The Digging Club

"K, look, there's Madeline. Are you still playing with her at recess?"

"No, she's not in the digging club."

"The what?"

"The digging club."

I proceeded to ask what the digging club was. Duh!! It's a group that digs at recess. It appears they are treasure hunting after lunch and increasing the "holes" all over the dry cracked playground dirt. I asked who all was in the digging club. He listed 3 or 4 boys. I asked who came up with the digging club. He did. I asked if he was the leader of the digging club. He said he guessed he was because if they weren't having the club one day he got to say it was cancelled.

"So, why isn't Madeline in the digging club?"

"Because she doesn't want to get all dirty."

The digging club . . .

Handyman Honey

As much as we've searched on occasion for new bedroom furniture, we finally at least bought a new mattress this summer. We were SO close to getting a whole room full of new furniture, but at the last minute Dad promised he'd build the headboard I'd been keeping a picture of for a long time. It came from one of those home improvement magazines or maybe a Southern Living, but it was tucked way away at the bottom of my "good idea" file and pulled out every so often as a reminder that I liked the idea. So, now we're at the end of summer and after at least a dozen trips to ALL the local Home Depots and Lowes, we finally found and bought the materials for the project. I say "we" - I just got to take the picture out for the occasional neighbor who happened over to take a look at what was going on in the garage. (They know something's going on because we ALWAYS park our cars in the garage and they've been out in the driveway for a week!)

So, with the help of our next door neighbor (he had the miter saw and crown moulding experience . . .) the headboard is finally a reality! Here are some highlights:



Superman "super"vises the beginning construction of the headboard from doors and a variety of wood trims. We spent a lot of time trying to decide on what kind of doors we wanted to use. We contemplated using something "old" but never could find anything that would work. We finally found that using hinged closet doors (hinges off, of course) would work and actually create the perfect horizontal dimension without having to trim anything off the edges.


Johnny came over to help, loan tools and give advice on working with the moulding. He had just finished some trim work at his house, so he had some idea of how to figure out the angles on the corners.


Dad was concerned about the stain at first, but as he got more coats on and began the top coat he began to feel better about the color choice. And we have PLENTY of stain left over for the unfinished furniture pieces we need to go looking for now (oh, joy!). Since the bed is so high and the headboard is really tall, we need some large nightstands and an oversized chest to finish filling out the room. We are SO SLOW at finding and deciding on what we want!
I tried getting a close up of the headboard on here, but every time I uploaded it, it showed up sideways! No idea!

(Ignore the mismatched lamps, night tables and navy table cover!)

We almost have the kids "trained" enough to feel brave enough to get out the beautiful crocheted bedspread Mawmaw made for us. In the mean time, we found something we both could agree on to serve its purpose as a comforter. Not what we had in mind, but it works for now. Soon the crocheted heirloom will come out of its safe box in the closet!

Well, now Dad feels like he can take on the whole house - crown moulding everywhere! Of course, that would mean another few trips back to Home Depot because there are LOTS of great tools he needs to buy!
Sounds like a good excuse for power tools to me!?! :-)

Back to School!! (or OFF to school . . .)

A strange thing happened today. We walked into school with children and walked out without any of them. That has never happened before. The "baby" has started Kindergarten . . . We had talked about it. We had prepared for it. We knew it was coming. It was such an empty feeling. The pit of my stomach was queasy for several hours. It was not the emotion I had prepared myself for. No tears, just queasy emptiness. I came home and puttered around the kitchen cleaning up from breakfast . . .

Then, I went to the church for a staff meeting, out to lunch with the staff and then off to the grocery store where I strolled the aisles not looking at the time or worrying about how much the babysitter was costing me and how much I'd better hurry and get back! Queasy was gone! Empty was still there, though.

