swimming lessons

We have always put the kids in swimming lessons when they turned 3. Since Andrew's birthday is at the end of the year and near holiday time we put it off until the beginning of 2009. He had been in the pool plenty before hand. I often took him myself to open swim where we just get in and play around. He was awfully clingly to me though and wouldn't venture out on his own, even when wearing a floatation device. I was a bit worried then about lessons. But he's been a natural and progressed very well in a class atmosphere. Each class can have up to 6 participants, but he only has 2 in his class. The teacher is a personal friend & has been teaching for years. She's taught all of our kids at some point. We'll keep Andrew in swim lessons until he goes to kindergarten. That will give him a good strong base of swimming skills.

How did that happen?

One morning after the big kids left for school Andrew was upstairs by himself. I could suddenly hear screaming & crying coming from Andrew, but I knew that it wasn't a danger cry. I went up to investigate and found Andrew looking like this. He was trying to dress himself and managed to get himself in a tangle. I couldn't help but giggle. He was nice enough to hold that pose while I ran to get the camera.

I know....I know....

I've totally been slackin on my blog. No real explaination. I do feel/seem busier the last few weeks, but couldn't tell you why. I'm sorry.....

I promise to get back at it. For now though, I've been up for almost 22 hours. Strictly all my fault. I got up at usual at 4:30 a.m. to go exercise. It was a light day, nothing too strenous. I went about my day as usual. Once I late evening, when I'd usually be hitting the sack, I chose to go to a friend's house for some girl time. We stayed up late talking & watching a good ole chick flick. A couple extra cups of coffee got me through those late evening hours. Now I'm just awake and enjoying the complete silence of the house (who knew this keyboard was so clackity). And for now I don't feel too bad. Might be a different story in the morning...uh, er...a few short hours when duty calls. I promise to get back to regular bloggin', there's never a dull moment around here.

Happy Birthday John!

Today John turns 8. He is the last of my big kids (the 4 older ones). My first born son. I don't remember it being a big issue that I wanted a boy. Female was more prominent in my side of the family, it's what I was used to. I had an ultrasound & they told me that he was a boy. But I refused to believe it. I was duped into thinking that Brianna was a boy (not via ultrasound though). I was not gonna fall for that boy thinking again. No way. I said "ok, I'll believe it when I see it".

When I got pregnant with John Brianna was only 3 months old. Not really what we were planning. Well, we were planning on having a 4th, but not that soon after baby #3. So it was a bit of a shock. I had an early on ultrasound to help determine a due date. Much to my surprise the tech asked if twins ran in my family. I was mortified. I have always ALWAYS wanted twins (or any kind of multiples). But now? Really? I remember saying "I just had a baby 3 months ago....how am I gonna????" There WAS another twin there, but the mood quickly changed when the tech told me that the twin was not going to be born. She turned the screen and showed me four little heart chambers. Perfectly & wonderfully made. However, it wasn't beating. Since it was so early on in the pregnancy the twin would just absorb into the other baby. It's called a vanishing twin. I think I was in such shock that I never asked for a picture of the twin. We never really talked about it much. We didn't give the twin a name.

John's due date was January 31, 2001. NO BIG SURPRISE I went past my due date with him. I miss miserable. I was sick & tired of being pregnant. This was my 4th baby in 5 1/2 years or more specifically my 3rd baby in 2 1/2 years. I wanted this kid out of me. The weekend before I had him I slipped while getting out of the tub. I was having some sharp pains because unbeknownst to me I had tore my supporting ligaments from my slip. I had gone to the hospital to get the pains checked out. The ended up sending me home, but told me to come back on Monday for a 2 day induction.

I checked into the hospital on Monday, February 5. I wasn't expecting him to be born until the next day. I had stayed up very late the night before getting things done for me to be gone. I had brought plenty of sewing & reading to accomplish, plus snooze a little cause I had so little sleep. They strapped me into a machine to monitor me and within a hour came down & told me I was having contractions. Noticeable enough to be readable on the monitor. Really? I was? I honestly hadn't even noticed. Well, that changed things up quite a bit. Instead of a 2 day induction, they were going straight to the pitocin to get me into active later. They started the medicine right before noon and by 5 p.m. I was wanting to push. Shortly there after John was born. Jim was there, my mom was there. My oldest sister was there. Angel & Mandy were there in the corner watching t.v. It was the largest group of people I had for any of my deliveries. Hey, the more the merrier!

