Swimming Sisters

State Tournament

This past week-end, my ladies' tennis team played in the state tournament in Williamson County. We won our league, as I previously posted about, and earned a birth in the state tournament. Our division was split into two groups. The winner of each group faced off in the finals on Sunday afternoon. There were teams from Memphis, Jackson, Union City, Knoxville, Nashville, Chattanooga, and the Tri-Cities, for a total of 10 teams from across the state. We played our first match Friday and won - a great start to the tournament! (By the way, a team match consists of 2 courts of singles and 3 courts of doubles, for a total of 5 courts.) On Saturday we played two matches and won both of them! That had us in 1st place with one match left on Sunday morning. We won Sunday morning, so we won our group with a record of 4-0! That had us facing off against the winner from the other group for the championship. The winner of the other group just so happened to be the 2nd place team from our local league. We had already played them 3 times this year - we had won twice and they had won once. Obviously, being a team we knew from our local league made it a grudge match. But, one of our players from last year switched teams and is playing for our opponent this year. So there's a bit of history between our two teams, and neither team particularly likes the other team. Yes - it speaks highly of our league that it was our two teams fighting it out for the state championship, but still, we'd rather have played someone else! In the championship, I played singles (just as I had done the other 4 matches in the tournament) against the girl who had played on our team last year. I played her a couple of weeks ago in a tournament and beat her for the championship, so I knew she'd be wanting revenge. I won the first set, but then lost the second set. The format for this league tennis is that instead of playing a complete third set, you play a 10-point tiebreaker. The first person to 10 wins the tiebreaker. Well, I completely choked and lost the tiebreaker, so I lost my court of singles. I was devastated! I'm used to winning and I'm used to my team counting on me to win my court. During the regular season I didn't lose at all. In the local playoffs I suffered my first lost, but my team still won the match. During this state tournament, I won my first three matches, but then lost on Sunday morning in a third set tiebreaker. And then as I just detailed above, I lost Sunday afternoon in a third set tiebreaker. So until yesterday, I had only lost once all year! So losing two matches in one day was pretty hard on me emotionally!!! I came off the court yesterday to find out that my team had won 2 courts and lost 2 courts, so it was up to the last doubles court to pull out a victory for us. They were in a third set tiebreaker too. But like me, they couldn't pull it out, so our team fell short of the state championship. I was soooooo upset because if I had just pulled out my match, we would've won the state championship! I really felt like the burden of the tournament fell on my shoulders and I completely let everyone down. Of course my teammates were all very nice and didn't blame me, but I blamed myself. All season long they had counted on me to win whenever I stepped on the court, and I did - up until yesterday. And for the first time all year, I lost and my team lost. My captain said to look on the bright side - had we won, we'd be heading to the sectional tournament in Mobile at the end of July, and who wants to be in the Mobile heat in July!! Plus it would be a long drive and quite expensive. But that didn't console me too much! Oh well - I'll just have to get over it!!!

A highlight of the week-end is that I got to visit my friend Gwen on Friday afternoon. I went over to her house and hung out at the pool with Gwen and her 3 kids. It had been 4 years since I had seen them, and Jeremiah & Elijah have grown up so much! And I had never met Emily. She is adorable and quickly became my buddy!! I had an enjoyable afternoon. Thanks Gwen for letting me hang out with you guys for a while. I really enjoyed our visit. And Happy Birthday Emily!

Rachel was Paying Attention!

This morning I was talking to the girls about how they should behave when their friend Chloe came over. (See my earlier post for pictures.) I explained how Chloe was our guest, and they should let her choose what she wanted to play with - even if it was their favorite toy. Rachel spoke up and said "I know that Mommy. Real heroes put others first!" For those of you reading this who are involved with the Game Day Central VBS theme this year, you'll recognize that as one of the theme's for the week. I was impressed that not only did Rachel listen, but she also remembered it and was able to incorporate it into her everyday life. I'll have to tell her teachers that their time wasn't wasted!

