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!

What am I getting into now???

I think that I have found a new group that I want to be part of... This weekend, the Texas Jewish Historical Society is having its quarterly meeting in San Angelo. The group chooses different cities throughout TX with Jewish communities to hold its meetings. We are lucky enough to host them this time. The group is very friendly and welcoming, and focuses on keeping Judaism alive in TX, even in the smaller communities, as well as preserving the Jewish communities' histories. Fits right in with my scrapbooking tendencies, and gives us a reason to go to services at different synagogues, at least quarterly.

Is Summer supposed to be relaxing??

I thought so. But this summer, not so much.

John had two back surgeries in June, one 6/2 & one 6/9. We knew going in that this was a two-surgery procedure, to correct his kyphosis. the surgeries went very well, correcting his 78-degree spinal curvature to a 28-degree curvature (normal is 20-40 degrees). What we weren't counting on, however, was that John had an allergice reaction to one of the antibiotics while in the hospital, which caused his blood platelet level to drop dangerously low. After removing John from ALL meds for 36 hours, the level finally started to come back, and continued to until it was back to normal. However, while he was in the "danger zone" of the platelet level, he developed sores on his heels, that have turned out to be bed sores. After one of them started to ooze, we went to the emergency room, like we were told. We have now been going to the wound clinic at least once a week (down from every other day) for the past 6 weeks. And I have been cleaning/redressing them at least once daily. ugh! Poor John has to wear an orthopedic boot, as one of the heels is healing fine, but the other one is not doing as well. The boot is to keep ALL pressure off of John's heel. To my untrained eye, it does seem to be helping. We'll see Monday, when John goes back to the Wound Care Clinic.

WITH all this going on, Megan had her Bat Mitzvah on July 11. I have imagined for years what the event would be like, and it was exactly as I'd pictured, but better! Megan did an amazing job reading her torah portion and haftarah portion, she an dLeah (the other girl Bat mitzvahed that day) sounded GREAT together, and most of our closest family and friends were able to share the weekend with us. The event could not have been better. I'm SO glad it's over! Tons of work, but worth every minute. Time to move on to Matthew and Leah's sister, Elisha.

Life did slow down after the Bat Mitzvah, but got busy in a different way. One of my best friends, Vivian and her daughter came for the Bat Mitzvah, and her daughter Jordan, who is Megan's age, stayed with us for two weeks. The girls, who have literally known each other since they were babies, had a very good time together. One of the highlights for me was a photo album that Jordan and Vivian gave us that had pictures of the girls from the time they were babies until last year. Hopefully I can continue to add to it. (Although I didn't do a good job of taking pictures while she was here this time-- It's okay, though, we are planning a trip to Carrizon Springs next weekend).

This past weekend was very, very busy... Megan and Jordan had Basketball Camp, and Matthew and his friend Dalton had Computer Camp. They all had so much fun~ M & D learned lots, and M & J were exhausted- in a good way.

This afternoon, I took Jordan down to Sonora to meet Viv and make the "switch". We had a fun (but short) visit at DQ, before we headed back to San Angelo.

B-U-S-Y Weekend!

For a weekend that I didn't have to work, we sure were busy! Yesterday, Megan and Matthew each had a basketball game-- Megan's team won theirs 26-10, and Megan got a basket! Considering she is still recovering from a badly sprained elbow, that was awesome! On Friday, she was still wearing her sling;I really wasn't sure she would even play.
In between the two games, Jody called me to see if I would go to a movie with her. I feel like I never have the time to be spontaneous, so since I was able to, I went. We ended up seeing Mad Money, which was actually better than I expected it to be. It wasn't our first choice, but the line to buy tickets was SO SLOW we had to change.
Matthew's team lost 10-6, but for their first game, they played really well. (They had a bye-week last week.) Matthew is quite the blocker- It is fun to see him on the court- So out of character for him to be tough and physical.
After Matthew's game, a Girl Scout came over to pick up her cookies, and then it was off to the ASU basketball games! Tonight was Girl Scout Night at the games, as well as every other group-night in San Angelo-- YMCA, Boy Scouts, several other area basketball teams, and more, I am sure. There were so many people there! It is just amazing to me how much people love that University... In between the two games, there was a HUGE presentation-- Dr. and Mrs. Legrand, huge fans of ASU sports, were honored for their recent donation of $1Million to ASU Athletics! A Million! Needless to say, every member of every sport team of the university was center-court to thank them for their support.
Today, Megan and I spent two hours working on her Bat Mitzvah prep. I realized that she had forgotten some of the key letters of the Hebrew aleph-bet, so we did a review of every letter. Then, when we worked on the blessings again, she was much more confident. We are going to have to practice more diligently between now and July... Speaking of practicing, we have decided to take some time off from piano. She is busy practicing clarinet, will soon be learning oboe, her Bat Mitzvah prep, and basketball. I think piano is putting her over the edge... So now I just have to work up the newve to call our (new) piano teacher, whom I'm sure already thinks I am a bit of a flake!
We finally got enough Girl Scout cookies out of our front living room to take the ornaments off the Christmas tree! Tomorrow, we will get the tree down. It has been giving me the "heeby-jeebies" to have a Christmas tree up this late in January, but after being sick for the first 1 1/2 weeks of January, then getting the cookies delivered before I had time to recuperate, I guess there was no other choice. Anyway, it will all be better after tomorrow!
I made the yummiest dinner tonight!! Steak, rice pilaf, and twice-baked sweet potatoes. So good! All that, along with doing 4 loads of laundry, and cleaning out the freezer, makes for one B-U-S-Y weekend!

