Caroline cooks

Yesterday I was attempting to meal plan for the week. I couldn't for the life of me think of what I wanted to cook for dinner on a Saturday night.  I try to cook meals every night of the week.  However, I love taking Friday and Saturday night off or having extremely easy meals to cook.  Caroline said "Give me a minute...I'll find something to cook."  And sure enough, she found a recipe, made of list of what she needed, shopped for it, prepped it and cooked it!  It was AMAZING!!!!!!  I am so thankful for her servant heart!!
 

Celebrating with Catherine

Caroline is celebrating her birthday next weekend with a few friends.  Sadly Catherine will be out of town so she invited Caroline and I to brunch today to celebrate.  It was a beautiful morning and Caroline loved her special time with Catherine!!!  So thankful for sweet friends!!
 

2nd grade is HARD work!

Tonight Maggie was laying on the couch reading.  I walked into the kitchen to do something.  When I walked by, this is what I found...it wasn't even 8PM!!  Boy, 2nd grade is hard work!
 

Practicing Spelling Words

Maggie and I use the time waiting on Caroline in carline to work on her homework.  Well today when I went to get something from the van, I noticed Maggie used the back of her seat to "practice" writing her spelling word with a SHARPIE marker!!!  SO she had a rather long lesson on how to remove Sharpie marker from fake leather...hopefully this won't happen again...however, at least she spelling 'rest' correctly!

 

Exploring

Caroline has swim practice 4 nights a week for an hour and a half.  Typically one of us will take her while the other one stays home to get Maggie in bed before too late.  Tonight, Andy had a meeting so I took Maggie with me.  We had fun exploring the playground and going for a razor ride.  We loved having Mrs. Charissa tag along for our adventure! 
 

Meet #2

Tonight Caroline had her second swim meet.  She also broke a bracket on her braces.  SO we squeezed in a quick visit to the orthodontist before getting on the road for the meet almost an hour away. It was crazy hot.  We were about 5 events from the end when we got a lightening delay.  SO off to our cars we wet for 45 minutes.  Never stormed...back to the pool only to have 15 minutes spent warming up again.  We finally finished the meet.  Caroline did great!  She and Maggie slept on the way home.  Once we got home, everyone took showers and Caroline remembered she had homework...yikes!  She just finished and momma is ready for bed!

 

A sweet family picture!

Jenna sent me this picture from their wedding and I absolutely LOVE it!!!  I will certainly be framing it!! Typically our family pictures are camping, at the pool, on the beach, etc.  It's just our everyday life pictures but I love them.  But man, it sure is nice to have a formal picture of us all dressed up!!
 

Painting Nails

This kids LOVES painting nails!!  She changes her nail polish almost daily!  She has been begging me to let her paint my nails.  Today I said why not.  I've never had white nails before but it sure was service with a smile!!
 

Hideaway RV Resort

An early morning, out of town swim meet, is a good excuse to go camping at said location.  We tried a new campground and we loved it!  Not knowing how long the swim meet would last, we hated to pay almost double to stay at a beach front beach.  This campground is located on the Intercoastal Waterway.  We say a few big boats but I sure was hoping to see a few bigger boats...maybe next time. :-)  However, this was a perfect location.  Friday night we were the only folks at the pool, which was great.  After the pool, we headed back to the camper to cook dinner.  Andy ran to the store to grab ice.  Caroline offered to start cooking the hotdogs on the Blackstone.  While I was helping her, Maggie got in the shower.  About 5 minutes later, we heard Maggie screaming!  Like panic screaming!  I ran inside and she was bawling tears.  She could barely speak but when she tried to get out the shower, she turned the cold water off first and the hot water was really hot and burned her shoulder.  Thankfully Andy got home about the same time.  He put some burn cream on it and later put some aloe on it.  Bless her heart, it was pitiful.  We enjoyed dinner outside, thanks to Caroline's hard work.  We were able to listen to the live band as we ate.  

Saturday morning we got up early and headed to the swim meet.  The weather was gorgeous! Caroline went with Catherine to their condo to spend the night and celebrate Catherine's birthday with her. After we got back to the camper from the swim meet, the skies got dark.  Maggie and I enjoyed a little time by the water before the rain started.  So we headed back to the camper to relax, play games and watch a little TV.  We had left overs for dinner, which was super easy.

I saw the idea on FB to make walking banana pudding.  So I bought the things we needed.  Individual bags of mini vanilla waffers, individual cups of vanilla pudding, bananas and whip cream.  It was a hit!

This morning, while working on cleaning the camper, we watched an episode of "Different Strokes."  It ended with "to be continued."  We all wanted to see how it ended so we played it on Andy's phone coming home.  We said it was the closest thing the Golden Goose would ever get to having a DVD player or TV installed!! :-)

 

Caroline's first high school swim meet!!!!!

Caroline had her first high school swim meet today.  My stomach was a bundle of nerves!  She stood on that dive board like a pro!  After her first swim, it was like summer swim league.  My nerves settled and I LOVED watching my girl in action!  Swimming is an interesting sport.  The meets last several hours yet your kid only has about 5 minutes of action.  So you have to pay attention so you don't miss it!  

One really neat thing.  Our district only has one swim coach.  Therefore all the high schools in our district practice together.  So at the meet, the kids were all encouraging each other...regardless of which team they were on.  

Caroline swam 4 events.  Two relays and two individual events.  Her fist event was the 100 yard freestyle and the second was the 100 yard breaststroke.  For both of these events, she had to swim 4 laps, down and back twice.

• 100 yard freestyle: Her seed time (qualifying time) was 1:20.99.  Her final time in the race was 1:16.88.  She shaved 4.11 seconds off her seed time!
• 100 yard breaststroke: Her seed time (qualifying time) was 1:46.99.  Her final time in the race was 1:44.52.  She shaved 2.47 seconds off her seed time!