Fun with Our Friend Chloe

Today we had our friend Chloe come over and play for a while since her mommy had surgery last week and is now recovering. Chloe and Katelyn are in the same classes at church (Sunday School, choir, AWANA Cubbies, VBS, etc.) and are big buddies. We started out the morning by playing outside for a while in the backyard. It doesn't take long when you're playing hard in the heat to work up an appetite, so we broke for lunch shortly after 11:00. If you've ever eaten with Katelyn, you know that there's no such thing as a quick meal!!! After lunch, we played inside. All three girls played really well together and got along great. They really enjoyed playing house! I guess they're at the age where they really like playing house and using their imaginations. We just got back from taking Chloe back home and the girls are resting. I thought I'd go ahead and post these pictures from today too.

Another Lost Tooth

Today Rachel lost her 4th tooth. I guess I shouldn't really say she "lost" it since she really pulled it out! She has 3 other teeth that are slightly loose, but knowing her, they'll be really loose in a few weeks! She tends to wiggle them until they come out! The first two teeth she lost (on the bottom) have been replaced by the permanent teeth. But now, she has a big gap on top where she's missing two teeth! And the tooth she lost today wasn't the other top front tooth - it was the tooth to the side of the front tooth she had already lost. I'm thinking corn on the cob isn't a great food choice for her right now!!!

Hula Hoops & Jump Ropes

For Christmas, both girls asked for hula hoops and jump ropes. That's all they wanted. Since then, they have really been working on perfecting their skills!! Rachel has developed into a really good hula hooper and jump roper - she can even jump rope backwards on one foot!! Check out the video! And she's a little trickster hula hooper!!

Katelyn has worked so hard on learning to hula hoop and jump rope. I think she's finally figured it out! Check out her hula hoop video - she's doing her silly hula hoop routine.

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Swimming Videos

Here are some videos of the girls swimming at Mamaw & Papaw's pool on Sunday.

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Father's Day Fun

Hope everyone had a very happy Father's Day! We started out the day here at home with the girls wishing Robert a Happy Father's Day! I got a few pictures of Robert & the girls. You can tell they adore their daddy!!!

After church, we headed over to Mamaw & Papaw's to go swimming and grill out. The girls had a blast and are doing some excellent swimming!

Here's a slideshow from our day.

Slip & Slide Fun

Robert bought the girls a Slip & Slide the other day, and yesterday he set it up for them outside. They had a total blast with it!!! Katelyn was hilarious! She could just zip down the slide really fast - I guess she weighs so little that she didn't have any friction going against her! Rachel had fun too, but sometimes she would try to start out on her knees then lay down on her belly. When she got ready for bed last night, Rachel had big bruises on her knees from doing that!! Katelyn would get going so fast she'd slide right over the ending "pool" area and into the grass. She had grass cuts all over her legs. But the girls didn't seem to mind the cuts & brusies. They giggled and laughed the whole time!

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More From VBS

VBS Videos

Here are some videos from VBS Family Night tonight at church. The children's praise team helped lead the music. Rachel is in the praise team, but Katelyn is not because she's not old enough. One of the adult leaders asked her to come up with her tonight and help, so Katelyn was sooooo excited about that!! Sorry the video quality isn't great. All I had was my digital camera so I used the video function on that. Hey - it's better than nothing at all!!!

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18 Years Later...

...and I can still wear my high school softball pants!!!! The theme at this week's VBS is Game Day Central - a sports related theme. Yesterday, I wore my old powder puff football jersey from high school. This morning when I was getting ready, I was trying to find something sporty to wear. I decided to get down that box from the top of the closet that has who knows what in it! I found my old high school softball pants in there! I remember that they let us keep them because they were getting new pants for the next year. I hesitantly tried them on thinking I would be disappointed that I couldn't wear them. Surprise! They fit just fine!!! They're actually a little baggy in the seat of the pants!!! So I'm pretty pumped this morning that 18 years later, I can still wear these pants! It's starting out a good day!!!

VBS 2007 Has Begun!

