January 1, 2010

Last month Devon went to her first High School dance. Michael and I had small heart attacks over the fact that she was old enough to go to H.S. dances but once we were sufficiently recovered we went about helping her get ready. I took her shopping for shoes and a dress. Michael bought her mace and taught her some self defence.

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She was originally going to the dance with one of her friends from the swim team but about a week before the dance Dana found out she couldn't go. So Devon asked me if she could go with a boy. A boy!! Can you believe that?! My first reaction was ABSOLUTELY NOT but we talked about it and agreed she could go with him.

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The day of the dance we had Danyelle come over and they both helped each other get ready. I think they spent three or four hours doing make up and hair. Which is funny since Devon had her hair done by Kristy and the only makeup she's allowed to wear is mascara and eyeliner.

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I dropped the girls off around 8:30 and picked them up at 11:30. Devon said she had a great time with Anthony (they danced twice!) and hanging out with her cousins. (Both Mariah and Danyelle were at the dance.) The next dance is in about three weeks. I think its a formal and I know Devon really wants to go. We'll see...

October 2, 2009

The past month has been one swim practice after another. My girls are just crazy about swimming!

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Regan has been going twice a week and made quite a few friends. She started the swim team barely knowing how to do the crawl stroke. She has improved that stroke and started working on her back stroke. Her endurance is what has made the most progress though.

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Devon is SO in love with swimming. She gets home from three hours of practice and says she can't wait to go back the next day! Ca-razy! The two heats she swims the most are the 50 free and the 100 free. Her meet times have improved from 44 seconds to 29 (50 free) and 151 seconds to 129 (100 free)! Isn't that just awesome!

Devon had her first meet with the high School team. It was actually a District Team relay so none of the times the girls swam are official. Which works out well for Devon. The second heat that she swam in, she had her head angled wrong and her goggles came off. That seriously threw off her time. She kept going though. I was watching her and wondering why she didn't just grab the goggles (they were over her mouth) and toss them off. Later I found out that she would have been disqualified if she touched her goggles.

Next week she has a meet on Wednesday and another on Friday. I ordered a new zoom for my camera so hopefully I'll be able to get some good action shots of Devon swimming.

(Devons cheering section)

A few weeks ago Devon had her first swim practice with the High School swim team. The pool they usually use was closed for their annual repairs so they used the local outdoor pool instead.

(The High School team and Poseidon use the same pool. Its an indoor pool which is wonderful for the swimmers but horrible for mothers who love to take pictures of everything. )

The outdoor pool they used is just perfect for pictures. I was planning on just dropping her off but decided at the last minute to stay a few minutes and take some photos.

I'm really glad I did.

I think I've mentioned before that Devon swims for Poseidon. Poseidon is a USA Swimming program that participates in Pacific Northwest Swimming (PNS), the local USA swimming organization representing nearly 5,000 athletes in western Washington. Out of the five levels, Devon is currently at level three. Her goal is to reach level five by her junior year in high school. (She is going to be a freshman this Fall)

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As of today, she is also going to be swimming for Centralia High School. (*sidenote* The captain of the High School swim team is Regans private swim coach) The high school swim season is roughly twelve weeks long while Poseidon is a year round program.

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So starting August 24 Devon will be swimming Monday through Friday from 3-5 for the high school and M,W,F from 4:30-6 for Poseidon. I realize the times overlap but both teams train in the same pool and the two coaches work together on the kids who swim for both teams.

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Starting the day after labor Day the high school swim team will start at 3:30 instead of 3.

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AND---if everything goes well and Regan makes the swim team (Poseidon) she will be swimming on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 5-5:45.

Today was one of those days where my To Do list was longer than my day. Well, not really, but I'm a homebody and don't like to be gone running errands all day.

Devon had her yearly physical this afternoon. We arrived about twenty minutes early so we decided to hop on over to the park across the street and shoot a few pictures. As you can see, the girls had fun!

Oh! Devon has grown four and a half inches since last years physical! Can you believe it? She still hasn't reached the 100 lb mark but she's getting closer.

After the Dr. appointment we headed to the pool. Regan had a lesson aimed at getting her ready for swim team. Devon had her second practice and learned how to do the back stroke. She is learning so fast! I am so amazed by her!

I took about a dozen pictures of them swimming. The pool is indoor so they turned out pretty dark so I'll have to work on lightening them up. I'll post some as soon as I can get it figured out.

As many of you know, Devon has been swimming with a friend of hers three mornings a week for the past year or so. Her friend, Lily, is on the local swim team and has been helping Devon improve her stroke, time and endurance so she could eventually try out for the team too. This past Tuesday was her try out day.

She made the team!!

Monday will be her first team practice. She will be practicing Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 4:30 to 6:00. She won't be eligible for swim meets until at least October but thats fine. She wants time to work on her time and endurance.

So if you see her be sure to congratulate her! She worked hard to make the swim team and is proud of her accomplishment.

June 26, 2009

Yay! Devon's home from camp! She left on Monday and has been gone ALL WEEK! I picked her and Mariah up from the church this evening 7:30. We took Mariah home and then stopped to pick up some groceries and gas up the mini van. (Tomorrow we are heading to the beach to see if we can find some pirates!) It was nice to have a chance to chat with her before we got home and the kids attacked her. They really missed her. Especially Payton, who would wander through the house called for 'Dedon'.