So finally I had my boy. We named him John Anthony after Jim's grandpa. That was our boy name regardless of which child the boy would have been. All the girls had names from my family & friends, now it was Jim's turn. I was suppose to tie my tubes the next day. I was so done with having children. Jim refused to get anything done so I was gonna get things taken care of. Right after I delivered Jim turned to me with tears in his eyes (literally) and told me that I had done so much for him....given him 4 children, that he would get fixed. It was the least he could do. Yeah....we know how that turned out, but we are so glad that it did happen that way.

John's twin often goes un-talked about. When John was a bit older he started asking questions about his twin. He even displayed some twin like symptoms (kinda hard to explain those, but). It's not that we don't miss the twin or think about him. It very much saddens me that I never got my twin like I had always wanted. John has taken a strong roll in identifying with his twin. When he was 3 he wanted to name his twin. Although we don't know if it was a boy or girl we've always identified it as a boy and John named him Matthew. We in no way encouraged him to be so attached to his twin. He has done this on his own. He has his own time of crying & missing this part of him that he will never see here on earth. He can't wait for that day when he gets to meet him in Heaven. We all can't wait. For now, while here on earth, we fully embrace our John Anthony.

Tri Tri Tri

Jim & I competed in our annual indoor triathlon. We've competed in this race several times. A few times we've done it as a team. I've done it individually more times than Jim has. And as some of you know, I always beat Jim. (trying not to gloat too much).


This year we each improved our times and reached milestones that we've been working on for years. Jim improved his time by 3 minutes. For the first time he was able to finish his swim. The swim is the only portion of the race you can run out of time for. They start a new wave of competitors every 30 min. After 28 minutes they kick you out of the pool. What you don't finish you don't finish. Jim has never finished the full length of the swim, but with some recent determination & extra training he was able to get it done!

I improved her time by 9 minutes. For the first time I finished in under a hour. My official time was 49:47. I came close once before & was just a few seconds over. That 1 hour marker has always taunted me. I did some extra training as well, starting a bit earlier than usual. Here is the break down of the race.


The swim was 1/2 mile, 18 laps (36 lengths) in the pool. Jim finished his in 27:03. I finished mine in 17:37. I was little disappointed in my swim, but it's not that terribly bad.


The bike was 7 miles. Jim's time was 20:17, mine was 21:17. Please note that Jim DID BEAT ME in the bike portion. Jim will make sure that everyone knows that. : )

The run was 2 1/2 miles. Jim's time was 23:02, mine was 18:42. I was not running when this pic was taken. It was taken after I was done.

We had a really great race & a good time competing. The bad thing about a p.r. is that it now sets the bar for where I need to compete. Next year I'll be striving to lower that time. And Jim will be in his endless pursuit to beat his wife!

Where's Mandy?

Things can always be a bit crazy here at the zoo. No big surprise. However one particular sunday morning things were very crazy. We all slept a bit late then had to rush around eating breakfast, getting dressed, etc. I always go upstairs to wake the animals and gather clothes for the two youngest. It's also no big surprise that Mandy is hard to wake up. It never works to just holler her name. Over Christmas break it was quite normal for Mandy to finally rouse herself at noon. One day she told me "mom, I don't have a built in alarm clock like most people do...I just keep sleeping." Side note to that thought though, even with a REAL alarm that child is hard to wake up. Anyway, we hustle around trying to get out the door on time for church. Per usual I am always the last one out to the van. I jump in and Jim asks his usual "are you ready?" followed by "is everybody here?" Yeah, yeah I exclaim, let's GOOOOOOOO! We start to roll out of the driveway when one of the kids in the back says "where's Mandy?"

OH MY GOODNESS! That child was not only still in the house, but she was sound asleep upstairs in her bed. She is awfully lucky we were even paying attention or else she would have been left behind. Although I seriously think we could have gone to church and back and we'd find her still asleep. Ahhhh, Mandy....Mandy....Mandy....only Mandy!