Caroline's last two events were pretty close together.  She had to swim an individual 100 yard free and then a 100 yard free for a relay.  I noticed after she got out of the pool, she immediately went to sit down behind the team.  I couldn't see what was going on so I tried to move closer.  By the time I got there she looked fine.  She eventually got up and cheered for the final person in her relay.  Once it was over, she said "Momma, I was SO out of breath when I finished my part of the relay.  One of my team members told me to put my head between my legs and just try to breath...thankfully it worked but man am I out of shape!"  

After the meet, the girls were starving!!!  So we thought they might deserve a yummy, hot meal!

 I am SO proud of our girl!!  She was so impressive today!  I can't wait to watch her grow as a swimmer over the next 6 years!

Celebrating Jack

Tonight we went to dinner to celebrate Jack!   Tomorrow he leaves for college.  He won't actually move in until Saturday but we won't see him before he leaves.  We are so proud of Jack and look forward to watching his adventures unfold at college.  

 

Charlie Brown's photo shoot

Caroline had an assignment this evening for her photography class.  So she took Charlie Brown outside for a photo shoot.  It was fun to watch them working together. 
 

Treating myself to a pedicure

For my birthday, my sweet friend Tookie gave me a gift card to have a pedicure.  I had one scheduled for today but almost cancelled because things at school have been crazy.  I decided to keep the appointment and I am so glad that I did.  I enjoyed the 45 minutes of pampering myself...it's the little things in life that make me happy!
 

Carline VIBES

Afternoon carline vibes...it's HOT!  Like SO HOT!  I get to Maggie's carline 45 minutes early so that we can get to Caroline's carline almost an hour early so that we aren't stuck sitting on a major highway.  But it's so hot right now.  However, I will suffer through it for several reasons.  I am thankful that even with the rise of COVID cases in our areas, our girls are still in school.  I am also thankful that I get the privilege of picking the girls up and enjoying this time with them.  So...I'll keep sweating because time is flying by and passing all too quickly!
 

Caroline cooks...

Last week, when we were at the local farmers market, Caroline picked up a handful of potatoes.  She wasn't sure what she was going to make, but she wanted to cook something.  So we tossed them in olive oil, added a few seasonings and put them in the oven.  Then she proceeded to mix cheese, bacon, melted butter, sour cream and a few other seasonings together.  She cut out a section from the top and added the filling.  They were amazing!!  My goodness, I sure do love when my girl cooks!
 

OOOUUUUCCCCCHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!

This afternoon after we came home from the Y, I took a slice of tomato pie to my neighbor.  I came in, put something in the kitchen and then came back in the den to sit down.  As I went to sit down, something was crawling on my arm. As I went to swat it, it was caught between my swim shirt and my fit bit and it bit me!  I screamed!!!  It hurt like you wouldn't believe!!  Andy and Caroline immediately ran into the den to see what was going on.  Andy went into nurse mode.  He gave me two Benadryl's, a Tylenol and then some sting cream.  I thought the pain would never go away...I forgot how bad a wasp sting hurt!  Needless to say, I can't hardly keep my eyes open to type but at least it doesn't hurt anymore!
 

Swim Saturday

With Caroline's evening swim practice, and weekend plans, we haven't been to the Y since school started.  So today we headed over for what might be our last summer swim at the Y.  The girls had fun together, I read a book.  During one of the breaks, Maggie's friend Miriam came.  Caroline used that gift as a chance to get out of the pool and read with me under the tent.  It was a great afternoon together!

 

Life Update

 So just to give a little update...things are ok.  It has been helpful to know what triggers my anxiety and how to get my feelings out.  Andy has been amazing with helping me work through this season.  I am extremely thankful to say I have really good days mixed in with the really hard days.  I am learning to be honest when my friends and family ask me how I'm doing.  I am also learning to ask for help when I need it.  I know this won't be fixed overnight but I am so thankful for the progress I am making.  One day this week Maggie said "Mommy!  What's wrong...you sure are laughing a lot today?"  That broke my heart...made me realize I must not laugh enough these days...so my goal is to find something every day to make me laugh.

Church back to school pool party

Our school kids had their back to school pool party tonight!  It was fun watching their personalities.  The little kids were having a blast swimming, going down the slide, playing with each other.  The older kids hung out in the pool for a little while, then sat on the side.  Each family ordered their own personal pizzas to enjoy.  It was a great evening to be with our church family!

 

Sweet C

Not only are afternoon carlines an hour apart, morning drop off is also an hours different.  Until I start back to work, C is enjoying getting to school a little later.  We hope to carpool with some friends once I go back to work.  However, I really have enjoyed this one on one time with her in the mornings before her school day and swim practice exhaust her!
 

Carline with Mags

 With two kids in two different carlines that dismiss at 2 different times, I feel as though I am LIVING in carline.  There isn't a lot of room in carline at Caroline's school.  So I get to Maggie's school early so that I get to Caroline's school early enough not to have to park on the main road.  But so far, Maggie and I are using this time to accomplish school work.  I'm thankful for this uninterrupted, one on one time with her. 

Happy first day of school!

I'm trying to figure out how in the world we have a 7th grader and a 2nd grader?????  Maggie is thrilled to be back with her teachers from last year.  Caroline is excited about her acceptance into the fine arts academy but is nervous about finding her classes.  

Real life in our house...

We were excited to be able to walk Maggie to class this morning. 

Maggie said "Daddy please hold my hand!"

We are so thankful for another year with these two amazing ladies!!!

Unlike her sister, Caroline said "I will walk slowly for you to get your picture but don't expect me to turn around and wave..."