Megan's First Band Concert

Last night we went to Megan's first Band Concert. It was actually quite a production... It was for Band, Choir, and Orchestra, for 6th, 7th, and 8th grades. Since Both 6th and 7th graders are new to Middle School this year, 2/3 of the performances were beginning groups! They were actually very good-much better than I remember beginning bands sounding when I was in middle school... What I was most impressed by, though, was how amazing the 8th graders were. Since they were new to middle school last year, that means that they have only been playing for a year and a half. The difference was incredible! It will be very interesting to see what Megan's group sounds like in 8th grade, since they will be playing for almost three years by then.

Megan has been playing Clarinet since the beginning of the year, and the plan is for her to switch to oboe in January. We are planning for her to play each instrument for half the year, so when she gets to High School, she can play Clarinet for Marching Season, and Oboe for Concert Season.

I know this picture is just aweful... I only had my camera phone with me, since my good camera is not working. Since Hanukkah Harry hasn't brought me a new one yet, I am hoping that Santa brings me one. (Or, maybe I will get one for our anniversary!) (Don't ya just love subtlety?)

Anyway, Megan is at the edge of the stage (you know I was hating not having my camera!), in the third row (the easiest way is to count knees:))

I know you can't tell at all in the picture, but they all looked so cute in their Santa hats.

After the first half of the groups went, I went to go sit with Megan's band. The kids were very sweet, and all the little girls in my Girl Scout troop were waiting for me to tell them how great they all were. (Of course, they all will be earning a music badge of some kind).

Jacob's First Movie

We took Jacob to see his first movie today. It might not "Bee" a classic, but I think he enjoyed it. He sat still through about half of it (that's how long his popcorn lasted). After that, he still did okay... It's always easier to judge your kid's behavior, when there are other kids around acting crazier!

Megan and Matthew said they "kind of" liked it. I guess they would rate it a solid "Bee". John and I thought there were a few GREAT lines. I can't say our favorite, since I know that Mike reads this regularly. :) ...it was a lawyer joke...

Overall, we did enjoy it, but it's not really worth all the buzzzzz... okay I'll stop now.

While on the topic of movies, last week, Megan, Matthew and I went with Megan's Girl Scout troop to see the movie, Dan In Real Life. It was a big deal, since Peter Hedges, the writer/director of the movie, was in San Angelo for the premier. (His father lives here, so SA claims him as our own.) The movie was good. I think I would have enjoyed it if I didn't have to worry about 10 11-year-olds and Matthew being in the audience. There were some inuendos that I'm not sure they "got" (hopefully).

But, after the movie, Peter Hedges took time to sign autographs for all the girls in my troop and Matthew. He even came back outside to meet them, and talked to each one as he was signing. It meant so much to them, and Peter Hedges now has a new fan (me). It doesn't matter to me whether his movies are blockbusters; it is much more important that he took the time to make 10 little girls and my little boy feel important enough for him to spend 20 minutes with them on the premier night of his newest flick. And, it was even between shows. After our showing (all Girl Scout people), the next showing had an audience of all the "high society" people in this town. (We like to let them think they are, anyway :) )

Boy Scout Family Camp

We had so much fun camping this past weekend! The kids did so much in one day-- Archery, Paddleboats, shooting Beebee guns, an obstacle course, the VERY popular mud pit, campfires, and of course, s'mores! Here are just a few pictures from our great weekend. Matthew on the obstacle Course

Matthew in the Mud Pit!

Boy Scout Family Camp

The kids had SO much fun in the MUD PIT!!!
Megs getting ready to shoot an arrow...

Camping Pictures

Matthew was reading Harry Potter by the lantern's light!

Megan just loved roasting marshmallows by the campfire... All the kids had a great time making s'mores!

A Busy Day for the Kids...

Today was the last day of Matthew's basketball camp at ASU. He has had a great week, even though it started off not-so-great. It seems there was a kid who was bullying him on Monday. I had to talk him into going back on Tuesday, and I'm so glad I did! He was all excited when I picked him up, saying that his group played a game of Hot Shot, and he got the second highest score in the group! After that, "the Bully" started showing him some respect. And, today, Matthew won "Most Improved Player" of his group at camp. Way to go, Matthew!