Introducing

We added a new family member to the zoo a few weeks ago. Martina is our newly adopted 1 1/2 year old female long haired mini-dachshund (weiner dog).

We've had pets off and on through out the years as a zoo. We got to a point where we definately needed no pets at all. Last summer I was getting in the mood for a dog & tried to convience Jim to let me get Mandy one for her birthday. It was a no go and I was just as content to not have a pet anyway. Around Thanksgiving time Jim was begining to show an interest in getting another dog. We looked at the Humane Society a few times, but with no luck.

We were quite specific in what we wanted. Mainly a small dog. We've done the whole big black lab dog before. As much as we loved our Sam, he was a bit much. Big dogs require the strength of an adult so that only left Jim or I to walk him. They eat a lot more food. Require much more care when we go on vacation, etc. We used to have a small dog. In fact, we've had a mini dauschland before. Selena was our best dog EVER! We got her straight from the litter many years ago and trained her 100% ourselves. She was wonderful. Unfortunately she was hit by a car a few years back. No other dog has been a great as Selena, she holds a special place in our hearts. So we were leaning toward a small dog. We kept looking. I'd scour the paper for ads, the internet for leads. Most of all, I prayed. I trust God to work out all these little details in our lives. He listens, He answers. A truth we all believe here at the zoo.

Honestly, we could have had a dog a long time ago. There are several dogs out there for sale. But they require we thing we lack....$$$$$. Now I'm not giving you the "we're poor" saga. All of our needs are more than met. But honestly, $300 - $500, heck I even saw some for $1000 for a puppy is not in our budget. We tried to be content to wait for that right dog to come along. I almost adopted another dog in mid December. She sure was cute & would have made a great dog. I didn't have that vibe that told me she was IT! I had to fight my urge to get it and let it go.

We had hoped to make this new dog/puppy a Christmas gift for the kids. As the day approached it was clear that wasn't going to happen. We gave the kids a coupon good for a dog when we found the right one. This made the kids very happy. A few days later I had heard of a litter of pups born right in our area. I was hoping if I took Jim to see the puppies, his heart would melt & we would get one. Never mind they were $300. One can hope, right? On the days that I had planned to take a trip to see the puppies Jim got sick and I mean really sick. In bed for 3 days straight sick. So that was put on hold.

Once a month the Humane Society holds an adoption site out at the mall. My kids are very aware of it & begged to go on the first saturday in January. I pacified them & took them out there JUST TO LOOK! They only had big dogs out there, but said there was a small one back at the office and to check there. We drove over there and that dog had just been adopted. The kids were a little crushed. As we were walking out we spotted this dog behind the desk. The clerk said she had just came in that morning & wasn't fully processed. Another couple spotted her as well & beat us to picking her up & hold her. They were lamenting about how this would be the perfect dog companion for their other dog. I was still standing there with the kids oooohing & aaaahing over her as well. I seriously thought about shooing the kids out the door at that point & letting this couple have her. I got bold and said to them "this is EXACTLY what we've been wanting." We all stood there looking over the dog & asking questions. Finally the couple looked at each other then handed me the dog & told me that if we wanted her we could have her. They left their name & number just in case she was still around on monday, they would come & get her. And they left.

I was a bit in shock. Jim wasn't even with me. Even though I knew what we were looking for and that this was it, we don't usually make these type of decisions without each other. I reluctantly left her there with specific instructions that I would be back for her. I ran home, talked it over with Jim & grabbed the checkbook. By time I got back to the Humane Society she was fully processed and ready for adoption. I paid for her, but still had to run to the store to get some basic care items. We had nothing! After grabbing some things for her we were able to take her home. She came with another name, but I had already pre-determined that our next dog would be named Martina so that is what we went with.

So far, she's been perfect. Ok, maybe not perfect, but pretty close. She is 100% house broken. We've had an accident or two. But would you want to go potty outside when it's -20 degrees outside? Me neither. I didn't mean to carry on with this big long story. But I love the fact that she comes with that, a story. It gives her much more meaning. And it shows how God cares & works out the little things in life. All together to get her & her supplies we spent a little over $100. She's current on her shots, is fixed & she actually came with papers, she's a full breed. We look forward to many years with the newest member of the zoo, Martina.