and told her she was beautiful, she looked insulted.  See, Grandma has been giving her makeovers for many months now.  How dare I patronize her by only using a little blush.  Sigh.  Sometimes, it's much easier to appease a 3 year old than it is to win an argument with a 3 year old, so I just gave her a tiny bit of eyeshadow and pretended to apply mascara (yes, she demanded mascara), and she was good to go.

Steven and Isabel dressed up as versions of Harry Potter.  I bought them dress up robes for their birthday presents- Isabel has the Hogwarts robe and various accessories, and Steven has the Harry Potter Quidditch robes AND the Quidditch goggles.  Steven and Isabel were too busy playing games at the party and collecting candy...  so I don't have pictures of them at the Cub Scout party.

Luke stuck with the same costume the entire Halloween season.  If you can even call it a costume.  Basically he wears this robe almost every day normally!!  But he called it a "padawan outfit" which is some type of Star Wars Jedi in training.  And the key to the "costume" is the light saber...

The next Halloween Event were the Halloween Parade and class parties at the kids' elementary school.  These happened on the Friday before Halloween.  The kids stuck with easy costumes for this-- since they needed to get ready all by themselves.  Luke was...  A Padawan!!  By this time, he was tired of explaining the term "padawan" so he defined it for them: " it's a jedi apprentice".  That still confused a lot of people, but he was happy!  Isabel and Steven stuck with Harry Potter, but Izzy mixed things up by wearing a witch hat that is her souvenir from a girl scouts outing to see Wicked last year.  Josie wasn't to be left out, even though she's not quite in elementary school yet.  She stayed cozy and warm in her cow costume. 

This is the last elementary school costume parade for Steven and Isabel.

Luke uses the force, while protecting his little cow.

The parties were fun, and got the kids in the spirit for more festivities.  The kids also were able to eat Large Amounts of Sugar!  And since the parties are at the very end of the day, I was able to enjoy the sugar crashes at home.  Very nice. 

The next day, Saturday, we went to a Harvest Festival at a local church.  It was snowing, which was unusual and fun for the kids.  It was a wet, sticky snow, and it didn't stick, but it did make a mess of everything!

Josie raided her dress up box for some more princess clothes.  She found an outfit that looks like Rapunzel, so along with the requisite make-up (thanks mom) she looked Divine.  Izzy stuck with Harry Potter, which is appropriate since she's In Love with Harry Potter.  Luke stuck with his padawan outfit.  And Steven went as a baseball player so that he could carry his mitt and ball around.  Go M's! 

 

 

There were lots of games at the harvest festival, and the kids had so much fun.  Since the weather was not perfect, it was not crowded either!  Bonus!

Whack a Mole game- cute!

Bobbing for Krispy Kreme Donuts- yum!

Face Painting- maybe more special than make-up?

Rapunzel the Cat- with sleepy eyes...

That thing on his cheek is a light saber.  He's a Focused Kid.

We took Sunday off from Halloween Festivities...  Except that Mac made time to carve the girls' pumpkins FINALLY!  Here is a picture of all of the pumpkins as they were glowing on Halloween night. 

Josie chose an owl pattern for her jack-o-lantern.  Steven's pumpkin is above hers, Luke's is on the other side of the lower step, and Isabel's is above Steven's.  Clockwise from owl:  Josie, Steven, Isabel, and Luke!

Then it was Monday.  The Big Day.  October 31, 2011.  Mac had to work (bummer!), but we were busy with other stuff all day anyway.  The kids had the day off of school.  Not for Halloween, just for the ever-ambiguous Professional Day.  We had lots of spare time to get costumes ready for trick-or-treating!  

 

 

Josie went with the Pink Dragon costume.  Luke stuck with the old standard, and so did Isabel.  Steven went as a swimmer.  A swimmer wearing warm up clothes though-- he's not that crazy!!

Mac made it home in time to go trick-or-treating with us all.  Kate didn't want to go with us (I wonder why not?  We are pretty awesome to hang out with...) and her trick-or-treating plans fell through...  I personally think it's silly for teens to trick-or-treat, but...  some of them do.  Anyway, the cool people in our family went trick-or-treating in our neighborhood.  Since it was a warm night, we stayed out trick-or-treating for much longer than we ever had before-- Mac says it was close to 2 hours.  I was not keeping track of the time...  I prefer to Enjoy The Moment vs Watch The Clock!  (haha) 

Anyway, everyone was exhausted, everyone got a huge haul of candy, and everyone will remember fondly our last Halloween here in Maryland!