VBS began this week at church. I am the preschool crafts director again this year, which is for kids 2 through just completed kindergarten. Rachel & Katelyn have been so excited about Bible School starting! They're having a great time!!! Rachel is on the children's praise team at church, so during VBS she is one of the kids who gets to be on stage leading all the other children in the VBS music. SHE LOVES IT!!! There are about 2-3 kids from each grade (K-5) that are in the praise team. Rachel has done a super job learning the words and motions for all the songs. Katelyn is loving the music too!!! The lady in charge of the preschool music told me yesterday as we were leaving VBS that "Katelyn rocks!" She said Katelyn is quite the dancer & singer!! Katelyn loves music as much as Rachel and boy can she dance!!! Here are a few pictures from yesterday and today. Don't you like their white shirts with red sleeves? I found the shirts at Wal-Mart and then printed off the logo and names on iron-on transfer paper. I think they turned out really cute!!!

Happy Birthday Robert!

Today is Robert's birthday! Happy birthday!

Katelyn kept telling Robert that we got him a ringmaster for his birthday! I'm not quite sure where she came up with that idea, but she was determined to not tell him what we really got him, so she kept telling him it was a ringmaster. To that, Robert would reply in a booming voice "Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls..." Katelyn would just cackle and tell him to do it again! For some reason, she thinks it is absolutely hilarious for Robert to talk in different voices.

14 Years

Yesterday marked our 14th wedding anniversary!!! 14 years - that sounds like quite a while, doesn't it? Robert & I met in math class in college and dated for a little over a year before getting engaged. Then about 8 months after that, we got married. Here's a picture of us back then (sorry about the quality of the picture - it's just a scanned in copy):

Don't you just love my BIG hair? What was I thinking?

Here's a picture of us now:

It's been a GREAT 14 years! Looking forward to many, many more!!

We Are the Champions!!!

This past week-end, my ladies tennis team played in the local playoffs for our division in our area. The top 2 teams from the week-end 3.5 division and the top 3 teams from the weekday 3.5 division came together for the local playoffs. It was a round robin, so we played everyone once for a total of 4 matches. Our team won all 4 matches so we are the champions (at least at the local level!!!). Now we'll head to the state tournament in a couple of weeks. Here's a picture of some of our team.

I know some of you are disappointed that you can't see the full length picture of me because YES I HAVE ON A TENNIS SKIRT!!!!

A Floating Head

Several weeks ago I posted this post with a funny picture of Rachel in the bath tub. Well, earlier this week Katelyn was taking a bath and she said "Remember that time you took a funny picture of Rachel's head? Could you take one of me?" So I hurried and got the camera and here's the resulting picture.

A Not So Brief Recap of Our Week

Well, a lot has been going on in the past week since I last posted. Let's see if I can remember everything.

First of all, Robert & I both played in a tennis tournament over the Memorial Day week-end. We both played singles. I won my division and Robert came in 2nd in his division. The girls are always excited when we bring home a trophy! Everytime we go to play tennis, they tell us to "win a trophy!" And when we get home from playing, the first question is always "Did you win a trophy?"

This past week we've been cat-sitting for Lloyd & Wendy. So every day we'd go over there and check Rascal's food & water, clean his litter box, and play with him. He was always VERY glad to see us! And the girls loved it! They were sad when we went over yesterday morning as our last day of "taking care of Rascal." Robert told them we can still go see Rascal when we go see Lloyd & Wendy!! It's not like we won't see the cat again. They really like playing with Rascal, and let me tell you, Rascal lives up to his name! He is a rascal!!

