Way to go Megan!!!

Last April, Megan told me she wanted to try out for the middle school swim team. I can't remember why now, but we were not able to make it to the tryouts.

Two days ago, a friend of mine told me that her daughter just tried out for swim team... So I called the coach, and he let Megan try out today.

She had to swim 50 meters in 50 seconds to make the team... While she was trying out, the coach told me that the reason they like to have the kids try out in April is so if they don't make the team, they can have time to practice and try out again.

She did it in 45 seconds! She was very excited. The coach said, "not bad without practice." Now, she gets to swim every morning for 1st period... PLUS an extra hour before school! so much for school starting at 8:20; she has to be at the high school (across town) by 7:20 a.m.! No rest for the weary!

Fun in Florida

Last weekend, I went to Florida for a friend's wedding. It was the first time in years (ever?) that I had been to Florida without kids, and without a more serious purpose. It was so nice to catch up with relatives~I stayed with my Aunt Lynn & Uncle Gerry in Boynton Beach. While there,I got to know their friends, Phil & Barbara. Phil and my uncle have been friends since they were little boys in Brooklyn. It was so cute watching them interact with each other, telling stories and just "being boys". They told hysterical stories of their youth. I have heard most of them before from my mom, but these were told from the boys' perspective...



I also got to spend some time with my Great-aunt Rose and Great-uncle Fred. It was fun to see them. They are getting older, but overall, doing well. My aunt has the same cute sense of humor that she has always had. She is legally blind (from macular degeneration), but she still tells great stories, and has the same great smile that I remember when I think of her. It was wonderful to see her and Uncle Freddy. I went back to see them a second time, and we went out for breakfast to one a diner near them.

I got to spend some time shopping at Sawgrass Mills! This is a h-u-g-e outlet mall. When it was built, it was the largest in the country. Not sure if it still it, but it is pretty big! I was there for almost 2 hours and only saw a very small part of it. I didn't find a dress to wear to the wedding, my purpose for going there, but I did find gifts to give to the Peace Ambassadors for our holiday party! I can't say what they are yet, in case they read this, but I am SO excited!

Probably the best part of the trip was reconnecting with friends and family. I also got to see Ellie Riskin for (about 45 minutes). We were such good friends when I lived in FL, but have not seen each other for a long time. She was just as sweet as ever, and has the most adorable house!

I also got to meet Larry's (brother of the bride) Emilie for the first time, in person! We have talked at length on the phone for years, but never actually met. The only bad thing? My camera battery died before I could get a pic of her and Larry! We all had so much fun at the rehearsal dinner party- It was a bbq on the beach!

Lauren & Steve- the Bride & Groom!

At the wedding, I sat with Larry & Emilie, Jan & Aley, and Larry's cousins, Rachel and Ben. What a great table! Rachel and Ben are going to be my newest "Facebook" friends.

After the wedding I stayed at Jan & Aley's house. It was so nice getting to know their son, Michael. He is a great kid (19!) with a fun sense of humor, and a phenomenal nusic career ahead of him. Even though I had just seen Jan last month, it was nice to see her while I was stress-free! It was so much fun to see Aley~ while at dinner, he showed me how to do "Torah-gami"- folding a dollar-bill into a Torah! M & M are amazed, and cannot wait to learn how to do it! I hadn't seen him in at least 10 years! We need to make sure that doesn't happen again!

Megan's Birthday Party

We had Megan's 12th birthday on Sunday~ (She will actually turn 12 on 8/18, but I will be out of town this weekend. In the interest of making at least one of my children not think I am a "bad mom" for missing their birthdays, I opted to make the party for the one who could actually read a calendar.) I was planning on having both Megan's AND Jacob's parties on Saturday, but then realized that Matthew had a Boy Scout bowling event that day, too. While I could have done all three, NONE of it would have been fun, so we postponed Jacob's until 8/23.

Anyway, this was Megan's 8th pool party! For those of us that scrapbook (or try to), it is not an easy task to come up with creative pages for a birthday party with the same theme year after year after year! But, I guess that is the norm with a birthday in August.