I'm very excited about the school year - as we usually are every year. But, after a year of struggling with school work, teacher conflict and so much testing last year, I'm expecting much improvement this year. We're already excited about the teachers everyone has and that makes a huge difference when you feel good about that!
A left for her first day of middle school at 7:15 this morning. Dad took her by himself so we wouldn't have any more extra bodies up there than necessary and the other 3 could finish breakfast and get dressed for their first day of school. Dad got back home and pronounced that "THAT was a scary place". NOT what Mom wanted to hear! He was referring to the packed hallways and chaos as everyone tried to once again figure out their locker combinations and find their first classroom. We had practiced her locker combination over and over the day we picked up her schedule. Dad hadn't been there, so he got to see the lay of the land this morning. He wasn't impressed!


After Dad got back from the middle school, the other 3 were ready to go and lined up for their traditional pictures out front.
G - kinder
S - 4th gr
K - 1st gr



G was excited about her first day of kindergarten and her teacher, who is a lefty like she is!








K got the teacher Mom REALLY was hoping and praying for this summer. Mom had heard great things about her last year - that she's a sweet Christian lady and her husband (a youth minister?) comes up to help her in class sometimes. Her smile each morning is going to make K's year! And she said she was in trouble when she was a kid because she would finish her work and start getting in to things she shouldn't! Sounds like a perfect match of understanding!







S gets to be the big sister this year at school. I think she's excited about it. She has one of A's teachers from 4th grade and lots of kids from her previous classes in her class AGAIN this year. Several of them have been together for 3 or 4 years now!

Hey, Mom got in the picture! (See the shadow in the bottom left corner . . .)

Walking into school . . .

G and one of her friends from church. It was so sweet, when G sat down, her little friend right away started sharing her blocks with her so they could make something together. G looks like such a big girl!! Too big!!

K and Dad find his locker and get all his backpack stuff put away. This is his first year with a locker and he's already figured out that he can fit himself in there. His teacher was standing nearby and she made a note to herself that they would have to have a class discussion about that the first day . . . ! :-)

Superman loses a tooth!

Superman followed his predecessors (sisters) by having a permanent tooth show itself before a baby tooth would fall out. Although the baby tooth was loose, it just wouldn't budge from its happy little spot in his mouth. His sisters had to have dental intervention to get some of their solid little baby teeth out of their mouths. After much writhing and gnashing of teeth (literally!) the not-so-brave Superman finally was free of his first baby tooth and kept an eye out all night (or as long as he could) for the mysterious "tooth fairy". She succeeded once again to blithely deliver her goods and brave little Superman thought twice about being not-so-brave concerning loose teeth!

Colorado Vacation (train chapter)

We took the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad trip today. We drove the 20 miles down to Durango and rode the old steam engine the 45 miles up to Silverton. The kids did really great on the 3 ½ hour trip up the mountain. The two little ones both fell asleep for a short time after giving in to the gentle rocking of the rail cars. They sell a little history/tour book for $10 and it was definitely a good thing to have on hand as we climbed through the mountains into the area we’d just driven from.


K's looking out the (open) window at the river WAY down below the cliff we're riding slowing along . . .





This is the High Line where the train rides on a ledge 400 feet above the Animas River. Hmm, tight curve, squeeling wheels, 400 feet straight down . . . and kids looking out wide open windows to see the view! Whew!


Shortly before we arrived in Silverton, the kids started getting whiney and asking when we would finally get to eat. Our cuddly little S “Bear” even raised her grizzly little head. (S “Bear” was a nickname she got as a newborn since she was so round and cuddly. Hungry bears are NOT cuddly, though!) We arrived in Silverton and headed over to the recommended Brown Bear Café (quite a coincidence . . .) for lunch and then had a bit of time to wander around the historical town before heading back to the train for the ride home.





A fed and happy "Bear" sticks her head out the window for Dad to take a picture. He almost deleted it because it was blurry, but it looked strange to Mom so we kept it. After we uploaded it to the computer and got a better look it was freaky! (Did I just use that word . . ??) Dad said he couldn't look at it because it made him dizzy. Mom thought it looked kind of neat!




This is a cool spot along the tracks where they clear sediment in the boiler. We're crossing the High Bridge with the Animas River below.
We were anticipating a shorter ride home, but a derailment problem with the train ahead of us (thank goodness it wasn’t us!) made the trip 45 minutes longer than expected. The natives were getting restless! We learned some new things about railroading, though with the difficulties and stops.