Devon said she had a great time at camp. The services were just amazing. She made a lot of new friends and tried a lot of things she had never done before. Like rowing a canoe and jumping on a water trampoline. Oh, and she's TAN! Apparently, living in a bathing suit (with a tank top and shorts over it) for a whole week will do that.

June 9, 2009

We made our second library trip of the summer yesterday. I think we had about 40 books in our stack to check out! I'm not sure how much of that my poor old back can take!

So far we have only read a few of the books so there are no favorites to post yet. Maybe I'll come back and edit this one later and list em for ya.

Devon had a huge stack of books she wanted to get for her June research paper. Since there were seventeen books I decided not to list them here. She is having a hard time choosing between two topics so she got plenty of books to comer both of them.

Ryan and Regan continue to surprise me with their reading. Regan disliked it all of last year and most of this year. I mean really disliked it. Then sometime around February she suddenly decided she loves books! So while she needs to do a quick catch up on all the months she didn't try to read I think she is doing amazing! One of her new favorite things is to curl up with a book and see how many of the words she can read.

Ryan , on the other hand, is just zipping through our book box! Regan's teacher is going to test him to see what his reading level is. Not that its really important since he's only five and needs age appropriate books more than he needs level appropriate books. But she offered and I'm curious so we'll do it sometime in the next few weeks.

May 31, 2009

Yesterday Devon helped at a car wash the youth group was holding and got a MAJOR sunburn!! She was holding the car wash sign for about five hours with no shade. I gave her sunblock to put on but apparently she thought covering her arms and legs as good enough. Her cheeks are so red they have little blisters on them!! Even the whites of her eyes turned a little red!

I've been slathering aloe all over her shoulders, face and upper chest but she was still in a lot of pain. Ali suggested using sour cream to help stop the burn and ease the pain. We tried it and Devon said she thought it was helping but Michael didn't like the idea of having dairy (bacteria) on her blisters so we washed it off and went back to the aloe. Hopefully she'll feel better tomorrow.

The flash on my camera washed out the color of the sunburn on her face. In person it is very red.

May 30, 2009

Last week was the Zoo Trip for Regans class. Everyone took their own cars and met at the entrance at 9:40. Or at least they were supposed to meet then. About half of the group was late.

The first thing we did was go to a shark class that Mrs. Bol had scheduled for us. The kids learned about shark anatomy, how they live and even got to touch a shark skin! Kids under four weren't allowed in the class so I took Payton to the kid Zone while Julianna stayed with the older three.
When the shark class ended everyone kind of went there own way (some traveled around in small groups) with the idea to meet for lunch. The middle of the zoo has this big grassy area with a hill at one end and picnic tables along the edges. Payton spent most of out lunch time climbing to the top of the hill and rolling down. Man! I wish I'd taken the camcorder for that. She was hilarious!

Around 1:30 Payton decided she'd had enough and proceeded to have a MAJOR meltdown!! Too much excitement and no nap makes for crabby babies! I took her back to the van for her nap.

Aside from Payton falling apart, I think it was one of our more successful trips o the zoo. The weather was gorgeous, I packed plenty of snacks and everyone was in a good mood. It kinda makes me want to do it again. Kinda.

May 12, 2009

We decided that the language Devon is going to study in High School will be ASL (American Sign Language). Actually, we'll all be learning it but she's the one that will have assignments she has to complete. Before we start I asked Devon to write this months research paper (she has to do one each month) on the history of ASL.

Yesterday I took her to the library and taught her how to do a catalog search on her topic, how to use the dewey decimal system and how to use index cards to organize her information. Before that she was using books from home. the internet and just jotting stuff down in a notebook. I think she did pretty good. She really liked having all her facts written on the cards and being able to shuffle them around until they were in the order she wanted to use them.

May 6, 2009

Michael and I had plans to homeschool Ryan next year using Sonlight and Devon using WAVA. After looking into the graduation requirements and WAVA's guidelines about working ahead we decided WAVA wouldn't work the best for us. There was no way Devon would be able to get the math credits she would need to get a diploma.

So we put our heads together and thought about our options. Public school was not one of them. We could find another virtual academy, plan to do running start (an idea we got from Amy) or work towards getting her GED and enrolling in CC. What we decided to do is Sonlight!!

So now we are figuring out the details. Which foreign language to do, electives, math curriculum, etc. I'm pretty sure we are going going to learn sign language as a family and so Singapore for math. Anyone have any recommendations for electives?

January 28, 2009

The other day Ryan was doing somersaults on the sofa and accidentally kicked my laptop off its stand. This made my laptop very sad and it decided not to be friends with us anymore. So I'm sending it off for counseling. Hopefully when it comes back all the issues it has will be resolved. Because I really miss it.

However!! Michael and I bought Devon her own laptop so I will be using it until I get mine back. So Happy Day! I still get my Internet fix.

Snow!

Yeah! Its snowing! While I'm not a big fan of the cold I just love snow. The weather peeps have been teasing me with promises of snow for about a week now and its finally here! AND according to them it will be here through the end of the year. Do you know what that means? It means we should be having a WHITE CHRISTMAS!! Michael and I were talking about that possibility and neither of us can remember ever having one before.

So last week I pulled out the tub of snow clothes and tried to figure out who needed new stuff and who would still fit into last years stuff. Devon needed new pants and boots. (Despite my threats she keeps growing) Ryan needed new pants and Regan needed new boots. Since I keep everything they out grow Payton has everything she needs. But I probably won't let her go outside. Its too cold and she's just a baby!