We got Megan a camera for her birthday. She likes it, but she really wanted a kitten. The irony here, is that a kitten walked up to Megan last week while she was playing outside with some friends. We keep telling her that we can not, do not, will not take care of another cat. That our neighbors will start (if they haven't already) thinking that we are "that crazy cat-family" if we take in another one (We have one "inside" cat, and two inside/outside cats. Since they are both inside approximately 1/2 of the time, I count them as 1 full cat).

Where Did the time go?

This week was our local Girl Scout council's Twilight Camp. Megan has been a "camper" there for the past 4 years, but this year she was old enough to move up. She took her "Program Aide" training last week, so this week she was able to be an assistant to the leaders. I *think* she had fun. So hard to tell sometimes!

From the title of this post, you're probably thinking that this will be about how my little girl is growing up, and how I don't know what happened to her childhood. Actually, no. I mean, yes, she is growing up. But that is not what this post is about.

I dropped off Megan at Twilight Camp every night this week at 6:00. The camp went until 8:30, but my friend picked her up and got her home a little after 9:00 each night. So my question is Where did the time go? What did I do with all that free time???

Monday was productive... I met Rashda at Wal-Mart to buy school supplies for two children that the Peace Ambassadors adopt each year. While there, I got Matthew's school supply list bought too. Very Productive night.
Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday are a blur. Honestly. That's 9 hours unaccounted for.

THAT's why parents say time goes so fast when their kids are growing up~ I am in no way diminishing the fact that time does go quickly; but when I can lose 9 hours in a week, with no explanation, it becomes easier to undestand how we lose some of the time where our children are growing up.

I have been very fortunate to be able to attend many of my kids' events... Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, Sunday School, school field trips, classroom visits... But since I was not part of this week's camp (for the first time), the time, for me, was lost. doing nothing. hmmm...

Canoe Craziness!!!!

Okay... So in the name of being a "good mom", or perhaps in the quest to be a fun Girl Scout Leader, or maybe just due to temporary insanity, I attended a week-long Canoe Clinic with Megan and several of the girls in my Girl Scout troop. The pictures below are from the second-to-last day, where we took the canoes to the nearby YMCA pool to practice swamping and rescuing canoes. The reason there are no pics of me or Megan is because my partner and I were practicing with Megan and her partner. But just realize that we (ahem, I) did the same thing!


When a canoe is "swamped", or flipped and filled with water, it must be rescued by another canoe. So, first, the rescuing canoe musct get perpendicular to the swamped canoe, and work to turn it over to empty the water from it.
As the canoe is being turned over, it must be lifted onto the rescuing canoe. It is heavy! (The girls from the "swamped" canoe are at each end of the rescuing canoe to keep it from flipping. Hopefully)
Then, the canoe has to be flipped back over before it can be launched back into the water.
It is amazing how much teamwork it takes to do this. Today is the day I realized the reason girls have to be in 7th grade before they can be in the canoe race.
After getting the canoe back in the water, the rescuing canoe gets parallel with the canoe to be rescued, and then has to help the girls back in. The canoe gets tipped over so the girls can get their hands in the bottom for leverage...
Then as the rescuing canoe is pushed back to it's normal position, the girls *should* be hoisted into the canoe. Today we learned that it doesn't matter how you get in, as long as you get in~ There is no such thing as gracefully getting into the canoe!

If this week didn't get me points toward the "Mom of the Year" Award, I don't know what will!

I was trying so hard to get out of doing this particular day of the training, but I was told that if I didn't learn how to rescue canoes, I would not be able to take my troop out without another trainer.
It was a good thing I did, because the next day, while taking a canoe trip down the river, another canoe collided with Megan's canoe, and TIPPED it! The lifeguard in the "rescue" canoe jumped out without realizing that we needed him in the canoe, so MY canoe became the rescue canoe! (Now is the time that I should mention that the lady in my canoe, Christine, had never been in a canoe before.- But she was a trooper, and did an awesome job!) After rescuing Megan and Jondalynn, we had to rescue the lifeguard! Fun times...

I joined!

After attending the meeting of the TJHS on Sunday, 7/27, I knew I had to join this group. Not only were they all so friendlythis weekend, they also donated $500 to our synagogue to "keep the jewel alive" as one member put it. Thank you TJHS~ our congregation appreciates it very much!