Earlier today, Megan got her hair cut. This was not just a regular haircut; Megan was planning to cut off 12 inches of her hair, and make a donation to "Locks of Love". We have been talking about this for months, and we both finally got tired of brushing it out every day. It looks so great, and on the way to basketball practice today, I asked her to brush her hair. She was so cute-- 5 seconds later, she said, "I'm done!" She has been complaining that it is too short (Jenny had to cut it shorter than we'd planned to make it even), but I think she will love it when the compliments begin.

While Megan was getting her hair cut, Jacob was sitting in his stroller, waiting patiently. He'd just woken up from a nap, so he was looking a little tired... Ms. Jenny offered him a sucker, and since he was so sweet when he answered, she gave him two! Of course, he had to have them both at the same time. And, of course, I had to take pictures.

Jody and Ami

Jody and I just had to take a quick picture before going to do our final presentation for the Business Plan Competition, on Sat. 10/14.

A Little Ridiculous...

Okay, so I know it's been three months since I posted last (several people have reminded me), but, to say the least, I have been BUSY!
All summer long, I had been working on a business plan for my scrapbook store. My partner and I had entered a business plan competition, sponsored by the Concho Valley Center for Entrepreneurial Development. To say the least, it was all-consuming. The first presentation that we had to do was in September. We were voted to go on to the third and final phase, which was another presentation yesterday. YAY! No more business plans to work on from 10 pm-midnight! We find out Wednesday if we win... Keep your fingers crossed!
August was busy! Megan and Jacob both had birthdays, my parents came to visit, and school started. Megan had a pool party (one week late, due to a rain delay). I figure that this will be the last year I can get away with not having a party for Jacob (bad-mommy moment:) ). We still bought him presents, but we just never thought to plan a party for him, until it was too late and crazy. Promise not to tell him, okay?
In September, I went to a consumer scrapbook convention in Houston with a group of my customers. We had SO much fun! We were part a "dorm" that was chosen to perform in front of the 600 other ladies attending. Our theme was "Scrappin' to the 80's". We wrote parodies to 80's songs, like: Hey Elsie (To the Tune of Hey Mickey- Elsie Flannigan is a scrapbook celebrity that is popular right now), I Love Scrapbooking (to the tune of I Love Rock and Roll), and Husbands Just Don't Understand (to the tune of Parents Just Don't Understand- Remember that one??) Anyway, each song had a group of three ladies dressed accordingly, and I wast the announcer! I was dressed in Boy George attire. And the most amazing thing-- WE WON FIRST PLACE! It was fabulous.... We were like celebrities for the night, and ended up on several scrapbooker's blogs. Waaay to much fun!
Last weekend I went to a scrapbook retreat in Eldorado, about 40 miles south of San Angelo. It was very fun, and nice to spend time with some of my other customers/friends.
With all that, plus the kids being in school, Girl Scouts starting up again, 8 kids in my Sunday School class, several Peace Ambassador commitments in the past several months, and whatever else has come my way, you can see why I haven't had time to blog! But, I am turning over a new leaf.. I will start being more consistent, and adding more picures. Tomorrow.

Chicken Soup for the Scrapbooker's Soul

Yes, that is really a book title. And I can proudly say that I am a published author! I submitted a story for the book last year, and found out not too long ago that my story was going to be in it! We totally took advantage of this at my store... Last week, we had a Chicken Soup party. No one know why they were coming; we just told our customers that we were having a big event, and they needed to be there. Jody and I wore vintage aprons, and had 100 cans of chicken noodle soup displayed throughout the store. We autographed everyone's book. The TV news came, and we got GREAT PR. Can't do any better than free advertising! The news reporter from Foster Communications did a report on us, which played on all four of their stations for two days! (So nice to know people in "high" places!) For every one of the books we sell, we are donating one can of soup to the local Soup Kitchen. (Hopefully another PR event!)

SUCH a Busy week!

The after returning from a vacation is usually extremely busy. This week has been no exception. That is why I have not posted pics from our vacation yet. M&M are coming home today! We are anxious to have them back with us. Plus, Suzie will be staying with us for a week. We have lots of fun activities going on in San Angelo this week, so it should be lots of fun.
John, Matthew, and Matthew's friend and his dad are going to Abilene tomorrow, to go to WWE's Biggest Party of the Summer- Summer Slam. Wrestling. Exciting. So glad it's a "guy thing". But Matthew and his friend are psyched!
Megan starts Basketball Camp on Monday, so she has something to look forward to as well.
This was a busy week at my store- we are getting ready for a big surprise event. I can't post it on here yet, because I have customers who are "lurking", trying to figure it out. The event will be on Wednesday, so I will post it after then.
Oh well, I guess it's off to get ready for work, then to the airport!

Home again!

We got home earlier today... Jacob and all the animals were well taken care of. :) We sure did miss Little Mister, and he missed, well he missed John. He went running right by me, to get a hug and kiss from Dad. (Mom got hugs later.)
Anyway, so here I am, trying to catch up on a vacation agan. I'll upload pictures tonight, and try to get caught up soon!