New York and then some

Our trip to NY was quite the event. The short story is like this... When we arrived at Sky Harbor Thurs. eve, our red eye flight was delayed. This made us miss our connections the next morning. US Airways tried to rebook us getting us into Binghamton at 12:18 Sat. morning. Unfortunately, Kaylee needed to be at the pool Fri. evening at the latest. After much searching, and frankly, demanding on my part, half of our team got rebooked to fly to JFK in NY City arriving at 7:30 am. Binghamton is only 200 or so miles away, so we could rent a car a drive there by noon. We left JFK by 9 am and by 9:30, we had a flat tire...while in the BRONX.
Not necessarily where you want to be with 6 pale skinned females by themselves!! Luckily, this super nice guy helped us change the tire, and we were off to get it fixed.
The tire repair guy tried to fix it, but said "it probably won't hold for long, and besides, have you noticed the other 3 tires are bald?" So off we went to the "nearest" rental car stop, LaGuardia airport, to exchange the mini van for a new car. All they had was a Lincoln Navigator. Now this would not be bad, but with gas... (okay no social or political commentary here). Finally we were back on the road. Thank goodness for GPS units in the cars, or we would not have known where we were going. Pretty soon, we crossed into NJ. And then, possibly into Penn. We stopped for lunch, now noon, and had to ask the waitress what state we were in. You should have seen her face!! But yes, it was Penn. When we were just out of Scranton, PA., 67 miles from the pool, I was caught saying, only 1 more Hour or so. Famous last words. 2 miles out of town, we hit major road construction. There was no off ramps to get off the highway, even had we known where to go. We went 4 miles in 2 hours. Finally, we got to the pool in Binghamton at about 7pm. Only 7 hours late. Kaylee missed her pool practice time, and workout time. As for the other half of the team... suffice it to say, 4 different flights to 4 different cities, only to have to drive the final hour and a half to get to the pool. And the original flights we were rebooked on...either overbooked...or cancelled. We found out that had we stayed with US Airways original plan for us, we would not have arrived until Sat. afternoon...if at all!!. We stayed in this awesome Victorian home built in 1902. It had 7 bedrooms, and 4 bathrooms. It was wonderful.

Our national Champ!!

Wow, what a trip!!! More details to follow when I have a few minutes to spend time on the computer...
Kaylee placed 5th in her solo and 10th in her 13-15 team event.

Can you believe Tanner is NINE??

Tanner's birthday finally arrived on Monday. He has been counting down for about 3 weeks, every day telling us how many more days until his birthday. Since his mom is so mean, and stops doing big friend parties when the kids turn 7, Tanner only got a "late night" with 1 friend. But if you ask him, it was still pretty cool. He chose to go to Golden Spoon instead of having a cake for his birthday. It wasn't hard to convince mom not to bake!! We love our Tanzanita and are so glad he is part of our family. He brings such joy and silliness to us every day.

Lounge Duet

For those of you who have asked about what Kaylee really does, here is a video from her last meet. She is the taller swimmer, towards the back or top usually.

Summertime...

I have always made a lot of family fun plans for summer. However, they often get pushed aside by the vast amount of Swim Lessons I end up teaching. Since swim lessons pay for our family vacations, I have always justified the amount of time I am gone as necessary for our family to do fun things without pulling from the budget. It became easier to justify once I stopped paying a babysitter.

It feels like a great compliment when people call and want me to teach lessons to their kids, either because they know me, or are referred to me from others. I must be doing something right, because I quit advertising lessons 10 years ago, and still have more swimmers than I can handle.

When people call me and my lessons are full, I feel so bad about dissapointing them that I end up scheduling more lessons. Pretty soon I am teaching 5 or 6 days a week, 6-8+ hours, and my family gets the shaft. I am so tired by the end of the day that the kids get sandwiches and cereal for meals, and tv for an activity.

After having to cancel 2 family vacations last summer, I decided to cut way back on lessons this year. However, this year people started calling in January to set up lessons. CRAZY!! By the beginning of April, I was booked. I had to say no to a heck of a lot of people. (if you were one of them I am really sorry.)

This summer, by June 26th, I will be mostly done. July and the first part of August is going to be all about us. (If you can count scout camp, girls camp, swim team and meets, and Synchro Nationals as family time.) We are going to be schedule -less, and do tons of fun things. No more neglecting my kids for the promoting of public water safety, enjoyment of teaching, and the all mighty dollar.

I love this quote, and it helps me remember what it is all about...

"…but the biggest mistake I made is the one that most of us make while doing this. I did not live in the moment enough. This is particularly clear now that the moment is gone, captured only in photographs. There is one picture of the three on them sitting in the grass on a quilt in the shadow of the swing set on a summer day, ages 6, 4, and 1. And I wish I could remember what we ate, and what we talked about, and how they sounded, and how they looked when they slept that night. I wish I had not been in a hurry to get on to the next things: dinner, bath, book, bed. I wish I had treasured the doing a little more and the getting it done a little less."
{Anna Quindlen}

and back to Kaylee...

Now for Kaylee's big news. She has worked hard all year, and sacrificed a lot of different things including birthday parties, ELP Field trips, and play time for Synchro. It all paid off this weekend. Kaylee had a big Regional synchro meet Friday and Saturday. Kaylee qualified in her solo and her team routine to go to Age Group Nationals in New York this summer. Her duet barely missed qualifying by 0.05 points. (In my opinion, she and her partner Olivia were robbed!! Those stinking judges!!) So when you get hit up for tax deductible donations or fundraising attempts in the next month from Kaylee, remember it is for a good cause. Krispy Kreme coupons anyone???

League Champs!!

Tanner has been playing baseball for the Minors Angels team. After a season of 13 wins and 2 losses, he played in the Championship game on Friday night. The Angels were actually ranked number 2 for the season, but after a nail biting 4 inning game, they prevailed over the Tigers in a 5-0 victory to clinch the league Championship. Way to go Tanner!!