It's Harry Potter!!!  Really!!!

Competitive Swimmers do use Floaties...

Wait a minute-- Dragons don't wear make-up!?!

Luckily, Luke's light saber actually lights up (with sound effects).  Very handy for trick-or-treating.

Even though we got home late (at about 8:30), Steven and Isabel could not resist sorting their candy out...  They are STILL eating the candy, a few pieces a day...   

October!

We are over half way through October.  This month has gone by very quickly! 

The last couple of weekends have been dominated by swim meets.  Steven (10 years old, 5th grade) has been busy!  He qualified for the Big Meets in several events, so he's pleased.  We will see how he does in the Big Meets, but it's nice to see him placing high in these local-level swim meets now.  He started year round swimming last year and was lucky to break into the top 20 at that time.  Of course, he's still in the same age division as last year, but it's nice to see him getting more success as time goes on.  The coaches still see lots of areas where he can improve his form.  For example, Steven swam the 100 yard butterfly last week and qualified for the Big Meets.  His coach's comment?  "I think you aged up while you were waiting at the wall in between 25's."  Basically, when Steven hit the wall he paused for a while to take a breath before keeping on swimming!  Poor kid was maybe a little tired?  Maybe?  We now have a break from swim meets for a few weeks.  Yay!  Steven also plays on a volleyball team, but he's missed most of the games this season due to conflicts with swimming.  He likes it, but they play against the girls, so that's a bit awkward for all parties concerned!!  Steven is in his last year of Cub Scouts.  Dare I say that he's losing interest in it already?  He's just too busy, really.  

Steven is our only child who does the year round competitive swimming.  Steven's coach is trying to recruit Izzy, but she's just not that interested.  The middle kids (Steven, Izzy, and Luke) all go to practices regularly, though.  Steven has team practices, Isabel has stroke clinic practices, and Luke has swim lessons.  Once Luke learns the butterfly and the breast (and he's legal in them), he'll do the clinic with Isabel.  Probably not the SAME clinic, but the same idea- just different kids.  Everyone is staying sufficiently chlorinated!

Luke (7 years old, 2nd grade) is playing on a soccer team this fall.  One practice a week and a game on Saturday.  He's starting to understand it more, I think...  He is always willing to go to practice and seems to enjoy it.  Luke is also busy with Cub Scouts.  He's a Wolf this year.  The kids went on a cub scout campout this past weekend- Mac braved the chilly temps and lack of a flashlight to stay with Luke, Steven, and Isabel.  Josie and I stayed for the cookout dinner and the campfire, but then we headed home.  (Ah, climate control and a Sleep Number Bed!!)   Luke loved the camping trip-- he was definitely the most enthusiastic about it!  The others survived...  It was in the 50s overnight, so no one froze but it was definitely chilly.  Mac likes to sleep with the temp at least 70 degrees!  Must be the Latino blood in him??  Anyway, I'm still doing laundry from that camping trip.  And that's remarkable because Mac didn't even have them change their clothes!  Hooah, I guess?  Is that the army way?  Yuck.  (Mac said, "You don't need to put on PJs- we are camping.  Just sleep in your regular clothes!)  I think everyone should be impressed at how often I bite my tongue, really.  I did pack everyone clothes (even Mac), so at least I did MY part!

Isabel (10 years old, 5th grade) is playing on a volleyball team.  She has learned how to do a sidearm serve that's pretty interesting to me, but she says it's more comfortable for her.  When she makes her serve, it's like a little rocket over the net.  Just doesn't offer a ton of control over where the ball goes!  She almost took out one guy in the bleachers last week! She had an exciting game on Sunday where she "passed" a ball to a teammate on service receive-- using her shoulder!  It was so fun to watch her team get excited over playing volleyball, especially when the rallies of 2 or 3 passes happened.  Isabel is having fun and I think her coach is really neat!  Isabel has also grown A LOT!  She's almost as tall as Steven now!  He's always been 3 inches taller than she, always.  But she's really close now.  Steven was just measured at his peds endo appointment last week, and he hasn't fallen off his growth curve in the last 3 months (he gets measured often on a very precise scale because of diabetes), so Isabel has been truly shooting up!  I was shocked this summer to find that she fit into a LADIES size 8 shoe-- I kept trying to find kids size 4 or 5 that would work for her.  Isabel is not in Girl Scouts this year (there are not many troops for her age).  That's a bummer for her, because she enjoyed Girl Scouts, but she is filling her time with reading and drawing and crafting.  She's not missing it too much.

