Works for me Wednesday

I had a hard time trying to decide what to do this week.

1. How I marinade my meat before cooking.
2. How I grilled my potatoes that were so yummy last night.
3. How I got Anna to drink a LOT of water by using gum lol.

I decided instead I would tell you about how I manage to get to the pool without going nuts every morning. I keep our bag packed with the essentials. You know sunscreen, water wings, bug bite medicine and neosporine. I add every morning a juice, a pack of crackers (which I just ran out of so I will start putting a zip lock with crackers in it), a fruit roll up or two and towels. Now mind you the amount I pack will change depending on if we have friends coming. I always take extra if we have friends coming because you can't have one for Anna and not the others. I usually only take one towel. I am all about less laundry! Oh, I also take my phone and my camera in a zip lock (that way if water gets in the bag they won't get messed up).

When we get there we put our dry clothes across the back of the lounge chair. I put our towel on the little table they have there or either in the chair. I put some crackers in the towel and cover them up. I open Anna's juice and have it right there. She wants a snack almost as soon as she gets in the water. We spend the first 10 minutes or so practicing her swimming and then we put on her wings and swim all around. She gets out and gets her snack when she is ready and I don't have to get in and out. When we leave we take her top off and pull on her cover up and slip her bottoms off. She doesn't want to ride in the car wet! Me on the other hand I slip on a shirt and sit on the towel lol.

Totally off topic my daughter just saw a picture of me in my wedding dress and she said it was an angel! Awwwww!!!

Anyway, that is how I stay sane going to the pool almost every day. If you need more great ideas go to Rocks in my Dryer!

Little bit o' this and a little bit o that!

I should be doing housework right now but I just am not feeling it lol. I have peace in the house and I am savoring it.

I have some things in my life and in a few lives around me that I need prayer for. I can't go into details at this time but there are 2 young ladies that need some extra prayer for 2 totally different reasons. I know it would be easier for you to pray for them if you knew what was going on but I really can't share. That is all I can say about that.

Anna and I went swimming alone this morning. This doesn't happen often because I try to share the joy of the pool with our friends. I thought we would go see a movie today so I didn't invite anyone over. Anna had other ideas. She wanted to go swimming and pretty much started talking about it right after we got up. She is doing such a great job in the pool. I really hope she does as well when we start the lessons. I just had to share one of the games we play in the pool with ya'll. We go out towards the deep end sometimes in it and sometimes right before the drop. She will say "Mommy, don't get me" translation being: Mommy come get me lol. So I will say "Oh yes I am going to get you" She will squeal and start swimming as hard as her little legs and arms will go. I will go under the water and she will pull her feet and butt up out of the water as high as she can get them (basically going into a floating position). I will swim under her and past her and come up. I will look all around the pool and start to "panic" calling her name and looking right and left. She will then either laugh or scream behind me and I will act all surprised and shocked that she was behind me. She absolutely loves it lol. I guess she thinks she got one over on me ;)

On to brighter things. Anna learned how to spit out watermelon seeds yesterday lol. She was very excited about her new skill. She ate a whole slice of watermelon absolutely thrilled every time she came across a seed lol. As a side note I will probably have watermelons coming up all over my back yard at some point lol.

Swimming lessons!

We are signing Anna up for swim lessons YAY!!! Thank you Yia Yia and Pop for making that possible. We are very excited about this. We are going to start July 14 and go through the 24th. It will hopefully be wonderful lol. However, I am concerned about Anna because she doesn't like to go off with strangers. Mommy's aren't allowed in the water with the kiddos. I am trying to talk one of our friends into putting her daughter in the class with her lol. I think it would be easier to have Anna adjust if she sees Allie having fun. We go to the pool every other day pretty much if not more. We "swim" without wings for a while and jump in the pool without them. "Swimming" means going under the water and kicking her way to the steps or me. After we do that for a while I will put her wings on her and she will swim all around the pool. Her favorite thing to do is go out to the deep end and jump in with David. Today we met Allie and David at the pool and Anna was torn about which one to hang out with. It was a lot of fun though. I enjoyed hanging out with Denise and Shanda and Dustin :) He is a 13 year old that went on the mission trip with Chris. He is an impressive young man. It is tough being a teen today and I think he does it well! Great job Denise! I am sure that David is going to follow in his footsteps!

Anyway, I am writing this post in hopes that some of you will pass on some words of wisdom concerning swim lessons!!! You know tell me what they did with the kids, how your child reacted, or whatever else you want to share. I just wanted to go in prepared!

Slacker!!!

I have been such a slacker where the blog is concerned. We have been busy though so that is my excuse. We have been running every which way getting Chris ready for his mission trip, getting ready for my old high school friend to come to town and for our first small group session with the church to be held at my house. Busy, busy, busy!!!

Chris had Thursday off and we had a great day. We went to the pool so that Chris could see Anna swimming. It was great! Anna loved having her Daddy there with her. She even really practiced swimming without wings. She did pretty good. She would use her arms and legs but would still go under. She got to where she was trying to hold her breathe. Hopefully she will improve each time we go. I am just thrilled that she isn't afraid of the water.

Friday we went to Chuck E. Cheese with friends after seeing Chris off. We had a blast! She was utterly exhausted by the time we got home and she just crashed. That gave me time to prepare for my friends arrival. I did a little housework and then a friend of mine (Denise) came over and helped me with some yard work. Chris didn't have time to do it before he left because we had monsoon Thursday afternoon. Denise was a Godsend for coming over in the heat of the day to help. After we did the front yard we were burning up so we decided I would do the back yard Saturday AM. We would go to the pool instead! Anna loved watching Denise's 10 year old son at the pool. He was great with her too. He let her play basketball with him with one of those pool sets and even let her use his water gun. Good times!

Saturday, we spent the day with Beth, my high school friend. We just messed around and found a big HUGE sucker for her sons. Let Anna play a little and had Mexican for lunch, of course. Anna skipped nap time and crashed by 9. We were watching Monsters, Inc. and she just zonked out.

Today we had Sunday School and church. We went to lunch with Denise afterwards and Anna ate like a horse! She crashed again today by the time we got home. That gave me time to get ready for our small group tonight. We thought we would have it outside and let the kiddos play in the water while we did our Bible Study. Ha you know what they say about the best laid plans! About 10 minutes before everyone arrived it started lightening and just after everyone arrived it started pouring! We put the kids in Anna's room with a movie and I ended up having to referee them because they were being wild. You know 5 kids + 1 small space = chaos. It was though. It was nice getting to talk to people going through the same thing in life that I am.

In the mist of all of this excitement I have decided to break myself of climbing in the bed with Anna. This is something that I have done since we changed her to a full size bed. I would go in to lay down with her and end up falling asleep myself or if I managed to get up then I would lay down with her after I got up to take her pee pee. Now I am letting her lay down and go to sleep by herself. It has been better than I expected but it is still hard. I miss my extra snuggles. I don't get them much during the day any more since she is so busy. I am more than just a mom though. I am a wife as well and my hubby needs me. It is hard to figure out how to spread yourself out and attempt to make them both happy. Oh and I can't forget making myself happy ;) I love the snuggle time with Anna but I have missed that snuggle time with Chris. Ya'll pray for me that I can survive this transition!

Need advice?

We are spending a ton of time in the pool this summer. My hair is starting to feel icky. What can I do to help it stay healthy and shiny while spending all of this time in chlorinated water? Do any of you have any great ideas!

Wordless Wednesday!

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