Last Saturday as we (me, Rachel, & Katelyn - Robert was playing tennis) were pulling in the driveway from checking on Rascal, Rachel started whining. When I turned to look at her I knew what was coming. I immediately stopped the van, threw open the door, and tried to get her out, but I wasn't fast enough - she threw up in the van. After that, I got her out and into the house. Poor Katelyn was still sitting in the van, all buckled up in her carseat, with all the van doors open and vomit in the van! I went to get her out and told her to go upstairs and stay upstairs. She started crying and said "I don't want to stay upstairs by myself all day!" I explained to her that I needed to get Rachel taken care of and the van cleaned out and then I'd come see her. That calmed her down and she went upstairs and did what I told her to. In the meantime, I discover that Rachel is now running a fever. Throughout the day, her fever continues to rise, even with Tylenol every 4 hours, and by evening, it's up to almost 104! And like I said, that was with Tylenol all day. Rachel felt terrible and just slept or laid around. She didn't want to do anything at all. On Sunday, I stayed home with her since Robert teaches our Bible Study class. She still didn't feel good, but her fever was coming down. She still couldn't eat. By Monday morning, she was starting to feel better and was fever free. By Monday evening, she begged us to go outside and play, so once the playset got in the shade, we let her go outside for a little while and told her she had to be calm. She mainly played in the sandbox or on the swings. By Tuesday, she was still weak from not eating for a couple of days, but she was pretty much back to her normal self. And in case you're wondering - I did get the van cleaned out very well - there's not even a hint of an odor!! Of course, I used every possible cleaning thing I could think of that we had here at home!!!

On Tuesday night, Rachel had track practice! She's doing this 4 week track thing. It's a developmental program to get young kids interested in track and to teach them a little bit about it. The director saw her play soccer last Fall and told us "You need to get her in my track program!" Rachel loves to run. If you ask her what her favorite sport is she says "running the race." So we thought this would be a good little 4-week thing for her. Tuesday night she did good, even though you could tell she was worn out from the stomach bug she had just gotten over. But she was a real trooper and did everything she was supposed to! They even let Katelyn do the stuff! Katelyn was so excited and grinned from ear to ear the entire time!!! Anyway, they did some sprints, jumped over cones (to simulate hurdles), did the long jump, shot put, and then jumped rope.

On Wednesday morning the girls and I had dentist appointments. Puddin & Papa came down Tuesday night to spend the night with us so that Puddin could help me with the girls at the dentist since Robert had a work meeting that he couldn't reschedule. I was glad Puddin could come because while I was having my teeth cleaned in one room, the girls each had their teeth cleaned in another room. Anyway, we all got a good report from the dentist - no cavities!!! The girls did so good getting their teeth cleaned and getting a fluoride treatment!

On Wednesday afternoon, we had to take Katelyn back to the doctor for a recheck. At her 4 year check-up, the doctor was slightly concerned about her liver, and wanted us to come back in about 6 weeks to check it out again. She wanted to make sure that it wasn't enlarged. So that's what we went for. The doctor said everything was perfect!! She explained that if you have a cold and it affects your lungs, your lungs can expand and push your liver down and out of position a bit, or if you're having allergy/asthma problems, the same thing can happen. She's guessing that's what was going on the first time when we went for the 4-year check-up. But this time everything was fine and the liver felt like it's supposed to!! YEAH!!!

Wednesday night was church and the girls had a good time as usual! Robert helped out in Rock Solid, which is for the kids Rachel's age up through 5th grade. Katelyn went to the VeggieTales class and had a blast! I hung out in the resource room working on VBS stuff!! One of the crafts we're making for VBS is a notepad, so I was using the paper cutter to cut my foam and paper down to the right size. What fun!!!

Thursday morning the girls & I went to the gym so I could work out. Between the tennis tournament last week-end, Rachel being sick, and then dentist and doctor appointments, it had been almost a week since I had worked out - NOT GOOD!!! Rachel has been begging to go to Kid City (the childcare at the gym), so she got her chance!

Thursday night, Rachel had a t-ball game and track. We went to t-ball for a while, then left early so that we could get to track late! Rachel did good in her t-ball game. Her first at bat she had to use the tee and got a good hit. But her 2nd at bat she had a GREAT hit off a pitched ball! And she made a couple of good plays in the field and got someone out. She does really well. At track, she felt so much better than she did on Tuesday night and you could tell! They did some of the same things they did Tuesday night, and also worked on handing off the baton for relays!! Katelyn got to do it again too!! At the end of the practice, one of the older girls (she's 8) wanted to run a lap around the track like the big kids. (There are middle schoolers and high schoolers there practicing too.) So that girl went off to run her lap around the track. I could tell Rachel wanted to do it too, but was a little embarrassed about it. I asked her if she wanted to and she just grinned. So I told her to go on. She ran the entire lap - 400 meters!! And when she finished she wasn't even breathing hard! She did so good!!! Katelyn said she wanted to do it too, and we told her she could try, but she might just want to run to the end of the track and then walk back. She started out with the intention of running the entire lap, but I think she quickly realized that wasn't going to happen! She ran to the end of the track and then stopped and walked back to us. That's pretty good for a little girl with little legs!! It was probably close to 100 meters! So she did a good job too!!!

