Better late than never.

So, Father's Day was a couple of weeks ago and I really did want to post something nice, but time just got away from me.
Father's Day is an odd day to me only because the presence of a father in my growing up years was almost non-existent. I'm not looking for sympathy, just stating facts. In fact, I remember getting my mom a father's day card on a couple of occassions because she filled that role for me as well.
Now that I've been married for quite some time I realize and appreciate the presence of Father and husband. And to be honest, I'm spoiled. My husband is awesome. He cooks, he works so I don't have to, he's hilarious, he's intelligent, he's inventive & creative, he cleans up, he's always saying what I was thinking (or vice versa), he's attractive, he's sensitive, he's a loving, nurturing father, he teaches, he disciplines, and he encourages. We are so fortunate that he works at home so that we get to see him ALL THE TIME. Most families don't have that advantage! And all the time that I get to see him, I would still prefer to spend more time with him. We sure love you, honey...just wanted to let everyone else know too!

When will the bleeding stop...?

Ok, so it's the last day of the month and I'm working on bills and various money transfers and I knew that this was a particularly bad month of unexpected situations and emergency items that came up, but now that the numbers are all tallied up it feels more like a blood-letting, and the severe gash is in my pocketbook!

Here's just a taste of some items that cause me to wince: car repairs (air leak & normal maintenance items), new vacuum (old one didn't suck enough, or really sucked, however you want to look at it), paying off a car loan (that I co-signed on w/my niece that couldn't make payments), car title & registration (on same car that I took possession of from same niece), car insurance (regular 6 month premium), new employees (recently hired), newly upgraded computer (to keep up w/ new software systems), planning a surgery in near future for John (this has been put off for too long), kids' summer activities (it's not enough to just pay for registration anymore), trying to plan short vacation (reservations for hotel, see a show, etc), new termite warranty (because old one expired and of course, they found termites), and wow, I guess I'd better stop. I certainly had no plans for a pity party.

And we don't have to pay it, but at the beginning of this month John's business credit card number was stolen and they charged about $14,500 worth of stuff. We disputed the charges and it's already been credited back. It just feels like so many entities are trying to get their hands on my hard earned money and it's feeling a little painful right now.

I'm hoping that this next month will be less forceful on my purse, but with school looming right around the corner...probably not!

Short word of warning!

Fellow bloggers! If you haven't heard from someone else already, please don't announce on your blog a future trip you plan on taking, especially if your blog is public! We and all your friends and family would absolutely love to hear about your trip and enjoy the shared pictures from the trip after the fact. There can be some freaks and weirdos out there that will keep track of where you plan to take your trip and how long you might be gone, then get info over the web of where you live and/or work and burglarize your home or steal your identity, credit card info, etc. Please be careful what you share just in case there are some questionable people out there...and spread the word!

Cash Cab

I enjoy game shows...I think it's the idea of getting free money or winning items is appealing. I've never tried to get on one, nor do I think I will ever will. With that said, IF I lived in NYC, and I took cabs to various destinations, I believe I would try to find the Cash Cab. I think the driver/host, Ben Bailey is funny. AND, only because I believe the random trivia questions asked are incredibly easy. Nearly every time I watch, I always get the answers right. Now, I'm not saying that I'm incredibly smart, but rather I have a plethora of useless information in my head that could be extremely useful on a random trivia game show held in a cab.

Anybody up for a red-light challenge?

Just like that old time rock & roll...

Ok, so I was just thinking how super easy it is to get music from the web and put it on your MP3 player or ipod and how things have changed. Is there anyone else out there who will willingly admit to listening to the radio on their "boom box", and when the song that you wanted came on you would hurriedly push the record and play button on the cassette player? Then sit there through the entire song so incredibly quiet, just to have your mom or brother come walking in and ask a series of questions which is now recorded along with your favorite song? Perhaps I lived in the dark ages of music, where I couldn't save enough to buy my own cassette tape of my favorite band, or no one could drive me to the mall to buy it, or I just had to settle for whatever came on the radio. Am I alone in this, or are there any other silly saps that did their best to get their favorite songs on cassette while trying to "hide" in a room so others wouldn't come in and mess it up? I'm laughing that I used to do this, and yet I was so proud to listen to my tapes even if I did get the occasional voice, holler, doorbell, dog bark, and even whispers. Goofy me...any others?

Just keep swimming, just keep swimming...what do you do, you swim, swim , swim

Summer is here, in full force! The heat, long days, air conditioner going non-stop...you get the picture. And along with that comes swimming and swim lessons. Since we don't have a pool, the kids aren't exactly natural fish, but this summer they are the most comfortable they have been in the past. Hayden was going to try to be on swim team, but he wasn't quite ready to swim completely across the pool (at the school), so we're having him practice during swim lessons and we'll see next year if that's something he wants to do. Here he is showing great form during swim lessons!!!


For some reason my kids just don't swim without goggles, perhaps they just don't want to miss out on all the fun stuff going on underwater as well.

Aint' he cute?


Sidney is starting syncronized swimming. She's really enjoying it so far and she gets extra help during swim lessons since the teacher's daughter is in synchro as well and is familiar with all the figures required. Shown above, she is working on her layout...pretty good for only doing this a week.

Here in her front layout, she's practicing during class for her first synchro meet for tomorrow. (She's the one almost completely in the water).

So, if you're wondering what we might be doing to pass the summer away in sunny, AZ, we are swimming, swimming, and more swimming. Which means I might actually have to get in once in a while just to cool off. That's alright. I'll sacrifice for my kids. Maybe work on my tan...yeah, right, like I tan!?

I do hope to catch up on the stack of books that I want to read. Perhaps I'll get some color after all...we'll see.