Kate (15 years old, 10th grade) has been playing on her high school soccer team this year. The season is almost over, but Kate has really enjoyed practicing regularly with a big team.  She's only been on smaller teams before, and they've never had enough girls to do a good scrimmage or even a productive practice.  This team has been a fun experience for her.  She plays defense, and she has made lots of new friends from the team.  She is also working this month in a seasonal orchard/farm helping pack apples, move crates, and prep bakery foods.  It's hard work, but she seems to enjoy it.  She works on most weekends with a friend of hers.  Thank goodness it's only this month-- I don't think that Mac and I could stand much more of driving her to and from work!

Josie (3 years old, preschool) is full of energy!  She is constantly scribbling on everything she can find.  She calls it her "homework".  After scribbling for a while, she brings it to me to sign, because here the elementary school teachers want parents to initial everything the kids do for homework...  So Josie has picked up on this and I need to initial her "homework" for her too, just like I do for Luke.  Josie is very busy- she has preschool two days a week, Bible School one day a week, and I try to take her to the gym playroom once or twice a week too.  She loves it all!  She struggles to sit still through story time in preschool, but I'm told she's getting better at it...  I was also told by her Bible School teacher (from Community Bible Study- a year-long Bible study that has a program for the moms and the kids running at the same time) that Josie is very quiet in class.  I'm pretty positive that situation will change soon enough.  She learns her verses easily, and tells me the stories afterwards, so I think she's taking it all in!  There are a couple of rambunctious 3 year old boys in there-- I'm just glad she hasn't joined in their antics... yet.  Then there will be trouble!  Josie definitely holds court at home- she is not an easy-going, laid-back child.  She knows what she wants...  and generally she gets what she wants!  But she's just so cute!  She is not supposed to play with pens or pencils or crayons or other Writing Utensils With Staining Potential on any surface other than the kitchen table.  The kitchen table is beyond repair from all the stains on it already.  Anyway, she constantly tries to sneak a pen to any OTHER surface to work on her homework.  Except she'll hold the pen behind her back, look at me sweetly, and say "I don't have a pen behind my back, OK?" as she tries to go to the stairs to color on the carpet.  Sigh.... 

Mac is fairly busy with work.  It's interesting (and a bit dismaying) how much administrative work he has to do.  He sets the call schedules, the OR schedules, manages clinics, etc., etc.  He spent any free time of his last few weeks on filling out the California state medical licensing application which he will need processed and ready to go by July 1.  The California license paperwork packet is huge- a much more involved process than was the Virginia state license.  It's done now, though.  Including the Fat Check that we had to send to California.  Citizens of California, you're welcome. 

I am busy trying to make some headway into our house and sorting out stuff we really don't need anymore (strollers, as if Josie will sit in a STROLLER anymore), and donating the excess.  When I have it down to what we really really need, then I will start to sort out what can be moved into a storage unit.  Finally, after we have this house somewhat emptied out, we'll put it on the market.  Of course, I've made only about 5% progress in the first stage of sorting, so I have a LONG way to go.  And an ever-helpful 3 year old to undo whatever progress I make! 

Oh well...

And Mac and I both upgraded our iPhones to the 4S!  Along with all of the MacNerds on the planet, I was disappointed there is not an iPhone 5, but I guess all the supposed Awesome Features of the iPhone 5 are there on the 4S.  I just think it would be cooler if it were called an iPhone 5.  Again, no one asked me.  Why don't they ever ask me?



 

Back In the Blog...

So it's been a long time since I blogged last...  Suffice it to say we had a very busy spring and summer.  Now we are back into fall, and while it's not less busy, it's just time to blog again.

The kids are all back in school now- even Josie has started preschool.  She's very excited about preschool!  She has only been to the classroom once, and it was with me for a parent/child orientation.  She had no problem staking her claim over all the play food in the play kitchen, though.  The class is small, with only 9 kids or so at this time.  It should be an adventure!  She was disappointed that they didn't have play doh on the first day!  Oh well.  She will be going to preschool twice a week.  People ask me what I'll do with my time!  What a laugh!  Ummm, I don't know...  What will  I do with a whole 2 and a half hours!  Hmmmm.  Actually I plan to go to the gym one day (Tuesday), and go to volunteer at the elementary school on the other day (Thursday)...  But I know that 2.5 hours is nothing, so we'll see what happens...

