Way to go, Jackson!

Jackson took 11 seconds off of his 50 free time and almost 6 seconds off of us 50 back times! Yeah, go Jackson. The Splash Club had an inner-squad meet this morning to give new kids/parents a chance to see how swim meets work and to let the more experienced swimmers get back in the groove for the season. Jackson was awesome. He did three races and made improvements in two of his times. The third race, the 100 meter individual medley was a first for him and he got disqualified. This was the first time he raced the butterfly and he got DQ'd for not keeping his arms moving forward at the same time. He didn't want to do the race because he is still struggling with the butterfly and the breaststroke, but his breaststroke looked awesome. It was a good meet for him and, even though it was just our team, the meet was USA Swimming sanctioned, so his times count for future meets.

After the meet, the kids and I headed out to Tulsa to get them some winter clothes and Damon stayed home to start painting the dining room. The kids and I hit Old Navy, contributed to the economy there, and then went down to Build-A-Bear. They both had BAB certificates burning holes in their pockets. Skater the Monkey and Bear came home with new outfits and some rockin' new shoes. I also got them Dairy Queen, at the Mall. It was a banner day for my kids. On the way to the car, Reid said, "Mom, I am very, very, very, very happy." Good, this should off set those DHS mom days! :-)

Next weekend, we will probably hit the Pumpkin Patch and the weekend after that we are headed to Dallas for an early Happy Birthday Reid celebration. Since her birthday is right after Christmas, it is very hard to have any big celebrations during that time. Sometimes, we do something a month or so after and we have her kid party on her 1/2 birthday, but this year we are doing it early. We are taking her to Dallas, so her Nana (Damon's mom), her Aunt Sherry and Damon and I can take her to the American Girl Store. We can't wait to watch her little head spin with all of the pink!

Because Life is Just that Exciting

This started out as another one of those misc. update posts because not a lot has been going on recently, just the same old routine. But, I decided to break out of the routine and give it a snazzier title!

This weekend we have stayed around the house. I cleaned, lamented how closely related to pigs we really are, and Reid and I got fall/Halloween decorations out. We only decorated the sitting area around the fireplace since the dining room is going to be a reconstruction zone starting this week. We also put our light up ghost in the kitchen window and some Halloween decorations in each of the kids' room.

Damon and I bought the paint and supplies for the dining room on Thursday and, this week, my goal is to get all of the glassware packed up and get the room cleared out. Damon is going to start on the ceiling next weekend. I gave him a deadline of November 5, which will give me two weeks to get Christmas decorations out and ready for a holiday party I am hosting on November 22.

I started Christmas shopping this weekend - looking at options and starting a list. Since we got out of debt last year, my goal has been to pay cash, whenever, wherever possible, Christmas especially. We can plan for it, save for it, instead of waiting to figure it out at the last minute. This year, I have done pretty well about putting $100 into a Christmas savings account every month. I skipped one month - July - because we really needed the money on our vacation. But, other than that, we will have the money to pay cash for Christmas. I feel pretty good about that.

I also wanted to get a jump on Christmas so I could figure out what we are going to do for teacher gifts. That is my challenge every year - what do I do that is creative, inexpensive and not the teacher mug or hot chocolate everyone else gives. I don't worry about keeping up with the Jones', I want to out create the Jones'! This year, I am leaning toward similar gifts to what I gave the 40th Birthday girls - a customized Yankee Candle and customized M&Ms. We have at least 27 gifts in that category...I think I am going to order 50 and then we will have enough for all of those little gifts that come up at the last minute.

Not Much Going On

There really isn't much going on, but I thought I should update since I was mocking those of my friends (hi, JoLynne) for not updating their blogs.

This week is pretty much like last week - shuffle Reid to gymnastics, shuffle Jackson to swim practice, go to church, work with Children's Choir, hang out waiting for kids to finish said activities, etc.

Last weekend, we went out to Osage Hills State Park for the SplashClub Family Picnic. It was a nice day, the kids had a good time and were able to visit with some of the other parents. After Reid said, "She is from my school," pointing at one of the parents walking in, we made the connection that her principal is the mom to one of the Gold Team members, Colton. We have been talking to Colton and his dad to get Jackson and Colton together for some one-on-one workouts. Colton is going to do some coaching with Jackson to help him figure out the speed part of swimming. Jackson can't wait, he and Colton have a great connection.

This weekend we don't have anything on our plates, except church. Hopefully, I can get fall decorations out and maybe get the dining room glassware packed up. I have given Damon a deadline to get the dining room painted. I am hosting a Holiday Kick Off event for our Sunday School class on November 22 and I would like to have a shiny new dining room to host it in. The complication will be painting and keeping Reid out of it. We can't completely block off the dining room, so I am going to have to leave with the kids for a weekend or figure out something else creative to keep Reid out of the paint.

Rocky Mountain High

What a fantastic weekend! It was relaxing, fun, got a little shopping in and spent the day in the pure Rocky Mountain air.