Last night we had plans on going to the gym so Robert & I could hit tennis, then eat a picnic lunch, then take the girls swimming at the outdoor pool there. However, the weather didn't cooperate and it started thundering while we were hitting tennis. So we made a change in plans. We went to eat at Fazoli's instead, and then tried to go see a movie. However, there was not a G rated movie playing at any theater we went to, even though one of the theaters bragged about having several family movies. Let me get on my soap box here. My girls are only allowed to watch G rated movies, and it absolutely blows my mind that parents of children my kids' ages (5 and 4) let their kids watch the movies that they do. Kids in Rachel's kindergarten class were talking about the Spiderman movies and the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. What? I couldn't believe it! And then I would hear parents talking about taking their young kids (kindergarten and younger) to the opening of Pirates of the Caribbean. You've got to be kidding! It's PG-13 and you're wanting to take a 5 year old. That's ridiculous! And what about all the cartoon movies? I'm sorry - but most of the cartoon movies are NOT made for kids. Shrek is NOT a kid's movie! My girls do know who Shrek is because of all the advertisements, McDonald's stuff, merchandise, etc. But they do NOT watch it. We wonder why our kids act the way they do, say the things they say, have the attitudes they have, and seem to know more worldly things at 6 than we did at 15. Hmmm - I wonder why?!?!?! Could it be because we as the parents are allowing them, and actually encouraging them, to watch things they have no business of watching? I'm so glad that my girls absolutely love VeggieTales movies! And they think Clifford and Curious George are hilarious! And after striking out at the movie theater last night, guess what movie we rented? The BackYardigans! And the girls cackled during it. They're watching it again right now! Yes - they still even like Sesame Street, and I'm proud of them for admitting it! Rachel told me at one point during the year that she was the only one in her class who liked Sesame Street. And Katelyn came home from preschool one day and said that kids had told her that Elmo was for babies. What? At the time, Katelyn herself was only 3! Kids are having their innocence taken away at such a young age, and much of it is our own fault! Let the kids be innocent while they can! I know they can't live in a bubble and I can't control every word they hear, everything they see, etc., but I AM THE PARENT and I can make sure that what they do when they're with me is appropriate!! Speaking of appropriate - what about the music? We talked about this in class one day at church. Yes - I like country music. BUT, I don't listen to it when the girls are with me. Have you stopped and listened to the words of your favorite songs? Is it about drinking? Cheating? Sex? Is this what you want your kids listening to? One of the moms in our Sunday School class said she used to listen to country music radio on the way to school every morning until she heard her 4 year old singing at the top of her lungs "Save a horse, ride a cowboy!" Now that may initially seem funny and make you laugh, but after the initial smile, you'll find out that it's really sad and not funny at all.

Wow - I didn't start with the intention of going in that direction, but that's where I ended up and I'm not going to delete it. I guess you can tell I feel pretty strongly about that. I'm not trying to be "holier than thou" about the movie/music subject. Just trying to make you step back and think about what you're putting into those minds of our precious kids.

Okay - back to tennis. My team won our week-end league, so now we've got the local playoffs where the top 2 teams from the week-end league play against the top 3 teams from the weekday league. It's a round robin playoff. The top 2 teams from the playoffs advance to the state tournament. We have two matches today and 2 matches tomorrow afternoon. Our matches today will be tough. We play the second place team from our week-end league (we split with them during the regular season) and we play the first place team from the weekday league. Should be an exciting day of tennis!!!

Well, I'd be surprised if anyone's still reading at this point, so I'll just quit. Have a great week-end!