Colorado Vacation (chapter 3)

(ugh! I deleted the picture AGAIN!!) After a full day of mountain driving, stopping for tons of pictures, and touring Silverton, Ouray and Ridgway, we rested up back at the condo and then headed out to go fishing. Between the kids’ short attention spans and the empty hooks, we spent less than an hour at Haviland Lake and headed on to Durango Mountain Resort to see what activities they had open. It was an almost empty resort area, but we were able to play 18 holes of putt-putt for free. We abandoned the idea of teams and keeping score and just played to have fun and finish. It was so nice and such pretty scenery. There were some annoying unsupervised kids playing around and we had to watch for some of their stray balls and eventually their clubs that went flying through the air. Dad was about to go looking for some parents, but they ran off and we were finally at peace with playing by ourselves.

Another fun picture in the beautiful scenery at Durango Mountain Resort near the putt-putt area.

A - 11
G - 5
S - 9
K - almost 7


Mom and Dad posing for a picture the same as they did almost 15 years ago - only there was lots of snow then!







Mom and G on the chairlift. G hadn't let go of Mom's arm just yet, but she was soon comfortable and sitting by herself and telling Mom she didn't need to hold her any more. Little did G know, but Mom DID need to hold on to her!!





We got to the top of the mountain on the chairlifts and were set to walk around and explore. Unfortunately, (or fortunately as the storms were rolling in) we were immediately attacked by massive mosquitoes and decided to head right back down to the bottom. Seeing us taking pictures of the kids, a nice ranger at the top of the mountain asked if we wanted him to take a family picture, so we finally got everyone in at the same time.


After we got back to the bottom of the chairlifts, the storms were clearing out and the kids ended up talking Dad into a ride on the alpine slides. (Mom was shocked!) We all got to ride (G with Mom since she wasn't 6 yet) and got back in line for the chairlifts so we could go halfway up to where the slide started. The kids had a blast! (and so did Dad!) Given time and money, we probably would have done that many more times. We saw a grandma and grandpa racing each other down the slide at least twice in our two chairlifts up the mountain!

After lunch, we rested for a while then headed out to Lime Creek for an “easy” hike (so the map indicated). What it didn’t show was that the drive there was exceptionally difficult – 3 ½ miles of the absolute worst rocky road. We were about a mile away from out destination and we could go absolutely no further. So, we turned around and carefully treaded our way back to the main road. The kids were disappointed in the hike outcome and we headed back around the corner to the condo. Just before crossing the bridge, we turned down a side road beside the Animas River to see what we could find. We parked just off the road and walked a ways into the wooded area and headed down toward the water. It was a perfect “hike” for the kids. They waded through the rushing water and K went for a slippery “swim”. The slide and the hike were the highlights of the day.

Colorado Vacation (chapter 2)

We drove past Silverton and on to Ouray, CO along the Million Dollar Highway. Quite the perilous route! The white line on the side of the road in some places was the side of the cliff! This is the small town of Ouray.





The kids in front of the neat sign along the road outside of Ouray, CO.







We drove farther north just past Ouray to the small town of Ridgway, CO to eat at the True Grit Cafe. It was covered with John Wayne memorabilia. The cafe was built as a tribute to him as he had spent a great deal of time in the town filming the movie, "True Grit". There was a wall in the cafe that was a backdrop for part of the movie (the restaurant wasn't around at the time) and the park across the street was used in a hanging scene in the movie. It was a very picturesque little town. Made us want to go rent some old movies and see what it looked like way back when.


A & G at Haviland Lake. I accidentally deleted a great picture I'd uploaded (ugh!) of the lake with the mountains in the background (can't get it back, so I'll have to post it later).










K & S at Haviland Lake just north of Durango, CO. It was raining when we got there and so nice and cool. S & K did some fishing with Dad, but no one caught anything. It was peaceful fishing, though.