Here are some pictures from the preschool orientation...  Filling out the Classroom Scavenger Sheet.

Playing with the food and kitchen set.

From the youngest to the oldest...  Kate is in 10th grade.  She is getting used to her classes, but I wouldn't say she's particularly excited about school.  She talks mostly about the child development class she's taking...  That's the class where they will eventually work with preschoolers too.  She's learned the lyrics to "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and other such Essential Life Skills.  I don't understand why she needs a class for this...  Especially when she is the oldest sister to 4 younger siblings, one of whom is a preschooler!!  She's also playing on the soccer team this year, which means a lot of practices.  She seems to enjoy that, but honestly she'd prefer just to sleep all day and go on twitter all night.  Pesky school gets in the way of that dream life...  Anyway, this picture is of Kate on her way to catch the bus for the first day of school.  She leaves the house at 6:40 am... She is exhausted all the time!

Steven and Isabel are in fifth grade this year.  Top Dogs at the school-- fifth graders are the Big Kids.  They are both patrols, too.  This gives them the right to yell at other kids, which is awesome.  "Get off the grass!"  "Walk!"  etc., etc.  A real Power Trip.  Sometimes patrols even yell at parents!  They seem to enjoy their teachers and their classes.  But everything is new now.  We will revisit in a month and there may be some complaints!  Steven is swimming with his winter swim team.  He practices 3-4 days a week.  He took a total of 4 weeks off this summer, and you could really tell!  Amazing he could lose conditioning so quickly, but that's ok.  His first meet is the weekend of October 8.  Mom and Dad will be here visiting, so that will be fun.  Isabel starts swim practices later on this month- so far she's just wanting to do the swim clinics, not the team.  We will see if she changes her mind later on!  The coach is very supportive of her trying the team, but understanding if she does not want to.  Steven and Isabel are also playing in a small community volleyball league this fall.  Practice starts tomorrow...  They will be on different teams but will play against each other during the season.  Other activities include cub scouts for Steven (last year in cub scouts- next step boy scouts but I'm not sure we'll continue on), and maybe girl scouts for Izzy.  We have to find a new girl scout troop for her, but...  I'm not eager to add Another Thing to the schedule.  We will see if something pops up. 

Luke is in second grade.  He is finally able to read fairly independently.  I still read with him every day, though.  I think he's doing loads better than he was a year ago.  He's enjoying his teacher, who is new to our school this year.  They have classroom pets, too- a pair of gerbils.  Luke is very excited about those guys, and we get to bring them home for a weekend sometime to babysit them!!!  Yay!!!  I guess...  Anyway, Luke is very excited.  I just hope they don't escape!  Luke will be playing in the community soccer league.  He wanted to do cross country but I steered him away from that!!  How long can he run?  The real issue was they planned to practice two days a week.  I know there's no way I can fit in two practices a week...  Anyway, soccer it is.  And he has swim lessons, and cub scouts.  He'll be busy.

Mac is finishing residency (Happy Dance!).  This is the LAST YEAR!  Yay!  Yes, I have a countdown app on my iPhone that I check every now and then...  The last official day is June 15, 2012.  In the meantime, being a Chief resident means he has a lot of responsibilities and duties at work.  He really is busy, and does quite a bit of administrative work (scheduling residents to clinic, OR, etc.).  He doesn't love the admin stuff, but I think it's just part of the gig.  He is hoping to get good cases in the OR, but we'll see.  There's been a lot of changes at his hospital, and everything is very unsettled now since they combined two hospitals into one (they combined National Naval Medical Center and Walter Reed Army Medical Center).  Everyone keeps hoping that things get more settled "by next month".  It's been a huge transition though, and I doubt it will be settled by next year...

I am just busy trying to get ready for The Move in the summer of 2012, and shuttling kids to all their activities, doctor appointments, school functions, etc., etc.  There's just a lot going on.  I am also going to a Bible study in the area here which is like BSF but not quite as strict, so they say.  We couldn't go to the first meeting because Josie was sick.  But next week we should be able to go- they have a kids' program for Josie while I get to spend time talking to grown ups!