We left Friday morning and headed to the airport. Reid was so excited about going to the airport, but was a little confused when she couldn't just walk on to a plane. She kept asking, over and over, "Is that our plane? That's our plane. Is that our plane?" We flew Southwest, so with the stampede seating, we ended up two rows apart - me with Reid and Damon and Jackson two rows behind us. Reid talked ALL THE WAY TO COLORADO. She couldn't figure out what she wanted to do - watch a movie, play Leapster, not watch a movie, not play Leapster, look out the window, not look out the window, eat her peanuts, not eat her peanuts, and ask over and over and over, "Where is my Diet Coke." Her greatest quote, as we came out of the clouds to land, "We're off the map, Mommie."

We arrived and picked up the rental car, which proved to be another concept Reid couldn't wrap her head around. "Whose car is this? Are we taking somebody's car? Is this our car? Where is our car?" We tried to explain that we were borrowing the car, but she was convinced we were going to get in trouble for taking the car.

Friday evening, we hung out with our friends, the Knight family, at a nice little park not far from their house in Highlands Ranch. We cooked burgers, let the kids get really dirty, and just relaxed. Saturday, the Knight's boys - Buddy and Zach - had football games, so Jackson went with them and we headed out to do a little shopping. We hit Archivers, Wolf Camera, and took Reid to Build-A-Bear. We ended up in a nice outdoor mall that had our favorites - Apple, Williams-Sonoma, Hallmark, and a few other stops. Reid enjoyed the one-on-one time with Mom and Dad and loved the fact she was in Build-A-Bear getting just about anything she wanted.

Sunday morning we loaded up two cars and headed into the mountains to Winter Park. What a fantastic place! We bought all-day, unlimited passes to the activities and the kids (and adults) had a great time. We were able to ride the ski lift, bungie trampoline, gyro, human maze, putt putt golf, and the alpine slide. The alpine slide was slide down the mountain. We got in a little sled, that could be controlled with a joystick, and when flying down the mountain. Reid insisted on riding by herself, so I let her, but told her she had to ride behind me so I could control her speed. That little snot kept ramming my sled. I would speed up and she would speed up more, ram my sled, throw her head back and cackle. Jackson and the other two boys went down the faster of the two slide and they were just flying. Damon and Randy were also on the fast slide and everyone was having way too much fun.

After a little shopping, we headed down the mountains and stopped to eat in Idaho Springs. We tried to get a little pizza at Beau Jo's, but the wait was 45 minutes and with hungry, tired kids and adults, we opted not too wait and ate an Italian place across the street.

Sunday night, we stopped to see a friend of Damon's from high school - Jason and Danna Spohn. They were very welcoming and Jackson was in heaven because they had an xBox and two arcade games - Ms Pac Man and Donkey Kong. Reid feel asleep on the couch. I got to drool over Danna's scrapbooking ROOM.

Monday morning, we said goodbye to the Knight family and met high school friend of Damon's, Christie and her husband Patrick for breakfast. It was nice to meet them and take some time to visit.

We headed to the airport and had no problems dropping off the car, getting through security and getting to our gate. Reid was equally excited about flying home and loved the bus, train and getting back on the plane. Both kids sat down, relaxed and were out cold before we even got to cruising altitude.

It was a nice trip. Thank you Knight family for a great weekend. We will be back!

Craziness

I read an interesting article today - it summarized a study that said it is a myth that our kids our over-scheduled. Kids do fine with multiple activities, within reason, but it is the PARENTS who are stressed and overwhelmed. That's funny. And, hits it on the nose!

In the last two weeks, our fall schedule has fallen into place. Both kids are now in activities, different times, and we are now having those conversations, "Okay, you take this kid at this time. I'll pick them up, because this kid needs to be here at this time." Reid is in gymnastics and Jackson is back in swimming workouts. Tuesdays and Thursdays involve different start and end times for each kid. Let the fun begin.

Reid is loving gymnastics. We can't watch her class because of where they are in the gym, but she tells me she is learning backflips. From what we can here - we can hear over the wall - she is having a grand ole time.

Jackson is back in Splash Club workouts. They were on a two-week layoff while the pool was being repaired and were supposed to be back in the pool this week. The pool is still being cleaned and repaired, so they are doing dry land workouts - aka, running and playing games. But, it is a workout.

Tonight, we start back in the school-year routine for Wednesdays at church - dinner, children's choir, and AWANA. I am helping with pre-school children's choir, which really comes down to herding cats. They have changed the children's choirs this year to a program that divides the kids (they were all together last year - pre-school through 5th grade) into three age divided groups. Jackson's group (3rd-5th) will be working on learning more about music, including reading music. Reid's group will be working on learning the basics of music - beat, soft/loud, etc. They will also be learning songs that will build into a musical at Christmas.

We are headed to Denver this weekend to visit the Knight family, a family we went to church with who recently moved out there. We are flying out on Friday and coming home Monday. This will be Reid's first flight, so it will be interesting to watch her. I think she will enjoy herself.