After fishing at Haviland Lake, we drove up to Durango Mountain Resort (formerly and soon-to-be-again "Purgatory") to see about playing Putt-Putt. It was late afternoon and it looked pretty deserted around there. We were walking up to the putting area to see if it was too late to play and couldn't find any place to get clubs or anything. There were some people just finishing their play and they said we could have their clubs if we fished some balls out of a water bucket (a stinky water bucket . . .). So, I guess we caught something afterall! Dad fished some balls out and he and the kids played while Mom took lots of putting pictures. G was funny as she just kind of scooted the ball around with her putter like in this picture. The club was actually a little big for her and being left-handed made the coordination a bit tricky for her (and us as we tried to help her putt left-handed!)

Dad made a hole-in-one here (so he says), but no one was with him at his hole to witness the event. A is putting in the foreground. Dad is standing in the background with his hands in the air. See the chair lifts up above?









Such great scenery and landscaping, so we had to take some fun pictures of the kids. This was such a pretty spot and made a cool picture! Too bad Mom and Dad aren't there - could be our Christmas pics!

Colorado Vacation (chapter 1)

After the disappointment of table-less, shade-less roadside parking areas (aka “Rest Stops”) coming out of Amarillo, we ventured into the small town of Vega. Visible from the interstate, we almost pulled into the 1st Baptist Church parking lot to sit under a shade tree and fix our picnic, but at Mom’s urging we drove just a few blocks farther into “town” – hoping to find a small park or something similar. Dad rolled his eyes, so we were turning around at the next intersection when we suddenly came upon a cute little (very little) historic-type building with a couple of picnic tables. Then just beyond that a very nice shaded gazebo in front of a larger old building (with a fall-out shelter sign on the front door . . .) Perfect – well except for the odd sign. As we got out of the van, the kids immediately spotted a sign they would have totally ignored had they not enjoyed the movie “Cars” several times over the past month.

We were picnicking right beside the historical Route 66. The kids thought that was so cool. There were small old buildings like in the movie and the kids were fascinated with the area. It was so similar to the movie with the interstate less than a mile away, yet the road and town were totally bypassed – except for the gas station and Dairy Queen right on the interstate service road, a must for any small town situated right beside a major interstate.

Shortly after our picnic in Vega, we entered the state of New Mexico! The kids were so excited!







G woke up the next morning in Albuquerque with "scary hairy" and K enjoyed making fun of her while Dad tried to take a picture of her.








We left Albuquerque and headed for the Rocky Mountains of southern Colorado. Of course, K was quick to point out that the kids beat Mom and Dad to Colorado since they were at the sign and we weren't there yet . . .





We stayed at the same condos (Cascade Village - between Durango & Silverton) where Mom and Dad stayed on the honeymoon almost 15 years ago - bigger accommodations were needed this time, of course. We had a great 3 bedroom/3 bath 2 story condo with a spectacular view. This doesn't do it justice, but here's a picture of the sun coming up the morning after our arrival. Dad loved the aspen tree right outside our balcony.


Our first full day in Colorado, we headed farther north toward Silverton and Ouray. Here are the kids at Molas Pass with Crystal Lake behind them.



Well, no more pictures to be uploaded to this post. I guess this will be "Chapter 1" of our little vacation story!

Last Swim pictures

Well, at least I got 6 pictures in that last post. I was stuck on 3 for several posts before that. I've got to figure out what is causing the problem I'm having where I can't upload more than 3 photos to a post. This messes up my orderliness!

Here are two more pictures of A's summer swimming. She competed in the Championship Meet for the Dallas Amateur Swimming Association and placed 1st in 3 events in her division as well as 4th in another event in her division. We were so proud of her! Her 3 first places allowed her the priviledge of competing in the All-Star meet last Monday. She was playing with the big guns there! Those girls were huge and fast! Most, I dare-say, had been swimming since they were 4 or 5. For A to be there competing with them after only one year of swim training was outstanding. She was disappointed in her "slow" finishes, but we were so glad that she didn't get discouraged and quit. She pushed hard to the end and did a great job. Oh, and at the DASA championship meet, her team won the big 1st place trophy for their division! They actually "ran away" with the trophy with the huge number of points they accrued! A and her 2 relay teams got to contribute to that win! It was a great experience for her and great to hear her disappointment that swim season was over even though she didn't win any of her usual blue ribbons at this last meet! She still wanted to keep on swimming.


Dad and A at the Championship Meet last week. Mom didn't get to go because she was in charge of the music camp going on at church during the same time that day. (What a disappointment to not be there to see A win her last 3 blue ribbons of the season!) Dad took pictures and videos so Mom got to see some of it. Dad was so proud of his little swimmer!




Not too much bubble eating this last day of the All-Stars, but they still had team spirit! They all wrote on each other's backs "Eat Our Bubbles". Must be a "swim" thing. There were some teams that had shirts with that logo - that and "Breathing is Overrated" . . . Swim humor?? :-)

More swimming pics

I think this is such a cool picture of A as she swims the breast stroke. She's all spread out under the water getting ready to come up for air in that strange position that I can't understand. Kind of frog-like. Some of these swimming strokes seem so bizarre - almost unnatural. I guess frogs are aquatic, though . . .


Continuing from the previous swimming post, A's coaches are gathering around her as she wins her IM (Individual Medley) event. She smoked the competition and was out of the pool before they even got close to finishing. It was amazing! We're so excited for A to find a sport she enjoys and excels at. Less than a week since the summer season ended and she's already missing swim practice! (Look at those little back muscles!)

A's start dive in the 25 yard free - she barely got 2nd (photo finish below), but you can tell she's getting better with her start dives. She's actually beginning the race with everyone else! Look how small she is! She's the oldest in her age bracket, too! She's moving up to the BIG girls next year . . .!!










Swimming the IM again - coming up for a breath in her breast stroke. She's going to work on her upper body strength this next year and getting a stronger breath and arm motion in the breast and butterfly. She's got great form for a "beginner" and needs to work on her upper body strength. Maybe Mom needs to work right along with her! Might even be able to convince me we need a pool in our backyard!



Here she is on her free sprint to the finish in her IM. She got 2nd behind a big tall girl that was younger than her! That's the only drawback for Audrey in this sport - she's vertically challenged so her arm is shorter when it comes to reaching out for that wall in a close finish! What she lacks in height, she's going to make up in form and speed!

Summer Swim Ends

A's summer of swim (practice and meets) has come to an end. She's glad for the break, but sad that it's over. We're glad she feels that way. She's had a lot of fun swimming with her team this summer and she's learned a lot over the past year that she's been involved with the sport. She earned 12 first place ribbons, 4 second place ribbons, 1 third place ribbon 1 fourth place ribbon and 1 fifth place ribbon this summer. Considering that a year ago she didn't know one stroke from another and she belly-flopped anytime she tried to dive into the pool (she would come out with a red front to prove that any time they worked on start dives!), that's an AWESOME start! She's already talking about where she's going to swim this fall and what she needs to improve on. As much as she had to drag herself out of bed some mornings for practice, she was always glad for that early morning swim to start her day. Wish I could have done that! Swimming was definitely NOT something I found appealing at any time in my life - not REAL swimming anyway! I'd rather have some sunscreen and a beach towel! Here are some highlight pictures of her swimming adventures.

A is the one still on the wall (blue swim cap) looking the same as she did before they blew the start whistle. She needed to work on her starts. HOWEVER, guess who won this race . . . hmmm, A DID!





A looks so focused and ready in this picture. She's getting ready to swim in the free relay. They had a good team and won 1st almost every time! Look at those little shoulder and back muscles she's working on!





This is an interesting picture. You see A in the foreground looking like she's going the opposite direction of everyone else? Well, she is. The funny thing is, she got a late start (recurring summer theme) and was actually behind everyone else. This was the IM (Individual Medley) where they swim butterfly, back stroke, breast and free - 25 yards of each. By the 3rd stroke (breast) she was almost half a pool length in FRONT of everyone else! This was her first time to do this event and she'd grudgingly agreed with Mom to do it since she hadn't done it before and needed to get a "time" for all the events. We didn't have to convince her to do it again . . .

More to follow - I'm only able to upload 3 pictures to this post, so the rest will have to follow in a subsequent post . . .